Tragic loss of two accomplished handlers, Tom and Chris DiPietro, and their tracking dogs

Chris DiPietro with a recovered deer in 2012.

On March 22 we were shocked to learn that Tom and Christine DiPietro, both 59, from Jericho, VT, died due to the accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. Their three dogs, Scout, Filou and Addie, died with them. For more information about it go HERE. Poughkeepsie Journal published the full obituary. 

This article about Tom and Chris DiPietro from Jericho, VT, was written five years ago - see http://vtsports.com/deer-tracking-dachshunds/ . 

It is impossible to express the impact of Tom and Chris's death in a couple of short paragraphs. People who were close to them have been grieving deeply. 

Their lives touched so many people, and this sentiment has been expressed with such emotion by many of their tracking friends, who were started in the field and supported by Tom and Chris. 

I received this e-mail from Tom 15 years ago:

"My name is Tom DiPietro and I live and track in Northern Vermont. I came to Vermont nine years ago when my company transferred me to its Essex Junction plant from Dutchess County New York where I grew up. My love for tracking started many years ago when I was a bow hunter in New York. One day I made a poor shot on a doe, after searching all day, I failed to recover the deer and called a number I had received at a local sportsman show for a group called Deer Search. The Deer Search volunteers came out and assisted me in tracking the deer, which we never found. I was very impressed with the way the small Wirehaired Dachshund worked the trail and the dedicated handlers who gave their time to help a person they didn’t know.  

After moving to Vermont, due to the demands of a new job, my family adjusting to their new home and being unfamiliar with the hunting area, I didn’t hunt as much as I would have liked to.  As I became more familiar with the area and my life settled down, I found myself drawn back to the woods.  A few years ago I heard about a man named Tim Nichols who had helped pass legislation legalizing leased dog tracking in Vermont similar to the service that I was so impressed with many years ago in New York.  I called Tim and he helped me to obtain a tracking license in Vermont.  Now all I needed was a dog.  I contacted a breeder in western New York, who does blood tracking with Wirehaired Dachshunds and had just had a litter of puppies, so I decided to go out and take a look.   I came home with a three-month old male puppy whose nose seemed as long as his body and my son named him Musket."  

Musket's first deer

In December 2001 this email arrived showing how serious Tom and his tracking family and friends were about helping hunters:. This was a summary of their 2nd tracking season.

Well tracking fans the year has finally come to a close. I have some mixed feelings on this: I'm glad to no longer be waiting for calls but at the same time I want to be in the woods and find some deer. It drove me nuts when we went out for an evening, then found out I'd missed a call and lost an opportunity to find a deer.

We did much better this year getting out on calls taking 24 of the 37 calls we received. Last year we took 26 of 44 so that shows some improvement. Calls were definitely down this year because of last year's winter kill but the lack of snow in VT extended our season 3 weeks over last year and we came close in the total number of calls. Perhaps the best improvement we had was in the number of finds we had: 12 of 24 for a exceptional 50% find rate. When you add to this the fact that we actually came up with 2 other deer that we found but determined they were okay and stopped chasing, and 2 more that we didn't find but they were seen alive later in the season I think we had a season that far exceeded our hopes. For comparison sake we found only 6 last year.

A few more numbers of interest: our avg call time was 9 hours after the hunter shot and the avg time of the deer we found was 7.8 hours.

We did get some interesting feedback from a guy I tracked for last year and didn't find his deer. Last year he shot a deer in the shoulder with his rifle and we had a very good run, but came up empty. Well this year he shot a deer in the same area that had a broken leg and a nasty healed over wound on the same side as the one he wounded last year. We believe it was the same deer that survived the year, what a great animal!

  

As far as our last 4 finds we had one very easy run where the deer made a quick turn and lost the hunter. Musket and I never even got to the last blood before Musket turned left and started down a trail. The hunter was saying: no, the blood is over here, you are going backwards.  I was starting to pull Musket in when I noticed a smear of blood on a tree. I let him go and within 15 - 20 yards we had the deer. The deer had executed a little J maneuver and I had to tell the hunter twice before it sunk in that we had the deer that quickly. We could still see his boat in the backyard.

Another find was in Craftsbury over an hour away and perhaps one of our best tracking jobs of the year. We went a long, long way with no sign before we found a single drop of blood. The hunter had walked out on the same trail the evening before so we had our doubts but Muskie was working well so we stuck with him and went a long way again before we found another spot of blood. The hunter was quite impressed and studying the blood spot when the trail got hot and we found a few more good spots of blood and then the dead deer. Something else had found it before us and a fair chunk of one hind quarter was missing and leaves had been thrown over the deer. We could have given up on the trail a number of times but Musket "looked" like he was working so we didn't quit and ended up with a very impressive find. Chris was with us and we followed the guy to the check station where we enjoyed celebrity status.

We had another very exciting chase on a four point buck 41 hours after he was shot. Someone else had tracked the deer the prior evening but they couldn't get a shot into it. We went out the next day and took up the trail from where the first tracker had started the previous evening. We eventually kicked the deer up (this was 41 hours after the shot and he was still alive!!! Like I said what a animal) after a short chase and a few more shots we had him down. It ended up the hunter had not shot him in the gut as he had indicated but shot his front leg completely off. Yes: "off " and the bullet also passed through into his other leg so he was running on 2 and a half legs. Chris says it was really a unfair chase because 3 people, 3 guns and 2 different dogs seems a little unfair. But it was really a good find because this deer was coyote bait for sure.

