Tracking dogs Quella and Gerti help hunters recover their wounded deer

Monday was a busy day as reports of successful recoveries were pouring in. We are still catching up. The first report is from David Bell from Ohio who wrote:

Hi Jolanta, I wasn't planning on doing any tracking tonight because of the hot weather, but I got one anyways from a die hard hunter, and off me and Quella went. The big doe ran into a field of briars which I love so much considering that I haven't bought my briar pants or jacket yet. But we went on to find this nice doe with sparse blood here and there, which was hard to see even with my big coon light. I had to restart her on blood when I noticed that she was checking for blood and clearly lost her track, but she prevailed shortly to find this nice deer. This was the young ladies first deer ever harvested and she did it with a hoyt bow.

Quella is just four and a half months old but she is already helping Ohio hunters to recover their wounded deer.

Quella with her doe.
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The second report came from Chris Barr from Indiana who tracks with Gerti (a Billy/Gilda daughter):
 
Gerti and I had our 7th track of the season yesterday. The hunter was sure he had a rear gut/paunch hit that struck the far rear leg and broke it. He backed out without attempting to eye track. Gerti and I got there 2 hours later. With the broken leg, and predicted record heat for our area, it made it an easy decision to get right on it. It was 11:00 a.m.

The hunter wasn’t exactly sure where the deer was standing and there was no blood, so Gerti and I just started working the area. Gerti picked up the track within a few minutes, and after 50 yards with no blood, we found the arrow, confirming to me that Gerti was on it. In another 50 or so yards, we jumped the deer. We took it another 100 yards or so before the hunter was able cut the deer off and put a finishing shot on her.

This was Gerti’s 7th track, 6th deer to chew, 3rd “find”. The other three were already found, or surely would have been without our help. I guess you’d call this one a find?? The hunter just wasn’t sure how far the deer might go, which is why he called us. As it turns out, the whole thing was over within 200 yards.

The coolest thing is that this is Gerti’s 3rd “jumper” of the year.  I feel like I’m starting to read her better, and I’m definitely building confidence in her.

Gerti was instrumental in the recovery of this Indiana deer.

We love to hear that dogs out of our breeding are used for the purpose we bred them for. Thanks David and Chris, and congratulations!

Two deer recovered by Axel and Greg Accardo from Louisiana

Yesterday we received e-mail from Greg Accardo describing his very busy but rewarding day of tracking.

Jola, we had a busy day. I emailed you some pics of two bucks we tracked this morning. I got a call last night at 9:30 pm about two local hunters who bow shot two bucks yesterday afternoon late. I suggested we should go out the next morning early. The first buck is a 13 pt gut shot and Axel tracked him for about 200 yds and found him still alive hiding in a briar patch, but very weak. The next buck was an 8 pt shot from the rear quartering away from the hunter with a mechanical broad head. The arrow didn't exit the deer and I don't think the broad head opened on impact. By the way, it was a Rage Broad head.

Axel, working with the Gamin Astro system, tracked this buck for about 300 yds before jumping him up and running him for another 300 yds before he layed down in a creek bottom and gave up. We had to dispatch him too. The arrow was still lodged in the body up to the fletching. Long morning and lots of ground covered and three tired men. Also, the last pics are of Axel resting his head on the back of the 8pt while he and I waited for the hunters to come back with the 4 wheeler. You can tell how exhausted he is.

Greg, great job! It looks like Axel is coming to his own. Congratulations to both of you.

Texas trophy bucks found by Roy and Cuatro Hindes and their blood trailing dogs

It was great to hear recently from Roy Hindes from Texas! Thank you Roy for sharing great pictures with us. Roy wrote: "John, Here are some shots of some of the deer we have recovered this season. Heavy rains this year have made for some terrific trail conditions in south Texas this fall. The hunters can't trail them as well because of the grass and weeds, but because of the ground cover, scent will hold better and it will be easier for the dogs. We anticipate a busy deer season."

We wrote about Roy and his strain of blood trailing dogs before and for information about this legendary tracking team click here. Or you can read about them in John's book.

