Congratulations to Randy Vick on his outstanding tracking season!

Randy Vick is a veteran tracker from Pavo, GA. During the 2013/14 hunting/tracking season he recovered 66 deer out of 113 calls he took. His tracking partners are Annie, a Mountain Cur, and Pepper, a young Drahthaar. Most of his tracking is done off-leash.

There is much to be learned from Annie's work. Few would expect that a Mountain Cur, bred to tree squirrels and coons, would be a "natural" for tracking old, cold ground scent of a wounded deer. This shows that we can't go by breed labels when we select a tracking dog. Ability is where your find it! Your chances of getting a good one may be better with some breeds than with others, but in tracking there is no "rule" or generalization that doesn't have its exceptions.

Of course Annie's handler, Randy Vick, is exceptional too. Both Randy and Annie have the ability, the passion and the endurance that we all admire.

Below pictures are just a small sample of Randy's tracking accomplishments.

 

 

 

Help find Bella, a blood tracking dog from Claremont, NH

Update: Bella has been found!

Rob and Diane Richardson from New Hampshire are looking for their blood tracking dog Bella. In Diane's words:

We were doing a wounded deer track on 11/14/13 at 379 Jarvis Hill Rd, Claremont, NH and just as Rob was reeling her in to call a halt to the track and the night, Bella somehow got off her gear and zipped off still tracking the buck. We searched all night and never found her. She ALWAYS comes to Rob so this is very unusual.

Bella is a Southern Black Mouth Cur (looks like pit X Lab mix to some people) red/yellow/tan. about 50 lbs. 23-24" at shoulder and last seen wearing a green nylon collar that has her name, license (Unity), Rabies tag and Microchip tag.

She is people and dog friendly. Traffic naïve and will run in front of autos without thinking. She is a trained (licensed by NH Fish & Game) Blood tracking/Wildlife recovery dog and is trained to track wounded deer. She may still be in pursuit of or with the buck she was tracking - do not shoot her! Bella has SEVERE food allergies and needs a specific diet!!!

If found in need of medical care transport immediately to her vet Claremont Animal Hospital.

$100 reward for her safe return no questions asked.

Diane & Rob 603-542-7344 or Claremont Animal Hospital 543-0117 or the Claremont Police Department.

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.

Another successful tracking season for Copper, a young Southern Black Mouth Cur from Alabama

Roger Barnhill III is a United Blood Trackers member from Loxley, Alabama. His tracking canine Copper is a two-and-a-half-year old Southern Black Mouth Cur. Roger says: This was her third tracking season. About 50% of her tracks were off-leash. She was successful with both on and off leash tracks, even though this was her first year to experience tracking on leash. Other than the 17-hour track she trailed at UBT II test, which she passed, the next oldest track has been 14 1/2 hours.

We finished the 2012/13 hunting season in South Alabama with 27 calls and 17 finds, which was similar to last year when we had 29 calls and 16 finds.  One of the finds this year was my seven-year-old son's first big 8 point.  This deer was shot in the rear hind quarter and ran off the plot.  There was no blood the first 100 yards where we found a fresh wound bed. I could tell the buck had just gotten up so I released Copper.  She ran the deer a half mile and bayed where we were able to recover the deer.  This was the most exciting track of the year, not only because it was my son's first big buck but also to see Copper work.   Another deer was tracked one mile across two county paved roads, through a yard within five feet of a house, and through a vehicle salvage yard.  The deer had been shot in the rear leg at the knee.

 

 

Every year Copper has progressed with her eagerness to please and perform.  It is apparent watching her that she gets excited about what she does.  I am looking forward to seeing what next year brings for her.

Randy Vick's successful 2011/2012 tracking season

We wrote about Randy Vick and his blood tracking dogs quite a few times before.  Randy is a member of the United Blood Trackers. His primary tracking dog this year was Annie, a seven-year-old Kemmer Stock Mountain Cur (Osteen's Yellow Anne). He was also working with his young Drahthaar puppy. Randy ran into some problems with his Bavarian Lil' Brown, and we hope this is just a temporary situation. In his e-mail Randy also refers to JJ Scarborough's Lab Rosie. I had a chance to meet JJ and Rosie last year at Trackfest in Pocahontas. This last tracking season JJ went on 132 calls and he found 74 deer.

But let's go back to Randy's fantastic season:

"Our tracking season was busy and went well. No major injuries or health issues. Annie got hit while on the lead by a flailing doe, but she shook it off and recovered quickly. As this season ends here for Georgia, Florida and Alabama, I have logged 38 recoveries out of 95 legitimate tracks taken. That's about 40% success. We conformed another 9 misses and had 36 calls that we referred to others or were unable to attend.

I was able to handle J.J. Scarborough's Rosie on 9 tracks of which 3 were recoveries. I love that dog! My Drahthaar, Pepper, was able to find 1 deer in a heavy rain, when Annie was on strike because of the storm. In a storm Annie will bed down and refuse to work.

I posted here only a sample of pictures that Randy sent me. First 9 pictures show Annie and her handler Randy.

Randy Vick with JJ Scarborough's Rosie

Randy with his Drahthaar puppy Pepper

Congratulations Randy! What a great season!

Randy Vick's outstanding tracking season - part 1

It has been over a year since we had a post about Randy Vick from Georgia. Randy, a member of the United Blood Trackers, must be highly addicted to tracking as he took 70 deer calls. Randy wrote a nice letter along with quite a few pictures:

"Just a few of the pictures from the '10 season here in S. Georgia. Had a great year with Little Brown, Annie and Missy (Bloodhound/Catahoula). Missy recovered 3, Brown found 9 and Annie found 17. That was out of 70 calls taken (5 confirmed misses). Had 95 calls but referred or missed 25 of them. Lots of good stories."

I split Randy's pictures into two parts, this one shows Annie with her recoveries. Annie is a six-year-old Kemmer Stock Mountain Cur (Osteen's Yellow Anne). Huge congratulations to Randy and Annie!

Randy, I am looking forward to meeting you in Pocahontas!