Moultrie Mobile
How to Train a Blood Tracking Dog
Whitetail Deer
Contributors to this thread:
drycreek 27-Oct-14
Clutch 27-Oct-14
cityhunter 27-Oct-14
3dvapor 27-Oct-14
Drahthaar 27-Oct-14
cityhunter 27-Oct-14
SmoothieJonez 27-Oct-14
Callingalldeer 27-Oct-14
Drnaln 27-Oct-14
TurkeyBowMaster 28-Oct-14
Callingalldeer 28-Oct-14
Callingalldeer 28-Oct-14
GEN273 28-Oct-14
midwest 28-Oct-14
midwest 28-Oct-14
writer 28-Oct-14
cityhunter 28-Oct-14
midwest 28-Oct-14
midwest 28-Oct-14
Trial153 29-Oct-14
midwest 29-Oct-14
LongbowLes 29-Oct-14
Florida Mike 30-Oct-14
cityhunter 30-Oct-14
JLBSparks 30-Oct-14
midwest 30-Oct-14
LongbowLes 01-Nov-14
writer 01-Nov-14
lewis 03-Nov-14
Medicinemann 07-Nov-14
midwest 07-Nov-14
cityhunter 07-Nov-14
LongbowLes 07-Nov-14
writer 07-Nov-14
cityhunter 08-Nov-14
LongbowLes 08-Nov-14
writer 08-Nov-14
Callingalldeer 09-Nov-14
LongbowLes 09-Nov-14
INbowdude 11-Nov-14
TD 11-Nov-14
boothill 11-Nov-14
writer 12-Nov-14
TurkeyBowMaster 12-Nov-14
writer 02-Dec-14
midwest 03-Dec-14
boothill 11-Dec-14
Drahthaar 11-Dec-14
cityhunter 11-Dec-14
writer 11-Dec-14
Rayzor 11-Dec-14
midwest 11-Dec-14
boothill 11-Dec-14
Paul@thefort 11-Dec-14
Drahthaar 14-Dec-14
writer 14-Dec-14
StormCloud 14-Dec-14
INbowdude 14-Dec-14
Drahthaar 15-Dec-14
writer 15-Dec-14
Drahthaar 17-Dec-14
boothill 17-Dec-14
writer 17-Dec-14
INbowdude 19-Dec-14
StormCloud 19-Dec-14
midwest 26-Jan-15
Barty1970 03-Feb-15
Drahthaar 05-Feb-15
midwest 06-Jul-15
writer 06-Jul-15
Drahthaar 07-Jul-15
midwest 03-Jun-18
Fuzz 03-Jun-18
27-Oct-14

Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
My husband and I have been guiding and outfitting hunts for many years, and over the past fourteen or so have employed the use of a blood tracking dog to help recover wounded animals. Unfortunately when our veteran tracker Sage became terminally ill, we were forced to resort back to tracking by sight for a couple of years. This experience made us realize the value of a tracking dog to help recover wounded game. Now before I go any further, I'd like to clarify that a tracking dog is not used to hunt game in any way. The tracking dog is used solely to help recover animals that have been shot, and simply can not be found by conventional means. This is especially important in salvaging meat in warm weather, or areas with coyotes or other predators that may feast on your dead animal.

With the passing of Sage, we have now acquired a new blood tracking prospect which is starting her training this week. She is just nine weeks old and I decided to document our entire training regimen to perhaps help others who may be interested in training their own tracking dog. In most states it is legal to track only on a leash, so that's what we're going to do with Kai.

Before we begin, I'd like to add that the most valuable resource you can get before attempting to train your own dog is a copy of John Jeanneney's book "Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer". This book goes into great detail in helping you not only train your dog, but in choosing a good prospect. It can be ordered at www.born-to-track.com.

From: drycreek
27-Oct-14
Bring it !

From: Clutch
27-Oct-14
What breed is Kai ? Daschund ?