The Hindes "Blue Dogs" - Gus, Shep and Otis



Cuatro Hindes and Kyle Cunningham, Atascosa County



Dimmit county, 24 pts 50'mass. Roy and his son Cuatro in the picture.

Cuatro Hindes and Mark Westbrook, Guadelupe County

Joeri's family of German "vom Nonnenschlag" teckels

A week ago or so I received a very nice e-mail from Anne and Rosi Bauersachs with an update about their dogs. Rosi is a breeder of our FC Joeri vom Nonnenschlag. Joeri is now two and a half years old and never looked better.

FC Joeri vom Nonnenschlag in October 2010.

Anne wrote:

Last week my mother went to the Schweißprüfung (blood tracking test). Unfortunately, the weather was really bad. It was a very rainy week. It was a special Schweißprüfung (20 hours), she had to go with Jette on her own. The judges showed her only the starting point. They had 90 minutes to find the deer. They arrived there after 85 minutes and felt really relieved. Roswitha also participated with Isidor in the 40-hour-Schweißprüfung. Altogether five teckel participated. But only two dogs passed the Schweißprüfung - Jette and Isidor. Isidor was the winner of the 40-hours-part and Jette the winner of the 20-hours-part! After the tracking everyone had to change the complete clothes because rain was so heavy. Enclosed you find the report of the day.

Anne, many thanks for the pictures and report. And congratulations on the "vom Nonnenschlag" dogs great performance in the difficult conditions. We are familiar with the blood tracking test "without a judge" and wrote about on our blog. For more info on the test without judge click here.

By the way, Isidor vom Nonnenschlag (Fw: V LZ: BSS 2007, GS 2009, , Sfk, Sp, SchwhK, SchwhK/F, SchwhK/40, SchwhN, Vp, BhFK95, BhFN, Wa.-T, InterVp, SchwPoR, BHP-G) is Joeri's uncle, and he is owned by Roswitha Eckstein. Roswitha handled Isidor in 2007 at the Blood Tracking Championship in Chorin, where he got a very prestigious title of Bundessuchensieger with the Prize I, 100 point performance.

Isidor, Joeri's uncle, won a 40-hour blood tracking test on Sept. 25. He was handled by Roswitha Eckstein. 

   

Justus, Joeri's brother, and Isidor, Joeri's uncle

Jette vom Nonnenschlag, Joeri's sister, won a 20-hour blood tracking test on Sept. 25. She was handled by Rosi Bauersachs.


Rosi Bauersachs repeated the mating that in 2008 produced Joeri, Jette and Justus twice in subsequent years. In 2009 Ilena had a "K" litter and in 2010 the same combination produced a "L" litter. The next two pictures show Lenz, who is Joeri's younger brother.

Lenz vom Nonnenschlag

Bright colors in Thacher Park; John Katz in Saratoga

Today was a great day! I took a day off from activities involving our dogs - got up early, grabbed my camera and went to take pictures in the John Boyd Thacher Park. The state park is located 8 miles from our place atop the Helderberg Escarpment, and in the first two weeks of October the panoramas you see there are breathtaking. It was a gorgeous morning, and the colors were peaking. I spent an hour and a half there and took around 300 pictures. Taking pictures of trees in their bright glory is not easy at all, but I am addicted and cannot help myself... Every morning and evening I am out with my cameras. I guess I am lucky that our tracking season has not started yet.

Early morning with its "sweet light" is the best time to take pictures at Thacher Park.

Sumac against the Minelot Falls

Then I spent the Sunday afternoon in Saratoga Springs, where Jon Katz was signing his new book "Rose In A Storm". Of all the contemporary dog writers Jon Katz is my favorite, and I share most of his views on dogs, their behavior and psychology. Having read almost all his non-fiction books, I am looking forward to reading his novel inspired by real characters. I read his blog regularly, and we have a common interest in photography. Also he lives on a farm in rural upstate New York, the place not that different from rural areas of Albany and Schoharie County (where we are).

