Beginnings of the United Blood Trackers

Compiled by Jolanta Jeanneney

The need for a national organization of blood trackers became evident in March 2005 when Henry Holt ran into problems regarding using tracking dogs on public land in Illinois. In his email circulated within borntotrack group (for owners of dogs bred by John and Jolanta Jeanneney), hosted by smartgroups, he wrote:

“Last season here in Illinois there was an emergency administrative rule issued prohibiting tracking on public land. Just before the season opened, Larry Gohlke, Cheri Faust, Al Diehl and I all attended a meeting in Springfield with Tim Hickman, the DNR head of public lands, Jack Price the DNR attorney in charge of wildlife and administrative rules, and Mike Kennedy a Captain in Law Enforcement (and also a Drahthaar trainer). It looked as though everything was on track until I saw a new rule published on the DNR website.

1) Tracking on public land has to be conducted outside of legal shooting hours which are 1/2 hour after sunset to 1/2 hour before sunrise.

2) Dogs must be certified as deer tracking dogs by a national dog tracking organization.”

At the time there was no national organization able to provide this kind of certification. After many emails and lively discussion, several members of borntotrack yahoo group decided to go ahead and form the organization. Ken Parker, an owner of Bavarian Mountain Hounds, was invited as well.

An organizational meeting was held July 21-22, 2005 at the home of John and Jolanta Jeanneney in Berne, NY.

Top row from left: John Jeanneney, Henry Holt, Larry Golhke; bottom row: Andy Bensing, Cheri Faust and Ken Parker. Jolanta Jeanneney was behind camera.

Present were John Jeanneney, Jolanta Jeanneney, Henry Holt, Ken Parker, Andy Bensing, Cheri Faust, Larry Gohlke, Tim Nichols (Friday).

We discussed:  Bylaws, Deer Search, Inc., Testing, Judges, Benefits of Membership, Membership Application and Dues.

The following were selected to serve on the Board of Directors:

Larry Gohlke (2006) – appointed Director of Testing

John Jeanneney (2006) – appointed Director of Education

Cheri Faust (2007) – elected as Secretary

Henry Holt (2007) – appointed as Director of Membership and elected as Vice President

Susanne Hamilton (2007)

Ken Parker (2008) – elected as Treasurer

Andy Bensing (2008) – elected as President

Jolanta Jeanneney (2008) – appointed as Director of Publicity

Initial UBT-approved judges were:

•             Larry Gohlke

•             John Jeanneney

•             Jolanta Jeanneney

•             Henry Holt

•             Andy Bensing

A Board of Directors meeting was held September 23, 2005 at the Black Horse in Denver, PA, and on September 25, 2005 at D-Bar-W Equestrian Center in Reinholds, PA. Present were: Andy Bensing (President/Director-2008), Cheri Faust (Secretary/Director-2007), John Jeanneney (Director of Education-2006), Jolanta Jeanneney (Director of Publicity-2008) and Larry Gohlke (Director of Testing-2006)

The Secretary received a letter from Henry Holt, who resigned as an Officer and Director.  Dave Johnson was elected for the Board of Directors to serve as Director of Publicity.  John Jeanneney was selected to fill the vacancy of Vice President.  Jolanta Jeanneney was appointed as Director of Membership.

In 2005 Bylaws were drafted, finalized and incorporation was filed with the State of Illinois.  A website (www.unitedbloodtrackers.org) was established.  The Board of Directors has exchanged over 1,600 messages via the email group list, in addition to private emails, telephone communications and discussions at other events for organizational purposes. Even though the organization was started mainly by handlers of tracking dachshunds, it has never discriminated against other breeds. From the beginning handlers of all kind of tracking dogs have been accepted, regardless whether their tracking dogs were purebred or not.

