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

Gwendoline von der Dohlmühle, the best working dachshund in 2013 in the DTK Wiesbaden-Mainz Gruppe

Great news from Germany: Gwendoline von der Dohlmühle, Kunox's dam, got a diploma as the best working dachshund of the DTK Wiesbaden-Mainz Gruppe in 2013. She also received a challenge trophy, a bronze wild boar. Congratulations go to Annelie Grauer on Gwendoline's accomplishment! Gwendoline's dam, owned by the Grauers, Elsbeere von der Bismarck-Eiche out of Stefan Fuß's breeding was 3rd (she was 1st five years ago). We feel so fortunate to have Kunox!

Learning from experiences of other trackers is invaluable!

A big thank you to Brady Hensington, a UBT member from Missouri. I think we all can learn something from your stories!

by Brady Hensington

I have included some photos from a couple of this year's tracks.  One of the photos is from a Dept of Natural Resources Special Handicap Hunt where we volunteered to track this season.  The hunt was unusually slow this year with only 3 deer being taken during the entire weekend.  Two of those fell within sight of the hunter.

The 3rd deer was shot by John Mease, a young man with cerebral palsy.  John shot the deer with a muzzleloader from about 60 yards away.  The deer was angled towards him, and due to the smoke of the muzzleloader, neither he nor his guide were sure of where the bullet had struck, but they were convinced that the deer was hit as it bolted from the food plot.  An initial search of the area did not reveal any blood or other sign, so they radioed for us to help out.

I had brought along both Caliber, my 3 year old wachtelhund and Chloe, my 14 month old BMH (Bavarian Mountain Hound).  I opted to start the track with Chloe in order to continue her training.  I started her where the deer had been standing at the time of the shot.  She made quick work of picking up the trail, and following the deer's path into the woodline 50 yards away.  We traveled on course another 50 yards into the thick timber when we jumped up the bedded doe.  I was encouraged that the deer had bedded so close to the shot sight, so we continued on.  In another 50 yards we jumped the deer again.  Chloe tried to give chase, but I held her back.  Up to this point the only evident blood was in the wound beds and appeared to be consistent with a muscle hit.  We decided to back out and take up the track later.

After an hour I restarted Chloe at the second bed.  She took the trail up well, but angled sharply right just after starting.  I was sure that I had seen the deer run further ahead, so I was concerned with her change of course.  We had also jumped several turkeys in this area about the same time the deer had jumped up.  I decided to let her figure things out on her own and followed along.  She led into some 6' tall Johnson grass and began running through it excitedly.  I was concerned that she was scenting some small game, and as I suspected she flushed a rabbit from the grass.  My 13 year old son, Caleb was also helping on the track, and he called out to me as the cottontail flew past him.  Still, Chloe seemed undeterred and remained in the grass.  After a minute or two, I pulled her from the tangle of Johnson grass and attempted to restart her where I thought the deer had gone.  She had a difficult time restarting and took a few different paths, but kept wanting to "play" in the Johnson grass.  Eventually, I became frustrated and took her back to the truck.

I decided to restart my more experienced wachtelhund at the hit sight as well.  He tracked well up to the point of the second bed.  He became momentarily distracted by the turkey scent, but quickly corrected when I verbally questioned him.  Then, he too made a hard right turn into the Johnson grass.  At this point I believed that he was "cheating" by following our earlier trail rather than the deer's trail.  Again, I humored him and let him work out the track on his own, while my own frustration level was rising.  When he entered the Johnson grass and began pushing through it, I thought that I saw something run out the back side of the thicket into the adjacent corn field.  Caliber apparently did not notice and continued to track.  When he got to the edge of the field he became noticeably excited and began tracking at a very quick pace into the standing corn.  That's when I saw the deer run through the corn!  At that point I saw the wound, which was a large hole along the deer's right shoulder blade.  The leg was completely severed, though no vital organs were struck.  I called for the guides to come up with the gun, but they were still 100 yards behind us in the woods.

Let me note that typically in Missouri, neither tracker nor hunter can carry a bow or firearm, however on this DNR sponsored hunt, we had received clearance by the Department that wounded animals could be dispatched with a muzzleloading firearm.  In the meantime, the deer broke off deeper into the corn.  Caliber and I were in hot pursuit and he aggressively bayed up the deer.  While the deer was bayed and the guide tried to hurry to our position, I got the bright idea that I would slip up behind the deer and make a fatal wound with my hunting knife.  I closed to within a few feet before the deer turned and hit me in the chest like an NFL linebacker.  That was enough for me to back away and count my blessings that it was a doe, rather than a buck!  When the guide arrived moments later, I was able to call of Caliber, allowing him a shot.  Retrospectively, Chloe was on the right track all the time.  However, Caliber was instrumental in the recovery as he had the determination to bay up this wounded deer.   I think that it is safe to say that this deer would likely never have been recovered without the use of a tracking dog.  Everybody was elated that we had recovered John's much deserved deer.

The picture includes both of my dogs, Caliber and Chloe, as well as my 13 y/o son, Caleb
and the hunter John Mease.

