Hedge, a mini longhaired dachshund bred for hunting by Teddy Moritz is a Field Champion now

Readers of this blog are familiar with Teddy Moritz and her mini longhaired dachshunds.

Here is FC Hedge Threader von Moritz, ten months old. She was in four field trials and got four Firsts, three Best Opens and one Absolute. Better yet, she worked under the hawk for the first time today and helped push this rabbit to the bird.

Hedge is tenth generation field champion. Chuck Sprung put the first four field champions on his line, all bitches, and Teddy continued through her bitch line the next six. It does not get better than that!

Two Trackers

by Teddy Moritz

I witnessed an interesting animal interaction event today while running my pup, July, in one of my rabbit spots. July is ten months old and I like to run her alone in order to make her less dependent on the hawk and older dogs. She worked rabbits all winter and is very keen to track them, but she also knew to watch for the hawk in order to find the fresh scent, or she would hark into the older dogs. Now I wanted her to do her own work. The field I ran her in today is huge, an old farm field bordered by a parking lot on one side, a vast open weed field ending eventually in a railroad line. The place I park has two long sections of very tall, thick blackberry canes. This is where the rabbits harbor, then when pushed by the dogs they run out into the field, which has weeds just tall enough to hide the rabbit from the hawk's eyes. It's a great place for long runs on rabbits as they will leave the briars and make huge laps around the weed field.

I let July out and she promptly hit the briars, looking for rabbits. She's been in this spot before so she knows where to search. She busted a rabbit out and took off after it as it ran into the big field. I stood still and listened to her run. She is fairly vocal and I could hear her a good distance away. She circled this rabbit and brought it back to the briars. She ran it out again and off they went. This time the rabbit must have gone a slightly different route because July's voice drifted toward a tree line. In the meantime three other rabbits came sneaking out of the weeds and into the briars. The place holds a good number of cottontails. Suddenly July started barking, a varmint bark, not a rabbit bark. She was in one spot, barking at something. I listened for a bit, then called her. I know red fox live in the far end of the field, but so do deer, woodchucks and sometimes a feral cat. The barking stopped and pretty soon I could see July heading my way. She saw me and took a ninety degree turn into a strip of weeds leading to a berm of dirt and sand. She just wanted to see me and then keep hunting. She seemed to hit a rabbit line and took it up along the berm and out onto a big dry sandy area. She worked a long time trying to figure out the line, drifting back and forth, re-starting, working and working, though silently.

As I stood and watched her I saw some movement in the weeds, along the first part of the berm. As I thought, it was the red fox. It was watching July track. When the dog disappeared up the berm and into the weeds, the fox started tracking her. It would sniff where she ran, look, listen and watch for her. I don't believe this was a predatory kind of tracking, I think the fox was curious about the dog and where it was going. I'm fairly certain the fox has a den in some piles of cement slabs nearby as I had found a lot of fox sign there this past winter. The fox could have easily overtaken the little dog if it wanted to catch her. I was glad it wasn't a coyote. I would have interfered right away.

July kept working on the rabbit track, going back and forth, going backwards and re-working the scent line. The fox stayed on slightly lower ground, nose to the ground, tracking July. The dog had gone silent so the fox wasn't sure where she was. It continued to track and listen and look. It was interesting to watch. The fox tracked without wagging its tail like a dog does. It simply put its nose down and followed July's scent. It didn't quarter or drift the track, it seemed very accurate.

Being a wild animal, the fox was very aware of its surroundings and since I was standing in the open, it eventually saw me, did sort of a double take, then turned around and took off. July never did know the fox was behind her. Just as well. I wouldn't want her chasing it out to a road. There's always something interesting to watch when running a hound.

Winter hawking with Teddy Moritz: multispecies interaction

This picture of Teddy's Harris hawk was taken at field trials in New Jersey in October 2012. It was enhanced to show the maximum of details and vibrancy of colors.

The below excerpt from Teddy's recent e-mail is particularly interesting to me as it speaks about interaction between her hawk and mini dachshunds.

 

Hawking has been good particularly since the weather has been open and fairly mild till this cold snap. There's been no excuse not to go out.

