Was this a bad dog fight?

Let's start with some pictures taken several weeks ago. What do you think? Is Bernie (he is the one with a short coat and no collar) a vicious and aggressive dog who attacked Tommy (with blue collar)? Look closely and decide.

The truth is it was all play. Bernie (a five-year-old neutered male) is a friendly and outgoing dog who has never been in a dog fight...ever. He is one of the most stable dogs we have had. For the lack of a better term, I'll say that he expresses himself with his mouth and teeth (which we can see easily as he does not have a beard). When Bernie rests on a sofa he has to have a piece of blanket or fleece in his mouth, and he sucks on it. He does not destroy it, just puts it in his mouth. He is a very playful dog, and  a great playmate for young dogs of both genders.

Tommy, who is almost three years old, is pretty much at the bottom of our pack. He submits to Joeri and Paika, also young dogs. He loves to play with other dogs but sometimes he pesters them too much and often this is a case with Bernie. It is Tommy who starts the interaction, but after a while Bernie has enough and usually puts him in his place. No harm done, they are friends at the end of the playfighting.

To the outsider the whole situation (which lasted at least 15 minutes) might seem risky and explosive. Bernie exposes and uses his teeth and growls a lot, pounces on Tommy, who finally rolls over. I think that Tommy learns something during these sessions. I have never noticed him having his teeth out when he plays with Bernie, but I have seen him doing it with Quenotte, the only dog here that he is dominant over.

Few years ago I attended a workshop with Susan Clothier, where she talked a lot about observing canine body language. I remember her saying that sometimes it is very hard to say when dogs are just playful versus when they are starting a fight. According to her the difference in the body language can be very subtle - as long as dogs are willing to make themselves vulnerable and "self-handicap themselves" all is good.

Misconceptions about blood tracking - part 1

There are many misconceptions about blood tracking, and I would like to address them over the next few weeks. These are just my own thoughts and opinions, and they might not be particularly well organized.

The misconception was expressed by a passionate deer hunter who is looking for a puppy that would be a good tracking prospect. One sentence that he wrote really made me think. He said "I'm not looking for a dog to spend my time traveling with tracking for Deer Search Inc. or United Blood Trackers, or the like, but want a family dog that I can work with to help out local friends should they need it."

John and I are members of both organizations, Deer Search and United Blood Trackers, but I have never thought that we actually track for these organizations; we track for local hunters who need our help. These days we get more calls locally that we can handle so very rarely we would drive further than an hour. Most of our calls this last season have been within 25 miles or so. I know some handlers who travel further. Andy Bensing from Pennsylvania has to travel far as in his own state blood tracking is illegal. He travels to Maryland and New Jersey because he is so passionate about blood tracking; he loves it - he loves to train tracking dogs and he loves to track. But his situation is exceptional, and hopefully will change next year as it is quite likely that blood tracking with dogs will become legal in PA as well.

A huge majority of handlers get a dog to track for themselves, family members and friends, and for local hunters once they feel that their dog is a competent tracker. The problem is that dogs learn with experience and they have to get a decent volume of work to become good trackers. There is just no substitute for real tracking. You can train a dog on artificial lines only up to a certain level. A dog might quickly realize that tracking a fake blood line is just a game, and it is a different situation from pursuing a real wounded deer. If you are planning to have a dachshund mainly as a pet and family companion and expect to track only a couple of deer a season, your dog will never realize his potential and will not become a reliable tracker. He needs to do a lot of real tracking, especially in the first few seasons, as he needs to learn on the job.

These first few years might be difficult and trying. Most of the time you have no control over what calls you get from other hunters. Some deer are not mortally wounded and it is very unlikely that you can recover them. A young dog might not be experienced enough for some challenging tracking situations. Backtracks are particularly tough for a young dog, and the same goes for tracking in a deer-rich area abundant with many fresh tracks of live deer crossing a path of the wounded one, the one your dog is supposed to track. Novice trackers, especially the ones with novice dogs, need support and encouragement! They need to learn from others and organizations such as United Blood Trackers can help enormously. An online message board where a member can post a question or share her tracking experience is invaluable. Handlers can also find other trackers in their area and train together. This is a big help for somebody who is just starting and actually can see how training is done in the field and get a valuable hands-on experience.

