Lisa is still recovering wounded bear at the age of 13.5!

I have not expected to receive any pictures of recoveries from Pete Martin this year as his Lisa von Moosbach-Zuzelek is 13.5 years old. Boy, was I wrong! This recovery is the 19th bear in Lisa's tracking career. Huge congratulations to Pete and Lisa!

Pete wrote in his email:

Sunday, October 21, 2018  was the day of this awesomely memorable bear track. I received the call the nite before. The shot was taken @ 5:30 p.m. Hunter waited a good hour before looking. In the dark he took up track with his buddy and proceeded to follow blood for about 75-100 yds. No arrow found but recovered the luminock glowing in the dark. When he came to a 1/2 acre recently cleared logged area, hunter backed out for the night. This is where Lisa and I started track next day 18 hours later. 

No blood to get started on, but Lisa picked up scent and went across this soft wet dirt/rock area to the woods on the other side. We crawled 30 or so yards in on our hands and knees, and Lisa took me right over top of blood. Our confidence soared. Now Lisa was very vocal. Another 25 yards, another spot of  blood. Little ways more hunter noticed blood. After a very thick mountain laurel we came to logged road.  

This was Lisa's first check. 15 minutes, round and round, and back again, where we came from only slightly to the left. A while later another check in the laurel. Small circles and zig-zags. After figuring this one out, she had positive body language and nose glued to the ground. Then another point of confusion before she picked it up again. All this time she was vocal when tracking and quiet when checking. So focused you could see what she was thinking. Just when we started to have some doubts, Lisa got quiet, pulled me to a beautiful black bear and started to claim her prize.

Yet another two hour lesson in trust taught to us by Lisa. She wiped all shadows of doubt anyone could have had about her ability to track so flawlessly because of her age and weight. This was black bear #19 at age 13 1/2 years old. I can't ask for anything more of a blessing. Thank you John and Jolanta.

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.

How to find deer tracking services in the New York State?

Today deer and bear gun season opened in the Southern Zone of New York. For more details on dates and length of hunting season for various types of game go to:
http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/wildlife_pdf/huntingseasons14.pdf

If you are wound a deer and need assistance from a handler with a leashed tracking dog, you have several options depending on your location:

1. The United Blood Trackers is a national organization, who has several members in New York. For NY listings click here
2. Deer Search of Western NY call (716) 648-4355
3. Deer Search of Finger Lakes call (585) 935-5220
4. Deer Search in Eastern and Central NY call (845) 227-5099

In New York handlers are required to obtained a leashed tracking dog license from DEC. For detailed regulations associated with the license click here.

Below are just few pictures showing bow-shot deer recovered in 2014 by wirehaired dachshunds. There are many other talented handlers and dogs of various breeds who recover a lot of deer in the New York State. We will try to showcase them later on. These pics represent just a small sample, and because they show dogs out of our or related breeding, they were easily available to us.

Karma is owned by Kevin Armstrong from South Bristol.
He is a member of the United Blood Trackers

Again Kevin Armstrong with Karma

This is a first tracking season for Rob Carlton and Vinnie. Rob is a member of the United Blood Trackers and Deer Search of Finger Lakes.

Walt Dixon owns two wirehaired dachshunds.This doe was recovered by a young Dachs.

Walt Dixon, a member of the United Blood Trackers and Deer Search of Finger Lakes,
resides in Tully. This deer was recovered by his 11-year-old Ari.

This gorgeous buck was recovered by Walt Dixon and his Dachs.

Matt Sacco, a member of the United Blood Trackers and Deer Search of Finger Lakes, tracks with a young Heidi. Matt lives in Ithaca.

Bob Yax, a member of Deer Search of Finger Lakes, tracks with with Thor.

Another deer recovered by Bob Yax and Thor.

A memorable tracking season for Pete and Lisa: three bears recovered so far

I again apologize to those who submitted their pictures and have not seen them posted here. All the pictures get posted promptly on Facebook. It takes a while for us to post stories and pics here on this blog as due to the high volume we need to group them.

This post is dedicated to Pete Martin, a Deer Search handler from Kiamesha Lake, NY, and his tracking dachshund Lisa. Lisa was born on April 9, 2005, so now she 8.5 years old. Her parents are FC Billy von Moosbach-Zuzelek and FC Gela von Rauhenstein. Over the years Lisa proved to be an excellent tracker of wounded bear, and this year she has recovered three of them.