The other picture is of my BMH Chloe with her first recovery.  After several difficult tracks without a recovery, we were finally able to make a successful recovery.  I had shot this doe earlier in the morning with my recurve.  The shot looked very solid, and I thought the track would be a simple ego booster for the dog.  I waited 2-3 hours after the shot before putting Chloe on the track.  Because I  thought that the track would be too simple for her, I started her where I had seen the deer enter the woods about 50 yards away from the hit sight.  Chloe quickly sorted out the trail and tracked up to my arrow.  Smelling the blood on the arrow obviously excited her and she progressed another 50 yards or so before we jumped up the deer.  I was very surprised to see it alive.  We backed out of the area and returned a couple of hours later.  It was nearly 90 degrees on that day, and we had worked on some projects while waiting on the deer to expire.  When I put Chloe back on the track she refused to track.  Instead she kept crawling into the bushes to lay down.  No matter how hard I tried I could not get her to progress.  Looking back, I think that she was hot and tired from our work out in the heat.  After combing the area for sign unsuccessfully, I decided to walk Chloe beside me as I searched for sign.  Several minutes into our search I looked over to see and hear her sniffing at a spot on the ground.  She had found blood!  She took up the trail immediately and led me another 100 yards or so to the liver shot doe who was long dead by the time we found her.  Chloe had found her first deer and again had recovered a deer that due to the thickness of the area where it had expired would likely have gone to the coyotes without her assistance.

Chloe, a Bavarian Mountain Hound, with her first recovery

Keeping your tracking dog in shape!

by John Jeanneney

Now that tracking season is over, there’s a real risk that your dog will get soft and fat. You can’t keep him in shape by working  training line a week, and his excess energy may make him a difficult companion in the house. Exercise is needed for both dogs and people, and this is especially important as we get into middle age.  At 78 I like to think that older dogs and handlers are the most experienced and skillful, but we do have to pay attention to muscle tone and tummy tuck-up.

We all have worked hard to teach our tracking dogs that hot deer lines are a No! No! We are not ready to turn are dogs loose in the off season and run the risk that they will bump deer and forget what they have been taught. Depending on your own age and condition you can jog a few miles with them or “road” them from your ATV. Better yet train your dog to roam about off lead as you search together for sheds or trim out your deer stands for the upcoming season.

Taking a walk in the woods with your tracking dogs is not as simple as it should be. Labs and curdogs will usually stay fairly close. Hounds, including dachshunds, have a greater tendency to range out too far. Your dog must handle, stay in contact and explore the area within a 100 yards or so. If there is a problem with recall, the best solution is a remote (electronic) collar used gently and intelligently. If the dog drifts out and doesn’t respond to your voice, give him a buzz with the vibrator on the collar and follow up with a low level electric “nick”. The dog must have a clear idea of what “Come!” means before you begin this collar training. You have to work upward from the lowest electric nick levels until you find what is just powerful enough to get the attention of your dog. The sensitivity of individual dogs to electrical “stimulation” varies. Once your dog learns to associate the buzz of the vibrator and the mild electric shock, you will be able to communicate by vibrator alone. This means that you can let the dog work out around you without calling him and spooking any wildlife you might be interested in.

Long walks with your tracking dog in interesting terrain are something that will keep you both in shape for fall. Think how steep those hills are going to be if you let that belly fat build up. A word of caution for small dog folks:  Avoid dusk, after dark and early dawn outings. These are the hours when coyotes are on the move. I know of three cases where coyotes killed small dogs at night. One was my own Jack Russell, who was a great underground dog if not much of a tracker.

Some handlers are reluctant to let their dogs do anything but track wounded big game. What if the dog bumps a deer and forgets everything he has been taught? Actually mature dogs are more discriminating than we sometimes realize. For a smart, versatile pointing dog like a Drahthaar there is no contradiction between hunting birds  and tracking wounded deer. Dogs are very aware of cues. When the tracking collar and leash go on at the hit site, this is their signal to focus on the scent line of wounded big game.

Dachshunds and beagles can be used for both tracking and rabbit hunting. We consistently do this with our dachshunds. In both activities they use their running muscles and their noses. On rabbits they learn to work checks and backtracks; this enhances their blood tracking skills. For dachshunds competitive AKC field trials on cottontails are another activity to keep a tracking dog sharp and in shape.

Susanne Hamilton's Buster (FC Clown vom Talsdeich) 

is an outstanding blood tracker and winner of two 

Dachshund Club of America National field trials.

When you are dealing with versatile dogs, from dachshunds to Drahthaars, you do have to determine your priorities. If tracking wounded big game is going to be the most important activity, it is best to introduce the puppy to this sort of scent work first. As the young dog understands that tracking wounded big game is the most important thing in the world, he will learn to ignore rabbits or birds when tracking on the long leash. A Drahthaar may end up not being as high headed and wide ranging as a pheasant specialist, but he will perform both jobs well.

The more you work with your dog in different  hunting activities, the more the dog/handler cooperation will carry over from one activity to another. This brings to mind the career of Clary, my second wirehaired dachshund, and my most versatile dog of all time.

