by John Jeanneney
The Canadian Province of Ontario
lies just west of the Province
of Quebec. The terrain
and the big game in the two provinces are quite similar: moose, whitetail deer,
black bear and caribou are the principle big game animals hunted. There the
similarities end. Quebec
has an active program of using tracking dogs to find wounded animals. Ontario has nothing of
the kind.
In Quebec the principle
language is French, and outfitters had access to tracking ideas and inspiration
that came from France.
Their tracking dogs, in this case wirehaired dachshunds, came from France and Belgium. A tracking dog handler’s
association
ACCSQ was founded in 2008 and today it has 240 members. The hunting
regulations for big game have been officially “reinterpreted” by the Ministry
of Natural Resources (MNR) and in 2009
ACCSQ handlers found 71 moose, 88 deer and 4 bears. An impressive beginning.
Meanwhile nothing much has been happening in Ontario where leashed
tracking dogs have been deemed illegal by most provincial conservation
officers. A couple of tracking
workshops for NAVHDA in the 90s, presented
by Hans Klein and myself, did not produce enduring interest. What Ontario seemed to lack was
a “Point Man”, someone who could rally the Hunter Lobby (OFAH), hunting clubs
and individual hunters to encourage the MNR to change regulations on the use of
dogs, in this case leashed tracking dogs. Drawing on the American experience,
we have learned that state Fish and Game Departments seldom make a move unless there
is evidence of strong sportsmen support.
Laurel Whistance-Smith of Pontypool, Ontario,
was fully aware of these problems when she organized the recent tracking
workshop that took place there. Laurel is a retired
biologist of the Ontario MNR, and she is also a long-time breeder of the
European type of wirehaired dachshunds. She has not tracked herself, but she
has bred a number of fine tracking dogs that are working in the United States.
The workshop was to be a small, rather informal gathering of people who have
bought dogs from Laurel
in the last couple of years. These dogs were sired by our stud dogs, Billy, Joeri and
Tommy.
With some doubts in my mind about a long term impact of the
workshop I agreed to conduct it on July 17 and 18. Darren Doran, the “Point
Man” for New Jersey’s
experimental program accompanied me and was tremendously valuable for both his
dog and political experience. On Friday
afternoon, the 16th, we laid out five training/evaluation lines of about 400 meters for the people we expected
to come with partially trained dogs. These lines were to be worked the next
morning. Weather predictions were for a very hot Saturday for where we would be
working, 20 miles north of Lake
Ontario. We wanted to
begin the dog work as early as possible, and then use the hottest part of the
day for PowerPoint presentations.
On Saturday morning only three dogs and handlers showed up
and were available to work the five lines that we had laid out. This was
disappointing! However, I was impressed
with the dogs that were present. Scott Leindecker worked his 10-month-old bitch
Arwen first. She showed excellent tracking desire and line control. We liked
the way she worked her checks with focused intent. She showed that she was
ready to find wounded deer as soon as the Ontario MNR gives her the go ahead.
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| Scott Leindecker and Arwen find the deer skin at the end of the track. |
The next dog, Yoda was handled by his owner Ernie
Schroeder. Yoda worked more slowly with
somewhat closer check work than Arwen. This is a style that I have grown to
appreciate more and more as I get older and older! At 2 ½ Yoda is ready for real work!
 |
| Ernie Schroeder and Yoda |
Cesar owned by Tom Bunge showed that he was a good dog that
had been corrupted by disrespectful grey squirrels. At home frisking squirrels
in his back yard had teased him to a frenzy. Once he scented squirrels on his
evaluation blood line, it was all over. He could focus on nothing else. There
are good ways to de-squirrel a tracking dog, and these were discussed when we
finally got to the deer skin at the end of the line.
 |
| Tom Bunge and Cesar |
Later in the morning Tom worked Cesar on a second, unused
line and things went better. It was siesta time for the squirrels and they were
no longer laying seductive trails for Caesar. He focused better on the most
important thing in the world: blood tracking.
After lunch we moved into Laurel’s
spacious garage and examined the structure and growth of tracking
legislation in the United States
and Canada.
At this point Kerry Coleman joined our group. Kenny is a recently retired
biologist from the Ontario MNR who is now on the Governing Board of OFAH. Kerry
was enthusiastic about the leashed tracking dog idea and had many concrete
ideas about how it could be implemented in Ontario. He believes that more promotion and
the foundation of an Ontario
tracking organization will be essential. I made it clear that UBT could be
very helpful in a future Ontario campaign, and
I pointed out what we had done in the United States. The importance of
the field experience in neighboring Quebec
was recognized, but the provincial
legal structure in Quebec is quite
different from that of Ontario.
Ontario will not be able to follow the Quebec plan the way Vermont
followed the New York
plan in 1996.
At this point the workshop really became a meeting, and I
could see that the long-awaited point men
for Ontario
were emerging. Scott Leindecker, who lives in Sault Ste. Marie, far to the
west near Michigan’s
Upper Peninsula, is an Ontario Provincial Police officer, who clearly has the drive to hunt, track
and promote. He reminded me a bit of Chuck Collier, the Michigan State Police
Officer who lives not too far away from him. They both have gifted
tracking dogs, and as we all know, that helps to keep the fires burning.
 |
| Nancy and Scott Leindecker from Sault Ste Marie |
Ernie Schroeder was equally impressive. He is a chiropractor
who can arrange his schedule to accommodate the things that are important to
him ….like hunting and tracking. He has a strong background in hunting
dogs and now he has a very good wirehaired dachshund. He lives
close to the political action sites of Toronto
and Peterborough,
and he is motivated to help the cause.
Tom Bunge has some work to do with his squirrel dog, but he
has the great advantage of hunting experience as a forester in his native Germany.
Currently he is an engineer with all the electronic media skills to organize
hunters in the digital age.
Laurel Whistance-Smith, hostess of the workshop, does not track
herself, but she is an excellent organizer and has maintained excellent
contacts in the MNR where she worked for twenty years. Clearly Ontario now has what it
takes to get a tracking program going.
We wound down on late Saturday afternoon with a mini-course
on the grooming of wirehaired dachshunds. Vicki Thomas showed us how to strip
down a wire coat so that a sometimes shaggy dog becomes a sleek, well-protected
worker, which can slip through the briars and burrs. Vicki Thomas is a
well-known show judge and professional groomer. Her practical advice was useful
for working dachshund owners even if they never go to a dog show.
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| Vicki Thomas grooms Arwen |
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| Arwen - before grooming |
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| Arwen - after grooming. Arwen was bred by Laurel Whistance-Smith and she is out of Hexel is a daughter of our Tommy vom Linteler-Forst |
 |
| Yoda was also bred by Laurel and he is out of Lily and our Joeri vom Nonnenschlag |
The Sunday workshop program began at 7AM as we all munched
breakfast and I went over the slides of
a practical PowerPoint program on the tricks, trials and tribulations of
finding wounded game in the woods with a tracking dog. We concluded at noon. It
was an excellent workshop with little
lecture and lots of discussion.
Many thanks to Darren Doran for all his help including some of the photos above.