The first bear was recovered on October 13, and Pete described the circumstances:

What a day full of coincidences. I was invited to attend a bow hunting educational course in Yulan N.Y. Sullivan Co. When I pulled into the deli next to the fire house I ran into an old friend I haven't seen in 7 years. While I was participating in the bow education class representing Deer Search, a fellow inquired about a bear his friend had shot the night before. They were still looking for it. I advised him to call hunter out of the woods so he could come and talk to me. I interviewed the young hunter and his father at the fire house around noon. The call didn't sound good for several reasons. My biggest concern was that he arrowed a sow with two cubs by mistake. No arrow. No blood. I decided to make the best of the situation. It was only a couple miles up the road. Second weird coincidence. As I was making out paper work a truck pulls up and it turned out to be one of my best friends from High School. I haven't seen him in 30 years.

Off we went to track the hunter's bear. From the hit site nothing, at 75 yds. we had minimal blood. 100 or so more yards and  Lisa showed me  a wound bed; 50 yds. further another wound bed. Then 30 yards more and there was a dead bear. I think Lisa knew where this bear was before we started to track. Total time was about 20 minutes.

Took the bear back to Yulan Firehouse to show students and instructors what Deer Search can do for hunters. What an incredible day. I have you John & Jolanta to thank for this pleasure.



First bear of the season

On November 4 Pete wrote:

Again Yulan Firehouse - Sullivan Co. on Saturday afternoon, 18-hour-old bear track. Hunter trailed bear 80 yds Hunter shot the bear at 5 pm and he looked until 11pm. He trailed the bear for 80 yards. Next day the hunter and friends looked for bear all morning. We arrived at firehouse around 11. Trail was not marked. Very little blood then nothing. Lisa was very confident.  Showed me more blood 100 yards later. We found wound bed 50 yards further. Lisa made an extremely  intelligent and focused trail, She checked herself twice before going another 175 yards or so straight to a very large dead black bear.  As usual I stick around for the field dressing to see the true evidence of the shot placement and blood collection. It was a perfect liver shot. What a day! Lisa is the best I have ever seen tracking. Awesome!

Third bear of the season

 November 16 brought another e-mail from Pete who wrote:
Received a call from a hunter that Lisa and I tracked for three years ago for yet another bear. It was in Orange Co. on Tuesday Nov. 12. Arrow recovered, minus three inches. Very little blood on the ground, no blood on arrow. Shot at 4:30 pm. Took up track at 1:45 pm. next day so it was a 21-hour-old trail. Hunter tracked bear about 80 yards. Lisa was very focused on her job at hand. She made no checks on her way to the bear at least 500 yards away. No blood whatsoever. She was very vocal. Took us to live bear 10 yards away from him. Bear was dragging his hind legs in front of me trying to get away. Right away I knew obviously it was a spine shot. I had to catch up to bear to dispatch. Large male bear. Lisa is the best bear tracker ever! I don't even think she likes deer anymore (just joking) Third bear this year! Thank you again for an awesome tracker!

Well, Lisa proved Pete that she likes to track wounded deer too as few days ago he wrote back:
I received a call from a young hunter who shot his deer on Saturday morning at 7:15. (I tracked for the hunter's friend last week and that deer was found alive in its wound bed.) week. We took up track at 9 am Sunday morning.

Weather conditions were foggy, mild, calm. Pete says: "Walking to the hit site I could tell Lisa was already on to the deer. From the hit site the hunter marked the trail 70 yards or so. Off we went along the logging trail. One hundred yards or so Lisa took an immediate sharp right turn. There lay the deer, 10 yards off the trail. The hunter and his friends walked past the deer looking for it 5 or 6 times. They never saw it. Nice spike buck.

Hunter and family are very grateful for meat on the table this holiday season. I am so proud of Lisa and the work we do in the name of Deer Search."

Pete Martin with Lisa and a deer they recovered recently

"Von Moosbach-Zuzelek" dachshunds: tracking wounded big game comes first

It looks like the use of dogs for recovery of wounded big game is spreading rapidly. At present a lot handlers and dogs are providing this invaluable service to hunters. We are happy that "von Moosbach-Zuzelek" dachshunds that have come from our breeding continue to play important role in finding deer, bear and elk for hunters in many states.