The next meeting of the Board of Directors was held on June 12, 2006 at Neal and Debbie Meyer’s, Quincy, Illinois, the site of Trackfest 2006. Even though this event was not officially affiliated with the United Blood Trackers, it was organized by the core of the UBT and everybody present was encouraged to join the organization. The report from this events is at http://www.born-to-track.com/trackfest.html.  Neal Meyer’s dachshund Chloe was the first dog certified by the UBT. This was a press release describing it:

First Dog Certified To Track Wounded Deer On State Lands

Chloe, a wirehaired dachshund owned by outfitter Neal Meyer, was the first dog tested and approved to track wounded deer on state-owned lands in Illinois. The bill passed in 2004 legalized the use of leashed tracking dogs. The associated regulations require that any dog tracking on Illinois state lands must pass a test demonstrating basic ability and training.

Chloe’s blood tracking test was administered by United Blood Trackers (www.unitedbloodtrackers.org), a national organization, on June 11, 2006. The dog was required to track a blood line with two sharp turns for a quarter of a mile to part of a deer that was placed at the end of the line. The small amount of blood used for the simulated trail, combined with the heavy ground cover, would have made the line very difficult or impossible for a hunter to track by eye.

Dachshund Chloe has little in common with the beloved wiener dogs of cartoonists. She is bred from German hunting stock, has longer legs and a harsh, wirey double coat. Chloe weighs only 20 pounds, but in her own mind she is a “big dog”, big enough to track those huge Illinois bucks, even if they are still alive.

Brady Hesington's Wachtelhund Caliber recovers two deer in one day but there is more to this story

A big thank you to Brady Hesington, a United Blood Trackers member from Missouri, for sharing his recent tracking experience.

I'd like to share one of our more memorable tracks of the year.  I received a call on a Monday afternoon from a gentleman who lives about an hour from me.  He related that his son had shot a nice buck the previous evening, and they needed help locating it.  Unfortunately, I was working and wouldn't be available until the following morning.  After taking a phone survey of the shot, I felt that we had a reasonable chance at recovery.  I was also impressed that the father shared his desire to instill in his children the importance of making every effort of recovering animals that they shot as a way of honoring God, their Creator.  The details were as follows...

The father and son were hunting together on a ridge, with the father sitting not far behind his son, Luke.  A buck came up along the opposite ridgeline, along the edge of a field, and Luke took the shot.  The buck ran into the field and the hunters could hear him taking loud, sucking breaths.  Luke asked his dad if he should take another shot, but his father, Jayson, an experienced hunter, told Luke that the shot was through the lungs and that no further shot was necessary.  The buck then dropped his head and laid down.  After several minutes the two stood up to go look at the deer, and much to their surprise it rose and took off into the woods.  Expecting the deer to be down, they followed the blood trail for about 100 yards and heard more crashing, which prompted them to back out.  

The following morning, they scoured the woods along with two additional searchers.  They progressed the trail by about 200 yards, but did not find the deer.   Later that day a large rainstorm blew through washing away all the blood.  That's when I got the call.  The track had led them within 75 yards of a small river, and they had not searched on the opposite side, as they had not received permission.  My hope was that the deer was not far on the other side, and that we would be able to find it quickly if they received permission.  I told Jayson to do his best to gain permission, and an hour later he called back to tell me that he had it.  Later that night he called me back to tell me that his daughter, Sydney, had also shot a deer and after tracking for about 100 yards they decided to back out since I would be arriving in the morning...good idea!  He was unsure of where young Sydney had struck the deer, but informed me that there seemed to be a lot of blood.  

The next morning I arrived at the sight with both my wachtelhund, Caliber, and my BMH, Chloe.  Most of my time tracking this year has been spent with Chloe, as I am trying to develop her skills.  Caliber, sadly, has not gotten a lot of tracking time in the woods, and I was anxious to get him on the 15 hour old track and save Chloe for the 40+ hour old track.  Caliber has shown great ability on tracks of all ages, but is not as motivated on really old tracks with no or minimal sign.  Chloe on the other hand, will dig for scent to track no matter the age of the track.  The problem is she is less discriminating on what scent she takes at times, which is why I have spent so much time working with her this season.  