From: cityhunter
27-Oct-14

cityhunter's embedded Photo
cityhunter's embedded Photo
Rudi and I got to meet John last year at a Teckel meet in upstate NY ! John and Jolanta have devoted there life's to educating so many on blood tracking wounded game ! Im so happy for you guys it will help fill a gap post us a pic !! Another area is UBT United Blood Trackers

Im sure this elk would have went to waste if not for Rudi's tracking ability . Best of luck louis

27-Oct-14
When looking for a blood tracking prospect, it's important to choose a dog that's sole purpose is to please you. Just about any dog can follow a scent trail, but not every dog will ignore an exciting hot track of another animal to stay on a boring blood trail. You need to hone the dog's instincts and train them to ignore all of the other distractions that they will encounter. That's the hard part of training a true tracking dog. If a dog leaves a bloodtrail to chase a live deer, it's more of a liability than an asset. That's why it's important to have a dog that's properly trained to do the job, and some are much easier to train than others.

I won't talk about what breeds make better trackers, because it would be like starting a thread here asking what brand of broadhead is best. There are too many choices that would fit the bill, but I can help you choose which puppy in the litter would make the best prospect. Incidentally, Kai is a German Jagdterrier bred from hunting/tracking lines. While the jagdterrier is an awesome hunting dog, they don't make the best family pets. There are always exceptions to that rule, but if you're looking for a dog that will be content to lie on the couch nine months of the year, this one isn't the dog for the job! When we retired Sage due to illness, she remodeled our bathroom trying to find a mouse in the ductwork. We hunt year 'round however, so this breed best suits our needs.

When looking for a blood tracking prospect, we like to evaluate the entire litter if at all possible. There may only be one or two pups in a litter that will make good trackers, so we like to have as many to choose from as possible. When looking for a breeder, it's best to buy from a litter where both parents were also tracking dogs. That just increases the likelihood that your pup will have the right "ingredients".

The first thing I like to evaluate when looking at a litter of pups, is their desire to be with you. It's best to evaluate them when they're at least eight weeks old, but preferably around ten weeks. I want a pup that's bold, but not aggressive. When you hold a pup on it's back, I don't want the fearful pup that just lays on it's back without trying to right itself- nor do I want the pup that's biting at my wrist trying to get away. A pup that allows you to hold it on it's back, but still resists a little shows that it's bold, but not overly so.

Hopefully the pups have been exposed to loud noises before you buy one. When you make a loud noise, the pup should either show no reaction, or be alert or startled, but not frightened. Avoid pups that run and hide from loud sounds.

When you roll a ball, you want a pup that chases after it. Even better yet if they fetch it and bring it back to you.

I also like a pup that runs to me when I call them to me. The puppy that jumps up and solicits affection is usually going to the top of the class in this category.

Lastly, I take a piece of hide or hoof to entice the pups with. I drag the hide across the ground and hide it. I lean strongly toward the pup that uses it's nose to try and find the hidden object. If a pup shows no desire to work the scent, they are crossed off the list.

Above all else, a pup that wants to be with me and follow me is the one that's going to get the highest scores. Unless it refuses to work a scent, it's usually the pup wins with me.

It can be quite confusing when trying to choose from a large litter, so it is nice to have a different colored ribbon to tie around each pup to know which one is which. I also print out an "test score" sheet where I record my results for each pup in each category. Heaven knows I can't rely on my memory any more, and it's nice to have a piece of paper or even a video to review.

From: 3dvapor
27-Oct-14
Awesome thread!!! Looking forward to the training

27-Oct-14

Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo

Tradman and Huntress's Link
Louis- here's a pic of Kai learning to be patient. She will be spending a lot of time waiting at the Polaris while we interview our hunters before turning her out on a track. I'm surprised she hasn't take a flying leap off the seat yet!

John and Jolanta were very instrumental in helping us pick our second blood tracker, Chigger. His book wasn't out when we bought Sage, but our training techniques were remarkably similar. I'm also a bit biased since he put Sage's picture in his book :)

We too are members of UBT, and I failed to post a link to the organization. They are another great resource for folks getting into tracking, or looking to employ a tracker. They have an expansive network of folks willing to come out and help track wounded deer. The link is attached above.

