Tommy gets injured on Saturday while following a one-lung shot deer

Saturday was not a good day. John and Tommy went on a call to help a local hunter recover a lung-shot deer.  At one point John had to drop the tracking leash in heavy brush. He thought that he could recall Tommy, as he had done many times, but this time Tommy was hot on the deer. He was located two hours later tangled in goldenrod 400 meters farther on.

Tommy had already tracked two miles, but he was ready to go, and now three of us tracked another 1/2 mile through a big swamp. We finally quit when the deer swam across a big pond and water became to deep to follow. Actually Jolanta got stuck in the swamp up to her butt. We had smears of blood to verify the line right  until the end. But that's just the beginning.


This is the last leg of Saturday's track with Tommy. Tommy was found hung up in the brush around 4 pm where the yellow marker is, and we restarted him by the red marker. We found the first blood smear on the branch around 1/3 rd into this track leg. Now the swamp is not as big as it is pictured on this google map. Once we entered the swamp we started to see fresh blood smears on swamp grass. We terminated the track where the purple marker is. When we got back to the car people in the house by Rte 157A said that they had seen a deer running by from the swamp direction. This graphic was created by My Tracks, an app for Android phones.

On Monday we noticed a bulge on Tommy's right flank. It looked like a big hematoma, but we took him to our vets since he also had bad eye irritations. We wanted to be sure he did not have a scratched cornea. The eyes were not damaged, but the inner abdominal muscles had been torn and intestines were bulging out as in an umbilical hernia. Thee was no internal damage beyond this and no damage on the surface of his hide. We don't know exactly what happened, but probably he had an altercation with the buck during the time  that he was out of John's control. He was tough enough to keep tracking,  and we were unaware of his injury.

Another problem. We have a bitch that was brought in from southern Pennsylvania to be bred to Tommy. She is not quite ready yet, and we don't want to ask Tommy to breed her right after his surgery. So we must wait until Thursday, after the breedings, to have the damage to his abdominal wall repaired. Tommy does not seem to be in any pain, and he is eating well. But we are watching that hernia! He won't be able to track for 2-3 weeks following his surgery.

Matt and Heidi find their first real deer

As breeders we are always thrilled to hear about first recovery done by a pup out of our breeding. Heidi (Uma von Moosbach-Zuzelek) will be six months old in a week. She is owned by Matt Sacco from Ithaca, NY. Matt is a Deer Search and United Blood Tracker member.

Hey John and Jolanta,

Heidi found her first buck tonight. A friend called me at 5:00 saying he had hit a buck an hour ago and saw the arrow clip a branch. The buck flinched and turned towards him at the last second. He thought he hit just in front of the shoulder and came out behind the opposite shoulder. The deer ran hard for 40 yards and then stopped and stood. It then walked slowly down the edge of a standing corn field away from the hunter. The hunter said the tail was twitching rapidly and thought the deer was staggering but never saw it fall. He found his arrow at the hit site and saw what seemed like a decent blood trail, but played it safe and backed out for a few hours. Heidi didn't have any trouble with the track. As we got further down the line we found 5 places where the deer stopped and stood and bled into large puddles. 225 yards later Heidi claimed her prize. Turns out the deer was hit in the neck and the arrow exited through the opposite armpit.

Heidi is an awesome dog and everyone that meets her says "what kind of dog is that?" Or "she is so cute and so well behaved". All of my coworkers love her and family members are all crazy about her. She has changed our life style for the better and She has taught me so much. You guys picked the perfect dog for us. Thank you so much for everything. 

 

Another "von Moosbach-Zuzelek" Field Champion: Congratulations to Stan and Rilla

Congratulations to Stan and Vonnie Kite from New Jersey on Rilla's finishing her Field Championship at the DCA Annual on October 26! I was so happy to be there. Rilla von Moosbach-Zuzelek is a daughter of FC Gilda von Moosbach-Zuzelek and FC Joeri vom Nonnenschlag. She got the first place in OAAB stake and then was Best of Open. This and her previous placements have qualified her to become an AKC Field Champion.

