Friend of mine with a blue tick has helped me recover two deer over the last few years. Found both deer and provided my bud with a little of the deer meat for his time and use of the dog. Worked out great for both of us.
Found my best buck to date due to my beagle, no experience ever **** a shot in the dark that actually worked.
Love all the info here. I am getting ready to get a black lab pup from my buddy. Is there a breed though that would be better than the other? Can you train the dog to blood track and shed hunt? Can the dog be a pet and also track and hunt, because he will be. Thanks for help.
Smaller size dogs tend to work better because they tend not to pull too hard on the lead and you can take them on the ATV. You will have to work a little more with flushing and pointing breeds (labs etc) not to sniff out live animals vs dead (boring for dogs) blood trails. I don't know about sheds hunting vs tracking but in either case you have to make sure the dog knows the difference, e.g by wearing his 'special signal' tracking harness only for leash based tracking and something else for free roaming and shed hunting. I tracked with our rescue pet Chihuhua/dachshund mix mostly. Also a shepherd mix learned fast and I also trained a beagle but he was stubborn and went after live animals. The difference between breeds is how old the trail can be before the dog gets distracted by stronger smells,e.g. other deer that came through over night. If you have the dog close by after the shot within 4 -6 hours its usually fine with any family pet dog.
During our veterans hunt this year one of the vets shot a doe liver just nicked a lung. we lost blood. i called for mob buddy to come out in the morning with his redbone hound (he sucked at bear hunting but was naturally good at finding deer) it rained all night we brought the dog to the last blood he stuck his nose in it, 10-15 minutes later-300 yards away he was on top of the deer going crazy. Dogs are amazing, and their ability to find a dead animal is light years better than ours.
If trained properly every dog is great. I highly suggest looking into Jeremy Moores Dogbone hunter training stuff. he has gun dog, blood dog and shed dog training. He is one of the best. I know him as he works with my dog who is a Pitbull/Siberian husky mix and she finds sheds.
I was talking to John Jeanneney, I think he is planning two litters this year. I am sure there the list is full but any way.
Any dog with immense pray drive and a willingness to work for you will blood track a wounded deer. My little Britany pup scent tracks EVERYTHING. I have no doubt he could find a deer if I asked him to. I bought him from an excellent breeder who specializes in field trials. This dog hunts 24/7 in the backyard. Everything from quail, to grasshoppers and moths. He does nothing else. We hide treats in the house now and he sniffs them out for hours. He regularly catches birds that make the mistake of landing in his yard. It used to be our yard but he has commandeered it!
If your gonna lay down a trail for training a dog be sure to put garabage bags over your boots. This will help you not lay any scent on the ground when your dropping the blood on the ground. If you dont scent control your boots with something like that the dog is just tracking your own scent and not the blood.