From: Drahthaar
27-Oct-14
Huntress,john book is a exceient read. I also recomend it to anyone going to train a blood tracking dog. I have had you in mind latley about sage, I no how much you miss her. but you have a beautiful pup now so let the frustraion and fun begin. he pup does carry itself well. Forrest

From: cityhunter
27-Oct-14
Awesome looking female !! We have a local NY deer search fellow with a German Jagdterrier his dog loves to track . Usually dogs are called due to a hunter not finding his animal/lack of blood etc ,hunter is at a low point down in the dumps . Then u say the magic words FOUND IT ! hunter goes from dumps to clouds with them few choice words !!!! Its a awesome feeling to work with a good dog .Louis

27-Oct-14
Looking forward to following along. I don't want to get off topic, but do you also train your blood tracking dog to shed hunt as well or would that be too much of a task to combine?

27-Oct-14
I've had three tracking dogs since 95. i can't take the credit for training them. My healer was a natural,and trained the Newfoundlander and it trained my husky/coyote.the first two are dead now but Nanook will track ducks,geese,turkeys,deer and bear.She's with me 24/7.lol,I go out side to move the truck and she starts crying,than goes to my bed until I come home.She loves the truck and tracking,lol.Their special.Brent

From: Drnaln
27-Oct-14

Drnaln's embedded Photo
Drnaln's embedded Photo
My German Jagdterrier with a blacktail I arrowed a few years back. I had already found the buck but went back & got Jagders to let her track it down for training! they are great dogs! David

28-Oct-14
I used on the job training method for training my golden retriever. Started her off at 6 months. Took her on the good hit deer even if I heard or saw them fall. By 2 years if age she was ready for poor hit deer. I never use a leash..it's too thick for leashes. She gets out ahead sometimes and either waits or comes back and gets us. On non vital hits she will not track at all...how she knows I can't tell you but she knows. She is good on turkeys too.

28-Oct-14
Yah they know.My healer would raise his tale high and prance the last 20-30 yards,lol.

28-Oct-14
i hope you don't mind me posting a few pictures of my babies.

[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Greenhorn/media/100_0022.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/Greenhorn/100_0022.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

From: GEN273
28-Oct-14

GEN273's embedded Photo
GEN273's embedded Photo
Good looking pup, looking forward to following your post. Jagds are great, I definetly got an exception to the rule. Great hunter & great family dog too. Here is my Roscoe.

From: midwest
28-Oct-14
Really looking forward to following along....great thread! Thanks for taking the time.

These Jagds look like a Min Pin on steroids.

From: midwest
28-Oct-14
Jagd pronounced "YAHK" correct?

28-Oct-14
SmoothieJonez, there's no reason not to train a tracking dog to find sheds as well, however I would wait until much later to do so. I want them to learn one task at a a time so as not to confuse the pup.

Jagd ears and Roscoe are both fine looking jagds! We sure do love the breed. And yes, it's pronounced "yahk". It's a good thing they only weigh 20 pounds, as they have no fear whatsoever.

I am having trouble getting the video posted. I will try again later when I get back to the home computer.

From: writer
28-Oct-14
Seriously, Cheryl, we're supposed to believe that adorable puppy sitting in the buggy is supposed to end up being a rough and tumble hunting dog?

Seriously?

This is going to be fun.

Keep it coming, please.

28-Oct-14

Tradman and Huntress's Link
It's hard to believe, isn't it Michael? I remember thinking the exact same thing when seeing Sage for the first time, as she rolled down the baggage claim at the airport. "There's just no way that's going to grow up to be a bona fide hog dog!" Ha!

I can't get the video loaded on Bowsite TV so until I figure out what I'm doing wrong, here's a link to a Youtube video of Kai's breeder (James Mills, Cumberland Pack) socializing the pups at about 5 1/2 weeks of age. It's important that the pups are exposed to loud noises before you ever shoot around them, but I'll talk about that more later.

From: cityhunter
28-Oct-14
How didn't u buy them all !!!! I would have picked the pup tearing at the guys leg !!

From: midwest
28-Oct-14
Dang it, Cheryl, that's not fair!!! ....must_resist_buying_puppy....

From: midwest
28-Oct-14
When I was training my beagle pups for noise, I would let them loose in the yard and wait until they weren't paying attention to me. Then I would shoot my .22 into the ground, call them to me, and give them a treat. After a couple days, they could be clear around the other side of the house and when I shot the gun they would come running for a treat. Worked very well.

29-Oct-14
Louis, it was easy to take just one after having had two jagds in the house at the same time once before. It will never happen again :)

That is a good technique Nick. I inherited a gun shy german wire haired pointer once that I intended to hunt quail with. It wasn't an easy fix, but it can be done. Thank you for embedding the video for me. It appears my problem is that the video are too large to download here. Can you tell me how you did that, as I had to download the next two on youtube also.

From: Trial153
29-Oct-14
John is a class act. I have been lucky enough to track with him several times and handle a couple of his dogs. When it comes to definitive info on blood tracking dogs he and his book are the number one source your going to find.

From: midwest
29-Oct-14
Just right click on your youtube video and select "copy embed code" then paste in the body of your message.

29-Oct-14

Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Thank you Nick. And James, you might say that John wrote the book on blood tracking with dogs in the United States, quite literally. He and Jolanta forged the way for the rest of us.

Now before we start practicing on mock blood trails, we need to make sure our pup is used to walking on a leash politely. The first few times you do so, you're likely to have a little rodeo like Kai is demonstrating above. This is actually after I got her all untangled from the lead after her little temper tantrum. We went for a nice long walk over at camp with her dragging the leash most of the way. She is now used to having that rope follow her as we walk through the woods. It's still a little scary when it snags a limb and starts chasing her, but that will go away with experience.

From: LongbowLes
29-Oct-14

LongbowLes's embedded Photo
LongbowLes's embedded Photo
Great tread! Looking forward to Kai's progress. Here's my Greta and her first deer about a week after she tangled with a coyote/s. I'd say they're more like a JRT on steroids. 2 in the house? No thanks

30-Oct-14
Good job Greta! What breed is she?

We're ready for our first mock bloodtrail now that we're used to walking on a leash. When laying out your pups first trail, make sure to keep it simple. It's like taking a kid fishing for the first time. You're not going to hand them a fly rod and take them out on a trout stream- you give them a worm on a small hook with a bobber and take them to the farm pond that's overpopulated with little bluegills. The whole idea is to let them have fun, and have some success so they'll want to do it again.

I prefer to lay out a thin, but continuous trail for the first few times. I use a syringe with a large needle and just dribble the blood in an area where there are no other distractions. I also make sure that we are tracking downwind so she is forced to keep her nose down to the ground instead of air scenting the trail. I personally like to mark the trail so I can tell if she's staying on it or not. I stuck a couple of arrows in the ground indicating the beginning, the end and any turns along the track. In this first trail I laid the blood in a straight line extending about four feet from the arrow on the right to the arrow on the left. At the second arrow, the trail makes a right turn and goes another three feet to the third arrow. Along the trail are a few snacks of raw venison and then at the end is a hog foot. She likes the snacks alright, but just loves that hog hoof! It's important to encourage them and make sure to keep them on the trail that first time until they figure out what they're supposed to be following. I also repeat the same phrase over and over again that I will use when we turn out on a real track later. In this case it's "find it". I also got in the habit of calling whatever we're tracking a "piggy", which is a little embarrassing at times, but if you hire my dog to track you're stuck with me and my quirks!

Whatever you do, keep the exercise fun and don't ever do anything to frighten or discourage the pup on these first few tracks. I only work each track one time, and then lay a new one in a different location. You don't want to confuse the pup by having two different bloodtrails, or by making any negative corrections at this point. Just keep it fun and upbeat. They'll make a few mistakes, but at this early age that's okay. As long as she's having fun and getting a feel for what she's supposed to be doing. I know one thing for sure...I'm sure enjoying watching her find that piggy!