We decided to start with the "easy" track.  I started Caliber at the hit sight, and true to the report, there was plenty of blood.  Caliber took off without a hitch.  We covered the first 100 yards easily, then progressed the trail another couple of hundred yards past the point of loss.  There was intermittent blood along the way to reassure us.  At that point, Caliber began acting like he was on a hot scent and really began to track fast.  I slowed him down and restarted him a couple of times to get him to focus.  He took the trail to about 600 yards into a field, then made an abrupt turn along the field edge.  After another 100 yards I hadn't seen any sign, so I set him down and searched the field edge for a bit.  Unable to find any confirmation, I allowed him to work the field edge into a thick, brushy area.  He was searching through the area when I heard a LOUD crash up ahead of us.  My brain immediately screamed "leg shot deer" because of all the racket.  Then I saw him jump up out of a deadfall and run into a field.  It was obvious that he was wounded when he ran, and I felt certain that it was a leg shot, but could not see his wound.  Caliber and I took off in pursuit, and after a short chase, I allowed Caliber to bay and hold the deer so that I could put it down.  Caliber was able to pull it down, but suffered a cut along one leg in the process.  He held it while I quickly dispatched it.  A quick inspection showed that the deer was hit just inside the hind leg, dislocating the joint and entering the groin area.  The deer, no doubt, would have had a lingering death had we not recovered it.  This was Sydney's first deer, and she was very excited by the whole experience...as were we all!  When Jayson approached, he initially thought that this was a different deer than what Sydney had shot because one of the deer's antlers had broken off somewhere along the way.  When everyone was gathered, Jayson and Sydney said a prayer of thanks for the deer and for the recovery.  It was special to be a part of this family's traditions.  

Sydney and Caliber with her first buck

After loading the deer, we loaded up and headed to the sight where Luke had shot his deer.  I started Chloe on the track and she followed it "perfectly" along the trail where they had previously tracked the deer.  Unfortunately, there was absolutely no sign remaining after the previous day's deluge, and the hunters had not flagged the trail.  Still, there were plenty of landmarks, and by accounts Chloe was doing a good job of staying on trail.  We proceeded up to the area where the hunters had lost the blood previously.  At this point, there was some confusion about where the deer had made a hard left had turn.  Chloe wanted to track straight where they thought the deer had turned, so I redirected her into that area.  She tracked around in the area, but didn't make me very confident that she was on the deer.  I then let her track in the area where she wanted to go and we ambled along the woods for a ways, and ended up at the end of the small peninsula of land along the river...no deer.  After several restarts we weren't making any progress.  As Jayson had obtained permission to cross the river, he and the rest of his crew went back to the house to pick up a canoe to help us cross. 

I decided to put Chloe in the kennel box and give Caliber a shot at the trail while I waited for them to return.  It took little time for Caliber to pick up the trail and begin tracking aggressively.  He was very motivated after getting to catch the other deer.  Caliber would prefer to bay deer and wild hogs than just about anything in life, so he was highly motivated on the track.  I wondered if he was "cheating" and following our footprints rather than tracking the 2 day old blood scent, but that was soon put to rest.  The deer had run through a large downed tree which had a 4 foot section cut away.  It was an obvious landmark where they had actually found blood on their second tracking attempt.  Chloe, had missed that section and tracked a line 20 yards around it before coming back onto the correct trail.  Caliber, however, nailed the track without missing a beat.  He was definitely not tracking us as we had not walked that route!  Like Chloe, Caliber, also didn't take the hard turn where the hunters had thought the deer may have detoured, but rather took me about 50 yards further before making a sharp left into an area that looked similar.  He then led me straight down to the river.  

As he searched our edge of the river bank, I began looking at the far edge for an area where a deer may have exited the creek.  The river wall was nearly vertical on the opposite side, so there was no way that a deer was going to climb out at that point.  That's when I noticed the brown lump laying on the gravel bank.  I was so excited, that I took off my shoes, rolled up my pants, and waded across the river in 35 degree weather!  Caliber followed along as well.  When I got to the deer, I couldn't see a wound, but upon further examination there was a bullet hole low in the chest just in front of the near leg...a low lung shot.  This would explain the "sucking" sound that Jayson had described to me, and the low forward shot would explain why the deer had not expired more quickly.  

