Seminar on Blood Trailing Dogs in Texas

Texas Blood Trackers is hosting their annual event again this year in Hamilton, Texas.

2014 Blood Trail Seminar

March 1st, 2014 in Hamilton, Texas

Blood Trail Seminar:
10:00 am: Blood Trail class starts (Please arrive 30 minutes early to sign in.)

12:30 pm: Lunch Break

1:45 pm – Last dog ran: Finish up Blood-trail class

$100 for each handler and dog team running blood-trails for the day. 
$50 for each handler without dog. Both include lunch and dinner plate.

TBT & UBT Testing & Evaluations: 28th - 2nd
10:00 am – 12:30 pm & 1:45 pm – 4:30 pm

TBT 1 $50, TBT 2 $75, TBT 3 $100

UBT 1 $75 , UBT 2 $100

Must have deposit in before 2/22/14. NO WALK ONS. We can only take so many dogs, and there is a cut off, so book as soon as possible to better insure availability.

To sign up contact:

• Paul Coffman-paul@texasbloodtrackers.com (214)289-9741.
• Troup Bishop- troupbishop@yahoo.com (325)642-5160

Support the proposal to leaglize blood trailing dogs in East Texas

Reposted from kjas.com  (thank you Claire for the link)
by Steve W Stewart

The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department says they want public input on a proposal to bring back a currently illegal deer hunting practice of tracking wounded deer with dogs. The state agency says public hearings are planned, and if approved, tracking wounded deer with dogs could soon be brought back in 12 East Texas counties, something that has been illegal since 1990.

State officials say they will take the results of the public forums into an August 22nd meeting at TPWD Headquarters in Austin.

Currently, tracking wounded deer with dogs is illegal in 34 East Texas counties. Texas Parks & Wildlife says the rule was necessary because the department determined that dogs were being used unlawfully to hunt deer, which was causing depletion.

However, the state agency says that by 2000, they determined that the practice of using dogs to track wounded deer had declined to the point of being nonexistent in some of those counties, so they removed the restriction in 10 counties.

Texas Parks & Wildlife officials say they now believe the prohibition could potentially be lifted in Harris, Harrison, Houston, Jefferson, Liberty, Montgomery, Panola, Polk, Rusk, San Jacinto, Trinity, and Walker Counties.

The meetings will be held:

~ Tuesday, July 30th, 6:00 p.m., in Woodville at the Woodville Elementary School Community Room, 306 Kirby Drive.

~ Wednesday, July 31st, 6:00 p.m., in Lufkin at the Angelina County Courthouse District Courtroom, 215 East Lufkin Avenue.

~ Thursday, August 1st, 6:00 p.m., in Hemphill at the Sabine County Courthouse District Courtroom, 201 Main Street.

Officials also say details about the proposal, along with an opportunity to provide public comment, can be found online at

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/business/feedback/public_comment/proposals/201308_deer_dog.phtml

Comment may also be made in writing, and mailed to Robert Macdonald, TPWD Regulations Coordinator, 4200 Smith School Rd., Austin, TX 78744.

Lacy Dog is an official dog breed of Texas

Blood tracking seminar and UBT evaluations in Texas

Tarah helps her owner find his own deer

 

This is such a great picture of Woody and Tarah! This time Tarah tracked Woody's own deer: On 12-4-2012 I was able to arrow this nice 10 point. I put Tarah on the track one hour later I made a good shot but the buck traveled 200 yards. Tarah  made it easy but it was a lot harder for me. The last 75 yards I had to crawl as the brush was so thick, I don't no how that big buck went through it. Tarah pulled me and she was barking all the way. She did a great job.

Tarah's first tracking season is going great

It was good to hear from Woody Harmon from Texas, who has Tarah, an eight-month-old little sister of Thor, Tuesday, Theo, Sky and Tucker. Woody wrote: This is Tarah's sixth live blood trail this year, she has found all of the deer I have put her on. One of tracks took her about 1320yd. The doe that a friend had liver shot late I put Tarah on the trail the next morning, it took her about 25min. I was so proud of her. Here is a spike buck that Blu shot. The trail was about 180yd with lots of good blood, she found it fast. Thank you for breeding these great little dogs.

