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Tracking dog in Adams county

xbowguy

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
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Licking Co. Ohio
Hope you get good news soon. Do you know what style Rage he was shooting? That Stryker should have blown on through. Curious to hear about the shot angle.
 

Carpn

*Supporting Member*
2,234
87
Wooster
No word yet . Which is never good. I haven't tried calling or texting but the last thing he needs is me blowing up his phone if he's out looking . Hopefully it works out .
 

Carpn

*Supporting Member*
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Wooster
No luck . Blood petered out so they were grid searching. They Found the arrow where the deer had started to circle back into the cedar hollow it came out of when he shot it . He has to leave town tomorrow morning but his buddies are gonna keep up the search . Said it was a 150+ ten point . He also said they jumped a 170 plus buck out of a crp field while searching .
 

rsmith

Member
1,835
52
I would have your buddy's friends get the dog and track it tomorrow and have the deer in the garage when he gets back. Sounds like a dead deer just a matter of time I guess.
 

giles

Cull buck specialist
Supporting Member
I would have your buddy's friends get the dog and track it tomorrow and have the deer in the garage when he gets back. Sounds like a dead deer just a matter of time I guess.

Depending on how bad the guys tracked up the area, might not be worth a dog. A good handler doesn't want to dog to fail, and that's a good way to set it up for failure. At this point I'm not even sure I'd go help. I'm sure they are just looking for white belly.
 

Carpn

*Supporting Member*
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Yeah , thats how it sounds to me . I still think they're gonna find it . If he hit it where he thinks he did its dead . The thing I find curious is that the deer never bedded and also the arrow wasn't a clean pass thru ? Even a rage should have zipped thru on a hit like he described . Makes me wonder if he actually hit it high and back and shot it right above the spine , thru the back straps . I wasn't there tho to see nothing so I'm just thinking about different scenarios .
 

rsmith

Member
1,835
52
Depending on how bad the guys tracked up the area, might not be worth a dog. A good handler doesn't want to dog to fail, and that's a good way to set it up for failure. At this point I'm not even sure I'd go help. I'm sure they are just looking for white belly.
I know literally nothing about tracking deer with a dog so that's good to know if need be to stay out of the area if I'm absoutly unsure of the shot and would need to call a dog to track. Does the dog get the scents from human and deer mixed and that causes them to get confused and possible not find it or is he just not able to pick up the scent in the first place? I'm sorry if these are dumb questions just curious at this point

 

giles

Cull buck specialist
Supporting Member
Some dogs follow blood, good ones follow a scent given by the foot gland. I don't remember the name of this scent...

Anyways, once you go in and start tracking. You end up tracking this scent all over the place and it confuses the dog.
 

rsmith

Member
1,835
52
Some dogs follow blood, good ones follow a scent given by the foot gland. I don't remember the name of this scent...

Anyways, once you go in and start tracking. You end up tracking this scent all over the place and it confuses the dog.
That's interesting. So do most people train dogs to specialize in just one type of tracking like blood tracking or scent tracking or can a dog do both? And that makes sense about a people stepping on the deers track then picking up that scent on your boot and now you're tracking the deers scent on a separate trail. I'll have to read up on this it's pretty interesting to me.

 

giles

Cull buck specialist
Supporting Member
That's interesting. So do most people train dogs to specialize in just one type of tracking like blood tracking or scent tracking or can a dog do both? And that makes sense about a people stepping on the deers track then picking up that scent on your boot and now you're tracking the deers scent on a separate trail. I'll have to read up on this it's pretty interesting to me.

This is beyond my knowledge...my personal speculation on this is: Most dogs start as blood dogs, certain dogs can be trained on this scent.

I've been thinking about getting (or training) a tracking dog for a few years now. So I've done a bit of research and talking with other handlers. Like Shawn (the guy I suggested), he actually had a couple of pups for sale last year and I didn't have the coin. With this job, I'm not sure I'd be much help to hunters either. Rut is generally "go-time" for farmers and that's what I work with. So I work some extra hours during this time of year.

Sorry for the hi-jack. I think this is good info that might help someone someday.

Also, everything after the shot is key. Call a good tracker and he's going to break it all down and ask questions, you need to know the answers.

What did the deer do? Bolt/jump/mule kick

What does the arrow look like? Red/dark/pink blood...probably going to want you to send him a pic.

What does the blood trail look like? Probably also going to want a pic of this...

How far did you track it?

How much property do we have to deal with? As in, can we cross property lines?

How many people have been on this trail?

All these questions are for good reason. The tracker knows his dog will get on the trail and follow that deer, either to a body or till you jump it up. Good dogs are amazing to watch. If you feel like you didn't do your job, don't call all your buddies. They ain't helping...sure it works sometimes. But if you call a professional, you get a professional job. Even if it's just a phone consult, you will know exactly what to do after you talk to them. Just like humans, some people can track and others can't. Dogs are no different. When a guy pulls up and pulls out a long haired wiener dog...shit just got real. Don't laugh at that little dog, he's a thousand times more capable than your buddy's lab.

Hope this helps!
 

giles

Cull buck specialist
Supporting Member
Another tip, don't call the guys dog a wiener dog...they will end up rattling off some 5 mile long name that sounds weirder than wiener dog.

I'd like a Slovakian Kopov...I'd name him Tonk.