There was just one problem.  Jayson had told me that his son had shot a "big buck," "at least an 8 point, but possibly a 10 or 12,  and I was standing over a 3 point.  The deer was untouched by any predator or birds (prior to Caliber pulling out all its hair), but looked to have been dead about the right amount of time.  I called Jayson to confirm, and he assured me that it could not be the right deer.  When he arrived on the river by canoe, he again assured me that this could not be the right deer.  Oddly, if this deer had been shot on the opposite side of the river it would have had to jump to its death off a 10 foot sheer bank with a maze of exposed tree roots below.  Not impossible, but questionable.  We did walk down the bank to a point where we were able to climb up and searched the area for a bit, but did not recover another deer.   It's difficult to believe that a seasoned hunter like Jayson would have thought that a 3 point was a 8, 10, or 12 in the heat of the moment, but equally difficult to believe that Caliber would lead me straight down a track that would end up at someone else's wounded deer.  Either way, it made for a great day of tracking!

Caliber and the 3 point...his buck

Memorable tracks do not have to end with recovered deer or bear

Sometimes the most memorable tracks do not produce a dead deer or bear at the end. These are two examples of such tracks that were also very long. A big thank you to Chris and Pete for sharing them with us..

Chris Barr from Indiana tracks with Gerti (Gwen von Moosbach-Zuzelek), who is a  5½ year old daughter of Billy and Gilda, and the track is a direct quote from his email:

I wanted to tell you about my most recent track with Gerti which occurred this past Tuesday evening. The hunter shot a small buck at 9:00 in the morning with a head on facing chest shot. He had blood and bone fragments at the hit sight. He tracked for approximately 150 yards before losing the blood. I arrived at the hit site at about 7:00 that evening and put Gerti down at the hit. She took off immediately with no re-starts necessary. She pulled me down to the point of loss very quickly. I had not seen any blood since the first 50 yards or so but she was pulling very confidently. We continued for several hundred yards with no blood. I called back to the hunter, who was doing a great job of keeping up, that the rope “felt” the same as it had since the hit site but that I was dying for some confirmation. (I have a bad habit of not trusting Gerti sometimes). Well I finally saw some blood and I felt very confident that I could pretty much blindly trust her from that point forward.

It ended up being a 3.5 mile track where we caught up to the deer twice and I even got a shot at him the second time. He only let me get about 30 yards away. The cliff-notes version is that we were in Yellowwood State Forrest. We had no cell signal and we had to rob the batteries from my portable radios for my GPS as it had gone dead. We kept pushing the deer because I just felt (and I checked with 2 experts) that it was the right thing to do. To this point, I had never had a track where I had seen the deer and not eventually recovered it. 

We finally had to make the hard decision to abandon the track. We recorded last blood with GPS coordinates and he was going to try to come back. I was honestly starting to get a little freaked out when everything battery powered we had was dying. I was concerned that if we lost our lights that we may have a long night in the woods in front of us. Temps dipped into the 20’s, and as you can imagine, we’d worked up quite a sweat.

This was without a doubt Gerti’s best track of the season. I give her credit for a “find” because she found him twice! I believe shot must have glanced down and along the brisket and hit the shoulder. I think we could have eventually walked him down. I hated to leave him.

We’ve had a frustrating season. This was only our 10^th track total. We are usually in the 20’s by now. I haven’t had the local calls I’m used to and many of the UBT calls have just been too far with me working and hunting myself. This was our 3^rd find and possibly Gerti’s best track ever. The total distance from the truck back to the truck was 5.5 miles….and suffice it to say there were no fields and the hills of Brown County can get steep.

When we made it home around midnight Gerti ate supper and then disappeared under a blanket with my daughter’s fiancé. Not a bad life…for me either.

---------------

Pete Martin from Kiamesha Lake, NY, wrote recently about one of his tracking adventures with Lisa von Moosbach-Zuzelek, a  9½ year old daughter of Billy and Gela.

What an unbelievable bear call on Saturday night of November 15.  Took up track Sunday morning @ 7:30 am, 11 hours later. Bear was shot with .270 @ 50 yards by a 17 year old hunter. It was in Ulster County, on state land in Voor Nuy Kill area outside Ellenville.