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

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

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

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



 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

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



Steffi is still tracking at the old age of 15.5

We were delighted to receive this e-mail from  Danny Horner with two pictures of his Steffi (Wynona von Moosbach-Zuzelek) who was born on April 5, 1998:

 Steffi is doing great for 15.5 yrs. She is losing her hearing though. She just had a complete physical, blood work and teeth cleaned (4 teeth removed over her lifetime, 0 this last time). She has elevated liver numbers and the Denamarin seems to keep her numbers somewhat in check, so the vet says. 

 Steffi eats good, still loves dog treats and loves camping under the dinner table next to the kids. She is a happy dog that loves people except maybe my two year old who is a little rough. 

 The buck in the photograph is one Steffi found for me this pass Saturday. I shot the deer 20 yards away at 5:40 pm, a complete pass through, arrow covered in blood and I was struggling keeping on the blood trail (my eyes are failing me) I did not want to leave the animal overnight to spoil. (TV personalities do it all the time and its aggravating).

 Brought Steffi to the hit site and she recovered the deer within 30 min. I spent that much time at the shot location. Steffi mauled the deer for a little while as her reward and then the process began. The live buck, the shot and the recovery was videoed as all my hunts are. 

 Jolanta, the time and effort you and John put into born-to-track.com is amazing. I don't know how you do it and I want to thank you for the service you provide to the hunting community. You have change the hunting industry throughout the country much like trail cameras have but in a different way. 

Thank you Danny! It's so good to see Steffi in such a good shape at her ripe old age. 

A liver-shot buck recovered by Bob and Thor

Another Lesson Learned

By Bob Yax, Deer Search of Finger Lakes

owner of Thor (Thor von Moosbach-Zuzelek, born April 6, 2012)

     Thor and I took a call on Sunday 10/13/13.  The hunter, Bob, called in around 11 AM for a Buck he had hit at 8:45 that morning.  He said the deer was totally broadside and the arrow hit about 5 or 6 inches behind the left front leg and about 5 inches up from the bottom of the deer.   The shot was at a slightly downward angle so the exit hole would be slightly lower.  Bob had found his arrow at the hit site and said that it had dark blood on it with no sign of lung blood or stomach contents.   His description of the hit location had me hoping that he may have caught the bottom of the liver while exiting the deer.  It would be close.  His description of the deer’s reaction to the hit also had me believing it was a liver hit.  When hit, the Buck jumped a bit but then slowly walked away.  After only 50 yards or so, the deer bedded down.  Bob got out of his stand and headed home to wait.   After about 2 hours he went back, only to see the Buck slowly walking about 70yds ahead of where he had originally bedded.  Bob said the Buck looked like he was looking for another place to bed.  It was at this time that he called into Deer Search.  After discussing the hit with Bob, I told him that it sounded like a Liver hit and we had to give the Buck 6 hours before tracking.  I believe that 95% of Liver hit deer will be dead within 6 hours.
     
At 3:00 that afternoon, my son Nate and I met up with Bob.  When he showed me the arrow I immediately saw dark dried blood on it along with the sand like particles that indicate stomach contents.  This had me worried.  If it was only a stomach hit, then 6 hours would not be nearly long enough to wait.   After a 10 minute walk back to the hit site, we got on the start of the blood trail.  The blood was dark, definitely not lung blood.   Thor got on the trail quickly in the open hardwoods and after a little of his usual initial excitement wandering took us past the 1st bed.  In the bed, I was able to show Bob a small pile of stomach contents that confirmed at least a stomach hit.  Thor continued on the trail showing us blood sign periodically along the way.  After a few hundred yards, we passed through a jumble of downed trees.  When we came out of it, Thor seemed to be at a new level of excitement.  I think the deer may have been bedded there and we were now on a very fresh trail.  From this point on, the blood sign we were seeing looked fresh.  For the next half hour or so we followed Thor on a path that skirted around a relatively dry swamp in the middle of the woods.  Along the way we were constantly seeing small signs of fresh blood – the Buck was definitely on the move ahead of us.  At about 4:00 PM, over 7 hours after the hit, the blood trail crossed a clearing and headed into the open hardwoods again.