With Clary, I could not begin with training for tracking wounded deer. In 1971  this has not been legalized yet in any of the northern states. We started by hunting rabbits, squirrels and raccoons.  Clary was a puppy sensation until her first birthday. Then she crashed into six months of adolescence incompetence until her brain began to function well once more. At 18 months she rediscovered her old self confirming all my early hopes. Clary would run rabbits in daylight and ignore them at night when coons were our game. During the day she quickly sensed whether I was hunting pheasants or rabbits, and she would quarter closely or range farther out as the situation required. This early introduction to small game work is not what I would recommend today for every dog, but in Clary’s particular case it was not a problem.

When a DNR official with law enforcement credentials legally requested that I track a wounded deer, Clary took a bloodless  four hour line a quarter of a mile to the deer. Clary was then four years old and had never chased a healthy deer or tracked a wounded one. Yet Clary immediately sensed what I wanted her to do and acted as if she had been “blood tracking” all her life. Her earlier experiences of cooperation in hunting with me carried over to this new task.

In the case of most breeds a tracking dog does not have to be a specialist for just one thing. If you work with your dog year round, he will understand you and cooperate better during the tracking season. And he will stay in shape.

Clary von Moosbach with her dam Carla vom Rode. By the way, Carla was the first dachshund imported by John from Germany; she was born in February 1965.

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.

 

 

Sabrina and Tabitha - versatile dachshunds who love to work and play

Another long overdue story. It came from Janice and Dale Clifford from Hamburg, NY and Deer Search of Western NY. They own "Sabrina", whose registered name is Jessie von Moosbach-Zuzelek and Sabrina's two daughters, Tabitah von Munterkeit and her sister Cassie.

Attached is a picture of Tabitha tracking this bow hunting season. Deer found in Hamburg, NY. Tabitha is a non-stop tracker and loves the chase. A few days after this find we received a phone call about three missing dogs in the remote southern tier. After speaking to the owner, I (Janice) felt the need to at least try to help them find their 3 dogs. For some reason the dogs who never , ever leave their yard (use to wild life, including deer being there),left, but there has been bear sightings very recent. We are not sure if the bear sparked their interest, but considered it. So Tabitha and I (Janice) thought we’ll try and see what we can pick up. After watching Dale track with the dogs, I have learned a few things about the track and the dogs. Tabitha was certainly tracking something . We got so far and were not allowed to enter other property. (They owned 100 acres, also borders state land – hundreds of acres, and other private property). We had to stop, the owner watched Tabitha heading northwest, but we had to stop. Later that day, the dog owner decided to get permission to enter the property where we were headed, got some friends and put a push on. Yes, that evening the dogs were found. The dogs had been missing 7 days.

 Just thought you might laugh….Sabrina loves to put on a costume and entertain….I took her to my mom’s retirement home for a dog Halloween parade and she put on a 50 minute performance the people, and does she love the camera !!!Hope you all enjoying the holiday. Janice & Dale & gang

 

Bob Yax's pupy Thor is on a roll: how to harness natural instincts of a hunting dachshund

Bob Yax's e-mail came today, and it describes Thor's 5th, 6th and 7th recovery. I am going to give it a priority and post it right away for several reasons. First, Thor has turned seven months old today. Second, I have never posted reports on Thor's second and third recovery due to the lack of time. Third, he is a littermate to our Tuesday, Darren Doran's Theo and a full brother to our Sky and Ray and Pam Maurier's Tucker. The two breedings of Moose (FC Nurmi von Moosbach-Zuzelek) to our Paika (FC Paika von Moosbach-Zuzelek) have produced versatile dogs with a lot of mouth. In German it is called spurlaut, and there are several articles on this trait in the article section of our website. With time and experience Thor is going to be more discriminate about deer to be tracked, but for now Bob is using the knowledge of Thor's hunting qualities to his advantage. In our experience a teckel's hunting instinct kicks in between 6 and 7 months, and this is when the dog's desire to follow big and small game can come on really strong. It is up to a dog's  handler and trainer to mold his pup's natural instincts the way he desires. Read on...

John & Jolanta,

We had an interesting and rewarding 4 day weekend where we took 8 calls and had 3 recoveries, including Thor’s 7th before the age of seven months.

I also learned more about Thor and actually used that new info,  about a negative trait,  to successfully complete our most exciting recovery of the year.

Multiple times this year, Thor has gotten off on what seemed like a really hot trail, where he was very confident in what he was after.  In a few cases it did turn out to be the wounded deer, but in many others, it seemed that it was likely a recent trail of a  live / not wounded deer.  In these cases (not wounded deer) he would yelp a lot and pull really hard.

Our recoveries in Ossian and Honeoye this past weekend were very similar.  They both seemed like liver hits where the hunters had both bumped the deer from their first beds a few hours after the hit.  In the Honeoye case, after bumping the deer,  the hunter had done a wide area search before calling into Deer Search the next day.  We arrived to help about 40 hrs after the hit.  Thor followed the visible blood trail well, and then got into a random searching pattern (blood from the hunters boots?).  After about 30 minutes, he then started pulling and yelping on a hot trail.  I let him go for about 200 yds, before deciding it was likely not the wounded deer.  We then went back to last blood and I guided him to new thick area to search.   On the way through the very thick area, the hunter mentioned that he had noticed a turkey vulture flying earlier in the day just ahead of us – very interesting!!.   Shortly after this, while walking down a laneway, Thor stopped and made a left into dense brambles and brush.  About 50 yds later we found the well aged, 8pt.  It was liver hit.