The last deer was another rifle shot that the hunter lost the trail after a long track. We re-established the track very quickly and took it to the deer in just a few minutes. This was another very impressed hunter who we had to tell twice that we had the deer because he didn't think a little dog could be that good.

 In review the season was great, we found 12 deer but we were able to share the finds with Rei, TJ, Danny, Scott Lopez, Scott's friend Joe, and Chrissy. I think the most fun day was with Rei, TJ, Danny and Scott where we found 2 deer.  

I can't wait till next year, I'll be losing Scott Lopez to college but Chris is going to get licensed and we will be running Filly and Musket which is sure to be a great team. We've learned a ton this year and made some equipment improvements. I never mentioned the night my light died and I had to stop and go back the next day.

In my opinion Musket was the best. Tom got Musket from Sue Redden, a Deer Search tracker from Western NY. Sue bred her Sage von Moosbach-Zuzelek, our Sabina’s littermate, to a male that had been bred by Gary Huber. Sage was a small, feisty female, who turned out to be a very good tracker. Musket, her son, lived to be 14.5 and found 148 deer for Vermont hunters.

Tom seemed to be a bit impulsive when it came to getting puppies. I remember he came to us to get a backup dog for Musket, and at the time the only pup we had was Filou von Moosbach-Zuzelek. She did not look too promising, but Tom did not want to wait for the next litter and got her. The arrangement was that he could return her within next few months. He kept her. In spite of a pretty good tracking start, she never turned out to be a decent tracking dog. At one point she was placed with a new family but she missed her old home too much and came back to live with Tom and Chris as their pet. She died with them at almost 15.

In fall 2003 Tom came back to us to get another dachshund, and around that time Filou’s sister Fredrika (Rica) became available. In October he wrote:

John,  I wanted to give you a quick update on our last few days and Rica's progress. First off, while we were gone the boys took two calls and found one so we didn't miss much while down at your house. Saturday night we got a call where the hunter indicated a shot through the body cavity but he wasn't sure exactly where. I took both dogs out with Scott handling Musket and Rica with me. We put the dogs down and Musket started the track while Rica ran off a little to the right. Once Musket was gone I restarted Rica and she marched along the track that Musket had taken. She appeared to be tracking so I let her do her thing. When we caught up to the others they had just gotten to the point of loss and Musket was doing some checks. Rica never faltered and marched right through! With us now leading the way we covered 50 yards when Rica turned left up the side of a cut corn field. Musket reached the point where we had turned and stayed straight, found blood, and continued the track. We followed for quite a distance when we reached a point that Musket was having trouble and we fared no better. Musket eventually restarted the track and we were off again but I kept Rica back behind on the trail. We reached another field where Musket was having trouble and once again Rica marched through without hesitation. With us now leading we crossed a stream and recrossed again. Just when I was thinking we were lost we picked up some blood to confirm the track, found her bed and kicked the deer up! Not long after finding the bed we lost the track and never regained it but I was thrilled with her first track and the way her and  Musket had worked their own trails but combined to have a very impressive track

In 2006 Larry Gohlke leased Fredrika (he raised her) and bred her to Susanne Hamilton’s Buster. This litter produced Danika and Nix; Cheri Faust’s Danika is an all-time #1 field trial dachshund in the States. Tom had one more litter out of Fredrika and Buster, and Scout and Avy came out of that breeding.

The last time I saw Tom, Christine, their son TJ and his wife Laura was at a tracking workshop organized by the United Blood Trackers in New Hampshire. The pictures below were taken during the workshop.

Chris DiPietro

Chris DiPietro

TJ and Tom DiPietro and Sally Marchmont 

TJ and Tom DiPietro with Dan Valdez

In 2013 John wrote a blog post about women as handlers and this is what Chris said:

The original motivation for tracking was to spend time with my husband, Tom, who loved tracking more than hunting.  I love to be in the woods and he would always ask me to go with him, so I would go and help him spot blood.  I also love a working dog and truly enjoyed watching Musket unravel the puzzle to find the deer.  My motivation to continue is to train our newest tracking dogs, Scout (WHD) and Addie (BMH) and to help the hunting community find their deer.  It is very rewarding to find a deer that the hunter could not find him/herself. My favorite weekend to track is our Youth weekend.   It makes you feel so good to help a young hunter find his/her very first deer.  Other motivations are that it keeps me in good health and you meet so many interesting people.  I remember my first years of tracking, I would be so exhausted.  Running up & down mountains and through swamps and thickets is very tiring.  Tom and I started training for sprint triathlons to keep us in shape for the "tracking" season. Just another thing we could do together.  Now I can track for hours and still get up the next day and do it all over again.  The hunters are very appreciative when we come out to help them and we have made many friends through our tracking connections.  I love the time I get to spend with Tom, in the woods with my dogs.  It's my favorite time of year.

Our deepest condolences and sympathy go to the DiPietro family and their friends such as Susanne Hamilton, Sally Marchmont and Scott Lopez. Tom and Chris lost their lives way too soon but they made difference in this world and they will never be forgotten. RIP.

Tim Nichols and his Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound Bruno are a great tracking team

This is just a sample of pictures showing Tim Nichols and his Bavarian Bruno. This is one of the hardest tracking teams around. In 2013  Tim while holding a full time job Tim took 77 calls and recovered 27 deer. He is a member of Deer Search and United Blood Trackers. Congratulations Tim - we admire your dedication to tracking!