The hit site showed moderate blood and hair. As we proceeded to track it was obvious that the bear was bleeding profusely. The hunter, his dad and uncle did excellent  job tracking bear 400-500 yards, zig-zagging up and down side of steep mountainside. We passed last marker and blood. Lisa was on this track like nobody’s business. Straight down mountainside to small wet swampy area with good blood all the way.

Here comes the LONG TRACK made short. Next 4 miles up mountainsides, down steep hills, flat open hardwoods, blowdowns, streams, mountain laurel. You had to crawl on hands and knees. Lisa showed us every little blood spot you could possibly imagine, It wasn't too long, maybe one mile, I realized and explained to tracking crew we were pushing a wise old bear. We saw fresh wet blood. At start of track blood was plentiful and dark. This bear couldn’t have been that far ahead of us but just far enough we couldn't catch up. Lisa was totally vocal which indicated to me she was on very fresh scent and blood.

There were two very tough checking spots for Lisa to figure out but after 12 minutes or so she took us off in the right direction to more blood. Amazing. Some blood drops were 75 to 100 yards apart. I could not believe the strength and persistence of this bear. This bear did everything you could imagine Circled, went up and down same but different hills more than once, back tracked, bedded. Near the end blood was getting watery and weak but Lisa was right on it. The tracking crew and hunter could not believe it. At one point close to end of track someone behind me said "you have a million dollar dog -never saw anything like this before. These were experienced hunters.

Lisa never quit pulling, nose to the ground so focused and vocal. She wanted this bear so bad and knew it wasn't that far ahead of us. Still had small drops of blood going up yet another hill. Hunter’s father and uncle decided we were not going to catch up to bear, and they called off track after 4½  hrs. Everybody was completely exhausted, myself including. My only regret is that we didn't take a long break and continue to track as I thought the bear must be at his end. We were almost to the Roundout Reservoir.

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

Huge bucks mark a great beginning of Kasey and Boomer's tracking season

Kasey Morgan is a United Blood Trackers member from Elderon Wisconsin and he operates under the name Bloodhound Deer Tracking Services. He has had a great beginning of this tracking season with a number of very impressive bucks.

By Kasey Morgan

The 2013 Wisconsin Archery Season was upon us and the calls for tracks came in fast and furious.  Boomer, my bloodhound, would get his first action the night of opening day on a good buck hit high and slightly back from perfect.  We took up the track and Boomer made short work of the 250 yard track.  The buck had fled the scene in a completely different direction than the hunter had remembered.  The amount of sign along the track was minimal, but a fairly steady track of blood droplets.  We were on the deer in less than a half hour and Boomer was on the board with his first “fair chase” whitetail of the year. 

The next call would come in shortly after leaving our first track.  Matt Serwa of “Real Deal Mineral” had hit a deer he knew very well.  He quickly sent me a picture of the deer from one of his trail cameras, and I was amazed at the size.  He described the chain of events that lead to the shot and the shot location.  He had stomach hit the deer.  The shot was back, but looked to be center of the deer between spine and bottom of the belly.  We were dealing with a number of variables on this track.  The first issue was the fact that it had started to rain steadily and was predicted to continue throughout the night.  Being able to locate blood throughout the track is not the most important thing, but it certainly helps confirm that we are heading in the right direction.  The second was the temperature.  The temperature was predicted to stay above the 70 degree mark which would cause a gut shot deer to spoil more quickly.  Matt and I agreed that waiting until the following morning was still the best option.  Pushing the deer that night would definitely destroy our chances of a recovery.

Early the next morning Boomer took up the track.  It was still raining very steadily, and there was no sign of blood.  We began the track and Boomer followed in a similar line as was described by the hunter as the deer’s path of exit from its feeding area.  We tracked off of a food plot down into a low swamp area.  The dog became very excited and proceeded to make a right hand turn into an area full of marsh grass.  There were several deer beds in the area, none of which we were able to find blood in.  We trusted the hound as he led us on fairly straight path through the marsh and down into a creek bottom.  We had now progressed somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 yards with no visible blood.  Boomer searched both sides of the creek bank frantically looking for the scent.  He decided on a line heading westward deeper into the swamp. 