This Harris's doesn't take the cold as well as my others did. I don't know why but he starts shivering when the temps hit the low 30's. I used to fly my other birds down to the teens, if only for an hour. The wind is a factor here in Delaware also, making the cold harder on the bird. I've even brought him into the garage these last few nights. Carl keeps the garage at just above freezing to keep the water pipes, paint, etc. from the cold.

Anyway, the hawk is doing well. He is very gamey, meaning he hunts hard, watches the dogs like a hawk, shall we say, and the best part is he leaves the dogs alone. The last two birds I had would hit the dogs in frustration if we weren't putting up game. That is something I find hard to tolerate. The dogs aren't seriously hurt but it demoralizes them. They don't understand why they are being punished. After a few hits they'll just follow me through the fields, watching the hawk and not hunting. Fortunately this bird is very keyed to the dogs, more so than to me. If I yell ho ho ho when a rabbit gets up he may or may not look at me. If the dogs put up a rabbit he's right over them and after the rabbit. I can deal with that.

He's also decided my red stud dog, Bane, is the one to watch. He shadows Bane as Bane hunts. Sometimes Bane works out further than the other dogs. If I lose track of the bird I'll call Bane in and when he comes, so does the bird. When Bane is on a rabbit the hawk stays right with him, rather than looking at the other dogs. It's not that the bird doesn't watch the rest of the dogs if I don't take Bane, but if Bane is out, the hawk is with him. My previous female hawk eventually did the same thing, figuring Bane was the one to be near. Bane is a good dog but so are some of my others, particularly Fitz, the little one. And to my surprise, Bane, at 5 and a half, recently started running in on the hawk when the hawk caught a rabbit. The squeals of the rabbit are very enticing but my dogs are punished early for trying to take the rabbit from the bird. It's one thing when they simply anchor the other end of the rabbit, which some of them do, but it's another thing when they grab the rabbit and take it away from the hawk. Bane did that three hunts in a row. One time he got the rabbit and held it, one time the rabbit got away, and one time I managed to corral the rabbit when the hawk and Bane lost it. I was rather unhappy with Bane so he got to wear an e-collar for the next few hunts and I was able to remind him of his manners. I don't know what his thought process was as he hasn't run in on a bird since he was a pup. He's a rock solid, reliable hunter and produces plenty of game, but he has to leave the bird alone.

I'm out almost every day with the hawk and dogs so we've been having good sport. I like finding new spots especially and only take one or two reliable dogs when I check out a new area. Delaware cover is thicker than in north Jersey, vines being the biggest challenge. The little dogs can snake through the tunnels under the vines, just as the rabbit does, but the hawk can't always see the rabbit in the vines and it often moves way ahead, losing the hawk. Then the dogs make it move again and we start over. Much of Delaware is ditched or there are old tire tracks in the woodlots. That much of a dip in the ground is enough to give the rabbits a runway, then when the vines, greenbriar, Japanese honeysuckle, poison ivy, trumpet vine, etc. grow over the tire track or ditch, the chase becomes one of tunnel running. And because the weather tends to be milder, the vines don't get pushed down by snow or ice and they continue to provide cover. The honeysuckle really doesn't even lose its leaves so it almost always provides a hiding spot. Sometimes when I put the dogs down they disappear completely under the variety of vines and briars and I don't know where they are until one opens and the hawk takes off after the rabbit. And a dog has to face water to hawk here as many ditches, deep and shallow, have water in them.

 

There are also woodchuck holes to contend with. In these hedgerows the dens can be very tight, despite the sandy soil. The tunnels go through the maze of roots and the dogs sometimes can't get as tight as the rabbit. I don't usually bother to dig because I'd spend more time cutting roots than actually digging. However, my smallest dog, Fitz, at barely 6 pounds, can almost always make a rabbit vacate a den. She's provided many a chase for the bird this winter. She's nine and a half and I hope I can breed or find as small a dog to replace her.

Enough about me....I always look forward to reading your blog and enjoy seeing all the deer the trackers have recovered. Andy has good stories with plenty of detail. I know you work hard on the blog, so thanks!