So why people join United Blood Trackers. I am Membership Director and have access to info listed on applications. These are just few examples:

1. Deer hunting is a passion of mine. Since I primarily bow hunt, I've had many opportunities to track questionably hit deer over the years. It started as a means to minimize wasted deer, but has evolved into a enhancement of the sport that I already love. I like the challenge of finding a deer almost as much as I do hunting and harvesting them for myself. I've only been at it for one season, but I'm hooked.

2. To help other blood trackers and others who need our help in recovering animals, also to learn more, and also to make it legal in ALL counties in Texas.

3. I am training my first tracking dog, and I am looking for every resource available to make him successful.

4. I am interested in tracking with my dachshund, bloodtracking workshops, information from experienced handlers, reading about other peoples finds with their dogs.

5. My dog is young and driven.  She has proven herself well in the field and on mock lines.  I would like to enter her in some tracking competitions, contribute, and learn from other handlers.

6. We recently brought home our first tracking dachshund and would like to network with others interested in tracking wounded deer.

7. I am purchasing a blood tracker pup in the the next 6 weeks. I want to learn as much as possible. Plan to train the pup as a whitetail tracker and make myself and my dog available to track deer for family, friends and any hunters that want our help. My goal is to help find lost deer in this area, we have one of the highest deer concentrations in Michigan. Very frustrating to see the many deer lost each year. My brother and I do a lot of bow hunting and I have wanted a blood tracker for many years.

8. Want to get better/learn from others.

9. I trained many dogs, but never a blood tracker. I don't want to make irreversible mistakes and need answers before it's to late. There are lots of people loosing deer here that I could help.

Let me finish this post with a picture of four UBT members who occasionally train together. I received it from Chris Barr from Indiana, who wrote:

On October 18, Joe Walters, Ray Holohan, Dan Forystek and I all got together at Ray's home in Illinois for a little dachshund gathering. Ray laid 3 tracks on Friday evening and we ran the dogs on them Saturday morning. After the tracks we let the dogs run in Ray's 4 acre rabbit pen. Then we had home made apple cake and raisen bran muffins made by Ray's wife Claudia (excellent). Ray and Dan both have 1 1/2 year old litter mates out of Henry Holt's Bear, and Neal Meyer's Chloe.

Gerti's track was 440 yards with what Ray decribed as "a little less than 4 oz of blood". She did pretty well. The best part of the track was a squirrel that ran right in front of her. Of course, she took the bait hook-line-and-sinker and wanted to give chase. It was great because I saw the squirrel as Gerti saw it and broke off her track. I was able to immediately correct her to re-inforce that we were there to track, not squirrel hunt. She finished well and I was pretty excited as this was her first track since July 4th.

Attached is the motley crew. Ray with Rosco, Joe with Doc, Dan with Ishe (sp??) and me with Gerti. We had a blast.

BTW, tomorrow (January 8)  Ray Holohan and Joe Walters will be representating United Blood Trackers at Outward Bound - Adventure Sports Show in Kankakee, IL. For more ino and directions click here. Come and say hi and meet the dogs!

Another great tracking season for Tim Nichols and his Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound Bruno

We have written about Tim Nichols from Granville, NY many times. It looks like the Deer Search's Schlechtingen Award will go to him again for the highest number of calls taken during the 2010 tracking season. In 2010 Tim took 66 calls and found 24 deer and one bear. No, Tim is not retired, and he does all his tracking while holding a full-time job. Bruno, a four-year-old Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound imported from Poland, is his canine tracking partner. Below are some pictures of Tim and Bruno's finds.

Tim, Bruno, and hunter with a bowshot NY deer during rifle season. The deer died behind bowling alley in town.