 After another 200 yards the terrain had changed from marsh grass and creek bottoms to tag alders and a foot of water.  Boomer pressed on through the water but soon appeared to have lost the track.  He began a back track and I watched as his body language showed some confusion.  As he backtracked out of the tags he soon hit the scent of the track and again progressed westward.  I was out ahead of the hunter when Boomer turned north and locked up completely along the edge of the creek.  I circled around the creek bank and was astounded at what I was looking at.  Boomer was baying like a fog horn on top of a fair chase, two hundred plus inch, whitetail deer.  I yelled back to Matt that we had found his deer.  He excitedly made his way toward me.  We exchanged high fives and the celebration was on.  We snapped some great photos and awed over the sight of such a monarch.

 

It was not the longest track we have ever run with a successful ending.  However, the 14 hours of continuous rain and the tough tracking terrain made the near one thousand yard run, my proudest moment as a tracker.  Although Boomer does not pay attention to the Boon & Crocket Scoring System but, the record book whitetail at the end was a great bonus.

Dustin McAloon of DeerFest with a massive Wisconsin 8 point!!

Another hazard for tracking dogs

by Andy Bensing

As an avid outdoorsman I usually love learning and experiencing new things about nature but sometimes there is a limit.  A recent blood tracking expedition taught me something I really didn’t need to learn. 

Last Tuesday night after a very routine blood tracking call earlier that day in MD I found myself lying in bed in the dark scratching like crazy on my legs.  The itching and small bumps immediately brought the thought to mind that I had again gotten into some chiggers earlier in the day.  Actually, the itching and bumps were less than I had experienced in the past from chiggers so I was pretty happy about that.  I found out a day and a half later it wasn’t chiggers that I had gotten into but instead my dog Eibe and I had gotten into a nest of tick larvae!  Tick larvae are very, very small and I had not noticed them at first on myself or my dog but by Thursday morning they had been feeding on Eibe for a while and had blown up to a size that I could now easily see.  Commonly called “seed ticks” for their close resemblance to small seeds, Eibe was covered in them!  Without exaggeration I would estimate there were at least 1,000 or more engorged tick larvae all over her body!  Upon close examination I could even see the discarded exoskeletons from some of the larvae who had molted into the nymph stage.  The engorged ticks were so small that I wasn’t even sure what they were until I used a magnifying glass and could see their legs.  A quick call to my vet and a little internet research held the solution to the problem.  Unlike adult ticks and just like chiggers, these larvae don’t attach very securely when feeding.  That’s why I easily rubbed them off my legs unknowingly the first night and did not end up with any engorged ones on me.  All that was necessary to get them off Eibe was a simple flea and tick shampoo and a flea comb through her hair once dry. 

Except for the fact that I can’t stop itching from just the thought of all those creepy little critters all over my dog and some inevitably crawling around my house the whole thing ended pretty easily.  According to the research I have done, the likelihood of tick borne diseases being transmitted by the nymph stage appears low.  Now the only big question left is what will be my next dog disaster?

Engorged tick larvae on Eibe’s back and belly.

Shed larvae exoskeletons after molting to the nymph stage.

Engorged tick larvae on Eibe’s back and belly.

Just a few of the dead ticks collected from the drain after Eibe’s tick bath.

This chart shows the comparative size of the larvae, nymph, and adult tick.

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

News from Georgia where the handlers and their tracking dogs have to be tough

Randy Vick is an outstanding handler and UBT member based in Pavo, Georgia. We have written about him and his blood tracking dogs before. His primary tracking dog is an eight-year-old Annie, a Kemmer Stock Mountain Cur. This year he was also using his young Drahthaar Pepper.

Randy Vick is holding Annie, his outstanding Kemmer Stock Mountain Cur

In Randy's own words:

Here are some pictures of the 41 deer that we recovered in south Georgia and north Florida during the '12-'13 season.

The picture was taken at the end of the outstanding 70-hour old track that had been rained on for 3 hours the night before we tracked it. It was a gut shot and all blood was washed away but Annie followed it 1200 yards on lead. The only sign was a half dozen drops of intestinal matter along the track and finally 6-8 beds along a 100 yard stretch. The buck had only been dead a short time when found.