Thank you Woody for training and working your dog! These "great little dogs" will never reach their full potential without a proper training and opportunities to track. This is why from a breeder's perspective it is so important to place pups in right homes.

Jeff Bonner provides deer tracking services in the Texas Panhandle

Jeff Bonner from Pampa, TX is a wildlife biologist with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. He tracks in the Panhandle area, which is dominated by open sagebrush prairie traversed by some wooded draws and creeks. Jeff's biggest challenge is low humidity so he almost exclusively tracks at night or morning before light. He uses bluetick/walker hounds because of their tenacity, patience, endurance, friendliness, and excellent "cold nose".

Jeff Boner from Texas Panhandle

Annie's first recovery of 2012

Few months ago Jeff wrote to us:
I do wounded deer tracking on the side. Had a friend share your book with me a few years back and boy-howdy did I ever wish I'd had it 15 years ago. Sure would've saved some times of grief. I've been tracking commercially in my area for 4 hunting seasons, recently built a quick and cheap website, and stumbled across your Born To Track site while testing the Google search.

Well, now his website is something to be proud of. It has a lot of excellent information so make sure you visit it by clicking here.

Recently we heard from Jeff again: Here's my dog, Annie's, first find of 2012. Hit low with arrow, full pass through exited front of opposite shoulder near brisket. Missed heart and lung but cut artery and bled out. Went a little over 1/2 mile. Hunters should have found but buck had doubled back and they missed the turn. If you get time check out my website. Record so far this year: 5 calls, 3 tracked, 1 confirmed still alive, 1 recovered. 
Jeff Bonner
www.topoftexastracking.com
806-662-3357

Poppy's protective instincts: the nature of nurture

When I opened a recent e-mail from Derek Harris and viewed the pictures, my jaw dropped and I was in awe. The pictures were so beautiful! They show Poppy, who is our Paika's sister. Poppy was a late bloomer and she stayed with us longer than other puppies. She lives with Derek (wildlife biologist/hunting guide) in Texas, and she is quite a dog. This is what Derek wrote:

Dear John and Jolanta,

I wanted to write to just say hi and give ya’ll some updates on Poppy. She is definitely my best friend and we don’t do many things apart from each other.

I have attached some photos of her with the a calf that lost its mom about a month ago due to the severe drought we are facing. When I brought the calf home I knew Poppy could tell it was in bad condition. She instantly started licking it and looking over it. She actually didn’t come in the house for over 72 hours. I had to bring food and water outside to her. Any time the other dogs would come close Poppy would get in between the dogs and the calf and show her teeth and even bite the other dogs if they got too close. A couple weeks later when that calf was doing quite well another calf was brought to me that was in terrible shape. Instantly, Poppy took to it as well and would not let the now healthy calf or dogs near it either. And now she is protecting Rhea eggs (large bird like an emu) the exact same way.

We are lucky enough to live on a 40,000 acre ranch where she is exposed to several species of game every day. I have been feeding the deer alfalfa just on the other side of the fence to get her used to deer and realize that we don’t track all of them. At first she would run to the fence and bark obsessively, now she barely even lifts her head to look. I have worked hard to expose her to as many different environments and situations as I can. The thing I still struggle the most with is her social skills with people. She likes things to be “me and her” only and she is very protective of me, the house, etc. She is great at a social BBQ, but when it is time to “work” I can tell she still has a problem if there is a crowd. I think one of the down falls of us living on the ranch is the lack of company we have out here. My heeler has got a lot more aggressive/protective toward strangers since we have lived such a secluded life as well. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

This touching picture shows Poppy with the calf she was nurturing. I have a feeling that Poppy will have very strong maternal instincts.

Poppy has always loved to swim. This picture was taken at sunrise.