It was great to hear him speak about the book, his dogs, writing, and his life.  This is a writer that I can relate to. Jon brought Izzy, a Border Collie that he does a lot of hospice work with, and I had a chance to snap some pictures.

Jon Katz's new book is his 19th.

Maria Wulf (wife) and Jon Katz.

It looks like Izzy was inspecting a shelf with dog magazines.

If you have not read Jon's books, I highly recommend them. He does not practice easy anthropomorphism, and he understands the instinctual side of dogs. So many dog "authorities" completely disregard this aspect of canine nature.

A new litter of hunting dachshunds out of European bloodlines

A week ago, on October 4, four wirehaired dachshund puppies (two girls and two boys) were born.

The dam is  FC Hexelein Pantel von Lowenherz "Hexel" bred and owned by Laurel Whistance-Smith. She is out of German bloodlines. Hexel's sire is Henri Anons and her dam is Gabby Pantel von Lowenherz, CDX, TD, JE.

Hexel

The sire is our Tommy (FC Tom von Linteler-Forst). Tommy is two and a half years old and he has been doing really well in blood tracking training. Also this season he has placed three times in a fld champion stake at dachshund field trials.

Tommy on a late summer morning after a hard run on rabbits







For Tommy goes back to Scandinavian lines, and for his pedigree click here.

If you are interested in the puppies, contact Laurel directly at 705-277-9183 or manverspack@nexicom.net

A gut-shot deer found four days after the shot

When John referred this call to Mike Garrity from Deer Search, he thought that it was very likely that the deer was dead. Mike and his wirehaired dachshund Wolfie found the buck four days after the shot. This is what Mike wrote:

Mike Garrity with Wolfie who air scented the four-day-old decomposing buck.

It took all of 10 minutes for Wolfie to air scent this large 9 point buck, shot on Saturday, October 2, the second day of the Long Island bow season. Unfortunately, they had to call in the dogs 4 days later due to a gut shot. The hunter Howie Habberstad, and partner Kate are seen pictured with Mike Garrity and his dachshund Wolfie.  Expectations were low for a blood line search due to a substantial rain storm the day before. Apparently the deer made his way back, close to where he was shot near a corn field some time after the initial search. The horns were salvaged and a cape will be provided by taxidermist Dave at Fish and Wildlife Unlimited in Bohemia. It will be another in a long line of impressive trophies for Howie. Also present was Louie Dibiase and his terrier Hunter.

Mike with Wolfie and Louis Dibiase with Hunter.

PS. Wolfie was bred by Dale Clifford; he is out of Jessie v Moosbach-Zuzelek "Sabrina" and Henri Anons.

Radar, a tracking dog at NorthCountry Whitetails

NorthCountry Whitetails run by Craig and Neil Dougherty has published its 2010 Pre-Season Report. To acces it go to Field Reports at http://www.northcountrywhitetails.com/ and click on 2010 Pre-Season. It is a very interesting read for New York deer hunters.

Radar (Quentin von Moosbach-Zuzelek) is mentioned in the report:

Radar is a Wirehaired Dachshund now almost 5 months old. We have taken (and passed)  NY’s Tracking Dog Handler test and Neil and Craig are now “legal” to track wounded deer with a dog. His training is progressing nicely and he can follow 12-24 hr. old blood trail with little difficulty. We have always kept Labs so this is a new venture for us, but Radar is well bred (thanks to John and Jolanta Jeanneney) and takes to his work naturally. We will use him on most of the deer we take this year for experience as he will still be plenty young. Hopefully, we won’t have a real need with a wounded deer but, we all know it happens.

Good luck Craig with Radar! We are looking forward to hearing about his work and training.

A wirehaired tracking dachshund needs a new home

Update: Lucy has a new home in South Carolina. Thanks to all who helped!

Bill Orr in Douglasville, Georgia has a female wirehaired dachshund that needs a new home, preferably before he leaves for Illinois next week. His phone number is (770) 617-0243, his e-mail bill7758@bellsouth.net. The dog name is Lucy, she is 5 1/2 years old, weighs about 17 pounds, is spayed and has limited tracking experiences.

Lucy, right, and her brother Fred.

Lucy was bred by Mike Yerger and she comes from excellent blood tracking lines, on both sides of her pedigree. Her sire is Arno von Gronenwald, her dam is Kadie Hanne Yergz. She is a sister to Gail Berger's Pepper. She is good with people and dogs, likes to hunt and needs some training with her recall. Bill lives by himself and does not have as much time for the dog as he used to. Contact him directly.

Young blood tracking dachshunds at work

Last weekend John and I were at field trials in New Jersey and after we got back we had to face a high volume of phone calls and e-mails that awaited us. When we go away to field trials we usually unplug and take a break from instant communications. We pay a price for this as we have to catch up with "stuff" later. Anyway, every day brings new reports of how useful blood tracking dogs are in the field. The following reports tell stories of recovered deer by young dachshunds, all of them under two years.

First blood tracking story comes from Chris Barr from Indiana:

Sunday night Gerti and I took our 6th track of the 2010 hunting season in Indiana. I was supposed to go hunting with 2 buddies, but opted not to so that I could stay home and watch the Colts....ultimately lose.

I got the call from them at 8:00. Gerti and I arrived at the hit site at 8:30. Hunter was sure he hit the deer just behind the shoulder, but did not get a pass-through with his mechanical broad head. Before I arrived the hunters eye-tracked for 50 yards to the arrow, but could not advance it any further. I put Gerti on the hit site and after a few re-starts, she tracked right to the arrow and beyond. To that point there was maybe a tea spoon of blood dribbled on the trail. Away we went with Gerti pulling very confidently for 200 yards....but I had not seen a drop of blood since the arrow. Thinking she was not on the right deer I pulled her off and circled back to the hit site. I re-started her and she went directly to the arrow and took the same route we'd just taken. I called the hunters on the two-way radio and told them that I was just going to let her go and see where we went as she seemed very sure of herself.

This time in the same 200 yard stretch that we'd just covered, I found 2 very small drops of blood. (I'd missed them the first time through). This was the confirmation that I'd been hoping for. I called the hunters to my location and kept on going blindly following Gerti. Ten yards beyond the point where I'd pulled her off the first time, the deer opened up and started bleeding pretty well. We pushed on into some thick brush when Gerti must have nearly put her nose on the deer because it exploded from the brush and took off. At the wound bed there was gut material and the strong odor of a gut shot. Gerti went ballistic! Since the doe had let us get so close before bolting, I felt safe in pushing her hard. She went another 200 yards before making a semi-circle, going back the direction we'd just come before collapsing. With some additional drama at the end waiting for the hunters to catch up, we finally dispatched the deer, nearly 800 yards from the hit site.

Gerti (Gwen von Moosbach-Zuzelek) was born in April 2009 and she is out of FC Gilda v Moosbach-Zuzelek, sired by FC Billy von Moosbach-Zuzelek

Ultimately, the deer had been hit in the paunch, but all the blood was red, not dark or muddy. The funny thing is, we evaluated all three potential hits, shoulder, lung, gut. We’d have never jumped on the trail so quickly if the hunter had not been so sure of his shot placement. As it worked out, I’m glad we did. I have the whole track on my GPS but have not put the software on my computer yet and thus can’t share it. That’s my next move.

This was Gerti's 20th live track of her life, and without a doubt her best yet. She had no assistance (except for the prayer I said before we left). John J and everything you read, and everyone you talk to says to trust your dog, trust your dog. Until last night I just hadn't developed that "blind faith". At 18 months old, Gerti still likes to track everything and has taken me on some goose-chases. I had never had the opportunity to follow her for a considerable distance, and then finally find that tiny drop of blood that confirmed to me that Gerti was right on. From that point, I knew that all I had to do was hang on and keep up. I was truly just the dope on the rope.

I’ve never been so happy with a dog in my life. Yesterday, still on my adrenaline rush from the night before, I was taking nap on the floor when Gerti came over to me, licked me on the face and then crawled under my blanket and went to sleep. Total experience of owning a Von Moosbach Zuzelek…..PRICELESS!!