Tim and Bruno with a small doe; Northern zone NY

Tim, Bruno with hunter and crossbow buck in Vermont

Tim, Bruno & hunter with a large doe, VT Archery

Tim, Bruno, and hunter with a nice buck, VT Archery

Tim , Bruno, and hunter with buck. This buck was shot by an arrow, then hit by a car, and then shot three 3 more times with arrows.

Tim & Bruno with a very nice 9 pt, 202 lb NY bow-shot buck

Tim, Bruno and hunter with a nice NY buck

Tim, Bruno and hunter with a VT bear

Tim, Bruno and a VT deer, which was crossbow shot by brother Fred

Tim, Bruno and hunters with a very large Adirondack buck, 10pts and possibly over 200lbs. It was an all day event to recover this deer.

Tim, Bruno, and hunter with large doe,  NY archery.

GREAT job Tim and Bruno!

Happy New Year from Quenotte and her "von Moosbach-Zuzelek" family!





Two German breeds living in harmony

Last week we received a very interesting e-correspondence from a couple, Columbus Smith and Uta Fehlhaber-Smith, who live in Portland, Oregon. Of course, the connection was made because of the teckel that they have imported from Germany.

A five-month-old Max von Bispingdorpe is a handsome puppy with a very impressive pedigree. His parents are GS 2009 Uri vom Pfaffenberg and GS 2009 Lotte von Bispingdorpe. Max brings new bloodlines to a small gene pool of European wires in this country, which is a very positive development.

The two pictures taken just few days ago show Max with his friend Luna, a Hovawart (also a German breed). The pictures were taken by Columbus, Max' owner.





Gusto is reborn-to-track

We received the letter from Bob Yax, a member of the Finger Lakes Chapter of Deer Search. Three years ago Bob adopted Gusto von Moosbach-Zuzelek, who is our Gilda's brother (his parents are Asko and Sabina, and he was born on March 27, 2002). This is a second home for Gusto. As a blood tracking prospect puppy Gusto was sold to a couple from Massachusetts. Jim was planning to work towards making blood tracking legal in that state, but his life circumstances have changed and Gusto ended up living a life of a pet. Later the couple had to move where keeping a dog was not an option and they approached as about finding a new home for Gusto. This is how Bob became his second owner.

Hi Jolanta !

I thought you and John would enjoy this update on Gusto. As you remember we adopted Gusto about 3 years ago from a couple in Boston. They had hoped to use him for tracking, but the Massachusetts laws did not allow it, so Gusto did not have many opportunities to show his stuff for his first 6 years. Well, for our first two tracking seasons with Deer Search, we did not have any success in recovering deer for hunters. We went on a total of 14 calls, with 0 recoveries. In some cases we were able to kick up the wounded deer the next day to at least show the hunter that their hit was not likely fatal. As Kevin Armstrong recently discussed, I think we suffered from a lack of quality hits – all of those 14 hits were shoulder or likely one lung hits. In any case, this string of “failures” certainly didn’t do much for my confidence in Gusto.

This past tracking season brought new hope and better luck when it came to call quality. Our 2nd call this year was one that sounded like it might have been a liver hit – a lot more hopeful. However, once Gusto got beyond the initial short visible blood trail, it seemed like we were in line for another un-recovered deer. We covered about 500 yards including several back tracks over the first 45 minutes without any visible signs that we were actually still on the deer. Then, when I had just about given up hope, Gusto stopped to lick a leaf, when I picked up the leaf – Blood!!! I was surprised and elated. Over the next half hour Gusto showed me one more bloody leaf and a bed with a little blood. Finally, after another 300 yds with no visible sign, there it was – an 8pt laying in the open hardwoods. We confirmed that the hit was a liver to gut shot. Gusto had his first recovery after 3 seasons.

From this point on, Gusto had a new purpose – he lived to track. Any sign that I was getting ready for a new sortie and Gusto was jumping on the car door trying to get in and go. When we returned home from a tracking mission, there was no getting him OUT of the car! Gusto’s always had a little Jekyll & Hyde personality and he definitely displayed it (and his teeth !) when I attempted to get him out of the car. I had to resort to leaving him in the car with the door open so he could come out when he wanted. Most times he would be scratching at the door of the house around 11:00 at night. Twice, I found him still in the car the next morning! He didn’t want to stop tracking!!