My response to Derek's question was: "Poppy needs to learn that other people are a source of pleasure and positive experience, and that they are not a threat. If she is food oriented, let them give her treats that she really likes. Don't force her to interact with people if she does not want to, but don't let her to be aggressive towards them either. Some dogs are just not very social (just like some people are not), but she needs to learn to tolerate starngers. If she is not aggressive, then don't make a big deal out of it. If she is distracted by other people's presence when she is working, ask them follow at a greater distance if it is possible. I think you might want to experiment a bit what is a good way to "manage her" around strangers but for this you need to have access to strangers, and this seems to be a challenge to do where you live in isolation. Let me think about it more."

John added: Jolanta wrote she needs more exposure to people. In your rare shopping trips to town take her along and walk her on a leash down busy streets. This will help. You don’t want her to be distracted by the presence of strange hunters to the point that she will not track.

Derek replied:
Thanks for your responses. Yes, tracking comes first and it’s something I am passionate about. I recently got back Zimbabwe where I was on a leopard hunt with dogs. I was very impressed with the houndsman and all the advice he gave me. I showed him pictures of Poppy and he had nothing but good things to say about the breed, and he was actually looking for a WHD himself. I can’t imagine how neat it would have been to hear the 2 of you swap stories.

I will continue to take Poppy to as many crowded places as I can and I hope to find her a lot of tracking work this upcoming season. I am going to Kansas with her again this year and am really looking forward to that.

Thanks for the feedback and I will keep you updated with her progress.

Derek M Harris
http://www.aimstraightoutdoors.com/

Do you have any suggestions how to help Poppy with her problem?

Jake, a Blue Lacy from Texas, recovers a wounded deer in Wisconsin

This e-mail was forwarded to me from Cheri Faust from Madison, WI. She received it from John Hepfler.

We talked last Thursday-you were on the road. Mack McGowen came over from Mnpls to track my buck. His lacy - Jake - found it!! He would have found it sooner but I told Mack it was going in the wrong direction - I watched the deer run east - Jake wanted to go North. Soooo, we searched going east for over 2 hours - nothing. Later, Mack decided to just give the dog his head to go wherever he wanted. No blood trail at all, anywhere, by the way. So, in 10 minutes, Jake found the deer. It had made a 90 degree turn - no blood at all, ever. If I had believed the dog, we would have found it in 10 minutes. My fault! Per the laser rangefinder it was 439 yards from my blind to where Jake and Mack found the buck.


Mack is a VERY patient, very professional young man. Obviously Jake is very competent. I would recommend them to anyone - and I will! You may pass this along to Mack - he is a credit to your organization. I did not have a camera, but Mack took cellphone pics - you may use them on your website if you want.

Again, Thanks!!

John Hepfler

P.S. It was a very nice, heavy racked 10 pointer! Actually, this was more exciting than the hunt itself!


I asked Mack for permission to post the e-mail on the blog and received his reply:

Thanks for the email, it's quite a treat hearing from you, your husband's book made a huge impact in the way I trained Jake!

This was Jake's second track of his second season, he's a 2 year old Blue Lacy, we tracked last year on my deer lease in Coleman County, Texas as well as attending a UBT training day hosted by Marlo Riley. He did really well, although he had to learn the hard way not to growl at Marlo! Tracking in Texas is a lot different than up here in Wisconsin!

There really was no visible blood, barely any under the deer where Jake found him. With hardly any wind to speak of, when Jake went hard north down the hill and John was absolutely positive the deer had headed up the ridge and through a stand of trees on the fence line, I brought Jake back up to the point of loss (Trust your dog!). I worked him all the way up the top of the ridge, hoping to pick up a blood trail along the fence line. He didn't show much interest in anything, except one crossing on the fence line down the hill from where John saw his buck cross. We started working that area, and Jake made two fence crossings and we wound up in the middle of a field with tall grass, he was checking scent on the tops of the grasses as we worked along, dipping his head to the trail. He checked himself twice when his trail crossed deer paths, both times I asked him, "Are you sure Jake, are you sure?" Both times he responded with a definite, "Yes!" which for Jake is a hard pull in the right direction. He went down to the corner of the pasture, through some nasty brush and back through the fence. The lead went slack and I could hear him growling to himself. When I peeked up over the fence and saw that big Wisconsin deer lying there I let out a whoop! Jake, the only Texas Blue Lacy in Wisconsin had just found the largest deer we've ever tracked, with no visible blood!