Bob Yax and Thor with a successfully recovered deer in Honeoye

Later that day,  we took another call that seemed like a high lung or back hit with only a short blood trail.  Near the end of that hour long unsuccessful sortie, we kicked out what looked like a very healthy buck, about 100 yds ahead of us.  Thor hadn’t seen it.  I thought that this may be a good learning experience for us.  I guided him to a point where he would cross the buck's trail.  Once we hit the trail, he began yelping and pulling hard down the fresh trail.  I saw no evidence of any blood and at that point confirmed to myself that he indeed seems to only yelp/bark on the hot trail of live moving deer.  It only took me about 20 tracks to figure this out !

The Hunter in the Ossian recovery had only tracked a short way after bumping the deer from its 1st bed.  He thought it might be a liver to intestine hit, but he didn’t find his arrow.   He had stopped tracking at the last blood sign, just short of a very dense field of old tree tops and heavy brush.  We came out the morning after the hit.  Thor again followed the initial blood trail up to the dense field.  There, he followed along the outside edge (hunters boots again?) and then into an open woods.  After 10 more minutes, he again got on a hot trail and started yelping – not good I thought !   This time after about 100 yds, I pulled him off and headed back to last blood by the edge of the dense field.  My plan was to take him into the field and hope he picked up an undisturbed trail or was able to wind the dead buck, since we would be downwind of the area the deer headed into.   I led him down a line that was about 50 yds into the field in front of last blood.  The combination of old tree tops, rose bushes and berry bushes made it really tough going.  At one point Thor pulled me back towards the open woods where we had seen last blood.  I could see an old 5gal bucket that I had seen from the woods, so I pulled him back, picked him up and carried him over a tangle of thick berry bushes.  When I put him back down, 20 yds further along the path I wanted to go, he headed back towards the open woods again.  This time I looked 10 yds ahead of him and saw the beautiful 14 pointer tucked  up against one of the old tree tops.  He was only about 40 yds into the dense field.  When I called out “we found him” the hunter, who was 30 yds behind me, came hurtling over the tree tops yelling “I’m going to kiss you“.   Before he got to his trophy he gave me a bear hug and said “ this is the best moment of my life”  ----- This is why we do what we do!!

A fourteen pointer recovered in Ossian

Our 7th recovery (Avoca), was by far the most interesting and exciting of the year.  The call that came into Deer Search was not very promising.  The Hunter had hit the deer at the top of the hip, about 12 inches from the tail and only an inch or two from the spine.  The deer was coming directly at the hunters tree stand and was only 15 yds away.  The arrow penetrated about 20 inches, and there was no exit wound.  At the hit, the deer did a series of falls and tumbles down a hill for 25 yds before getting up and running off ( I believe due to sudden / rapid blood loss, the deer temporarily lost consciousness).  The back 10 inches of the arrow broke off when the deer tumbled.   When I heard the call, it reminded me if one of my own deflected hits that was broadside across the top of both hips.   That deer lost a lot of blood, mostly internally, and I was able to track it down after about an hour of pushing and only 400 yds.  I had to shoot it a second time.  While talking to the Avoca hunter he told me that the hit had occurred only 3 hrs earlier and that no one had tracked beyond the initial area where the deer had tumbled.  He said there was no blood beyond the first 30 yards. (?)  I thought that this could be a case where pushing the deer for a long time could result in a recovery and knowing Thor’s tenacity on a hot/live deer,  I thought it might work out.  While arranging a meeting place, I told the Hunter “this could be fun”.

In Avoca, the hunter drove us and one of his friends to the top of a tall hillside.  We ended up about 800 ft above the main road – we had a beautiful view of the valley below.   The hunter had arranged that two of his hunting buddies would post up on the farm road at the bottom of the hill, while we tracked down the slope in the direction the deer had run.  The slope down was about 500 yds of waist high grass with patches of thick brush.   The hit site was near the top of the hill in an open woods.  The first 30 yds after the hit had torn up leaves and blood on the trees where the deer had stumbled.  Once we crossed a barbed wire fence and got into the field, we initially found no blood.  This is the area where the deer had started running down the slope.   When Thor got past the fence and into the field he headed strongly down the hill and then took a left across the slope.  The hunter confirmed that the deer had gone straight down initially, but then lost sight of it.   

After about 150yds down this trail, with no blood sign, I decided to go back to the fence and hopefully find some visible blood.   Back at the fence, the three of us and Thor searched again for blood.  After 5 minutes without a trace, I let Thor head the way he wanted.  He began in the general direction he had gone before.  After about 100 yds, I saw big deer tracks in the muddy trail.  I had seen these before so I knew he was on the same trail he had started down.  The hunter and I continued following Thor for another 200 yds across the slope.  Most of the time we were on deer trails in tall grass between big patches of rose bushes.   After passing directly under a ladder stand in a hedgerow the hunter asked if I thought he was still on it.  I told him that it sure seemed so.  He was very focused and quiet. 