Our terrifically fun and successful season ended with 7 nice recoveries  in 17 sorties. All our recoveries involved either a liver or a gut hit. One came 74 hours after the hit and another ended when Gusto finally convinced me, on his 3rd attempt, to head through 2 feet of water into a swamp. On an Island in the swamp we found a 9pt still alive with a gut shot after 24 hours – I wish I had gotten pictures of him doing the doggy paddle out to that island!

There’s still life in this old (9yr) dog and me too!

Can’t wait till tracking season 2011,

Happy New Year,

Bob

Pictures showing Gusto with the deer that he helped recover

 
Bob,
I could not be happier that Gusto rediscovered his purpose in life. But you should not tolerate his behavior when he stays in the truck as he pleases and shows you his teeth! Let's talk about it on the phone.

First Nor'easter of the season

Winter started really early this year, and our first Nor'easter of the season came on the afternoon of the 26th of December. The travel was dangerous and we had to cancel our family's get-together scheduled for Sunday.  So far we have not had a chance  to exchange gifts but this is a minor inconvenience in comparison to the disruptions of lives of so many travellers stranded at the airports all across the Northeast. Now, two days later we are still snowed in and our driveway is buried under peaks of snow drifts.

Actually when the sun came out yesterday morning the scenery was beautiful and worth a trip to the woods, even with the snow squalls breaking all around me. All in all we probably had two feet of snow (0.6 meter) but drifts in some places are much higher.

Monday morning after a major snow storm. A short peaceful moment with a bright blue sky.



Trees looked really majestic in their white coats.



Wind gusts reached 40 miles per hour and the pond did not look too inviting.

A snow squall seemed to swallow our young apple trees.

Dogs did not venture outside much except for short bathroom breaks.

Blowing snow made our driveway look like a road to a frozen hell.

Berkely gets introduced to hunting and tracking

Lynn Pierce from Louisiana wrote a week ago (thank you Lynn!):

Aaron is introducing Berkley to deer hunting at Gut Buster’s hunting club and resort. Berkley is not too sure about all this, but she sure is cute in that pink hunting outfit. Rosette tracked another deer and this deer is number 6 for the year. The buck is Uncle Mike Oliver’s eight point killed in the play pen food plot and the buck weighed 225#. The first shot was a 35 yard shot and he missed. Can you believe that, yes we can. Then the buck ran 45 yards from him, turned and looked back at uncle Mike (bad move on the buck’s part). He shot again and this time he hit it (a double lung shot) and the buck ran into the woods, but did not leave much of a blood trail. The track was at night and not a long track for Rosette, but an exciting one. Rosette wanted blood and hide from that buck.

Way to go Uncle Mike and Rosette.

Rosette with Uncle Mike and Berkley

We worked hard this fall. Winter is the time to play!

Many thanks for your support and friendship that carry us through rough times. Our good times are even better just because we can share them with you.

Wishing you the best holidays ever!

Our pond is coyotes' playground

This is how our pond looked like a year ago.

This year December has been cold, and the pond is frozen. recently we got few inches of fresh snow so two days later I went to inspect animal tracks in the woods and fields. It looks like our pond has become a playground for coyotes! We hear coyotes at night, but I wound have never expected that we were getting so much traffic on the pond. The walk around property lead me to believe that actually the pond has the highest concentration of coyote tracks. I wonder why. I suspect that they really like the icy surface underneath the snow. What else could be attracting them to the place?

These are all coyote tracks in the 48-hour-old snow covering the pond.

This fall we have seen more damage done by coyotes to the deer we found for hunters than ever before. In the past the main concern was that the deer left overnight in the woods would be ruined. This season on several occasions coyotes were active and on the deer during daytime hours.