John was a real pleasure to track with, he was very patient with us and held back any doubts he had in Jake's ability. He very generously took me out for a beer, burger, filled my truck up with gas and with enough money to buy plenty of kibbles for my Tracking buddy! It's being able to help guys out like John that keep me coming back for more!

Huge congratulations to Jake and Mack!

Texas trophy bucks found by Roy and Cuatro Hindes and their blood trailing dogs

It was great to hear recently from Roy Hindes from Texas! Thank you Roy for sharing great pictures with us. Roy wrote: "John, Here are some shots of some of the deer we have recovered this season. Heavy rains this year have made for some terrific trail conditions in south Texas this fall. The hunters can't trail them as well because of the grass and weeds, but because of the ground cover, scent will hold better and it will be easier for the dogs. We anticipate a busy deer season."

We wrote about Roy and his strain of blood trailing dogs before and for information about this legendary tracking team click here. Or you can read about them in John's book.

The Hindes "Blue Dogs" - Gus, Shep and Otis



Cuatro Hindes and Kyle Cunningham, Atascosa County



Dimmit county, 24 pts 50'mass. Roy and his son Cuatro in the picture.

Cuatro Hindes and Mark Westbrook, Guadelupe County

Poppy's second deer; advice for new handlers

Derek Harris from Texas wrote that Poppy found her second deer on Saturday. "A hunter had made a shot too far back. We gave it a couple hours and then made a go at it. We went out with the hunters but she did not seem to be able to focus. It seemed like if she heard them talk or make any noise she would get distracted. I picked her up and took the hunters back to the lodge. Poppy and I came back alone and she was focused. After a little more than an hour we found the deer still alive in a draw. He was about 80 yards from us. We circled back around to get behind the deer. When we got about 30 yards from the deer I tied Poppy to a tree and got a little closer so I could make a good shot with the pistol. She is still very possessive of her treats at the end of blood lines and of deer. I am going to call Kevin Breaux this week for advice because I am having trouble with my lead in this terrain. Poppy has done well but I still don't have that much confidence in myself. Hopefully with more practice and experience that will change."

My response to Derek was: "Like with anything in life, you get better at things when you practice and get more experience. Poppy is just eight-months-old and you are a novice blood tracker. You both have a long way to go but you will be getting better and better.

A good idea to call Kevin. If you track in a very thick cover, you may need to use a longer lead – around 40 feet. It has to be stiff so it can snake on the ground without getting hung up."

Derek's e-mail brings up important points. First tracking experiences for novice trackers with inexperienced young dogs may be very frustrating and daunting. There is a steep learning curve involved for both, a dog and handler. Sometimes people who plan to get a tracking dog think that blood tracking is simple and easy, and that a tracking dog will take them straight to the dead deer. If they have never seen a tracking dog in action, why would they think differently? Then they learn that usually in the beginning things are more complicated than that. This is when having a good support system can really help.

It is a good idea to:

• Re-read John's book; now with some experience you will get more out of it. What was abstract few months ago, now after some tracking will make more sense.
• Join United Blood Trackers to network with other trackers in your area or online. Don't hesitate to ask questions. Read other trackers' posts and articles, you will learn from them.
• If you live in New York, join Deer Search.
• Attend blood tracking workshops and seminars as you will always learn something new.
• Talk to a breeder of your dog. If this person is an experienced blood tracker, he/she will be able to advise you.
• Have realistic expectations. Because even young tracking puppies can look so brilliant on difficult artificial tracks, it is tempting to expect them to do really well on natural lines. But there is so much more to real tracking.
• Keep on socializing your dog. Tracking dogs have to work with hunters around and be at ease with strangers. They need to be exposed to a variety of situations.
• Avoid situations in which your young dog might suffer traumatic experiences. Make sure that your pup is exposed to gun fire and she is OK with it before you take her on a real deer call where hunters will be shooting. Don't let your pup come into a close contact with a deer that it is still alive. Plan, anticipate, and ...be patient.