At this point we stopped to re-evaluate our strategy.  The Buck was definitely on the move ahead of us.  Thor was hot on the trail and would have no problem following this deer for as long as it took.  We had yet to get close enough to catch a glimpse of the Buck.  We knew the deer was at least gut hit and it seemed that he still had too much energy to be Liver hit. With a stomach only hit, it was possible for the deer to live another 15 hours or more.  We could push him into the next county by then.   After talking with another experienced Deer Search Tracker, we all decided it was best to back out now and allow the deer to bed again, hopefully for the last time.  We would come back first thing in the morning to pick up the trail.  The entire time that we were stopped, deciding our next move, Thor was straining at the end of the lead barking wildly, wanting to continue on the trail in the hardwoods.  We marked our location and backed quietly out of the woods.  On our drive back home it started to rain and then rained harder overnight.  Even with the rain, I had a lot of confidence that Thor would continue hot on the trail in the morning, although visible blood sign would probably be gone, making it more anxious for us human trackers.

Thor and I met up with Bob at 7:45 on Monday morning.  It was very damp and calm and the rain had stopped.  It seemed like a perfect morning to find a Buck.  On the walk back to where we had left off, Thor stopped and stuck his nose high into the air, looking into the hardwoods.  Bob said that Thor might be smelling a dead Coyote that was off in that direction.  After a few seconds, Thor was back to walking down the path towards our deer trail.  A short time later, Bob and I both picked up the smell of the rotting Coyote.  Thor didn’t even pick his head up into the smelly breeze.  Once we got within sight of our marker from the previous night, Thor's excitement grew.    When got within 20 yards of the trail marker, Thor was pulling hard on the lead.   At the marker, he was off in a flash into the hardwoods.  After the first 20 yards, it was obvious that the blood we were seeing before the rain was no longer visible, but Thor seemed to be hot on the trail anyway.  Just about as fast as the tracking started, it ended when I looked up and saw the white belly of a deer in the open hardwoods 50 yds ahead.  It was our Buck, only 75yds from where we had stop tracking on Sunday.  Whether he had crashed there before we stopped, or laid down after we backed out,  we’ll never know. 

The entrance wound on the Buck was about 5 to 6 inches back from the front leg and just a few inches higher than the hunter thought, about 7 inches up from the bottom (you can see the big entrance wound in the photo). The exit wound was about 2 inches lower.   During the autopsy, it was obvious that the Rage broad head had indeed passed through the liver about 2 inches up from the bottom.  I’ve always thought that for a big buck, 6 hours may not be enough time to wait on a Liver hit.  This Buck proved it, since we know he was on his feet 7 hours after the hit.  Another lesson learned.

Kunox - our new dachshund puppy from Germany

It was a week ago, on Wednesday, when John and I drove to Newark International Airport to pick up our new puppy from Germany - Kunox der von der Dohlmühle. Kunox  arrived in the United States, all happy and wiggly, not showing any sign of stress.

Interestingly, we did not plan to get a new puppy this fall, but sometimes an opportunity presents itself and cannot be denied. It was almost four weeks ago when Stefan Fuß of "von der Bismarck-Eiche" kennel in Germany posted some information on Facebook about a male "von der Dohlmühle" puppy looking for a hunting home due to some unexpected circumstances. When I (Jolanta) saw the pup's picture and outstanding pedigree, I knew that we must have him. More about his pedigree and family later.

So many, many thanks go to Stefan who made it all possible and to Annelie Grauer, Kunox's breeder, who trusted us with her puppy.