Several deer were bayed alive, off lead, and though we did not know it when this picture was taken, my Drahthaar, Pepper, had been gored by the buck pictured in the cypress swamp (picture above, which is showing Annie with the buck). She quickly recovered from her wounds.

On one track I did shoot wrong deer that Annie jumped on the trail, but the hunter excused me and we went on to recover his wounded deer. He paid to have my buck processed.

Pepper was gored in the back and hip, Annie lost one front upper tooth, somehow, and I have fell and bruised/tore my kneecap twice.

Luckily, all fairly minor injuries, and we are all healed and ready to go tracking. At a 46% (41 for 91) recovery rate, we were blessed with another great tracking season.

Big Game Blood Trackers Ontario is a new tracking club in Canada

Tracking wounded big game with dogs is becoming more and more popular. Just recently a new club has been formed north of the border, in the province of Ontario: Big Game Blood Trackers Ontario. We wish Ontario trackers best of luck!

Si, a young Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound, is showing a lot of promise for blood tracking

Si, a young Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound, belongs to Art Powers, a UBT member from Alabama. Si was bred by Fred Zoeller from Cooperstown, NY; his sire is Tim Nichols' Bruno. 

 

Art writes: We went on 21 tracks and found 9 this season. We also jumped 3 other deer that we did not recover. The longest successful track was 800 yards and 17 hours old. We had two tracks of 1.28 miles and 1.2 miles when we jumped the deer. He did the best on the fresher tracks (6 hours or less), but we were able to track some that were 28 hours old. The old tracks were much more difficult. We found one that went 300 yards with no blood, only hair at the shot site. It was a fresh track. Overall, I think Si did real good.
I am going to work with him off lead this summer. Most of my tracks are in such thick cover, I am holding him back and it seems to distract him on the older tracks when we have to stop and start. I believe I can release him next year if we are not near roads and be more successful. Most trackers I talk with in the south say they have better luck tracking off lead.

 

 

This Georgia workshop provides an opportunity to train and test your blood tracking dog

4^th Annual Eastern Lacy Fun Day (ELF day)   

LaGrange, GA

March 15-17, 2013   9:00am till 6:00pm

 

We are back for our fourth year!!!  Come share the fun with a great group of Lacy enthusiasts and our dogs.  Activities will include introductory, intermediate, and advanced blood tracking and training, evaluation for United Blood Tracker (UBT) certifications, working cattle and more.  Silent auction on Saturday. The workshop is endorsed by TLGDA and UBT.

Although this event started as a Lacy dog event it has morphed onto all breeds being welcome to participate in the UBT testing. 

Entry to grounds - $5 per person, or $10 per carload.    Super Special!!   $20 for admittance and access to all training events for one handler and a group of dogs. 

We are very fortunate to have two UBT certified judges for this event.  Marlo Riley from Texas and Alan Wade from Louisiana will be joining us again this year.  UBT evaluations will begin on Friday, March 15. UBT evaluation fees are:  UBT 1  $50; UBT 2 $75.   Lines for UBT 1 are aged at least 2 hours and UBT 2 evaluations have to be aged at least 8 hrs or overnight.  Therefore, due to limited space and time constraints, pre-registration and payment are strongly encouraged.  Please contact Rebecca for registration forms and info.

Thursday afternoon, March 14 is the set up day/check in for cabins;  Friday, March 15 is registration and UBT testing;  Saturday, March 16 is registration,  UBT testing,  blood track training and practice tracks. Experienced blood trackers will be on hand for one on one instruction.  Sunday is clean up.

If you can come early i.e., Thursday afternoon/evening to help or socialize, we will be glad to have you.  Breakfast will be provided on Friday and Saturday for $3 each day.  Potluck dinner on Friday night.   Please bring something to share.  Cookout on Saturday night.  Bring something to throw on the grill!!!

Limited overnight accommodations are available for $15/night per person in the cabins (kids are free).  Please register early if you plan to stay overnight.  Please bring your cooler full of some favorite non-alcoholic beverages and lawn chairs.