A big night for Poppy and her first recovery

It was a big night for Poppy when she recovered her first deer. You can read a short report about it here. Congratulations Derek, and good luck!

James and Aspen, a blood tracking team from Montague, Texas

When Carl Eisenhard, DVM, from Springville, NY bred his wirehaired dachshund Blue Hill Alice to our Billy, one of the puppies Blue Hill Aspen went to a blood tracking home in Texas. James Willard from Montague, just a short distance north of Dallas, has been tracking with Aspen for the last two years.

Recently we received two pictures of the deer Aspen recovered.



In James' words: The doe was bow shot, the arrow hit the opposite shoulder so there was not an exit hole, despite the large hole in the top of her back there was almost no blood. The track was about 3.5 hours old. I had to let Aspen find a starting point herself and then she went straight to it. The doe had traveled about 100 yards.

The buck was shot by a 10 year old boy on youth weekend. His dad called and told me the story. I thought we should wait a while so we started tracking about 3:30 that evening. The buck had been rifle shot that morning about 7:30 am. The dad was 100% sure the buck had gone to the South across a large opening. Aspen found the buck in the worst brier patch I have ever been in. The buck had gone a short ways to the South and circled back to the North. The track was just a couple hundred yards long but this buck would have definitely not have been found with out Aspen

James can be reached at jwill.bowhunter@yahoo.com

Tracking wounded oryx in Texas

We received this great picture from Roy Hindes from Texas. John asked Roy: "I've heard that oryx horns like that spear a lot of Jack Russells in Africa. I'm glad the Big Blue Dogs know enough to stay out of the way!".

Roy's responded: "Truth be known, I received the call on this animal the evening before, and they had already trailed it a long way. I have also heard about how bad Oryx are to charge and kill a dog so I decided to wait and trail him up the next day, possibly finding him dead. We did indeed find him dead with Otis. So I still have not seen an Oryx bayed alive. I really doubt they are more dangerous than a whitetail buck."

Roy Hindes III, his tracking dogs and trophy bucks

In Texas tracking wounded deer with dogs has different roots than in other parts of country. Most of the dogs that began to be used were all-purpose curdogs and cowdogs. The methods that were used to trail up cattle and hogs hiding in the mesquite or the canebreaks, could be applied to wounded deer as well. A cowdog could track and bay up a wounded buck with the same instincts and intelligence that made him a good cowdog. Catahoulas, black mouth curs and Lacy curs are involved in this kind of work today.

It was the Hindes family of Charlotte in South Texas who perfected the art of using cowdogs. Today Roy Hindes III and his son Cuatro work their famous “blue dogs” across the “Golden Triangle” of trophy buck country stretching from San Antonio down to the Mexican border. The big-racked bucks of Quality Deer Management on the South Texas ranches are highly valued, both in dollars and in respect and appreciation. Not many of these bucks are wasted as coyote feed. Roy's dogs are worked off leash.

John asked Roy in one of his e-mails: "I'm curious about one thing. In the attached photo I see that you are still using the electronic tracking collar. Why do you prefer this over the new Garmin GPS Astro for dogs, which has a more compact receiver and is much easier to use?"

Roy's reply was : "I also have a Garmin Astro GPS system. But the Garmin system only reaches about .7 of a mile. This is just not far enough. Losing contact with my dogs is a scary scenario, especially when you are 100 miles from home, and on strange country. If that’s all I used I would lose contact with my dogs every week. Many wounded deer run several miles when found by a tracking dog, and I must maintain contact with the dogs at all times.