John has already started to work with Kunox and this is what he wrote: As Jolanta points out, we were lucky to get a puppy with such an outstanding pedigree for  blood tracking. Fortunately little Kunox doesn't know about the pedigree and how  good he is supposed to be. He is a nice, relaxed dog with good social skills around humans and canines. He departed from Lufthansa at Newark Airport totally relaxed and ready to sleep on my lap all the way home.

Of course the Old Man was especially interested in Kunox's desire and ability for tracking. The second day after his arrival in Berne we tried the first liver drag of 20 yards. No problem, but he learned what it was all about and had a fine chew on the deer liver at the end of the drag. The next day Kunox had a liver drag twice as long. Clearly it was too easy, but he liked the liver. On day three the liver drag was nearly 100 yards and an hour old. It was windy but Kunox got his nose down in the grass and  held to the scent line. Now he was ready for something more challenging.

Day four: This time I laid out a line with droplets of deer blood through  the labyrinth of paths in our running enclosure. There were many right angles to overshoot, and I let it age for  four hours. The line was only about 150 yards long, but there were many complicated turns. Kunox marched through it with ease, never overshooting a turn by more than five feet before checking and correcting himself. At the deer skin he approached with caution, but after my assurances he grabbed on. The prey drive was there! He actually preferred shaking the deer hide to eating the deer heart treats.

I kind of like this puppy!

This puppy loves his food, even home-grown kale. We need to take just a little bit of weight off him.

He is a low-key pup that can just relax and sleep while we go about our daily routine.

Kunox has met most of our dogs and proved to have good social skills. Mielikki is a good playmate as she is patient and gentle with him...up to the point. She set some boundaries by now for Kunox and one of them is that he is not allowed to hump her (he tried).

 

Kunox has been accepted by his new family; the picture shows Paika and Sky

Kunox licking Billy's face

Kunox has a very good switch: he is on in the field...

...and off in the house. Don't you love a puppy that you can take a nap with?

 

Kunox's dam is Gwendoline der von der Dohlmühle, who just three days ago won the International Vp test in Italy with maximum number of points of 280. Gwennie's mother Elsebeere von der Bismarck-Eiche got 268 points. Both got their CACIT (Certificat d’Aptitude au Championnat International de Travail) and became International Working Champions.

When we were in Germany in 1999 we visited Manfred Siekmann of von Rominten kennel. He is an extremely knowledgeable and accomplished breeder and handler, and we learned from him a lot. At the time his male Nurmi von Rominten was flying high as a blood tracker. I think he won Chorin Suche blood tracking championship twice. We loved the dog, and we saw him again on subsequent trips. He got to live to be 15. We always wanted a puppy sired by him but it has never worked out. The sire of Kunox is IACh GS BSS Doktor von Rominten, who is linebred tightly on Nurmi, and is an outstanding dog in his own right.

"Von Moosbach-Zuzelek" puppies' first tracking season: Uncas (Moose) and Urho (Mongo)

In 2013 we had only one litter of puppies, which was out of FC Sky von Moosbach-Zuzelek and FC Mielikki Raptor. Both parents are young dogs themselves. Sky comes from several generations of our own breeding that produced a family of very accomplished blood trackers. Mielikki comes from Nordic bloodlines and has a very nice pedigree, but when you do an outcross as we did in this case, you always take some chances. Sometimes you win a lottery, and sometimes you don't.

The "U" litter was born on May 10, 2013 so these pups are just 5.5 months old. All of them have showed a lot of promise when we worked with them at a very early age. We are happy to see that this potential has been getting realized in the field and the pups are already helping hunters.

The four pictures below show Moose (registered name Uncas von Moosbach-Zuzelek) owned by Adam H. from PA. Since blood tracking dogs are illegal in PA Adam who lives close to Maryland border, tracks in that state.