All dogs must be under direct control of their owners at all times.  Please bring a leash and crate along.  A tie out might also be handy.  No dogs in heat and no alcohol allowed on premises!!  For more information please call Rebecca Ferrell at 850-508-6981 or email at rebeccaferrell@comcast.net  or Kathy Presley at 404-408-4216 or email at bkeepr@gmail.com.

The pictures were taken at previous ELF workshops.

Harold Barry's blood tracking hounds

Harold Barry is a United Blood Trackers member from Florida. Thank you Harold for sharing your tracking experiences with us.

 

I'm a 33 year old wildlife officer who works for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. I have been blessed to have the job I'm in. I have spent every possible moment of my life in the woods. About 5 years ago, several deer were lost in my lease due to bad shots, and even when a dog was brought in, they were never successful. I began to get disgusted with it and decided to train my one year old beagle. I have a great relationship with our local deer processor and took him a 5 gallon bucket and said fill it up, lol. I began laying tracks for Marley and before I knew it, I had my very own tracking dog. Marley seemed to have been born for the sole purpose of tracking wounded deer.

 

In her first year she found 15 deer. As you well know, once the word spreads, it spreads rapidly. I would sometimes track 2-3 deer an evening. I have came to enjoy tracking for others as much as I love harvesting deer myself! I am now training a black and tan bloodhound puppy. He's only 13 weeks and will already run a 300 yard track I lay. He seems to be learning quickly and loving it! He is pictured in a few of the pics I sent. My agency has been very receptive to my tracking and as long as I'm not on an active call, they allow me to track for hunters. It's a way of giving something positive back to the general public; it shows that we care and don't necessarily just write tickets.

 

 

The 1st pic is from a mobility impaired hunt on one of our local management areas. This particular management area only allows a limited number of mobility impaired hunters the opportunity to hunt. The hunter shot the deer with a .223 and the only shot evidence was a small amount of hair. I put my 4 year old beagle, "Marley", on the hair and about 200 yards later recovered this doe. There was no visible blood at any point during the track.

The 2nd pic is from one of my co-workers son's first deer. This deer was shot with a .243 and there was no evidence of a sure hit at the shot site. From my co-worker's description of the deer's reaction to the shot, I was confident it was hit. I put Marley on this track and found a small amount of blood about 120 yards in. The blood was very little through the track, but found every 50 yards or so. After about 500 yards, we found the deer still alive but bedded down. We put the deer down with a .38 revolver carried in with us.

The 3rd pic is from from one of my lease members. The deer was shot with a .270 and there was evidence of a gut shot at the shot site. I put Marley on this track and amazingly, the gut shot deer had only run about 150 yards before bedding and dying.

The 4th picture is also from my lease. This track turned out to be very interesting. The deer was shot with a .30-.06 and there was ample blood to start with, but it stopped about 100 yards in. The blood then appeared every 40 yards or so, but when it was there, it was a large amount. Marley took us for about 3/4 of a mile to another food plot on my lease. As we tracked through the food plot, I observed small drops of blood and then discovered a pool of blood with drag sign leaving it headed to the other side of the food plot. Another one of my lease members had shot the deer and tried sneaking it out after seeing it was already shot. I had spoken with this lease member just before our track, and he apparently had the deer in his truck then and was sneaking it out. After discovering the drag marks, I immediately called and confronted the member. He confessed to taking the deer and returned it to our camp. He was subsequently terminated from the lease and the deer was given to the original shooter.

The 5th picture is from my shift partner at work. He called one evening just after dark and I could hear the excitement and anguish in his voice. He sounded like a 12 year old child trying to tell his version of the events from his evening hunt. He explained that he had shot the biggest deer of his life and could not find any blood. When I asked how big, he just replied "BIG!". I loaded Marley and headed his way. The area where he shot the deer was grassy, so finding foot sign was impossible and there was no blood at the shot site. I began cutting the area with Marley and after a few seconds, she hit on something and seemed very confident. After approximately 70 yards the blood looked as if you were slinging it with a paint brush. We discovered the deer about 200 yards in. I saw the deer first and told my shift partner to look just ahead of us. All you could see was the left main beam sticking up out of a very thick patch of briars. He hollered like a kid and hugged me before he could even realize it!