Women can be excellent handlers of blood tracking dogs. Sally Marchmont proves it.

We wrote about Sally Marchmont and her dachshund Petey in the past. Petey's registered name is Matthias von Moosbach-Zuzelek, and he is a son of Buster and Keena; he is now five and a half years old. Sally lives in Vermont and belongs to Vermont Deer Trackers. Few days ago Sally wrote:

Petey and I have had a very good start to the season, and I think you're right - he's in his prime. He can still sometimes be a little too enthusiastic, but he is slowing down a little bit, and definitely using his head more. He's become much more reliable about circling himself back around when he loses the track, and slowing himself down and really working until he picks it up again.

None of our tracks so far has been anything too exciting or out of the ordinary - just good tracking work from Petey on deer that would otherwise have been lost. I'm attaching a couple of pictures - one is a nice 7-pointer, the other a doe, but both hunters equally appreciative.  So far we've taken 8 calls with 5 finds, so I'm expecting a dry spell will happen pretty soon to bring the numbers back to normal.

I'll send you another update as the season goes on. Hope you have a successful and safe tracking season.

Congratulations to Sally and Petey!

 

Sally Marchmont and a wirehaired dachshund Petey from Vermont

One of 11 deer that Sally and Petey recovered in 2011

It was a treat to get this e-mail from Sally Marchmont, who is a licensed deer tracker in Fletcher, VT. Sally tracks with Petey (Matthias v Moosbach-Zuzelek), who is a son of FC Keena v Moosbach-Zuzelek and Susanne Hamilton's Buster (FC Clown vom Talsdeich). Petey at the age of four and a half is getting into his prime, and this is what Sally wrote:

Hi Jolanta and John -
I see you've been following the Facebook page, but it's been a long time since you heard from me and I thought you'd like to hear a little more about Petey.  We just finished our best season yet, as far as numbers of calls (33) and finds (11)  as well as the work Petey has been doing.  We had a couple of impressive 24-hour finds with little to no blood, a few frustrating tracks where we didn't get any further than the hunter, and then everything in between.  Petey has not lost any of his enthusiasm and still puts out a lot more energy than he needs to, but his eagerness doesn't seem to interfere with his thinking process as much as it used to.  He's very focused and intent on his tracking.  He's become much better at figuring out the difficult spots and it may not always be quick or graceful, but given the time to work it out on his own, he usually will.  I think he's learned a lot from my interfering with him less and giving him the time he needs to do his work.  I understand his body language a lot better now and I trust what he's telling me, though it's not easy to convince the hunter that Petey's right when we aren't seeing any blood, and sometimes finding that one drop is almost as good as finding the deer.  

We found our first bear last year and he took to that without a problem.  I had to use my gun for the first time this year and in a classic case of beginner's luck, I hit the deer just right and it died almost instantly.  I didn't like it one bit, but this deer would have suffered and died anyway and it had to be done.   We had a warm season and only just got snow a few days ago, which might account for the higher number of calls this year.  Over the last couple of years I've been getting more calls from people I've tracked for before or their friends and family, so the more calls we take, the more calls we get and I'm hoping for even more next year. 

Petey is a very healthy, active dog, full of quirks and an absolute pleasure to live with.  We both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves this season, learned a lot and we're looking forward to many good years ahead.  Hope you both had a safe and successful tracking season.
I'm attaching a couple more pictures - the bear was from last year but it's one of my favorites. Petey was the proudest I have ever seen him when he found that bear. The other one is an 8-pointer we found on opening day this year. All the blood had been rained away, not too difficult for Petey but impossible for the hunter.

Related posts:
http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/2008/11/sally-and-petey-deer-tracking-team-from.html
http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/2009/03/sally-and-petey-hit-jackpot-evolution.html
http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/2009/12/great-tracking-season-for-sally-and.html

Another great tracking season for Tim Nichols and his Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound Bruno

We have written about Tim Nichols from Granville, NY many times. It looks like the Deer Search's Schlechtingen Award will go to him again for the highest number of calls taken during the 2010 tracking season. In 2010 Tim took 66 calls and found 24 deer and one bear. No, Tim is not retired, and he does all his tracking while holding a full-time job. Bruno, a four-year-old Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound imported from Poland, is his canine tracking partner. Below are some pictures of Tim and Bruno's finds.

Tim, Bruno, and hunter with a bowshot NY deer during rifle season. The deer died behind bowling alley in town.

Tim and Bruno with a small doe; Northern zone NY

Tim, Bruno with hunter and crossbow buck in Vermont

Tim, Bruno & hunter with a large doe, VT Archery

Tim, Bruno, and hunter with a nice buck, VT Archery

Tim , Bruno, and hunter with buck. This buck was shot by an arrow, then hit by a car, and then shot three 3 more times with arrows.

Tim & Bruno with a very nice 9 pt, 202 lb NY bow-shot buck

Tim, Bruno and hunter with a nice NY buck

Tim, Bruno and hunter with a VT bear

Tim, Bruno and a VT deer, which was crossbow shot by brother Fred

Tim, Bruno and hunters with a very large Adirondack buck, 10pts and possibly over 200lbs. It was an all day event to recover this deer.

Tim, Bruno, and hunter with large doe,  NY archery.

GREAT job Tim and Bruno!