From: Florida Mike
30-Oct-14
I noticed Cheryl had to keep a tight leash. We always trained our hounds without a leash. Is the leash method better? Do you have a specific reason to use the leash in the early stages? Or does it have something to do with it being a terrier instead of a hound? Mike

30-Oct-14
I've found that it's easier to make a correction immediately when they're on a leash, especially at this young of an age. It's easy for a pup to lose their focus on the blood and take off chasing a leaf that just blew by, or to skip the blood altogether and go straight for the treat. We try to keep her on blood the whole way so she won't miss any turns. It saves a lot of wild goose chases later in life. Every dog is different however, so you can adapt to what your dogs responds best to.

From: cityhunter
30-Oct-14
Mike most states its law to have a dog on a leash for blood tracking .

From: JLBSparks
30-Oct-14
My Border Collie has "found" every deer I've killed for the past 10 years and all I had to do was get him within 15 yards, or so, of where the deer was standing when shot. Other than being one of the best trackers I've ever owned, he responds to commands about like a cat.

-Joe

From: midwest
30-Oct-14
"he responds to commands about like a cat."

LOL! Sounds like a hard headed Beagle....they only pay attention to their nose!

01-Nov-14

On day two we laid another bloodtrail using pig blood again. This time the track is a little more sparse since she was so interested in stopping to lick the blood the first time. I made sure the blood was down on the ground instead of up on the blades of grass. The trail extends from the first arrow to the second arrow, where it makes a 90 degree left turn. From there it continues to the third arrow where it makes a 90 degree right turn. The pig foot is hidden in the grass behind the hay bale. She did a better job of keeping her nose down and following the blood this time. I'm happy to see a little more though process on this track. We are going to continue doing the same with more tracks in different locations over the weekend and next week. I'll post more video when we are ready to add another challenge.

From: LongbowLes
01-Nov-14

LongbowLes's embedded Photo
LongbowLes's embedded Photo
She's UKC registered Jagdterrier. Mother from the Cumberland pack and father from Canada with serbian lines. She's got a ruff coat and is a little big at 22# which suits her well with deep snow and little ground work.

From: writer
01-Nov-14
Cheryl - good stuff, love watching that tail shake as those instincts kick in.

But it's time to quit the day job and get to training Kai and keeping us in videos fulltime.

Don't worry about Matt, he doesn't need to sleep or bowhunt this time of the year. :-)

03-Nov-14
She's a good looking dog Les. From that first picture she looked much larger, which threw me off.

Michael- neither of us are getting much sleep with a pup that likes to wake up early when we have to work so late! But keeping Matt out of the woods this time of year...it just ain't gonna happen.

Kai is progressing well on keeping her nose down more and staying with the blood. I'm using less blood now and spreading the tracks out a little more. I will try to get more video in the next day or two if we don't get rained out.

From: lewis
03-Nov-14
Great thread we have always had Labs.but the older I get the more I look at smaller dogs.Are you mixing the blood with anything to keep it from clotting?Lewis

03-Nov-14
Lewis, we have the luxury of fresh blood every day so I just use blood from the body cavity that is not a part of the clot. You can put clotted blood in the blender and freeze it to use later. I prefer not to use any anticoagulants lest the dog smell it.

That little 20 pound dog just about pulled my arm off while tracking. I can't imagine folks who track with 100 pound bloodhounds! I remember reading once that you can always recognize bloodhound handlers by their one long arm...lol.

07-Nov-14

Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
We sur had an exciting morning today! Matt went out and shot a small piglet and let it run off without tracking it. He saw it crash about thirty yards away and called for me to bring Kai.

The bloodtrail started right on the edge of the road so we took her out to the spot and let her get a good nose full of the scent. We worked her on lead first just to make sure she was staying on the trail, but I was clearly holding her back. When I unclipped the lead she worked the trail like a true champion. She kept her nose down the whole time and never strayed more than a foot or so to either side of the trail before correcting herself. She was so intent on th blood she walked right into the pig! I couldn't have been more proud of her! It's such an awesome feeling to see a dog do what it was bred to do, and enjoy it so much!

