I am finding all of this very fascinating as I have assisted in training German Shepard Dogs for almost 15 years now in conjunction with SteiningTal Kennel in Campbellsport, WI. I have heard of blood trailing dogs, but really never gave much thought to the subject. I am going to do some research to perhaps start my own trailing dog, which can only benefit me (from having to be called out to help track my boyfriends deer)along with benfitting my friends, family and others nearby. Thank you for starting this thread to bring attention and awareness to this. Aside from the book you mentioned Rob, any other resources which I should seek out?
tracking This book is amazing in the details he has provided. The author has been tracking for yrs and has a burning passion to use dogs for tracking. This is a must have!
Daschund?? Wow I would have never guessed a Daschund would take to a blood trail! I just thought they were lap dogs. I might have to buy my wife a cute puppy for a gift and then make it a trailing machine. Most people in FL. just use beagles for down deer. Thanks for the info.
Awesome info Rob!! I have thought many times about getting a dog that I could train...I think it would be fun to help others out ,and even myself, in recovering their game..
Getting ready to take Cooper on a mock trail now. seems to be far ahead of last year but will need to see how he does on real deer trail in a few weeks. He is a great family dog, little stubborn at times. It has been a lot of fun.
I started my redbone hound on blood trails when be was about 12weeks old, and he has turned into a fine tracking dog. He's only a year old with one season under his belt but I think this year is gonna be fun. The only downside is his size, he has to stay on leash and at 75 pounds he'll pull me through every briar patch between us and my deer.
Tracking with a dog Rob, I have a Drahthaar that I trained and compted with in NAVHDA, (North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association). Part of the requirements/training require training a dog to track fur, my dog excells at it, unfortunately, the last time I checked, it was illegal in PA. Do you know if the state changed it's stance on that? You're spot on with this article, too many lost deer that a dog, given the chance would find easily! Regards, Kevin
Well my state won't allow a dog. I do take a spray bottle of hydrogyn proxide with me though. Anything I am in doubt about being a blood spot or just mud, I spray a little on it. If it is blood the stuff will foam and I know I am on the trail.
it's legal in Ohio to use dogs to track a wounded deer. I would use my 2 English Springer Spaniels in a second if need be.
i have 2 springer spaniels, and if i was ever in the situation to need help tracking, i would bring them out. they have never tracked before, but i figure if i put them on the blood, they should pick up a trail? thoughts?
Thanks to this Thread!!! I made a shot on a nice buck this past Friday the shot wasn't the best however we were able to make slow progress throughout the day on Friday. But due to the light blood trail it was slow and we covered a couple hundred yards before we left off at the end of the day and kind of ending with a difficult time finding blood due to the shot mid exiting low rear (15yd shot). Tough shot due to small lane and size of deer it was intimidating. As we were heading out on Friday I did some internet searches to build up some confidence that we will find this deer and came across this site. I looked up a tracker from unitedbloodtrackers.org (that I found here)and wrote down the phone number of a tracker in our area. He was near were I had been hunting and left a message for him as we drove to our spot on public hunting grounds in NE Wisconsin. He called back and agreed to meet us. We went back with the dog to the original shot site and picked up the blood trail. I would estimate that within 1-1.5 hrs the dog had found the deer. For me this may be a once in a lifetime buck I wanted to increase my odds of recovery. Both the guy and the dog were great it was an incredible experience from my self and my two sons ages 11 and 14. The only regret I have about this experience is that I didn't consider this route a couple of times before. This is a great tool to the hunter and increases the odds of recorvery as long as you don't walk all over the blood trail or ahead of the trail looking for blood as I learned this gives the dog a false track and could mess things up when using a tracking dog. Awesome!!! - A typical whitetail, 8pt with approx 12 in G2's and 19" inside, 22 in main beams!!
I have a two year old German shorthair catahula mix, last year I shot a doe and knew exactly where it was. I went back to camp and put a leash on her, soon to find out I let her smell the arrow (clean pass through) and put it in a tree she stood looking a little confused staring at the arrow then her nose went to the ground. Needless to say I haven't left the house on a hunting trip without her since then. A great tool to have on your side for those hard to find deer.
My state, Mass., won't allow it. Can't have a dog in the woods during deer season. But, there is an area which is overrun w deer and 'They' look the other way when a local uses his beagle to find a downed deer. Out state is pretty much run by anti's who only allow hunting at all because they know the rose bushes and flora would be gone and car accidents would go out of control...oh, Lyme desease keeps them quiet too.
I ran Cooper on a couple of mock trails yesterday a little rusty on the first ( needs to slow down ) the second I was very happy. If any one wants to see pics I would be happy to take some next time I train him. I will try to get him out twice a week til season.
