Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Anyone ever use a dog to track ...................

Interesting points...my PH in Africa always gave this dog a little tidbit...ANDDD he asked me to train the dog to bark when it located downed game...which is something I never did figure out how to do..
This dog figured out his own "system"...he was silent on a track and if the game was still alive when he made contact...there was LOTS of barking.
If it was dead, he simply backtracked and came and got us...worked great.
BTW he was short and quick enough to avoid most of the kicks and horns...



Ingwe

I let Purl trail a medium sized doe up this morning that I double lunged. She ran about 75 yards. I shot her with a 125 gr ballistic tip out of a 308 at roughly 160 yards. There was a piece of lung about the size of a skoal can in the blood trail about 15 yards from the dead deer. There never was any doubt about the outcome of the trail. miles

Following up wounded game and finding dead game are two different things and need to be approached as such.

As has been stated before, most any dog can be trained to find a dead critter. That also can be very helpful.

Hounds are bread to do following up of wounded game. Hound and handler need to be up to the task. My most difficult searches usually come from guys either making wrong decisions on found sign or going against better judgement. They push the critter from its bed.

Thats when the fun starts - deer shot through the windpipe, shot through one leg, boar shot into the neck muscle...

long hours of tracking and usually a fight in the end.

Most we find, though.

Have use my black lab at least 6 times when in heavy cover and sure the deer was dead. Hasn't hurt him one bit and never had a problem with him around live deer. He sure has straightened out a couple blood trails in seconds what we couldn't in half to hour wise. this global warming sucks for blood trails as the snow is never there when you want it.
I also let the old dog have a leg or two when i am cutting up venison. I get sloppy dog kisses for that. you can tell when the meat is aged correctly by the way a dog treats it when you give him a scrap.

Shag,

I have an old beagle that is an excellent blood trail dog. In her prime she was a jam up deer dog. She came from prime CH rabbit hounds from Ohio.

Now shes 13 and semi retired from deer hunting. Several times a year, people stop by and pick her up to locate a downed deer. Thats about all the excitement she gets anymore.

I vote a cold nosed beagle.

Pretty hard to beat a beagle for just about any kind of hunting. I had one that used to flush grouse and pheasants. He'd tree too.

I have trained my Lab to trail wounded and find dead deer and hogs, and she has done a great job.

I will have to second the beagle, I have only put her on one deer a bow kill, it was dark out and she found it in about two minutes.

I hear you on that one cmg...the very first deer my dog had to recover was still alive when she/we got there, broken spine and he headed down the hill in 2WD...dog didn't know what to do, so she piled on!! Front legs wrapped around his neck and the rodeo started!!
I figured the little buck would simply twist around and gore her in short order so I shouted " MOVE!"...a command she understood....and she bailed off, I quickly shot the deer in the neck, and it was over...but I got a look from the dog that plainly said " THAT was Cooool...."





Ingwe

I've got three German Shepherds now, and two are good deer trackers, but one just wants to roll in schit..... The daddy of the male that tracks was a fantastic tracker. He's the dog in my avatar. He even tracked and found an old gentleman with Alzheimer's that had wondered off in a cold February drizzle. I used to have another female GSD and a female Alaskan Malamute that were even better than him though.

Bo and a nice buck he tracked and found. I believe it made P&Y.



Bo and a 9pt he tracked and found: