Author Topic: Deer recovery dogs (Read 3654 times)

Frog123 · « **on:** October 07, 2003, 06:14:22 PM »

Anybody have any experience with using a dog to track and recover a wounded deer. I saw one used on a hunting show once and could see the benefit of it. We take a large number of deer each year off our lease but unfortunately not all shots turns out the way we would hope. I thought about checking with some houndsman and seeing if they might know of some dogs that have a deer running habit then trying to build on this trait .

Frog

willy12 · « **Reply #1 on:** October 09, 2003, 04:33:13 AM »

Frog,

I saw an article about this recently, I think in Full Cry, about a guy who used a dog for deer recovery. I don't have the article with me, but I think this guy was in PA and used a dog that was part lab. The guy got the ok to use the dog from the PA wildlife people if he kept the dog on a leash while tracking the deer.

Maybe some type of Mountain Cur dog would be better than a hard running hound since a more controllable dog would be needed. I have also read that the German birdogs (shorthair/wirehair) were also used to blood trail wounded game. I don't know if this trait is available in the lines here in the US.

This is an interesting subject. How old would the average trail be before a dog is used to search for the deer? I know some of the Mountain Lion hunters out west run tracks they find in the snow and are a couple of days old.

Let us know what you find out. I had a squirrel dog once, which I got rid of, that loved to run deer by scent. My young squirrel dogs seem only interested in site chasing a deer a short ways when we jump one. If I had one that wanted to scent trail deer I would be more than happy to give you the dog.

Frog123 · « **Reply #2 on:** October 09, 2003, 05:08:36 AM »

Willy,

I appreciate the offer. My uncle used to have a blue heeler/fiest mix, just a smallish farm dog really, the kind that lavished praise and attention and loved to ride in the truck. One day my uncle shot a deer and watched it go down within site. Since there was a pretty good blood trail he went back to the house got the dog, brought him back and put him on the trail. It was a pretty easy trail and the dog had little trouble finding the deer. As soon as he found it my uncle went to praising and lavishing the dog and of course the dog ate up the attention. Every time he shot a deer he repeated the process and pretty soon the dog got the hang of it and figured out that was what he was supposed to be doing. This was about fifteen years or so ago and I never really thought about having him bred to carry on the trait. How I wish I had. I'd like to have a medium size build dog, something on the line of a Mtn cur. I'm gonna try posting a request for a cull dog on some other sites. Most houndsman I've met are only too happy to part with a "trashy" hound. Thanks again.

Frog

rwng · « **Reply #3 on:** October 09, 2003, 11:40:11 AM »

Frog, I have heard this also. One thing I read was that any close mouth dog will do it or any clold nosed dog too. I've read Shepards, Collies, Rats etc. that do it. Just train them on raw deer meat. You want the blood not the deer scent, so they wont run healthy deer.

sevendogs · « **Reply #4 on:** October 11, 2003, 11:44:57 PM »

:-) My bitch did it well at once. Last fall one of my buddies deer hunted on our land. While eating my breakfast, I saw though the window like he was wandering in bushes looking for an injured deer. I run to my dog and turned her loose. She found the deer hiding in tall grass, gave it a short chase and pulled it down holding until I came up and dispatched it with a knife. I believe, she will do it again, if needed.

Stan M. · « **Reply #5 on:** October 13, 2003, 10:10:45 AM »

An old man that hunts with us has a pet black and tan colored Dachshund (hotdog). He feeds this lap dog deer liver and hearts when available.
I have seen this dog find a wounded deer in a thick cut over. He did not have a blood trail this particular day by the way we brought him in. But with a little coaxing, the dog made circles hunting the deer until he re-jumped him and ran him to the path where we brought the dog in. The deer was finihed off on the path.
He will take a blood trail and go with it and usually will find the deer if the deer is there to be found. When he finds the dead deer he will be standing on him barking like he is king of the hounds.
It is something to watch this little dog perform.
I had a black lab that would find deer sometime if the scent was warm. He would run a deer by sight if one were to cross his path.
It doesn't hurt to try a dog like that when all else fails.
Stan

jrcanoe · « **Reply #6 on:** November 02, 2003, 06:09:42 AM »

I use my black and tan Dachshund to find down deer. He(Felix) mainly runs circles around me or zig zags infront of me; Doesn't seem to use the blood trail scent but I allways put him down on blood if Its there. He barks and circles if the deer is still alive and growles while biteing and tugging on the deer if it's dead. I also feed him heart or a piece of the liver. His grandfather wouldn't find dead deer but would live ones and was the best squirrel pointer i have ever seen. His dad wouldn't do squat but his mom was best for going underground after groundhog or rabbits but totally ignored deer. I keep hopeing for a weenie that will adeptly do it all but they all seem to be only trainable for things they had an interest in the first place. I have been trying for 9 years to get Felix to see anything more than two feet off the ground to no avail.

freddogs · « **Reply #7 on:** November 02, 2003, 07:44:08 AM »