Kelly Scott and his blood tracking dog Chloe from Ponchatoula, LA

Few days ago we received e-mail from a blood tracker in Louisiana. I will let him introduce himself.

Kelly Scott with Chloe, who is a half Lab and half Weimeraner

 Just wanted to write and tell yall thanks for all the GREAT info on your web site and internet. I have been a hunter all my life and just the past year have gotten into using a dog for blood trailing. I have a year and half old 1/2 Lab/ 1/2 Weimeraner. I have been working with her before the season and this is the first year tracking. She is 8 out of 12 so far; she is doing great, I am the one that needs help. I just ordered 2nd edition of your book on tracking dogs and can't wait to get it and start reading. I never thought I could love hunting for someone else's deer so much. She is a great dog and I am very proud of her as you can probably tell. I'm attaching a couple of pictures of my girl for you to see. Thanks again and hope I didn't take up two much of your time. By the way, I'm from a little town in Louisiana, Ponchatoula.
Kelly Scott

Thank you Kelly for writing. It sounds like Chloe is a really dog for tracking wounded game. Good luck and keep us posted about her progress. Let us know what you think of the book.

A wish for a long and healthy life

December is a special month for me as many life changing events took place in this month. In December: 

• I immigrated to Canada and started a new chapter of my life  (29 years ago)
• Zuzia (Susie), my very first dachshund that I had brought from Poland died at the age of 13 (20 years ago)
• my first litter of wirehaired dachshunds was born (19 years ago)
• I married John, who is my second husband (15 years ago)
• my Mother died (13 years ago)  

So in spite of all the hustle and bustle associated with December, tracking and hunting, holiday preparations, this time of year brings reflections and memories. Nowadays it also brings many cards and messages from people who got their dogs from us. For some people Christmas holidays are the only time when they reach out to us, and we are always happy to hear from them.

Just a couple of days ago we received this e-mail with a picture from Janet and Randy Heidemann from Campbell Hall, NY, who have a wirehaired dachshund Johann. Johann ( Tobby von Moosbach-Zuzelek) was born on June 10, 1995, and now he is fifteen and a half years old. He must be currently the oldest living dog out of our breeding. He is a son of our Gita (FC Zuzelek's Gold-digging Gita) and Doc (Dogabert von dem Meier Hof).

Janet and Randy write: Attached is a picture of Johann after his "geriatric" check up. According to the vet, Johann is doing well. He has cloudiness in his eyes but not glaucoma. His back legs are wobbly but he is on medication, Rimadyl, for this. The medication has made a wonderful difference in how he is able to maneuver, especially in the morning. His diet is a Science Diet for older dogs which we get directly from the vet. All the vets are so taken with Johann. He is the only wirehaired that they have had the pleasure of treating. At 15.5 yrs. old, Johann is doing well. Johann, Randy, and I all wish you both a Happy Holiday and New Year.   

Johann, now fifteen and a half years old, is still doing well.

There is something very special about old dogs, and a book that really captures their magic is Old Dogs Are the Best Dogs.  It might be not too late to order it as a gift for a person who loves dogs.

Wishing all your dogs a long and healthy life!

Christmas greetings from Quebec

Thank you Alain and Marjolaine for the lovely card!


Bonjour John et Jolanta. De ma part ainsi que de Martjolaine je vous envoie nos bons voeux pour la nouvelle année 2011. Alain et Marjolaine

Alain Ridel is an experienced tracker of moose and whitetails in Quebec. His tracking dog Théo is a wirehaired dachshund imported from La Meute à Chéops, one of the leading kennels for hunting dachshunds in France (Théo is a sire of our Paika).

Tracking dachshunds at work and play

Joeri tracked this buck across a wind-swept field to the creek 23 hours after the shot. Location: Palenville, Green County, NY

There is something unique about fresh snow - young dogs love to play in it. I have included several shots showing how much fun they have when the snow is fresh. Joeri (above and below) was acting like a clown, carrying a branch and jumping around.

Paika and Tommy were play fighting and racing. Oh...to be young again!