Thank you Chris for sharing the exciting story and giving Gerti good opportunities to work.

The next report comes from Greg Accardo from Louisiana. Regular readers of this blog might recall a horrific loss Greg suffered in April when his premier tracker Ariel was killed by coyotes. When Greg bred Ariel (Ariel von der Pfauenbrucke) to Tully Mars last year, she had 8 puppies, and Greg kept one male for himself. His name is Axel vom Feliciana, and he is almost a year and a half old now. Yesterday Greg wrote about this first solo find for Axel:

The hunter made a decent shot but the buck was quartering to him so the arrow exited the rear of the gut. Consequently, there was not blood at the hit site and none to be found in the direction of travel. Axel locked on to the scent where they found the arrow. At about 100 yds I started seeing lots of blood that looked like the buck was stopping and bleeding out badly. About another 30 yds we walked up on the nice 11pt buck. The young hunter thought he shot a 4 pt. Needless to say, he was very excited to have his 1st bow kill to be an 11pt.

Greg Accardo (right) and Axel found this 11-pointer for the young hunter. It was hunter's first bow kill and Axel's first solo recovery. Congratulations!

Another short report comes from Andy Pedersen from Maryland, who tracks with Ruby. Ruby will be two years old in December and she was bred by Gail Berger, and is out of Pepper Berger von Arno Yergz and our Billy. Actually this breeding was repeated recently and puppies are due in two weeks.

10/03/2010: This was Ruby's second successful track of the 2010 Season (first was 10/02 - a doe but no pics). The deer was gut-shot and we started at 0600 the next morning - Ruby took 8 minutes to cover the ~140 yd trail that had very little blood.


Andy Pedersen with Ruby who recovered this gut-shot deer.

Congratulations to all the three trackers and their young dogs! Great job!

Puppy work and early conditioning

by John Jeanneney

This is a somewhat edited version of article that John wrote for Full Cry.

We are receiving some interesting feedback from folks who purchased our puppies last summer. I’d like to share some of it with you, but please don’t take this as an attempt to get puppy advertising on the cheap. We don’t have any puppies for sale.

The puppies we sold last summer were part of our project of conditioning pups at a very young age as a means of expanding their capacity to track later on. We used deer blood, deer liver drags and deer gland scents. I’ve written about this in a recent Full Cry article, “Nature and Nurture”, and I hope that our experiences will encourage some other breeders and owners of young puppies to try early conditioning. We’ll come back to the theory of puppy conditioning later. First, I want to get on with the stories, which are fun even if they’re not very “scientific”.

We sold a “conditioned” puppy at the age of 12 weeks to Justin Richins, an outfitter in Utah. Last August Justin flew all the way out from Salt Lake City to New York State to pick up Remy, his wirehaired puppy. Justin never told me that his friends thought he was nuts, but I suspect that something similar might have passed through their minds.

Remy was supposed to be “just a puppy”, but when Justin’s clients began to hunt this fall there came a need for a tracking dog. Puppy Remy was all Justin had. Within three weeks, Remy had found three elk in Utah, a Shiras moose in Wyoming… and an easy antelope that didn’t really need tracking. I guess that Justin was worried that Remy might get bored just tracking elk.

The three elk, and later the moose, were the big challenges. Now I really don’t understand why this worked so well. If Justin had consulted me in advance, I would have said “No, the pup is still too young for anything but short easy tracks.” One day Justin did call me on his cell in the middle of a track. “ We have tracked this wounded elk a half mile from the hit site”, he said, “and then we jumped him. This elk will go a couple hundred yards and then bed down . When Remy tracks up to him, he takes off again before we can see him in the thick stuff. We’ve gone ¾ of a mile. What should I do?” My answer was, “Give Remy a rest and a drink . You’ll get the elk if he keeps bedding like that.” And they did get the elk.