I was reading a book on drathaars that I got with my new pup. It mentions blood tracking deer. My buddy was looking at a wirehair dachshound at one time. I guess they are popular blood tracking dogs. I would think most dogs could be trained to blood track. It sounds like a lot of german breeds are used for this. It would be a useful skill to train a dog for.

whitetail addict · « **Reply #8 on:** November 05, 2003, 05:23:54 PM »

Frog123, my dad has a jack russel/rat terrier mix and he'll turn 2 years old on thanksgiving and he's found around 40 to 50 deer the last 2 hunting seasons. He's even found some deer 10 to 12 hours later, gut shot that we went back the next morning and recovered.The only deer we haven't found that there was some type of blood trail was the ones that i felt like would survive, non-lethal hits.These dogs have excellent noses and talk about saving time and wandering around your hunting spot stinking it up I wish we would have had a recovery dog years ago.just my personal experience but,he's not a bit interested in a live deer, if you get blood from the deer he will either find him or you'll know the deer is gonna recover from the hit. :money:

Gene Randle · « **Reply #9 on:** November 06, 2003, 12:18:40 PM »

I have a dog that is truly amazing at recovering hard to find game. He has found deer 36 hours after the shot with no blood showing whatsoever (bled like crazy the last 10 yards of a 150 yard run after a really high shot) and ignores all other scent trails along the way. I also use the same dog for squirrel, hogs and bear. If anyone can use such a trophy recovery service give me a call as soon as possible after the shot.
Gene Randle
1265 Putman Road
Oneonta, AL
(205) 368-1824
grandle@schoel.com

mdhunter · « **Reply #10 on:** December 16, 2003, 05:42:19 AM »

I got a standard wirehair dachshund from NY state - home of Deersearch. She is now 8 months old and has been on 10 blood lines this year and recovered 8 of the deer. Most of these were easy finds, but she is doing very well. The website below is a good source of information for this type of work, and John Jeanneney has a book on the subject that was recently published.

www.born-to-track.com

check it out. I've been very impressed with the scenting ability of my young dog thus far. I am a bowhunter primarily, and aim to recover any deer that I shoot. I've also begun to help other hunters find wounded deer. Not all states allow tracking with dogs, but MD does allow it now.

Beeg · « **Reply #11 on:** January 04, 2004, 05:18:24 PM »

I have read on Michigansportsman.com on the deer hunting forum where a guy who goes by "liver & onions" uses deer recovery dogs. Might stop by there and talk whit him about them . Seems like a real good guy and loves the dogs.

tabbycat · « **Reply #12 on:** January 21, 2004, 02:36:38 PM »

This is my first reply on this forum. A redbone hound would be good for you,
they work well off of a leash. I've been hunting deer with hounds all my life.

Tabbycat Elkins

OTTOMATIC · « **Reply #13 on:** February 15, 2004, 02:42:37 PM »

Quote from: mdhunter

I got a standard wirehair dachshund from NY state - home of Deersearch. She is now 8 months old and has been on 10 blood lines this year and recovered 8 of the deer. Most of these were easy finds, but she is doing very well. The website below is a good source of information for this type of work, and John Jeanneney has a book on the subject that was recently published.

www.born-to-track.com

check it out. I've been very impressed with the scenting ability of my young dog thus far. I am a bowhunter primarily, and aim to recover any deer that I shoot. I've also begun to help other hunters find wounded deer. Not all states allow tracking with dogs, but MD does allow it now.

A friend of mine has been ivolved with deersearch since 1987 He too uses a dachshund . His dog was very impressive. Found a deer for me..............OTTO

prairiedog555 · « **Reply #14 on:** September 04, 2006, 07:22:18 AM »

In Germany they use Drathars. I saw a video where they tie a stick with a string around dogs neck and set it off to find deer and when it comes back if it has stick in it's mouth it has found the deer and then leads you to it. Really, these are remarkable dogs. Then you can take it upland hunting and it will point and retrive or swim for ducks. they have webbed feet like a lab. Then take it home and it will protect your house.

LEO · « **Reply #15 on:** October 03, 2006, 09:17:21 AM »

I handle a bloodhound for work and I have seen the way he reacts when he comes across blood on the trail. It is like he is on fire, you had better hold on because you are going for a run, just hope the fellow is close. But the point of this is most dogs will follow a blood trail. I would recommend that if you want to train a dog for this start with a dog that naturally trails such as a beagle this will just make the process easier. I recomended the beagle because they are small, easy kept, hardy and a people dog. Another thing to remember is if you are going to be successful at this you will only be able to use the dog for deer recovery and you must learn to present the specific scent you want the dog to follow. I understand that in some areas there is money to be made doing this sort of thing, I doubt you would get rich but you might pay for dog food and vet bills.

tpdtom · « **Reply #16 on:** December 10, 2006, 04:58:47 AM »

Quote from: prairiedog555 on September 04, 2006, 07:22:18 AM

In Germany they use Drathars. I saw a video where they tie a stick with a string around dogs neck and set it off to find deer and when it comes back if it has stick in it's mouth it has found the deer and then leads you to it. Really, these are remarkable dogs. Then you can take it upland hunting and it will point and retrive or swim for ducks. they have webbed feet like a lab. Then take it home and it will protect your house.