We let her wool on the pig for a little while and then carried it back to the Polaris, but once we put it up in the bed she took off down the road. She never ventures very far from us so I was curious what she was up to. She ran back down the road to where the bloodtrail started and immediately struck it and turned into the woods to follow it again. With her nose down, she worked the trail again and went directly to the spot the pig had previously been laying. We praised her and let her lick up some of the blood clots from the spot before carrying her back to the Polaris.

We let her ride in the bed with her new prize all the way back to camp, just like Sage used to do. My eyes are welling up with tears as I type this, but it's an overwhelming combination of emotions to see this little pup following in her big sister's pawprints!

From: Medicinemann
07-Nov-14
Outstanding!!

From: midwest
07-Nov-14
Way to go, Kai!

From: cityhunter
07-Nov-14
that's great

From: LongbowLes
07-Nov-14
That's great news! Greta found her 2nd deer last Saturday and got a taste of her first coon Wednesday. I know better than to wish for hogs but I wish she had half the work yours does.

From: writer
07-Nov-14
Amazing to watch those instincts kick-in.

Like Sage, Kai is in-tune with her pack leaders enough to sense the excitement, too. You three deserve each other.

(OK, Cheryl, please insert the "I told you so" for how important it was got get a new puppy going right after Sage passed.) :-)

A friend used his new cur to find a nice buck in heavy CRP this week in Kansas.

It was it's first find, too.

Great stuff, Cheryl, but you waited too long between reports.

08-Nov-14
Congratulations Greta! I remember Sage's first coon well. She grabbed it from the wrong end and it climbed up a tree with her attached to it's behind! She learned to dispatch them from the right end after that episode. If you're interested in tracking for other people, the UBT will put you on a list and advertise your services.

That's exciting that your friend was able to use his cur to find that buck Michael! Once you watch them work you want so badly to do it again, and again, and again. I think we will be eating a lot of roast suckling pig in the upcoming weeks! I have to admit that we probably wouldn't have gotten a pup so soon had you not made the comment when you were down here last about doing just that. That's what got us talking about it, even though we felt guilty for doing so at the time. I'd forgotten how much joy a pup can bring when they suddenly realize what they're supposed to do.

Our next hurdle is getting her to wear the harness. We put one on her last night and it looked like we were breaking a bucking horse! She even rolled over on her back and acted like it was killing her for a few seconds. Poor baby Kai. She's so abused :)

From: cityhunter
08-Nov-14
CHERYL ! I hear from many that once there dog has passed never want another, and I understand that . But in reality its part of life and not to have a dog would be living life on the sidelines !!! What better way to honor Sage then continue training/ tracking with Kai. louis

From: LongbowLes
08-Nov-14
Are blood trailing dogs now legal in KS? Thought I just read they were (stupidly) illegal in 13 states including KS. Maybe you meant KY;)

08-Nov-14
Yes Les. This is the first season they are now legal in Kansas!

From: writer
08-Nov-14
Yes, Les. The dogs must be leashed, and all weapon, shooting hour, trespass regulations still apply.

09-Nov-14
Vacuum sealing version will give you lots of blood for the tracking dog.

From: LongbowLes
09-Nov-14
Good news. Thanks

11-Nov-14

Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Something I failed to mention earlier is that I prefer to use blood from different species while training as well. I want her to learn that she's tracking a certain animal and not always a "piggy". Here she is with a grey squirrel we shot and let her track. Eventually when she progresses, she will need to track animals that are no longer bleeding, so she will have to be able to discern between the wounded animal and other healthy animals that she will encounter along the track.

From: INbowdude
11-Nov-14
Oh I need to get down there soon to let her track some piggies for me. Congrats Kai! Looks like see will have a tracking pup for the APORKalypse hunt as well as the Porkapalooza.

From: TD
11-Nov-14
Great thread, thanks for sharing with us.

Those noses are amazing. I think once they get locked on to a scent they know the individual animal even if no blood.