Great tracking season for Sally and Petey from Vermont

Sally Marchmont and Petey (Matthias v Moosbach-Zuzelek) are a tracking team in Vermont, and we wrote about them before. Petey (Buster/Keena son) was born on March 19, 2007 so this was his second real tracking season (he was just seven months old in fall 2007). I could not be happier with Sally's report.


Hi Jolanta and John -

You will be happy to hear that Petey and I have had another successful tracking season. We took 20 calls and found 8. We had good tracking weather and hunters that were really good to work with. I had hoped to get more calls, but I did get some repeat customers which was nice to see.

During our training this summer, I managed to get Petey to slow down fairly well, but it was a completely different story once we started taking calls. He gets so excited and worked up, and I know he's less effective that way. I had hoped he would be a little slower this year, but it looks like it's going to take more time.

Over the first part of the season, I was beginning to think that I was picking him up too soon when I wasn't seeing blood, and it seemed as though when I picked him up and brought him back, it threw him off. He would seem to lose momentum and focus, almost as if he thought that I was telling him he'd gone the wrong way. So I decided to trust him more and let him go longer without seeing blood, with good results. One of the pictures attached is of a beautiful, 200-pound, 8-pointer we found for a lady who had shot him in the pouring rain. The rain had washed all the blood away so I had no choice but to trust Petey completely. He made short work of it, so it was a lesson well learned for me.

The best thing Petey did this year was during a track but had nothing to do with tracking. We had gone into a mass of pricker bushes after a deer when he slipped out of his harness. The prickers were so thick that I couldn't see the ground and it took a minute before I realized what had happened. I had no idea where he was but within 30 seconds of calling, he was at my feet.

Tom and Chris DiPietro were a big help again this year. Chris hurt her knee so couldn't track for most of the season (she's having surgery next week), but Tom and I took some calls together. Musket had another good year. He's in great shape and still going strong. We're having our table again at the big hunting show, and we're making plans to do a lot more advertising next year.

Petey continues to be strong and healthy, and an absolute pleasure to live with. Merry Christmas to you both and a happy and healthy New Year. Sally

Pictures of Tim Nichols and his Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound

We wrote about Tim Nichols and and his Bavarian Mountain Blood Hound Bruno in January - see that post here. Today we are presenting the first four pictures of the bear and deer he has recovered during this tracking season.

A Mountain Lion Shrinks

by John Jeanneney

Tim Nichols, over on the New York/Vermont border, has the best of tracking worlds. He is positioned to track in the early bear seasons in Vermont and northern New York, and he also gets to track deer and bear later in New York’s Southern Zone. Tim’s latest adventure in Vermont suggests that the “Green Mountain Boys” don’t always have their act together in early September. The sun still beats down hot on their heads, and they have been known to get over-excited.

The call came in to Tim from the Vermont Conservation Officers; they had a report of a wounded mountain lion, shot in the hind quarters with a 30-30. The hunters were afraid that the big cat, in his distress, might attack someone.. They were sure that he was big and at 30 or 40 yards they had clearly seen his long tail (mountain lions, unlike bobcats, have long tails).

Tim arrived with the Conservation Officers to learn that an attempt had already been made to track the cat with a Golden Retriever. There had been a little altercation with the cat in a big thicket, and it had been the Golden who fled and refused to track any more.

Tim and his Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound then tracked the cat out of the thicket to where the big predator was dispatched by the officers. Surprise! It wasn’t really that big (30-35 pounds) and the tail was actually very short; it was a bobcat! And the bobcat was out of season.

It will be interesting to see what the Vermont courts do with this case. Bobcat hunting season was not open, and in the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Code there is also an article forbidding the shooting of mountain lions, if there are any. At least the hunters did the right thing in reporting what they believed they had seen and what they believed they had done.

For Tim and Bruno it wasn’t a difficult tracking job even though the line was nearly a day old. What was impressive was the way young Bruno stood up to the live, snarling bob cat. Maybe it wasn’t a mountain lion, but it was capable of doing some nasty work on a dog.

Sally and Petey hit the jackpot - evolution of the tracking team

In his latest book Izzy & Lenore: Two Dogs, an Unexpected Journey, and Me John Katz writes: “If you spend time around breeders, rescuers, trainers, vets, shelter workers, you hear this expression now and then: Someone’s hit the jackpot. It means some matchmaker scored: A dog and a human found one another and mesh beautifully, embarking on one of those great interspecies love affairs. A number of elements need to fall into place—a person and a dog that need and complement one another, that intersect at the right time and fit snugly into each other’s lives. Sometimes when you wait for something, it arrives and proves worth waiting for.” I am convinced that Sally and Petey hit the jackpot.

We were contacted by Sally M. from Vermont in October 2006. I received this long thoughtful e-mail:

“Hello Mr. and Mrs. Jeanneney,

I am emailing you because I would like to be put on the waiting list for a puppy from your next litter. I have been doing blood tracking with my two-year-old Beagle but after a year and a half of mediocre performances during training, 1-1/2 hunting seasons with absolutely no success and especially after having the opportunity to watch Tom DiPietro's dog Musket work, I have to finally admit that he doesn't have what it takes to do the job. I have had to cut this year's season short and pass all my deer calls on to Tom since it doesn't feel right taking calls knowing my dog and I won't be able to help. Although my Beagle has a good nose, he's an anxious dog and after half an hour of frantically trying to track a deer, he's an exhausted, confused, quivering ball of nerves who can't think straight. This has been frustrating and somewhat embarrassing and not a whole lot of fun for my dog.