 

Ike, a mini longhaired dachshund, proved his versatility at a quail hunt

A big thank you to Tina Hinckley who shared pictures of the recent hunt with her mini longhaired dachshund  FC Wingover I Like Ike ML.

The pictures were taken January 20, 2013 at the Treasure Coast Hunting and Fishing Club in Palm City FL. Bob Hinckley and two friend hunted  with a pointer, a griffon and Ike. Ike got more than his share of the birds and "cleaned up" all the cripples. A good time was had by all. All dogs cooperated, and Bob's friends were quite impressed with his 11 pound hunting dog.

 

 

More pictures of deer recovered by tracking dachshunds

 

Chester Swierk, a member of Deer Search of the Finger Lakes, has found some spectacular deer with his mini longhaired dachshund Moby. He write s about has recovery from 6 days ago: This deer was gut shot and went about 400 yds., the hunter had tracked it about 200 yds. Moby spotted a small 4-point standing in a field as we were walking into the field. He barked at it a couple of times and I let him know that wasn't the one we wanted. So we continued across the field with Moby looking back at it a few times. About halfway across Moby started to circle back toward the 4-pointer. I let him go about 40 yards before correcting him and let him know again that it wasn't the one we wanted. He then went back to the track of the 9-pointer and continued tracking to where the woods started. He turned and gave the 4-pointer one last look before continuing into the woods from the edge of the field (as far as the hunter had tracked it) then continued about 200 more yards into the woods where he found the deer. The track was in Lindley, NY and was 20 hours old.

Susanne Hamilton from Maine with Meggie 2012-11-15: Sometimes against all common sense you go out anyway and get lucky.

Paulene Eggers writes about her 11/13/2012 recovery in Onondaga County. Dave Burgess another co-worker and Sargeant on the dept. got this ten pointer early morning and had the arrow go in about 3/4 way then it fell out about 15-20 yards from the hit site. There was minimal blood at the hit site and nothing further so Dave wisely backed off waited a few hours while calling me also.

Braylee is making many loyal fans!                                                           

Susanne Hamilton: This 11/10/2012 find was almost two hours away. Tracked it for a lovely family, who had looked all day, did everything right, and finally called when it got too dark for them to track it anymore. Buster made fast work of it and found it well hidden 150 yards from last spot of blood.

 

Hello, my name is Kurt Kiley. 

I’ve been an avid hunter for many years in the Southern New Hampshire.  On November 6, 2012 I shot a nice buck, the first in many years.   After 10 long hours searching acre over acre, following blood trails and only having seen him once again in that time and not choosing to shoot toward him again because he went to close to the houses nearby (well under the 300 foot legal shooting distance), I finally lost  his trail.  The sun set, light for the day was gone and the hope of finding the buck was looking glim, so the evening was called. 

That night I called  Ray and Pam Maurier.  We talked about what happened in great depth.  Ray said he would meet me at my house at 7am the following morning to help in my quest.  In the morning, 25 hrs after the initial shot; Ray ,”Tucker” and I headed out to the last spot I had last saw the buck. With NO blood to track Tucker quickly went to work.  The first  1/2 mile it seemed like he was tracking his every move, like he was with me the day before!  It took him only 1-1/2 hrs for Tucker to bring us right to the buck spot; with the buck still being alive!  

Tucker was very eager to get his reward!  A very well earned reward indeed. Without Tucker that deer would  NOT have been recovered! It would have just been an early thanksgiving dinner for the coyotes.   The whole event was a very good learning experience, shot placement  for one, then the whole step by step tracking sequence and all the hard work that went in to training Tucker.  Rays dedication to working with Tucker  helping to drag to the truck truly shows his love of the sport.           

Many thanks and kudos to Tucker  (a  16 month old, wired haired dachshund tracking dog),  Ray and Pam Maurier, of Lightning Mountain Outfitters, without them and their skills this deer would never have been recovered.
Kurt Kiley
Londonderry NH

Garmin's outings: Development of a young hunting dachshund

I know, I know, just when you expected a report from another blood tracking adventure we have something different here, this time from Teddy Moritz. It is an article about how she goes about developing a young hunting dachshund Garmin and how she adjusts her training methods according to the young dog's temperament. Well worth reading as it has broad applications.