After another 100 yds  along the slope we were about halfway down the hill.  At that point I followed Thor around a thick brush patch and then noticed, about 20 yds ahead of him,  the butt end of a deer.   Thor was going right at it.  Just about the time  I told the hunter “there it is” !,  the big 8pt got up and jumped headlong down the hill.  The hunter ran around to watch the buck heading to the roads 200 yds down the hill.  I heard him yelling down the hill “we just jumped him, he’s heading down”.   When Thor got to bed, he went nuts and headed after the buck pulling and barking.  At this point I thought, we could be in for a very long track,  but I knew that Thor could follow this deer till one of them dropped.  After about 100 yds of getting pulled down the hill, the hunter yelled “they hit him down at the bottom, he’s down on the other side of the road”.  I followed Thor down the last 100 yds of the hill and could see the downed deer laying in the field on the other side of the road.  Once I knew the road was clear, I let go of the leash and watched as he ran the last 50 yds to the deer.  By the time I got there he was happily pulling hair out of its backside. 

As we stood by the deer I heard the rest of the story.  After we jumped the buck, one of the hunters posted on the farm road below heard the commotion above and saw the buck heading down the slope.  He ran down the farm road to intercept the running buck.  It was heading to the point where the farm road met the main road. When the buck jumped out of the field onto the farm road, 20 ft from the hunter!,  he proceeded to make a perfect double lung shot on it as it ran by.  The buck then proceeded across the main road, tumbled off the other side and over a fence and ended up about 20 yds off the road.  It was a very exciting finish!!    Interestingly, the original wound at the top of the hip was barely visible, there was no blood on the fur around it.  It seems that the entrance hole closed up quickly and the major bleeding occurred internally.   The four hunters were thrilled and amazed that puppy Thor had found the deer so far away from where they thought it would be.  More than any other recovery so far this year, Thor thought this deer was his.  While taking pictures, he wanted only to chew on the deer.  At one point he barred his teeth at one of the hunters and I made sure he knew that was not acceptable.  It seemed Thor couldn’t get this deer out of his head – a half hour after we left, on our way home, he was still whining and looking out the window!  This was a fun track.

It’s amazing that we seem to learn more and more on ever track we do.

Happy Hunting & Tracking,
Bob

Two Pope and Young bucks recovered in one weekend!

Well, my plans have changed. Thursday early morning I am leaving for Maryland, where our young dogs will be participating in the NATC Small Game Hunting Test (Thursday), Zuchtschau (Friday) and two AKC field trials (Saturday and Sunday). I am taking Sky, Tuesday and Mielikki, all very young dogs. I should be back on Monday afternoon. It also means that I will have to catch up with posts after I get back (this is my last trip this year). Have a great weekend everybody!

Congratulations to Dean Muthig from Wisconsin who wrote few days ago: I got a call at about 9 this morning wondering if I could take a track. This gentleman found my name via the UBT "find a tracker" feature. He stated that he had gut shot a buck yesterday at 7:30 in the morning and had lost blood. Unfortunately he started tracking the buck only an hour after shooting it and tracked for 6 hours. I knew even though it was gut shot that this one might challenge us a bit especially being a 24 plus hour old track and that the deer was most likely pushed out of his bed. Well that assumption was correct as the hunter had tracked the deer well over 40 acres before losing the trail...At the original point of loss my dog seemed unsure of the path of the deer but walked me to a drainage ditch and put her nose in the grass as she crossed the other side telling me she was thinking this is where he crossed. She went a little further and seemed to lose interest so I decided to walk her down the drainage ditch to see if the deer was in the water. We walked a couple hundred yards down the drainage ditch and ran into another ditch which ran perpendicular to the one we first walked down. We then ran that ditch another 200 yds. While walking this ditch the wind was in our favor and she was able to scent check a large area. I decided to turn back around. When we came back to the ditch we were a hundred yards or so down from where I thought she smelled him originally. As I looped back into that area she whipped her nose straight up in the air and almost sounded like a pig snorting. She took off with me in tow and within another 30 seconds we were standing on top of this beautiful 8 point buck! He truly was a brute! And what was most impressive about this buck is that the hunter took him on a high pressured area of public land!

 

Second Pope and Young buck recovered by Dean Muthig last weekend.

 

Congratulations to Sherry Ruggieri and her Auggie on their great accomplishment!

Congratulations to Sherry and Phil Ruggieri whose Auggie (FC Augden von Moosbach Zuzelek, ME, RN, VC, BHP-G) passed the 1000 Field Champion Merit Lifetime Point mark on 9/10/2012. He is the 14th Field Champion that surpassed the 1000 point threshold. Sherry, we are so proud of you and Auggie! Sherry's friends know very well how much she loves Auggie and how lucky he is to have her heart.

Dean Muthig, a Wisconsin teacher tracks and recovers a 9 pointer for one of his students

Dean Muthig, a United Blood Trackers member from Embarrass, WI, shared this nice story with us. Thank you Dean!

I got a call from a friend of mine about 8:30 Saturday night asking me if I wanted to run my dog on a track. This weekend was the youth hunt in Wisconsin where youths can use a firearm for the weekend. He told me that his ten-year-old son shot at a nice 9 point but it was right at shooting time and it was hard to tell if he hit the deer at all.

