Not sure how long this has been in effect. I just read it in the '17 regulations.

Blood trailing dog allowed for deer and elk, as long as he is on leash. No hound hunter permit required.

Great and long overdue change to the law, IMO. I wish NV would enact the same.

If I was you, I would get a Great Pyrenees puppy that would be about 6 months old come season, then put it on every blood trail available. I have had great luck using them on deer, but the Arkansas summers are hard on them. miles

110 degree highs during late July to early August are not unusual here. Sucks to be anything with fur.

I might think a sweet little beagle would be a great deer tracker, if you could keep him quiet until time to go to work.

Personally, I have never needed help trailing a wounded animal. It helps if you wait to shoot until you are 100% sure of the shot. Prone and a steady rest are my friends.

I admit to breaking that rule a couple times, but got lucky and was able to pull it off.

Shoot them square in the shoulders. Dead right there. No trailing through cactus or dodging diamondbacks.

Probably low humidity and cooler nights. Here it is from Mid May until Mid September, with High humidity and warm to hot nights. Mine laid up under a shade and barely moved until right at dusk during those times. Cooler weather made them act like puppies. miles

Get a field-bred English Cocker Spaniel.

Any versatile European bird dog breed should be trainable. I think I'm going to train one of mine up and see what happens. Following drag trails is already one of the field trial requirements. Shouldn't be too large of a change.

I had a beagle that was quite good at following blood trails without any training.

about time!

only time i ever needed to blood trail was a dusk shot with an arrow. got DARK real quick. my Akita was with me in the morning "for bear protection" and he found the deer in 2 minutes. couldn't pack the whole so cut the deer in half. took the hind quarters out first. Kita wouldn't go out with me and when i got back that half of the deer was licked clean as the day it was born!

My wife has 2 little squeak dogs that probably won't work out for tracking. One's blind and the other's an idiot.

Make perfect Democrats.

Damn, Ringman. Be careful there. You're starting to make sense!

For you hot weather guys- get a full-sized Belgian or French strain blood-trailing short-hair Dachsund. I understand they are the best at trailing. US are less so, being lap-dogs mostly.

My (deceased) mini-Dachsund loved to trail, all 13 pounds of him. Hare-chasing SOB. Shoot one in front of him and he would just look disgusted at you - and go find another one. We "lost" him more than once in high country. He thought he was born a caribou-tracker. We'd cut a track and he was gone, sometimes for hours. We never waited long- he'd back-trail and find us. And look at us with a "Well, where were YOU??? expression." I always worried about eagles....

He was a grouse-getter too. He would bark "treed" if one was. Once I was laughing almost too hard to shoot. It was a stand-off- the grouse on a log 3 feet in front of the dog- and he wasn't getting any closer to that puffed up sucker!

He would always jump on and hold down a fluttering grouse, tho.

Not much of a retriever......3 inch legs don't really allow for that.

My last gsp was great at trailing any bloodied deer. Great to have when one jumps the string when you are bowhunting or some kid gets the shakes and hits one bad.

I have used a cocker to get ducks out of the Pecos River and drastically cut the number of cripples lost when hunting blue quail.

I think they or a fox terrier would do fine.

Ive seen people lose a couple of good bull elk in Co. and it be found a couple weeks too late, when a dog would have found it.

Used mine a lot on other folks deer. It got to be a sport of its own. I would start with a young dog and put Him on every trail that I could, even if I saw the deer fall after a few yards, I would take the dog down wind and bring it into the kill zone, and let it trail or wind that few yards. They will pick it up quick, or every Pyrenees that I ever tried young did. Little house dog and the neighbors lab helped us find a buck for my Hunting partner last year. Hit a little high, but there should have been blood and was not, just one small piece of meat. It had circled and went back the opposite way from where we were looking. Went about 250 yards and was dead. The dogs sniffed it out real good even though neither had any experience. miles

In Missouri you can use a dog to track a wounded deer but only after you have "exhausted all other efforts" and first notify the game warden that you are going to use a dog. And you can have no weapons with you when you track.

I killed a deer two years ago with my bow and knew where it fell but got my untrained Shizhu to see what he would do. I just took him to the site of the shot and he immediately picked up the trail and went right to the deer. He sniffed it and sat down next to it, obviously quite pleased with his find.

I'll nominate a wirehaired pointing griffon as a perfect dog for anyone who hunts birds and big game. The breed was developed just for those purposes and have great personalities.


Uncle Rocky gives them his highest endorsement...




And so does my grandson..

I fooled with Blackmouth Curs for quite a few years and never messed with one that wouldn't trail up wounded deer naturally.

Through observation, I've come to believe that wounded animals give off a trauma scent and it is that, rather than blood, that dogs trail.

Now they CAN and will zero in on a bloodied deer when brought up from downwind, but as far as trailing one up that is wounded, it is the trauma scent they are following. That's why they will pay no attention to trails left by other, unwounded, deer.

I expect any breed of dog can smell it, but some are not inclined to follow it.

Back when we ran deer with dogs, it was not uncommon to have dogs that would run deer real well, and not want to mess with a blood trail at all. Also some would only run bucks, but they were few. miles

Airedales

I think blood trailing dogs, not pack running, is a great conservation and ethical step: fewer deer lost, more wounded deer found and finished mercifully.

the ONLY thing that kills em DRT EVERY last time is CNS... shoulders I"ve seen make it a ways now and then. Enough of that wives tale.

But then again most "shoulder" shooters are actually breaking the spine at the top of the should blade itself. And never realize they are doing that in the process.

You haven't shot many if you've never had an impossible trail. Glad to hear that you've done well so far.

We use a black mouth cur that has almost 50 under his belt at 3 years old this fall. He lost one that another dog jumped and he just could not sort out that mess that night.

Thanks to Gene, I tried the cur on a deer.... if not may have never even tried...

According to a great poster here, they are following something like adrenalin... I watch ours run past over, around, visible blood, and even past the dead deer, but I never correct, I let him work it out and as noted, he has only lost one so far...

My dogs would trail elk that were not wounded or bloodied.
I do believe deer would be a little more difficult.

That is why I put the dogs on every blood trail that I can, when young. They need to learn that is the one I want. Following a fresh trail is not difficult, but following the right trail is, sometimes. I have followed a lot of them with the dog on a leash (required by law here), and they don't always follow the trail but sometimes off to the side. Don't think that you know more than their nose (and you will at times), just let them sort it out. Like I said, it gets to be a sport of it own, and lots of fun if you are able to do it. I am too old with a bad back or I would still have a Great Pyrenees to track deer with. I liked it, but it is lots of work, and if you are in an area with lots of deer and deer hunters, the word gets around and you will be called on for some hard trailing. My longest was near 3 miles as the crow flies from where I put the dog on the trail until I caught it and cut its throat. I crossed one good sized creek, the shallow end of a minnow pond and lots of brier patches. I was bleeding almost as bad as the deer by the time I caught up, and all of the people that started out with me were left behind. I had shed my coat and was in a tee shirt at around 30f. Deer was gut shot. miles