I'm a single mother with a 13-year-old daughter as well as a seven-year-old Basset mix and four cats. We live in northern Vermont off a dead end dirt road surrounded by 100s of acres of woods. I work at home so my dogs are my constant companions and my best friends. I spend a lot of time outside with my dogs and take them up into the woods for a couple of hours every afternoon, depending on the weather. I also have an underground dog fence encompassing my house, pond and five acres of woods which has worked very well, even for my Beagle.

I have read your book and have had a good look at your website and am impressed by your obvious love of the dogs, and especially by the care and attention you give your puppies. Since three dogs is all I think I can manage and "getting rid of" someone is not an option, I would like to maximize my chances of finding a solid tracking dog and I think having one of your puppies is the best way to do that. I am ready for a level-headed, calm, gentle but tough little dog with a lot of guts who will be a good friend and hopefully a great tracking dog. I realize you are in the midst of hunting season and probably very busy, so please get back to me when you have the time.”

I was very impressed by Sally’s introduction but highly skeptical. A single mother with two dogs and two cats, and, as I later found out, she was not a hunter. This request was highly unusual. There are very few women trackers. Most of the time we get inquiries from hunters who would like to have a dachshund for tracking and at the same time have a pet for their family. Or occasionally we hear from dachshund people who’d like to get involved in blood tracking so their dachshunds have something to do. But Sally’s only motivation was her fascination with tracking. Also, even though our success with selecting puppies for their new owners is quite successful, what would happen if we made a mistake? What if a puppy did not turn out the way Sally desired? In spite of our doubts, we decided to go ahead, and we put Sally on the waiting list for Keena’s next litter.

Keena's litter of seven puppies was whelped on March 19, 2007

I asked Sally to join our borntotrack yahoo group and United Blood Trackers, and she promptly did. I also sent her 2nd edition of John’s book on blood tracking dogs. Her next e-mail was somewhat surprising: “I received the new book yesterday. I wasn't expecting such a beautiful hard cover book. That was very kind of you to send it to me and I greatly appreciate it. I see the part about the scent shoes is quite a bit more positive than it was in the last book. I just know there's a way to make a pair of homemade ones and I have a few ideas I'm going to be trying out. I also found the appendix about the e-collars interesting. My older dog doesn't need to be on a leash in the woods but my Beagle does. One of these collars might work well for him since he respects the underground fence very well. It sure would be nice to walk in the woods not attached to an energetic Beagle so I'm going to look into these.”

Sally’s resourcefulness about scent shoes was impressive, and she ended up constructing her own shoes: “I did end up putting together some homemade scent shoes by cutting the soles off a pair of old boots and taking a trip to the hardware store. I only tried them out for a few minutes in the front yard and they seemed to work fine though it felt like I had high-heeled shoes on (at least I think so as I've never worn heels). I have no idea how they'll hold up - they might fall apart after a few uses, who knows.

I also invested in an e-collar for my Beagle and the results are nothing less than miraculous! I had to use it twice the first day and once the second day, but we have now spent 8 afternoons in the woods without a leash and without having to use the zapper. We are both so much happier. What a pleasure to watch him running back and forth with his tail going and his ears flapping. He now gets to chase chipmunks with my other dog without being frustrated by the end of the leash. I'm so glad he responded well and quickly - I hated to have to cause him pain but there was no other way and I think he would even agree that it was worth it.”

I liked Sally more and more. The fact that she was willing to learn and had an open mind was invaluable. So many times we come across people who “know better” despite their limited experience or are not willing to change their approach when things do not go well.

On March 19, 2007, Keena whelped a litter of seven puppies, and one of them was to go to Sally. After many communications with Sally, we selected for her a nice male whom we called Matthias (it was an M litter). He was a very laid back pup, with nice personality, and he had a suitable functional conformation for tracking in Vermont. He did not have a super strong tracking drive but we were pretty sure that this would come with age, training and experience on natural lines. Sally came to pick him up when he was 11 weeks old.

Pete (aka Matthias) has a red collar

We really liked her as she is a rare combination of no-nonsense attitude, sensitivity and toughness. We spent several hours with Sally going over puppy training and tracking, and next day we heard from her: “Puppy is doing just fine. It was a long ride home yesterday because there were some trees down, one of the roads was closed and I had to find another way home. I stopped once to take him out but otherwise, the puppy was quiet and slept most of the time in the car. He has handled himself quite well at home too. He's been brave and friendly with my other dogs and even the cats. My older dog is not impressed and after meeting the puppy, has since ignored him. My Beagle is very interested, though nervous and a little afraid of the puppy, as I expected. The puppy spent midnight to 6:00 AM in the crate without a peep. He's been very affectionate and friendly and seems to be quite taken with my daughter. He's eating well too. I will email more in a few days and send pictures. “

Just three days later we got another message: “The puppy is doing very well. We are calling him Pete. He seems to be very comfortable here and I'm impressed with how well he has taken all the changes. He is quiet and calm and sure of himself, and not afraid of much. He's been swimming, gone for a car ride, walked in the woods with the other dogs. He's also pulled one of the cat's tails, humped the other dogs and eaten cat poop. What a life! He's doing well in his crate at night and eating well. He doesn't seem to be a very destructive chewer but if something moves, he wants to kill it - like my broom. My Beagle is still a little snappy with him - he's always been second to my other dog and I think he's enjoying being the boss over someone else for once and can take it too far. He's much better outside but I have to watch him closely in the house. Since things are going well, I'm planning on laying a track this weekend. I will keep you updated.”


At the end of June we heard “We finally got a nice uninterrupted practice track in yesterday and Pete did a beautiful job. 100 yards, 2-1/2 hours, 3 turns, slow and steady with no help. Feeling good about trying a four-hour line this week.”

A month later: “Pete is doing just fine. He had his second round of shots last week and all is well. He's just about 14 pounds now. His housetraining is going well - not quite 100% but close. He's up to 1 hour walks in the woods every day with the other dogs now. I watch him closely and carry him when he seems tired, but that's becoming less often. He's comfortable around the water and rides on my floatie with me on the pond like he's Cleopatra. He'll jump right in if he sees something interesting. He had his first four-wheeler ride last week which didn't seem to bother him a bit except he wanted to get down to run with the other dogs. His manners are coming along well. My other dogs are very well behaved and responsive so I think he's learning a lot from them. He's a lot of fun to have around and has fit in very well.


We had 2 good 4-hour lines over the last week or so, so today we tried a 7-hour line. He had trouble in one spot that he just couldn't get but the rest of it went well and he got both of the 90 degree turns. We're still doing not quite 100 yards and using about 2 ounces of blood on the sponge stick. For the last 2 lines I've used the tracking shoes as well. He definitely knows what is going on now and when he sees me get his tracking leash out, he gets excited and heads for the door. “

And again a month later: “Pete is doing just fine. We did our first 10-hour line yesterday and he did fairly well. He gets pretty excited about it now and is starting to rush and not be as careful as I would like. I'm going to start leaving treats along the way and see if this helps. Otherwise he seems to be coming along well. He's pretty close to 100% reliable with housetraining and he's growing well. He has graduated from the crate at night to my bed and he's doing well on the leash when we walk on the road, though handling 3 dogs on leashes is a little tricky. One of his favorite things is chasing butterflies which he will eat if he catches one. So all is well, more updates later.”

Sally wanted to train Pete to handle in the woods and since she had such a good and quick success with her Beagle, she wanted to try e-collar with Pete. I advised her to talk to Andy Bensing, who is a professional dog trainer. She wrote: “I did manage to finally get hold of Andy. He seemed to really know what he was talking about and explained the training process very well. It was simple, it made sense and it was humane. The video he suggested is the Tri-Tronics e-collar training video. I haven't received it yet to tell you what I think of it. Apparently I lucked out with having it work so well with my Beagle and was a lot more ignorant that I thought. Please know that I'm only planning on using it as a last resort when it's either that or lose my dog. I will only take the training as far as I have to go to make sure that if I ever have to use it, it will have the desired result. Pete has responded very well to training with treats and is actually very reliable with "come", but I need to have a backup just in case or I won't feel comfortable walking him off leash.

We've been stuck on 18-hour overnight lines for the past couple of weeks. He only just completed his last one without help so I'll wait until he's done a few more before I move on to 24-hour lines. He's always excited about it and certainly tries hard though.”

In September Sally wrote: “Here's a picture of Pete from the other day. He's doing great. The e-collar training is done and was very quick and easy. He passed the ultimate test yesterday when three or four deer jumped out in front of us. All dogs stopped dead when I yelled, including Petey. I didn't have to use the collar so maybe I never will. I hope not, but at least now he knows what it means.

He's been having some trouble with his training the past three weeks or so - starts off well but easily distracted, can't keep his mind on the job - though he did very well at Tom's house last weekend on some lines he laid out at his house. Not worried though, maybe he's just getting bored at home. I'll try to spice things up a little in the next couple of weeks.”

In October Sally was writing about her disappointment about tracking real deer with her seven month old puppy. “Pete and I have been out on five calls but as he is still so young, we have been struggling and I'm not sure how to proceed.

On a good note, we did have one find. The hunter really should have found it himself, but just didn't look hard enough. Petey tracked about 50 yards to the edge of a stream and the hunter said he had heard a splash but for some reason "knew" the deer hadn't crossed. We eventually found the deer on the other side of the stream across from where Petey had taken us. The hunter actually found it, but Petey was pretty close and heading in the right direction. After a minute of getting used to the deer he put on a pretty good show of trying to tear its legs off and then had to be dragged out with the deer as he was attached to its neck. So at least that was a good experience for him.

On the other hand, our other four calls have been the same thing - deer hit the night before (18 hours ago) with a blood trail that quickly ends. He can track what blood is there but then is unable to go any further. I don't get a lot of calls and I've never gotten one with the deer hit less than 12 hours ago so if I waited for an easy, fresh one, we'd never get to track at all. Even though I tell everyone I know who hunts to call me if they get a deer, this has yet to happen.

I realize that asking a seven-month-old puppy to track with no blood is unrealistic. John's book says it will take 30-40 real life calls before he can be expected to do this. Even though I tell people he is a young, inexperienced dog, they still get their hopes up and I feel terrible using these people as practice calls knowing that finding their deer is highly unlikely. I'm also concerned that this is doing Petey a disservice by putting him in these situations where he is in over his head and not getting rewarded. I'm afraid he will lose his enthusiasm and just end up confused. How can Petey get these 30-40 calls under his belt without getting frustrated and bored?

I talked to Tom on the phone about this tonight and we thought about taking calls together with Petey doing what he can and then Musket taking over. This sounds great to me but might be hard to coordinate as we would both have to be available to take the call.