Usually I don't like to go on tracks like this but it was for a friend and a youth hunter so I decided to give it a go. When I arrived we drove down to the food plot where he shot at the deer. He said there were 2 other bucks with this one and that when he shot the other deer scattered but this one turned into a row of pines that opened up into a small hardwoods. I put Stella where the deer was standing with the shot and she pulled me to the edge of the pines and took a trail into them. When we got into the hardwoods she pulled me about 30 yards or so and then stopped and put her nose into the leaves. I looked down and there was a good amount of blood. When I examined the blood it looked dark red and when I picked up a leaf to smell it the leaf reeked of guts. 

I advised that we stop immediately and come back in the morning as to not push him. We arrived back at 7:00 AM the following morning and picked up where we left off the night before. The blood was sparse and there were large gaps between spots of visible blood. It wasn't long and we were at the edge of the hardwoods and into some tall prairie grass that led to a large marsh that is currently dried up. Not long into the grass we found blood again then the deer took a sharp left turn and we found the first bed with a good amount of blood in it...and then another bed about 10 steps from there with a large amount of blood, and then another, and then another. It was very apparent that this deer was hurting very badly. Within another 20 yards we were standing on top of this nice 9 pointer. This was this young man's first deer and he was super excited. He said to me, "your dog is awesome!!". I am a teacher and this young man is one of my students at school. He said, "I will definitely have a story for everyone at school on Monday!" Always nice to help out a youth hunter!!

Dean Muthig
Wisconsin

Stella, a German Wirehaired Pointer, has recovered this nice buck for a ten-year-old hunter.

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.

Niya, a young wirehaired dachshund from Hungary shows a great potential for tracking and hunting

Last weekend was very busy and filled with fun, dachshunds and friends.We wrote about Genti and Beth Sheros' puppies in the previous post. 

We also had a chance to get to know Sherry Ruggieri's wirehaired dachshund puppy Niya, which she imported from Hungary. Niya's registered name is Tüsöksori-Ugrasztó Husniya, and she is five months old. She has a perfect tight coat with nice furnishings, and her size is quite small, just under 12 lbs.

Niya has never been exposed to water before, but she took to our pond like an otter. She did not need any encouragement at all, just entered the water and started to swim. Sherry was a little nervous to let her go all the way as Niya looked like she wanted to swim across the pond. You are a good and brave girl Niya! We finished the session with throwing a ball for her, which she promptly retrieved.

Sherry Ruggieri watching Niya, who is just about ready to swim.

 

Niya is a natural swimmer and retriever.

When we did some blood tracking work with Niya on Friday and Saturday, we quickly realized that she is ready to pass UBT I evaluation. Both John and I are United Blood Trackers judges and eligible to judge Niya. The UBT-I demonstrates the basic skills necessary to track wounded game by assessing the ability of the handler/dog team to follow an artificial blood trail. This is not a test comparable to a 20-hour-old line prepared according to the European tradition. More information about the UBT evaluation program can be accessed here.

Early Sunday morning John laid a 400 yard track for Niya with scent shoes and three ounces of deer blood. The line had two turns and one wound bed. Niya was put on the line two hours and 20 minutes later, and her performance was flawless. It took her 15 minutes to get to the deer hide placed at the end of line, and she showed a good interest and aggressiveness towards the hide.

Since Sherry, a United Blood Trackers member, lives in new Jersey, now she will be able to put Niya on a special permit required to blood track in that state.

Niya at the end of the track.

John Jeanneney, a UBT judge, and Sherry Ruggieri with Niya.

Niya wants to go back to the deer hide.

Good luck to this new blood tracking team!

When They'll Swim...

A big thank you to Teddy Moritz for this story about her mini dachshund Fitz.

My smallest dachshund, Fitz, is a good and willing swimmer, like her dam, Gavia was. And Fitz purely loves to chase Canada Geese. I once did some control work on a private lake and was allowed to shoot the geese. I let Fitz try to retrieve them to the canoe but she usually ended up using them as a life raft while I paddled to her. Once she was in the canoe with the dead goose she'd pluck as many feathers out of it as she could.

Where I live now the geese are often in the peach orchard or in the soybeans, both of which are bordered by a lake with heavy vegetation around the shores. It's a fairly big lake. Today when I was driving one of the dirt roads I noticed there were about fifty geese in the soybeans. I let Fitz out and she could see them even though the soybeans are almost taller than she is, which isn't very tall. She immediately ran through the field chasing the geese, who acted confused about this tiny predator but they took to the air anyway. The guys picking tomatoes in the next field cheered Fitz on. She came back tongue lolling and eyes bright.