On the other note, a big THANK YOU for all the submissions for the blog. We really appreciate them. This is a very busy time of the year, and our hands are full. We will be posting as quickly as we can, but sometimes there will be a delay, and sometimes there will be 2-3 articles/reports posted on the same day. Above all we want the blog to be educational and interesting, so we always welcome reports that allow all of us to learn something new. Also because of the time constraints, the less editing I have to do, the faster the post will appear on the blog. If I have to pull info from various sources, like Facebook and several e-mails, that usually takes more time.

Garmin's Outings by Teddy Moritz

Garmin is a two year old miniature longhaired dachshund, about eight pounds with a 13 inch chest. She runs rabbits for me in the winter, and trees squirrels as well. She's a pretty good hole dog but lacks a certain amount of confidence, which I believe is an inherited trait. I know her sire and dam, and both are dogs who are happier when told what to do rather than think independently. Those traits are not a bad thing, all around, making the dogs very voice-controlled and obedient but also less likely to be the ones out and about finding game. Despite raising Garmin from about 9 weeks, she shows her sire's "please give me instructions" attitude. Not always, but enough that I have started taking her out alone, even leaving the lurcher home. If he's along she'll look to him for game. She does hunt out and knows where to find game but isn't quite the A-team.

In hunting her by herself I have seen an improvement in her earthwork. She's fine on rabbits, she just needed some confidence doing earthwork on harder quarry. Last spring she did confront and bolt a vixen in a natal den, taking a bite and coming out looking surprised. She went back in and moved the fox till it bolted. Garmin is by no means a hard dog but she'll stay with her quarry if it is in front of her. However, when I used her to dig groundhogs she would give up if the chuck back-filled  a lot before I could dig to her. With this hot dry summer the ground was very hard and I sometimes just couldn't get there.

Recently Garmin and her kennel mate Bane got into a quarry under a pile of very long, thick telephone poles. Bane moved it more than Garmin even though there seemed to be several tunnel openings. I heard Bane growl Garmin off a few times, which did nothing for her confidence. Finally Bane cornered the quarry under a buried telephone pole, which was weighted down by several more poles. I wasn't able to dig to the quarry nor was I able to bar the poles off the area. The quarry was apparently in the back of a slightly wider portion of the den so the two dogs could work side by side. From the growling I knew we had a possum. It had been awhile since the dogs had seen any earth quarry so I let them work  it. It was good to hear the dogs in a confrontation. The lurcher was with us and he lay nearby waiting for some action.

After awhile I cleared the dusty, sandy soil away from the entrance and could see Bane working the possum. I could hear Garmin but didn't know quite where she was in the den. That precluded any thoughts of shooting Ol Smiley, which I really didn't want to do. It wasn't doing any harm to crops where it was and I don't like killing something I can't use for meat for the dogs. I cut through some roots and then ran my trowel next to Bane. When I touched the possum both dogs grabbed hold and began pulling. I think Garmin was pulling against Bane so not much happened except the possum kept growling. Eventually I could see the possum's foot and helped Bane pull it. By then it had 'sulled' and there was no fight or growling. When I slowly pulled the possum out Garmin was attached to it as well. I think this work was good for her as I let her work and Bane didn't keep her away. Sometimes if Garmin doesn't stick with her quarry I'll pull her out and let Bane work it. That surely isn't good for her confidence but I am always anxious to get to the quarry.

Next time out Garmin bayed a groundhog I saw run in. This den is a difficult one because it is under a heavily trafficked farm road, basically compacted clay. The road drops off about ten feet to a railroad track. The ground under the clay is very light sand and there is one den opening at the bottom of the slope. The groundhog also had an entrance at the edge of the road. It was a tight opening because someone had shoved a big limb into the hole. Garmin squeezed her way past the wooden obstacle and began barking. I let her work because I've lost chucks in this den before. Her barking moved to the middle of the road but at two feet. I thought I ought to be able to dig that much. I started to dig and bar met very, very hard clay. Meanwhile my noise moved the groundhog a few feet further along, and Garmin's bark and the locator collar indicated her whereabouts under ground. Then she shifted to the bottom den opening and I alerted the lurcher, who was resting in the shade of the car, the day being very sunny and hot. He went down to the hole, sniffed and came back up. I heard Garmin bark near the hole but then her barking receded back up the slope. No bolt today.