So basically, should Petey and I keep banging our heads against a wall hoping for a miracle? Should I wait for that easy, fresh call even if it means waiting until next year? I want to do what is best in the long run and am willing to be patient, but hunting season is short and I'd like to get what I can out of it.”

Tom DiPitro with Musket and Sally with Petey

John’s response to Sally was: “Sally, I think that you are expecting much too much from a young puppy. Some puppy owners may be finding deer, but we don’t know all the circumstances. Their lines were probably not as difficult as the ones you have encountered. It is OK to take easy calls with Petey, but I don’t think there is much point in taking on 18-hour-old scent lines without blood. You don’t have a finished tracking dog yet, and you should not expect him to act like a mature, experienced dog.”

December brought this e-mail: “Petey is doing just fine - actually seems to like the snow. I got him a nice coat that he doesn't seem to mind too much. He has successfully demoted my beagle to third dog position as expected, but I think old Fred is pretty safe as top dog. I think he's off to a good start with his tracking and I'm very pleased with what he's done this year. He's very well-behaved when we're in the woods at home - his early training has really paid off. He wears the e-collar but I've never had to use it. He's a great little dog and I'm very lucky to have him.”


Five months later we got a longer update: “He's doing great and I couldn't be happier with him. He's a wonderful little dog with a big personality, very funny and quirky, has impeccable house manners, friendly and outgoing, and is very reliable off leash in the woods. He continues with his ball obsession - thank you for the raquetball suggestion, they're perfect.


We've done two training blood lines so far. On the first one, Petey was so excited he was all over the place, but the second one went a little better although he was still pretty excited. That's certainly understandable - you should have seen his face light up when I got the tracking harness out.

I have a Basset mix named Fred whom Petey idolizes and whose life Petey saved this week. I was working on the computer, Fred was outside and Petey was inside. Petey started barking frantically at the door which is very unusual for him, and when I went to see why, I found Fred having a seizure outside on the doorstep. I managed to get him to the vet in about 15 horrible, frantic minutes which was a good thing because she said it was one of the worst seizures she's ever seen and would have soon killed him. He spent two nights at the vet's office and is still weak and very shaky on his hind end, but lucky to be alive. He's on phenobarbital now and I just have to wait and see how far he will come back. If Petey hadn't barked at the door, I would never have known anything was wrong and I would probably have lost old Fred. I will be forever grateful to Petey for that.

Petey's doing great, he's happy and healthy and looking forward to a summer's worth of training. You definitely chose the right puppy for me and I thank you.”

After the tracking season 2008 was over we received this e-mail:

“Now that bow season is over for us, I thought you'd like to hear that Petey has done an absolutely beautiful job this year. We had a pretty discouraging summer as far as training was concerned - he had plenty of enthusiasm, but just seemed to be all over the place and wasn't able to finish even a simple line by himself. When we started taking calls, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Every time we went out, he was all business and did exactly what he was supposed to do and did it well. He was enthusiastic, focused and determined, wasn't distracted by squirrels or chipmunks, would swim a brook without hesitation and never gave up. We had 6 finds out of 15 calls plus 1 we kicked up and let go. I can't tell you how thrilled and proud of him I am.


One night he tracked steadily for two hours before we found the deer. It had been shot through the butt so it went a long way. He got stuck a couple of times but figured it out for himself and never showed any signs of slowing down. Another night, Tom DiPietro got a call but Musket was exhausted so we took Petey and their puppy, Scout, so he could follow along. We found that one too, and since Petey got to follow Musket a few times last year, I felt pretty good about being able to return the favor.


We only had 1 embarrassing episode on an old track on a dry day with not much to start with. Petey didn't take us any further than the hunter, and eventually went into a hollow log and after lots of barking and thumping, came out with porcupine quills in his mouth. So, not only did the hunter not get his deer, but he ended up having to help me pull quills out of Petey's mouth. Other than that one though, on the calls where we didn't find the deer, Petey always took us further than the hunter and twice was able to find the blood when the hunter wasn't able to find any.

The only thing I don't like about his tracking is that he pulls so hard and tends to rush and get too excited. He's a very solid, strong 25 pounds and I'm not a big person. He will use up twice as much energy than is necessary. Gloves are a necessity and a collar is not an option. He will do this especially if the track is fresh and often needs to be brought back a few times before he'll settle down. Holding him back so he's not attached to the deer while the hunter drags it out of the woods is more exhausting for me than actually finding the deer. On an older track or when there's not too much blood, he's slower and more methodical. I'm assuming that as he gets older, this will get better. He also barks when he's tracking, but it’s only either when there's good, fresh blood and we're close to getting the deer, or if he's gone off and is after a fresh, healthy deer track. So if he's barking his head off and I'm not seeing any blood, I bring him back and this has worked so far.

I've learned an awful lot this year. I now feel confident in being able to read Petey's tracking body language and the way he feels at the end of the leash. I also feel a lot more confident about talking to the hunter - what questions to ask and telling him how he can help me. I've also learned that very often the hunter is completely mistaken about the situation and things can look very different when you get there than they sounded on the phone. I've also learned that the hunter doesn't necessarily appreciate it when your dog pulls his deer's tail off.

When I came to your house to pick Petey up, John told me I needed a gun and he was absolutely right. Two of the deer we found were down but still alive and the hunters had to cut their throats. This was extremely unpleasant for me, to say the least, and I don't ever want it to happen again. I know nothing about guns, but I have some friends who are going to help me with this and I will make sure I have one next year.