That "stick" is a leather strap called a bringsel. I suppose they might use a stick too and I just don't know about it. All German versatile hunting dogs that go to the test for finished hunting dogs (VGP) must follow a blood track on leash to pass. In Germany, if you are big game hunting, you must have a trained and tested blood tracking dog on site just in case you wound an animal and it gets away leaving a blood track.

A group of German dog owners in Michigan were successful in getting the law changed to allow us to do this, but only on leash. The training is not difficult, and many dogs will do it, but of course it's easier if the dog has the natural inclination. It seems like short hounds are often used as well in Germany, with little wirehaired Dachshunds being very popular. We use 750 mls of cow or sheep blood over several hundred yards for training, with one wound bed where there is a pool of blood. You must keep the dog very calm and encourage him to track. In reality, the hunter and dog are a team, with the hunter looking for blood with the dog on a down stay at the start of the track.

Contact VDD/GNA at http://www.vdd-gna.org/ for more info...Tom

versdog · « **Reply #17 on:** December 17, 2006, 01:39:15 PM »

I have a Drahthaar and have been through the VGP with him and did the blood track. A lot of the German dogs are not specialists but versatile dogs. The German's don't believe in feeding a dog to point then another to track game and another to retrieve, they breed all into one. They believe in recovery of wounded game to the extent, if your dog cant find it you go to town and get a better one that can.

The Germans have a couple of methods to track deer. One is on lead, the other is totrebeiser "dead game guide" , this is using the brindsel and the dog leads you back to the dead deer. The other is totrebeller, "dead game bayer" The dog find the deer on its own and sits on top and barks until the handler comes to him. This maybe for hours that he barks. From what I have been told Southern Germany uses this method more because of the deep forests and mountains. The handler may listen to where the dog is and drive around the mountain to get at the location more easily. As I said this may take some time. I have heard that these dogs did not catch on real well in the states because they are really noisy even when not hunting. Nobody likes a neighbor with a noisy dog.

During the Utility test the dogs track, if I remeber correctly, a 600 meter track using 8 oz. of blood that must have aged a minimum of 6 hours. Another test would include the same but aged 20 hours and another aged 40 hours.

I have used my DD to track a couple of deer worked very well. Tracked on for over 1/2 mile and produced the deer still alive and the last time I saw him, doing very well. I think it was a muscle shot to the ham.

cottonpicker · « **Reply #18 on:** January 06, 2007, 09:09:40 PM »

i know many people that have them,including myself.i always mix in a lil deer blood occaionaly with his food.most people that have them,use them for trailing wounded deer and nothing else.it is very important that they trail for blood and not the deer itself. you also will wont to keep the dog on a leash when trailling also.as far as breeds, beagles are an excellent choice

stuffit · « **Reply #19 on:** January 06, 2007, 11:17:18 PM »

I think that there are likely few dogs that will not follow a blood trail left by a wounded deer. The trick is to keep them in sight. We have a couple of rat terriers who perform very well in respect to following a blood trail left by a deer hit with "less than perfect" shot placement. We keep the younger dog on a leash. A dog's instinct from primeval times is to follow blood. It doesn't take a lot of encouragement for them to get the idea that it's a joint venture. Feed 'em some scraps when you dress out the deer and you'vel got a confirmed "blood trail" dog for sure.

stuffit

highwayman · « **Reply #20 on:** June 18, 2007, 04:06:47 AM »

be careful telling people you have a dog that can do this. i know of three that has been stole from their handlers after word got out what they could do.

little pete · « **Reply #21 on:** June 22, 2007, 06:00:04 PM »

I have one of the big male Catahoula dogs and he will track and find deer or moose when the shot is bad. Pete is a male black and tan colored dog who loves to hunt. I had him in the truck a few years ago when a nice buck popped up on a sidehill slash. I jumped out and knocked him down but he was up a minute later and trying for the bush line. He was staggering and not wanting to make him into hamburger, I hollered Pete out of the truck where he had been watching and he that buck by the throat and down right away. When I saw the buck had expired I whistled Pete in and back to the truck he came. I also used him to track a moose in some thick brush. Pete was working way off to the right of me and ignored me when I whistled him but he was right. When I wandered over there was Pete and the dead moose. The most interesting thing I have seen him do is this. I took the neighbour boy up in the hills a year back and he brought his 22 rifle. I was off down the road looking for fire wood logs and heard the young fellow quit shooting. Back I went to make sure all was well and there was the young fellow just standing there. I asked why he had quit shooting at the popcan he had set up in a small tree and he said Pete kept jumping up at him and pulling on his arm. I took the gun and took a shot at the can an Pete did the same to me. We had a moment and I took another shot and knocked the can out of the tree. Over went Pete and brought the can back and dropped it at my feet. I realized then that we were supposed to be hunting squirrel and Pete was fed up the shooting at a can. He is a great piece of work and lives to go hunting. I have bought a bitch Cat dog and hope the breed just once so I can have another Pete down the line.