October 12: Congratulations to Walt Dixon from Tully, NY on a great weekend of tracking. "This is the first of two emails with photos of "Ari's great adventure" on Saturday. She went two for two on difficult calls. The bowhunter in this case hit the deer too far back, in the intestinal area, according to him. The buck was hit around 6 pm on Friday and Saturday morning we went to the hit site about 9:30 am. The arrow had some partially digested particles and brown film on it. There was no visible hair or blood at the hit site. Ari was able to track it about 300 yards to a river with no visible sign, but then acted unsure of herself. She seemed to be checking the river as thought the deer had gone in. I decided to take her back to the hit site to see if she'd follow a different path, and told the bowhunter that if she came the same way we'd have to just stick with her because we had absolutely no sign to contradict. Ari took the same path and at the river she checked around then decided to follow the bank to the east. Every so often she'd check the water then come back up the bank and about 150 yard along the river bank the hunter following me said he saw blood. Within the next 75 yards we recovered the deer dead along the river bank! The bowhunter was amazed!
The picture shows Walt with Ari (our Billy's sister) now 10.5, and her young nephew Dachs.

This was a second deer that Walt Dixon's Ari (Ariel von Moosbach-Zuzelek) recovered that Saturday. Walt wrote: Here's the second difficult recovery Ari made on Saturday. This call came in as we finished our first recovery and the bowhunter stated that he had 60 yards of blood, but felt it was a good hit. I had Denise Sobolewski take the lead with Ari and in dry, sunny, breezy conditions they had no sign until about the 300 yard mark where Denise spotted some blood. She continued to trust Ari and found only a couple more spots of blood until she hollered "we've got your deer" at about 700 yards. What continues to amaze me is how a good tracking dog sticks with it and apparently can smell something to follow under very challenging conditions. Ari went 2 for 2 on her "great adventure Saturday!"



 

This Michigan buck recovered by Maggie (Danka von Moosbach-Zuzelek). By the way, Maggie is Ari's younger sister.  Her owner Michael Polavin said: This is the picture of the buck Maggie found for this girl last night. The buck was shot with a crossbow at 45 yds. They tracked for a quarter of a mile. Arrow shaft broke & came out. Once that happened it stopped bleeding. They looked for hours. Finally they called for Maggie. I was too tired/sore to go out tracking and told Doug he could take Maggie. She tracked it down in 5 minutes. Doug said they never would have found it w/o Maggie. Once the deer stopped bleeding it doubled back on its track. W/o Maggie they were all looking in the wrong direction. They girl cried once Maggie found him, I wouldv'e too!!!! It was her first deer.

October 15: First recovery of the season for Kevin Armstrong and Karma von Moosbach-Zuzelek from Naples, NY. The track was 9 hours old, around 500 yards. The deer never took a bed. Kevin said "It was pure joy to watch my now completely mature tracking dog repeatedly correct herself and straighten out difficult turns in difficult terrain with all the oddities that our Bristol Hills gullys impose on scent. I'm mighty proud of my little tracking dog."

November 1: Heavy overnight rain, hours of sustained high winds, and coyote interference could have prevented Kevin Armstrong's Karma from finding this deer. But it didn't. 14 hour old trail.

September 24: Stan Kite and his Rilla von Moosbach-Zuzelek got their first legitimate find. Stan wrote: Older son (Bunk) called and told me he had a high shoulder hit, with exit low and back--I knew he gave me an accurate description, so I was confident. Deer was slightly quartering toward at shot. We knew deer would die due to gut on arrow, but didn't know what vitals were hit. We waited about 2-1/2 hours, then Lee (younger son), Bunk, Rilla and I set off to see what we could find. Hit sight revealed no blood or other matter. Rilla was very anxious, took a quick sniff and headed off. She circled around about a 10 yd radius, coming back close to the hit site. I restarted her, and this time she "vacuumed" extensively around the hit site, then angled off with nose to the leaves. After 20 yds or so, she really started pulling with all her might (this was evident by how hard the briars and brush were whacking my face-LOL) She missed a check to the left, but quickly recovered the trail and was back, pulling hard with nose glued to the forest floor. After a few minutes, I saw that tell-tale white belly laying there. I screamed "WE GOT IT", but the boys were back a ways looking for blood and couldn't understand me. I was glad to shout it again, but louder! Rilla went right to the deer, biting and grabbing it before I could catch up. What a proud moment to have BOTH MY SONS with me for our first find! To make a long story just a little shorter, arrow caught top of one lung, liver and gut. Entrance left no blood, and exit was completely plugged, leaving no visible blood. Bottom line--this deer would have been found by a couple people doing a grid search, but that would have taken quite a bit longer than the 10 minutes it took Rilla. Both sons said several times they never saw a drop of blood the whole track, and they are very experienced trackers. Yep, the little girl earned her supper tonight, but more importantly, she earned the respect of her "two-legged brothers".