I found her again and pounded and dug and pounded and dug, feeling as if I was making no progress at all. Very frustrating. Garmin came out once or twice, coated in yellow sand. She would sniff the hole down the slope then re-enter the top hole. I got the feeling the groundhog was walling her off or going deep, burying itself in the sand. After awhile I took a break to get some water and Garmin came out again. I let her wander around and gave her water also. The she went down the slope. I waited awhile and didn't hear her bark so I got out the locator. I couldn't get a signal so  presumed the groundhog had indeed gone quite deep, off the box. I turned the box to search mode and still couldn't find the dog. I looked along the rest of the slope thinking perhaps the chuck had bolted and she was in a different hole. I walked along the edge of the roadway and used the locator but got no signal. Had the battery gone dead in the collar?

Suddenly I heard a yip from across the railroad tracks, in a thick bit of brush, trees and briars. I saw Garmin come out, her tail wagging and her nose down. She trailed back into the briars, gave some more yips. I knew then she'd given up on the woodchuck and was running a rabbit. At first I was disappointed but since the digging was so difficult and I was making no progress, I had to laugh. Garmin knew we weren't going to get the varmint and since she likes to run rabbits she left me to my worthless efforts and went and found herself some quarry that ran and left a nice track. I let her run for awhile as hawking season is approaching and she needs practice on cottontails.

On another day I took Garmin to a big woodlot bordered by peach orchards on one side and a river on the other. Squirrel season is open and I know Garmin will tree the bushytails. The leaves are still thick on the trees so seeing a treed squirrel isn't easy. Basically I just wanted to again work Garmin alone. She did a good job of hunting out through the trees and swamp and barked tree once but the tree was full of holes so no squirrel was on the outside. We even bumped a deer but Garmin is so soft I yelled at her and told her no and she came off the deer right  then. Running deer will just get a dog killed as the deer often go right to a road.

As we came out of the woods there appeared a three hole den right at the edge of the woods. Hello! Garmin indicated one hole and barked into it. Good enough. I called her off and walked her to the car. I drove back to the den and let her go in. She soon was barking and digging. I located her and the den seemed to curve right back to one of the openings. I quickly shoveled it full of sand since I only had the shotgun and not the lurcher. If the chuck had bolted it would have been gone to another den. I dug to Garmin after I cut away greenbriar and shrubs. There were lots of roots to cut away as I dug into the soft sand. Garmin kept going each time I opened to her and each time I cleaned away the roots. The last time she moved up I heard a lot of growling from the quarry. I thought I was digging to another possum. However, Garmin kept moving sand back, as if something was backfilling. After one time I opened to her there was a wall of sand and roots ahead of her. She came out and wandered off, as if she felt she had lost the quarry. I let her go and waited. When she came back I encouraged her to re-enter and she did. I had cleared the den while she was off thinking and she smelled her quarry and began digging and barking again. It was as if she decided she could do this with my help.

The den went a big deeper, running under one of the exits so I had more digging to do just to get to the the den. I barred and found it, then opened to it, cutting roots and using the post hole digger to clear the sand. I guess I got to the quarry because Garmin forced her way up the tunnel and really began barking. The growling continued. I decided to shoot the quarry rather than dig another hole. I put the .22 to use and the growling stopped. Garmin slid up the tunnel, barked a few times then began tugging. She pulled and yanked and bounced up and down in her efforts. I let her work, feeling she had earned this reward by staying with the quarry after all. I then saw the back toes of the critter and I took hold too. It was a big groundhog and it wasn't quite dead so Garmin and I pulled it slowly out and I administered some more lead. Then I let Garmin pull it all the way out. It was a very fat, heavily furred groundhog. I let Garmin chew on it a bit and of course took a hero shot with the camera. I was pleased that she stayed with the quarry after one mental setback. I think she will continued to stay at back-filled walls know that she better knows I will help her and that she can succeed.