We continued around the bend to the peach orchard, the lake on our left. I saw a big flock of geese on the ground amongst the peach trees. Being flushed with victory, I let Fitz out to chase them. She willingly participated and raced after the geese. Many of the geese were flightless goslings and molting adults, so this group. also about fifty or sixty birds, ran for the lake. They have one trail down through the greenbriar and trees so there was a bit of a bottle neck at the opening. Fitz thought that was great but the birds got through to the water with Fitz after them. I figured she'd bark from the edge of the lake, as she often does when she sees swimming geese. I waited a bit for her, then called her. No Fitz, and she's very voice obedient. After about five minutes I began to be worried about her. I didn't hear any thrashing and squawking in the bushes so I knew she hadn't caught a gosling. I made my way down the path and called and called. The geese were half way across the lake, in a big group, still gabbling about the chase. I kept calling but Fitz didn't come. This was not good. I saw an old dock further down the lake, behind a house.  I went out on the dock so I could see the entire lake. Well, I finally saw Fitz. She had swum after the geese and they had her surrounded, or she had them on the run, one or the other. She was still swimming after the geese and they just paddled out of her way, which made her more determined to catch one. Remember this dachshund weighs six pounds on a fat day, and she just turned nine years old.

I called and called and I guess Fitz finally got tired because she turned and swam back to me. All I could see was her tiny head above water and an entire flock of geese following her, presumably to make sure she was truly leaving. When she got to the dock I hauled her out and she immediately turned around and began barking at the geese. As they came closer she was ready to jump in again but I picked her up. She squirmed and cried to get back at the birds but I held onto her. I wish I had my camera when I saw her out in the middle of the lake surrounded by geese.

When they'll swim, dachshunds can hardly be stopped.

Teddy Moritz

I found this picture in my archives. It shows Fitz retrieving from water.

Happy 13th Birthday Asko!

Today our FC Asko von der Drachenburg, Vp,V, will be celebrating his 13th Birthday. Asko was bred by Steffen Matthai from Germany. He has always had a lot of puppy in him; his playfulness, high spirit and engaging personality make him an ideal companion. Extremely biddable and versatile he is a hunting dachshund that can do it all. But as a compulsive retriever, he loves the water above all (the picture was shot two days ago). He has contributed to our breeding like no other dachshund in the last 20 years. Many happy returns Asko! We love you!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Rilla and her siblings!

I am way behind with posting, but last weekend when I was attending dachshund field trials in Batavia, NY, I got really sick. This weekend I was scheduled to judge trials in Maryland but I was not up to it so I am staying home.  I am not the only one affected, some people's bronchitis is much worse, but in the last six days I have not done much.

Anyway, a lot of material waiting for posting is not time-sensitive but this post is. Yesterday, on May 25, it was a second birthday for our R-litter (Joeri by Gilda), and Stan Kite sent a really nice update on Rilla. The story is long, so this is a shorter version. Thank you Stan!

I'll start back on the last week of November, 2011. I had laid a blood trail the day before, weaving in and out of the hedgerows of my neighbor's alfalfa fields, and took Rilla out to run it in the morning. Right from the beginning, something was wrong--she had absolutely no interest in tracking. This was the first time I'd ever seen behavior like this from her. No matter what I tried, she just preferred to walk along right next to my legs or sit down!

I called Darren Doran to vent some frustration, and he asked me if she was in heat. I knew it was close to that time, but wasn't sure...lo and behold, a few days later, Dec 5, we found drops of blood on the tile floor. Her mind and body were not focused on tracking, and now I knew why.

We are now getting close to her next heat, but last weekend we had a great track in our swampy, briar-filled woods...(She did fine, but I got so tangled up in briars, I lost a tracking shoe and didn't even know it at first) LOL. We will see if her interest is again temporarily derailed at heat time!

After the heat ran its course, we did two 24 hr lines, one after a hard rain, and she did phenomenally. On one line, I dragged a rabbit carcass perpendicular to the line in 3 different spots just before we ran it. When she turned at those points to investigate the rabbit scent, I just calmly told her "no" and directed her back to the track. I plan to continue this every so often to remind her of the business at hand.

Next, about 60 days after the blood drops we discovered, came another false pregnancy episode. It was pretty intense. She stayed in her wire crate with one of Vonnie's slippers, only wanting to leave to eat and relieve herself. Her weight increased also, up to 22 lbs. She had been staying between 20 and 20.5. She wouldn't even leave the crate to come to bed with us, which she normally loves! I even put her in the bed one night, and she tried to jump off, so we let her stay in the crate. After about 2 weeks, it started to subside, so we took the slipper away, and over the next few days, all symptoms disappeared. She returned to her former self, and actually seemed to want to make up for lost time--she was extra playful and happy!

**This brings up a question--do bitches who experience false pregnancies tend to keep on doing that after every heat?** (Stan, the answer is yes)

I had cut her food back, and she actually got down to 19 lbs, and is now hovering between 19.5 and 20.

Now I want to comment on the vocalizations of Miss Rilla.  Long story short, she makes more types of sounds than I've ever heard from a dog. She has her mean growl, play growl, mean changing to happy growl, various purring type noises, sighs, squeels, etc. It's really funny and I am still learning them all. One really neat one is in the middle of the night, when I come back to bed after a bathroom trip. I always feel to see where she is, and she gives the strangest noise, a semi-tapering off purr, which seems to mean "I'm right here, and I'm content, so please don't lay on me"! LOL It's the only time I hear her make that particular noise, and it cracks me up.