Remy was instrumental in recovering this record-sized moose

The moose in the photo did not go as far as that elk, but after the start there was no blood to work with. Justin and Remy had to track him through thick pines to move him out to where the hunter could get a finishing shot. Once the moose was dead there was a little trouble because Remy thought the animal was HIS and would not let the hunter approach. This is normal, especially for young males, but they have to learn to share.

Remy at the age of four months

The theory behind the early conditioning that Remy received is that very early stimulation of the rapidly growing mammal brain increases the density of neuron circuitry that is later used in mental activity. It has been scientifically proven, though extensive and expensive MRI research that this does work in human infants. This has not been scientifically proven in dogs; it is only a “probability”. There is interesting research, performed by Peter Hepper at Queen's University Belfast that seems to prove that very young puppies can be trained to recognize and like something, such as anise oil taste and smell, at a very early age. I admit that it’s a stretch to go from that to tracking wounded game.

Experimenting with the early conditioning theory probably isn’t practical for the breeder who has a litter of coonhound pups and is holding down a fulltime job. It’s too time-consuming. For a retired person, with more time and a special need to develop pups to their maximum potential, it may make sense. Certainly, it’s not the only way to develop an outstanding dog, but it’s worth thinking about. For developing dogs to do a specific task, like tracking, it has promise.

Below is a video of Remy tracking a fresh deer liver drag when he was ten weeks old.

Blood tracking reports from Maine

A good friend of ours, Susanne Hamilton from Maine, called yesterday that her five-month-old Meggie did great on a real blood line. The puzzle was that when Susanne got a call from a hunter she took her experienced blood tracking dachshund Buster to look for the deer. It was not a difficult track, about three hours old, but Buster struggled. Those who have been tracking for a while know that from time to time something happens that just leaves you scratching your head. Sometimes we can just speculate while looking for a plausible explanation. Buster is a very experienced and accomplished dog, and he has tracked lines up to 30 hours old. But on this one he had a hard time focusing and was overshooting checks. The experience like this can be embarassing, especially in front of the hunter who can see the blood and knows whether the dog is on it or not.

In the end Buster found the doe, and Susanne decided to run Meggie, Buster's daughter, on the same line just to give her some experience. As it turned out, Meggie did the line perfectly and did not follow Buster's tracks at all. She was tracking at a medium speed, put her nose to the ground and was pointing blood on leaves.This was a good ending to the call that left Susanne with some questions.

I don't know whether this applies to this specific situation, but sometimes when the line is fresh and there is a lot of blood, a dog can have a difficult time with following the scent line. It happened to many trackers, and the whole experience can be very humbling. It seems that freshness and abundance of scent creates a cloud of scent, and in the case like this the solution is to come back several hours later.

Susanne with Meggie. Meggie is out of FC Quilla von Velbert and FC Clown vom Talsdeich "Buster", and she was bred by Willette Brown

Dixie, an older sister of Meggie, from the 2009 breeding has been doing some amazing work this year. Willette shared with me e-mail that she had received from Dixie's owner Phil.

"Hi Willette, Hi Susanne. Dixie had an outstanding run last night that didn't finish until today. I received a call on a wounded deer that I was told could not have gone more than 100 yards. Definitely dead !!!!!. Dixie and I went just to help drag the deer out. One hour thirty minutes and 1.25 miles later we crossed a road and came to posted land and a housing development.In that time Dixie never lost the track and only stopped once to get a drink. We did not know who owned the land so we decided to try in the morning

This morning we circled the posted land in hopes of finding where the deer came out. We left the track with only faint sporadic pin drops of blood last night and could not find any this morning. There were fresh tracks everywhere. Dixie opened on a trail so I decided to let her do whatever she wanted even though there was no blood. We went about a half of a mile with her opening all of the way. She swung hard left and jumped into a pond. I said sorry Dixie I am not going out there, and looked, there was the deer floating out in the middle. The young man that shot it swam out to retrieve his prize. I sat on the bank and hugged my dog.A pretty Good day I think.

Phil"

Dixie with the deer she recovered. She is a Buster and Quilla daughter.