I ran into a similar problem this past week Donnie. I found 4 dogs under 3 hours from me. 3 never responded, and the 4th was a 3 legged Bloodhound who was retired. Rob, thanks again for the info. Down the road I will be sure to call upon you if I have any questions.
I ran into this problem earlier in the season and after checking local laws found that it was illegal to use tracking dogs where I hunt...bummer. Anyway this is a good post and it's important that hunters realise that this is an excellent option in locations where it is legal.
Definitely a good idea... in the past, I watched for and did collect blood from road kills as well as liver, legs and had them in the freezer (separate from edibles. LoL)... You'll also want to buy separate Tupperware for your parts, a bottle for dispensing the blood trail, you'll find them in the book, a nozzle with a goose neck and a blender for liquifying the blood clear of clots for the goose neck bottle. The book will explain all that... LOL For the states that don't allow it ( LIKE PA), get a bill started that will. PA has house bill HB420 I believe it still is... the House passed it, the governor is all for it, the Game Commission is all for it and the last I heard it went into the Senate and some bureaucrat attached a hand gun clause which had nothing to do with tracking and it squashed it for that season, and then it all had to start over again...
If you get started, and join the UBT, make sure they know about the 3 that never responded... if they are members, you can hit them up there and ask why.. that's BS... a common courtesy call from them would have been appropriate... I know they can get BUSY... I still get calls and sadly, have to decline for legality...I got a call once for Ohio... 4 hours... I sadly had to decline.. I finally took my name off the call list..
I recently learned of their FB page.. http://www.facebook.com/pages/United-Blood-Trackers/164761806920151
Rob; Great Post Rob ! In the past at the park I bowhunt we had at our disposal an onsite Deer Tracking Dog and she was awesome.. and we felt very fortunate to have her!!! . The park Natural Areas Manager owned and trained her himself after picking her up at an animal shelter when she was a pup.. she was Blood hound and they think Beagle and lab mix. And he didnt charge a penny to track deer for hunters My husband and I supplied him with Deer Green Hides to help aid him in the training process and supplied him with shed antlers since he said they were the only chew toy she didnt totally destroy I got a doe on thanksgiving morning a few years back and the doe didnt go far and then dropped.. I saw her laying dead but we still used the dog to track her because Drew said a guarenteed find would help to reinforce her training. Below is a photo of me with Copper with my thanksgiving doe, I had 2 deer that I couldnt go and imediately recover since I had to go to work and open the Bow Shop and wouldnt be able to return to close to evening to track and recover the deer, so he would take Copper in and track down the deer for me while I was at work, I had one deer that I just nicked an artery on and Copper tracked that deer for One Mile and she was only 6 or 7 months old at the time( they GPS Tracked from the site of arrow impact to the site of downed deer location ) Last year I was bowhunting west central Illinois and had trouble tracking a deer I shot so we called the neighbor whom was an Outfitter whom had a guy with a blood trailing bloodhound staying onsite... he told us to track the deer with no garuentee of finding it was a cost to me of $400.00... I kindly replied NO THANKYOU...Seriously thought he was WAY OVERPRICED ... I cant afford it.... but I guess he figures the folks hunting at the outfitter want their deer bad enough they will pay it. I dont begrudge him making a living at it I just think it was way to expensive for me.
I used to have a Lab named Rebel who found his first buck when he was only three months old. He found dozens more for friends over the years. My brother is a bird hunter and has Brittany Spaniels and they find deer body parts frequently and often point bedded deer. Almost any dog can be trained to track a deer better than us in only a couple days. All it takes is familiarity with a deer's scent and a taste for venison and you've got a better hunting companion than your blind cousin Bubba. If you seriously train a dog... I would usually come back the next morning and get Rebel downwind of a deer's last known whereabouts and he would go straight to the deer that kept me up looking all night. Seriously, usually less than 5 minutes and he would find the deer that we walked by for two hours. Happened all the time. Wish I still had him. Only draw back was that rebel liked to "ride" the deer like a sleigh when we would drag them out.