Speaking of her sleeping habits, one we really get a kick out of is this. When I first put her in bed, she immediately burrows under the covers, going down to around our knees. The funny part is, a lot of times, near morning, she comes out just enough to put her head on Vonnie's pillow. When I roll over, I see this little innocent face looking at me, just like a small child laying there. It's so cute!!

One Sunday in March, Bunk (our older son) and I were in our woods re-posting our property line and checking the fence. Rilla was along, and she usually stays pretty close. Just in case though, I had her e-collar on, with bell attached. We were about half way finished, when Rilla started a steady, chopping, guttural bark that I've never heard before. It was very rhythmic, and not real loud. I said "She's barking "tree'd", like a coonhound". She was only about 10 yds away, but I couldn't see her through the brush. Sure enough, she was peering into a hollow stump, and inside was a raccoon. I quickly scooped her up, and away we went. She seemed to have lost interest, but then went right back there. I ran to her again to see her jump back quickly; the coon must have taken a swipe at her. I could not call her off, so I gave her a quick hit on the e-collar. She came right to me then. I do not want a 20 lb dog that thinks it can tangle with 15-20 lb raccoons; don't think that would be pretty.

Through the years, I've been envious of people who always seemed to take their dogs everywhere with them. I just never had the right dog to do that, but guess what? I DO NOW! She goes everywhere we can possibly take her safely. She is my constant companion, whether working in the yard, driving in the truck, on our Polaris, golf cart, whatever--we take her anywhere we can; she's very well-behaved in other people's environments, and she gets along with most other dogs. Even when all the "people" in my family are somewhere else, I'm never alone any more! Rilla and I are a team! We have a tremendous bond. I'm constantly amazed at how she reacts to my tone of voice, and little things I say to her. She KNOWS me! If I say "this way" she knows to turn and go the way I'm going. If I tell her "over here" she knows I want her to come to me and look there, whether for scent or rabbits.

Speaking of rabbits--we avoid saying that word in the house, because she perks up, starts looking, and expects to be turned loose for the chase! She has been running rabbits almost every evening for a month or so behind our house. We seem to have a good crop, although I couldn't trap even ONE for Sherry's farm back in Feb (my total was NINE squirrels, a groundhog and a opossum). She really has a passion for running them, and opens freely on sight and hot scent, and you know I love to hear her song! Sometimes she amazes me with her accuracy, and sometimes, if she can't find the track, she runs it backwards to the start...she hasn't done that in a few weeks though. When she sees a rabbit or squirrel when she's looking out the window, she goes nuts. Funny thing is, we have turkeys in the yard a lot also, and they just don't excite her. She just looks at them with no reaction. This morning there were 13 or 14 out there; she saw them, but didn't make a sound. Funny! Last evening we were outside, and there were 4 turkeys less than 50 yds from us...she didn't even move toward them. Squirrel, rabbit or groundhog--forget it--she's off like a shot! She tracks blood with a much more business-like approach, but pulls hard when the line seems straight and easy.

Another thing we find hilarious: For some reason, it took me a long time to teach her to "roll over" for a treat. Other commands were no problem, but with that one I always had to help her roll, then treat. One day a few months ago, I was just starting to tell her to roll over, and before I could say the words, she rolled over so fast it shocked me. I laughed out loud as she sat right up for her treat. Well, since then, no words need to be spoken. If I just hold out the treat, she rolls over; sometimes so fast only her butt is touching the floor! When I don't have a treat, she sits, lays down, etc with no problem, but when she sees the treat held out, over she goes! Even though she is not technically obeying a command, it's too cute to correct! I take her to the barber with me, and the barber gives her treats--when I told her to just hold the treat out and watch, see got laughing so hard, she wanted Rilla to do it over and over. I think it made her day!

When Vonnie goes on her break at work, she usually gives me a quick call....just a habit to check in and say "I love you"...we just do that sort of thing. Anyway, she told me she also feels like giving Rilla a call to tell her she loves her, too! How priceless is that? LOL

At the end of deer season, we made about 50 lbs of raw food from deer meat scraps, and we also put livers and hearts in the mix, probably about 15% or so. It was very satisfying to me to make her food, she loves it and seems to do well on it. We still feed a mix of raw and dry twice a day.

To say she's captured our hearts seems like a cliche, but it's sooo true. Vonnie and I are extremely close to her, and it couldn't have come at a better time as our boys don't spend much time with us old farts these days! She does still growl sometimes, but much less. If we give her a type of rawhide chew that lasts a while, she gets very possessive with it. She gets very edgy around Lee sometimes too, don't know if it's a pack mentality, jealousy, or what, but it's most noticeable with him. Other times she licks all over him, wagging her tail. He's not here much compared to Vonnie and I, so that may be part of it also.

Well, I'm sure that's MORE than enough Rilla info for now, but I haven't wrote you about her for a while, so I figured I'd give you a BUNCH today! Believe me, we have been doing a lot, just not taking the time to write about it. Hope you and John, along with your pups, are doing great. I enjoy your pix and updates on the blog and Facebook. One pic in attachment is her scanning the yard for rabbits, other one is her looking none-too-happy about wearing a goofy birthday hat!

Happy Memorial Weekend!

Stan