We sometimes use the Garmin system. But we only use it along with the Quicktrack system for a backup. My tracking system must be 100% reliable. The Quicktrack system, which I have used for over 10 years, is less complicated, reaches 4 or 5 miles anytime, and has never failed me-not even once. "

This deer (above) was shot in the top of the back. Shep trailed him 3 or 4 hundred yards and bayed him by himself till Roy slipped up there and shot him. Roy says: "Top of the back shots are typically real hard to catch. If this deer had ever run from me or the dog I'm sure we wouldn't have caught him. Shep will be 2 years old in March."





John,
Take a look at what one antler of a South Texas 12 point did to old Gus. He had five punctures down one side and a big hernia requiring two surgeries over a two week period. His vet bill for all of this has totaled over $1100. He is out of service as a wounded deer dog for the rest of the season, but he should recover fully. Using a leashed dog sometimes has it's advantages!
Roy

Trophy bucks recovered by wirehaired dachshunds in NY and Texas

Kudos to Kevin Armstrong, Ron Betts and Carey Sutterfield for helping fellow hunters in the recovery of these beautiful trophy bucks. Carey drove 215 miles to track a wounded deer in Texas (he lives in Oklahoma). Coincidentally, Karma and Effi are half-sisters to Otto (as they were all sired by our Billy).

Kevin Armstrong, a Deer Search members wrote:

Yesterday Karma and Effi teamed upon this paunch shot 15 point trophy in Enfield, NY. The deer was still alive 21 hours after the hit and had to be dispatched. He had taken a bed less than 200 yards from the hit sight but had been bumped from the bed after 3 hours. He was left alone over night. The trail was begun at 8:00 AM. It went on for more than a mile before we caught up to him at 10:00 AM. A wonderful trophy for the hunter, the trackers, and the dogs.

Kevin Armstrong with Karma and Ron Betts with Effi

Carey Sutterfield, a member of the United Blood Trackers, wrote:

Last Friday I received a phone call from Cameron Mclain near Mclean, Texas. He had found my number on the UBT website. He said he had shot a nice buck at 8am with a bow. Quartering away shot he thought was a little far back. Arrow was a complete passthrough. He was sure that one lung had been hit and they had been looking all day. They had good blood for about 30 yards and then nothing. This was around 2:30pm and I was just getting back to Oklahoma City. It was 215 miles to where this deer was shot, but the hunter sounded like a good guy and also mentioned it was his first deer with a bow. I was also the closest person they could find. I decided to make the trip and try to help this guy out. I told them to back out of the area and wait for me.

Otto and myself arrived at around 6pm. It was just getting good and dark. The hunter had mentioned that it was rough terrain. Well, it was pretty much the Grand Canyon! I told the hunter to stay behind us and look for blood if Otto got on the trail. It took 3 restarts as the deer was initially shot under a feeder and there were some deer hanging around.

To the south there was open terrain and to the north there were canyons. Of course, Otto got hot on the trail straight into the canyons. I am talking 100 feet rock cliffs and dry creek beds at the bottom. Sometimes Otto's lead would be pointing straight up in front of me. I think he might have dragged me up a few of the canyons. After about 200 yards, I started seeing blood and the hunter was confirming it from behind me. Just a big splotch about an inch in diameter every 20 or 30 yards. We then hit a big dry sandy creek bed and Otto overshot into it. It took him a couple of minutes to work it out, but once he found the trail it was obvious he was hot again. We found the buck about 900 yards from where he was shot.

Not that awful far, but this terrain was amazing. The buck was also amazing. The hunter was very grateful and I felt really proud of Otto as I was kind've worried about the dry terrain and the cliffs. It was amazing this deer went that far with one lung and the liver. He went up and down some cliffs I would have never imagined a healthy deer attempting.

Carey with Otto and the buck they recovered in Texas.

Good boy Otto!