As some of you know I got my pup Cooper this August. He is out of the Jeaneney lines. His mom is owned by Jeff Richardson and has over 200 recoveries to her credit his father has over 30. Training Cooper has been a blast, as with any pup there are good days, great days and the days you want to forget. Copper was 4 months old when he found his first deer. It had gone 100 or so yards and was an easy track for anyone but he did a great job, his second and third tracks were easy as well but his fourth was tough and I do not think we would have found it without Cooper he was just 5 months old. His fifth was much like the 4th we humans lost the blood trail a lot but Cooper really never hesitated and found the deer within 10 minutes. They are a great family dog as well. I am not trying to be a snob but I believe the blood lines are really important. Coop has been a great addition to our family and I am having a ball with him. I am considering bringing him to the summer get together but am not sure that would be a great atmosphere for him. What do you guys and gals think? Dean
John and his books are the starting point for anyone wishing to to learn about dogs used for blood tracking . I have tracked with John and handled a couple of his dogs with him, they and him are second to none when it comes to blood tracking. John has a ton of tracking jobs under his boots....well over 1000 now. Keep in mind that most of the tracks he take up are the hard ones that turned ugly for the hunter.....no easy 100 yard trails here. His knowledge and experience pick up were most of us left off......... To top it off you wont find a better mannered or more humble guy. To meet John is to like him. http://www.born-to-track.com/
Bowhunting Norway Hello I am a 44 year old from Norway, who has been hunting for 30 years. I `ve just recently started to get into bowhunting. Now to my question: Looks like government in Norway are going to legalize bowhunting now and that has of course upset some animal rights groups. So I was wondering, are there any numbers/percentage of not recovered orwounded deer on bowhunting in the US? The material I have seen are old and not so relevant. I must add that in Norway you cannot hunt deer without a bloodtracking dog or a contract with an owner of a bloodtracking dog. That insure that almost all lost deer are found and wounded deer are killed. The best material I have are from Denmark which has had bowhunting for some years. Those numbers are 5 % wounded deers. Are the numbers about the same in US? In this context a not recovered deer and a wounded deer are of course not the same. Trond L
Trond, does Denmark allow or use tracking dogs? Could that be relevant to the percentage which is very low. I've never seen one in the US but I'd imagine it's higher than Denmark because of sheer numbers and the unavailibility of tracking dogs or just ignorance to the process.
I dont know if its required with a tracking dog in Denmark, but it is very common. I think almost all hunters easily can obtain a dog in an hour or two. My thoughts about this are that a good dog is absolutely necessary when hunting in densely forested areas. And when bowhunting the deer seldom are downed right on the spot. I think most deer can be recovered if they got a good hit. In worst case you can track the deer down and put it out of its misery with a rifle. We owe this to the animals and for the sake of our beloved hobby. Wounded and dead deer around in the forest are ammunition to the extremists. I love hunting, and I am sure I will love bowhunting even more, but it cannot come in the cost of a lot of wounded an not recovered animals. For me it is very strange that many states in US dont allow tracking dogs. But another country, another hunting traditions...
Got the opportunity to see dogs work tracking one of my does on an out of state trip this last season. Didn't take them 30 seconds I bet to find her while we were still following the blood trail, the dogs ran right to it. It was amazing. Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk
does anyone know if this is legal in WV? I have a black and tan, would this be a good deer dog? He's never hunted anything with me but definately has a good nose.
I bought a Jack Russell, Decker Terrier mix two years ago. His blood line is full of tracking dogs, father and grandfather more specifically. I've been working him on blood. I don't use deer hide for scent. He's showing a lot of promise. Besides being a great pet, he knows what he was breed for and does his job. I'm glad I got him.
States which have legalized the use of leashed tracking dogs are: Alaska, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee, Wisconsin. Details of regulations vary from state to state.
Deer Dogs Hi Guys, A newbie to the forum (and to bow hunting) from the UK here. However I do have a lot of experience with using my GSP for tracking deer shot with the rifle. As a Norwegian poster mentioned , in some European countries it is mandatory to have access to a tracking dog within a fixed time period. And the dogs do serious trials on aged scent trails. In the UK, on lowland ground (ie, not the Scotish Highlands), most serious deer hunters have a working dog. The most popular breeds were probably GSP and Wirehaired pointers, because Germany has always been the font of knowledge and training. Latterly the most fashionable have become Bavarian Mountain Hounds. These are considered to be the best pure tracking dogs. ( Ref the poster with the dauchaund, there was a craze for Teckels, untill guys realised that one sniff of a rabbit and the little f*#r could be gone for two days !). You could however stick it in your coat front and take it up in a tree stand with you ! Now, IMHO, the most beautiful sight in the world is a GSP in working mode. In 7 seasons mine has never failed to find a deer I shot. He also finds pheasants on ground other dogs have already worked over and missed. (To me, BMH's lack that visual appeal that stirs a hunters' heart ! Downsides ? He howls if left in the truck ! You can't get him in a tree stand, he's a big bugger ! That could be a consideration for many of you. However, he has often sat below the stand while deer walk by 20 yards away. A UK book you might like to consider, is Training The Working Pointer, by Guy Wallace. It takes you right through initial training, blood trailing , everything. Brilliant book. Regards, hope this helps .