September 21: first day of Michigan youth hunt and first track of year for
Moose von Moosbach-Zuzelek with Kyle Stiffler.

October 26: Susie Garner from Ohio wrote about her tracking experience with Summer von Moosbach-Zuzelek. Second cousin, Aleisha, shot a nice little 8 pointer last night - her first buck - at her Grandpa's house - just down the road. Summer and I went and tracked it for her this morning. Summer did great. I don't think Aleisha would have had a problem finding it though. It wasn't far from where it was shot. But it gave Summer and I some quality tracking time together. She did great and was very upset that 'her' deer was being drug away. Like most dachshunds, she believes in finders keepers. The only bad part is she seriously needed a bath when we got back home

October 22: Darren Doran from NJ and his Theo von Moosbach-Zuzelek found this buck 36 hours after it had been shot. Unfortunately coyotes got there first.

 

Another fine buck for Darren Doran from NJ and his Theo von Moosbach-Zuzelek.

October 13: Pete Martin's Lisa von Moosbach-Zuzelek found this bear for Vito Marsico

 

 

This and the next two pictures show Bre (we called her Uschi von Moosbach-Zuzelek). She is a Sky/Mielikki puppy, born May 10, 2013, and she was the one who had the most coat. Her owner Ronnie Haney wrote "These are Bre's first finds. A doe and tow bucks taken by my grandchildren during Youth Rifle season here in Okla. The doe find was impressive as the deer made two 90 degrees and went into heavy thicket before expiring. Bre led us directly to it. Man I was so proud. The smaller buck was an 8 hr track with misty rain. She was a bit slower and with several corrections in a 200 yd trail due to the wet condition. This was her second find. The larger buck taken by my Granddaughter was an easy find and her (Bre's) third for the day. This one was just at sundown. Little Bre and me too for that matter was tired that evening as two were taken in am and with one during evening."

 

 

October 30: Pam Maurier from New Hampshire and Tucker (Storm von Moosbach-Zuzelek) found another buck.

October 27: Congrats to Ray Maurier and Tucker (Storm von Moosbach-Zuzelek)
on the doe found for young hunters.



Terrific tracking season for Susanne Hamilton and her German dachshund Buster

We have written about Susanne Hamilton and her German dachshund Buster many times before. It is hard to believe but in June Buster turned 11 years old.  His age does not seem to be slowing him down, quite the opposite. So far he has had an outstanding tracking season. Susanne is a dedicated and driven tracker who travels long distances, often at night as after all she carries a full working schedule during the day. We wish this amazing tracking team from Maine many successful recoveries in the future.

Not too many handlers are willing to track a wounded bear at night. Susanne seems to be an exception.

 

Susanne wrote: We tracked it a quarter mile till point of loss, then we tracked it another quarter mile with only two spots of blood. It was still alive when we found it.... and put it out of its suffering quickly. The moose was 828 lbs with a 42 inch spread.

A 16-hour paunch shot. Smart hunter left it alone and Susanne and Buster found it in 200 yards!

A 17-pointer!

Hunters wrote about this track: Josh Callahan shot a doe last night which headed through brush that was murder to track in. We struggled to follow the blood trail for 4 hours. At 11 PM, Buster and handler Susanne Hamilton joined the search. Buster is an amazing blood trailing Dachshund...yes that's right, Dachshunds are great tracking dogs! Buster jumped on the blood trail and found the deer within 10 minutes.
 

Buster does not mind sharing his find with kids.