September 24: Another find for a young Moose who looks really tiny in this picture. Adam H., Moose's owner, says: Last night I received a call around 7:30 from a buddy who shot a buck but had no blood! Moose and I drove down to Maryland and met him. After speaking with him I was pretty sure it was a probably a one lung/liver hit. The deer was angled towards him. I sat Moose down at the hit site and roughly 125 yards later (with no blood) Moose found the buck!! 


October 7: Adam  wrote yesterday: Good evening John and Jolanta, I just wanted to let you know that tonight Moose made his 3rd recovery of the year! The hunter hit the big old doe far front but had pretty good blood. She did zig zag several times through a standing cornfield! After about 150 yards he found her  He's the real deal  Thanks again you guys for an awesome little guy!


October 13: Adam wrote: "Good morning folks! Well, my boy did it again last night! This makes 4! I received a call last night from a buddy whose buddy hit a buck but didn't have much blood. Moose and I got to the hit site around 10:30. After approximately 125 yards Moose found him. With the deer angling away it appeared the arrow clipped the lungs and lodged into the brisket! (No exit hole)

Yesterday Moose has taught Adam a valuable lesson:

Good afternoon John and Jolanta,
Well I learned a very valuable lesson the other day - too bad it was the hard way!  I was down in Maryland doing some hunting on Monday evening and shot this buck. The shot felt and looked great! The buck was shot broadside at 19 yards and tore away after the arrow zipped through him! I eased out and gave the buck about 2.5-3 hours! I took my neighbor and Moose back down at around 9 pm to do the recovery. With ease Moose tracked the buck about 80 yards to a large puddle of blood and then he made a left down a ravine traveling about 150 yards with NO blood. I was certain with the shot I made he was off the track (since there was no more sign) - so I picked him up and brought him back to the hit site! He again made a left and I allowed him to travel even further this time but again there was no sign so again I brought him to the hit site.  This time he went straight from the blood out the ridge about 75 yards. As we crested down the ridge I heard a deer bust out of the thicket! I was sure we just jumped the deer so I picked Moose up and we left- I decided to come back in the a.m. so I could see better. The next morning I started him at the puddle where he again went left this time I just left him go - we went roughly 225 yards to a dead buck that had been ripped to shreds from coyotes.! The entire left side of the deer was eaten clean :( 

Hard lesson learned. I will now let Moose go for as long as he wants to go - trusting him completely!!!! I was so upset with myself BUT I swear to you Moose looked at me after he chewed on him for a little almost to say I TOLD YOU SO - you jack***! Haha. Thanks again for my boy! He's everything to me ;)
Adam

--------

Moose's brother Mongo (Urho von Moosbach-Zuzelek)  is owned by John Sakelaris and is a tracking dog at Vermejo Park Ranch in New Mexico.

 

 

The hunter in the picture wrote:

 

John,
I am more than happy to write a letter commending the tracking dog and the dog’s owner. Mongo was outstanding. I have worked with other deer in the past as we track many a wounded Whitetail at our place and I think Mongo can hold his own with any of the other dogs. I think it is a great service to the ranch to have a dog like that and we certainly appreciate his capabilities.

 

And John wrote to us:

 

I want to thank you again for the dog, he is fantastic. I have had big game hounds for the last 15 years and most of them barely know day from night until about 3 years old. Only then do they really come into their own and start to “think”. Mongo at 4 months shows incredible intelligence and problem solving ability. We just got back this morning from an all day and most of the night track where we went up and over 2 ridges with a whole lot in between. Several times I thought Mongo was not on track be he would prove us wrong when we would find blood. This last find was a real test and any blood tracking dog owner would be proud, not to mention one of a pup 5 months old. He is worn out today but still wants to go again." 

Tuesday von Moosbach-Zuzelek is a Field Champion now

I am running way behind in reporting all the blood tracking activities that you readers have sent me news about, and I hope to catch up this week. On Friday I drove to field trials given by the Western Pennsylvania Dachshund Club at the Hilltop Beagle Club in Cowansville, PA. It was a last minute decision. I got back from the field trial last evening.

It is a long drive there, around 8 hours, but it was worth it. I have never been to the grounds before and did not know what to expect. As it turned out the grounds were really good, with nice cover and a right number of rabbits, not too few and not too many. The beagle club has both types of beaglers, brace and SPO, and it seems thriving. A lot of beaglers showed up to cook three meals a day, beat brush and some were judging too. I loved the whole experience!

On Saturday I ran our Tuesday in the Open Stake and she placed first. Then she won her runs for the Best of Open and Absolute winner. I was really pleased with her performance. She has always had enormous hunting drive but had no concept of recall as a pup. A year ago she flunked the NATC Small Game Hunter test as I was not bale to pick her up in the field and a good recall is part of that test.

Well, I am happy to report that her recall and field obedience got much better due to some serious work in the field. She ran several times on Saturday and came back to me every time. Good girl Tuesday!

Introducing a new deer tracking team from Florida

Paul Ohmer has just joined United Blood Trackers and he wrote:

I have attached a photo of "Jack",  a five-month-old beagle/bloodhound mix, with his first deer. This was a paunch shot bow season deer that was shot at 8:30 am and I got a call from my brother in law at about 2:30 asking if I could bring my pup to help find the deer. I loaded up and got to the hunting camp about 3:45 and drove to the shot site and put Jack on the ground around 4:30, and the pup took right to the trail. This shot left no blood at all, just a little clear fluid now and then, and the pup was trailing in a palmetto thicket with nasty undergrowth that was about 4 ft tall. Jack could not see at all due to the terrain and his size. The pup did a perfect job of keeping his head up to avoid the sharp palmettos leaves and trailed this deer to its final bed in a quick 30 minutes. The deer was recovered and loaded in the truck by 5:30. Very happy with the pup's first tough recovery call. Thank you to John J's great book on training tracking dogs and the resource that UBT provides to us all. 
To see contact info for Paul click here.



Paul Ohmer with Jack and his first deer.

A perfect afternoon of deer tracking and photography

By John Jeanneney

On October 8  I had a call from a young college student at SUNY Cobleskill. He had bow shot a mature doe that morning and had tracked it about 300 yards to a lawn behind the house of the property owner. He was "pretty sure" that the deer had turned back up into the woods, but he couldn't find any more blood.

It was a beautiful fall afternoon when Jolanta, Tommy and I met the hunter and drove to his hunting  area which was about 25 miles from where we live in Berne. Jolanta had her camera and was ready to shoot anything, dog, deer or landscape that might present  a photo op.

I like to start at the hit site, but since we had good blood much closer, Tommy and I started up in the woods about 50 yards  from the point of loss at the  lawn where the doe was supposed to have turned back. Tommy locked in on the scent  line, and when we came to the lawn he did not hesitate. 

Out across the lawn he went, across a road, and then we had to stop to get permission to continue. A 100 yards  of lawn stretched out ahead. No visible blood and the scent line was ten hours old on closely mowed grass. How could Tommy track with such ease in  such a situation? Was he making it up?

We were reassured when we got down into the brushy woods and  saw blood. No problem. Tommy went another 150 yards to the dead doe. Meanwhile, Jolanta's camera was constantly at work. You  see the results here.

 

A good ending!

When the recovered was being dressed Tommy had to be tied to a tree on a light chain. In the past he chewed through many plastic leashed in similar situations

We gutted the doe and the hunter dragged it up the hill and across the expanse of lawns. Jolanta took more photos in the beautiful, late afternoon light.

When Jolanta posted the landscape photos on a Facebook group for Hilltowners that evening, a comment soon came in,  "Hey, that photo was taken in front of my house."

The next day another message came in from the same man. "Did you find the deer? Was just wondering because one of my Labs brought me home a wonderful gift this morning: the mammary glands that had been cut out of a doe. Hahaha... I had to laugh, especially after seeing your photo and knowing the story behind it"

What a small world!