Other than his tracking, Petey is doing extremely well. He's gained four pounds since the spring when I finally found a combination of food that agrees with him. He's been healthy except for when he got squirted by a skunk directly in the face. He threw up that night and it smelled very strongly, so I'm pretty sure he swallowed some of it. It took three days and a trip to the vet before he would eat, but he bounced back quickly. He's active and happy, funny, smart, and has healthy relationships with my other dogs and six cats. He has impeccable house manners and is reliable off leash in the woods. I can't begin to explain how much he means to me and how good it makes me feel to be able to give him the opportunity to do what he was born to do and obviously makes him so happy. After four long, frustrating years, I am finally on my way with a fantastic little dog - Thank You! Sally”

I am sure that Sally and Petey will go through ups and downs, and there will be challenges ahead. But I am convinced that this a great match, and they both hit a jackpot.

Mickey's last deer

Tim Nichols' beagle Mickey was one of the great tracking dogs of the North East. He died a year ago on March 24 at the age of 12 ½. Mickey found more deer in his career than any other dog in Deer Search. This was in part due to the fact that Tim his handler had drive and stamina to match his hound’s. For eight successive years the pair took more calls and found more deer than any other tracking team in Deer Search. They were licensed to track on both sides of the New York/Vermont border, rough country with plenty of mountains and beaver swamps.

Their grand total of deer finds was 160. In addition Mickey found three bears and even found two lost dogs. He would track whatever Tim requested.

Here is Tim’s account of Mickey’s last deer call in November of 2007. As you can see from the photo taken at the end, Mickey had nothing left but heart and the desire to do his job. This story says a lot about both Mickey and Tim.

The End is Near

It was Thanksgiving day of Vermont’s 2007 deer season and very wet outside. It had been a mixture of rain and snow and just a raw day. At around noontime the phone rang, and to my surprise it was a hunter from near my home calling for help to locate a buck that his girlfriend had hit. Both of them had shot at it but he knew that his shots were off the mark as the buck was hitting high gear going across the field. However, the deer had buckled when the girlfriend took the first shot.

So I loaded the old beagle Mickey into his crate, not knowing that his time was dwindling away faster than his old body made me realize. We headed up the road about two miles to search for this wounded buck. When I got there, the boyfriend came out of the house to inform me of what had happened. After filling out the tracking report we headed out his back door and up a very steep ridge to get to the last blood he had found. After a 15 minute walk we finally arrived at the scene. I snapped the lead into Mickey's harness and we were off, now at a much slower pace then in his younger years. But we still had a steady pace and within 15 minutes Mickey started to bark which meant we were 20 to 30 minutes behind the deer.

As we were moving from ridge to ridge we hear a shot ring out up ahead of us. I stopped to listen, but there were no follow up shots. So we continued to track and within a few minutes we approached a very shaken hunter just standing in the woods looking puzzled. As I got to him I asked him if had shot. His reply was "I think so!". I thought for a second and asked him again and this time he confessed that he had buck fever and missed. He then asked if he could join us. I told him, “Sure, come along and watch. It’s going to be a long day.”

So we proceeded along and within 10 minutes a shot rang out, then another, and another. We stopped and waited for a few minutes and then went on tracking. When we hear another shot, I didn't want to continue, but we did. As we tracked through some pines I looked ahead to see a party of about five hunters all looking at the ground. As I approached I could see a buck laying there with a few holes in him. As I got to the hunters, I recognized my next door neighbor standing over the buck smiling. He yelled that, “It took a few shots but we got him.” I then said to him ," Who is going to claim this prize?" He replied " The guy who called you to track for him drew first blood, so its his deer.".

After a few minutes of discussion about what had taken place, all the hunters left, and I was left with a deer, a dog, my back pack and very little idea where I was. So I gutted the deer and started to drag it in the direction I came from.

Thank God, one of the hunters had called my wife to go get the girl who had originally shot the deer and meet up with me to help get it out of the woods. Everything finished up well, the girl was happy, and I made it home in time for Thanksgiving dinner.

Mickey and his last deer

Tim Nicols and his Bavarian Mountain Hound help hunters in Vermont and NY

Tim Nichols who lives in Granville, NY, on the border with Vermont, has been a member of Deer Search for many years. He was instrumental in in the legalization of blood tracking dogs in Vermont in 1996 and back then he was presented with this Citation from Deer Search:

On January 24, 1996 the Governor of the State of Vermont signed into law a bill authorizing the licensed use of leashed tracking dogs to find wounded deer and bear. The indispensable man who made this happen was TIM NICHOLS.

Tim began with a scientific collector’s license and demonstrated what could be done in the field with a good dog by finding over ten deer and a bear. At the same time he made numerous presentations of the Deer Search idea to sportsmen’s groups and Vermont legislators. He did not get discouraged when a new Fish and Wildlife commissioner was unsympathetic to the idea of leashed tracking dogs and canceled his permit. Tim Nichols never gave up; thanks to his steady and patient persuasion the Deer Search Bill of Vermont was passed.

Deer Search congratulates TIM NICHOLS for his extraordinary accomplishment.

Roger Humeston Jr.
Deer Search President
February 24, 1996

Tim has turned out to be a blood tracking addict and for the last nine consectuive years has been a receipient of the Deer Search Schlechtingen Award for the most calls taken in the organization. These days Tim tracks with Bruno, a Bavarian Mountain Hound, which was imported from Poland. Bruno was just two years old on Christmas Day. These are the pictures of some of their finds in 2008.