I've had an old GSP go get a downed rooster pheasant that barely stopped bouncing and while bringing him back, do almost a 180 spin and lock up on another bird with bird #1 still in his mouth. To me it made no sense, the pheasant smell in his nose must have been overwhelming..... but yet could still smell a separate different bird at the same time. There had to be an individual difference in their scent is all I can come up with.

I wish I had a camera on that point, it was solid, classic and thing of beauty with one in his mouth. And shortly the final bird to my limit, early day.... =D

To this day I think these dogs even know the "name" of the animal they just smelled, not just "hey, that's a deer" or whatever, but "hey, that's Bob!"

Thanks again for inviting us along here. Pretty cool. Good luck to you and Kai. (Kai in Hawaiian means ocean BTW. =D)

From: boothill
11-Nov-14
Looking forward to meeting the new little lady in February. Looks like she doing a great job of learning so far. Must be good teachers and good bloodlines.

12-Nov-14
That is exactly right TD. A true tracking dog needs to be able to follow the scent of the one particular animal they are sent out to track. We are never called out to track an animal that has left a visible bloodtrail, but rather the ones that aren't bleeding at all. It's amazing to watch the dog run into a whole passel of hogs and cut out the one that was shot. There have been so many times we shot wounded animals without seeing any visible blood or wounds, just because our dog told us that was the right one. One time we doubted her when we shot a hog and couldn't find a wound. As we were loading the pig on the four-wheeler though, we found just a nick on it's lower hind leg where the broad head had cut the back of the leg. We tracked and then chased that hog for hours that night! At least the hunter still got his trophy despite the poor shot.

From: writer
12-Nov-14
I still rate one of Sage's trails as one of the top three working dog performances I've seen.

The pig was hit too far back, and four of us could find NO blood, NO hair, and the pig had been one of several at the feeder. It was warm, and in the middle of the summer.

Sage took the trail in a direction the pig had traveled and stayed at a fairly steady pace, through two jumped herds of bedded pigs, across the ranch roads - twice, and across small creeks - twice, and went right to the very dead pig

In time, Kai will do the same, thanks to her bloodline and the time other two members of her pack are willing to invest.

The two best pieces of dog-related advice I ever got were -

- always believe in your dog, their nose and instincts are far superior to your brain.

- never brag about a dog unless it's dead or at least 2,000 miles away. :-)

12-Nov-14
I bet we would all be surprised at how many neighborhood pooches would track down game with little to no training at all....and we would be astonished at what breeds would perform the best. I have a coworker who is working with a shitzoo right now and it has found 2.

I will second the trust in your dog. You can always come back later and look for yourself.

17-Nov-14

Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
"- always believe in your dog, their nose and instincts are far superior to your brain.

- never brag about a dog unless it's dead or at least 2,000 miles away. "

That's good advice. I still haven't lived down the time I bragged up my German Wirehair, Lucy to Matt. Then, I brought her down to Texas to hunt quail. You would have thought that dog couldn't hunt her way out of a paper sack that day!

Kai has beem working hard this past week. She's been on three more live tracks and found the pig at the end of each. She works a lot like Sage picking her head up on occasion trying to wind the pig. I prefer for her to keep her nose down to the ground more, but as long as she stays on the trail and finds the animal I am not getting too wound up about it. Here's another small pig we shot for her to track. This is so much fun watching her get so excited when she finds the pig! Matt and I are both obsessed with going out and shooting stuff just to watch her track it!

02-Dec-14

Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Sorry for the lack of recent updates. Our hunters have been keeping us busy, which is good for Kai! We've been on several live tracks the past couple of weeks. The short tracks have become a little too easy for her so we've had to start putting her on more difficult tracks and let her try to sort it out herself. She makes a few puppy mistakes, but that's all part of the learning process. We want her to know that she needs to follow the scent trail to the animal, and. It just look for the animal itself.

A perfect opportunity arose when this buck was shot two weeks ago. It left a pretty generous bloodtrail and we knew the deer was dead despite having travelled over 70 yards. The trail had aged about an hour before Kai was put on it. She put her nose to the first blood and took off immediately in the direction the deer ran. She got hung up a few times, but realized when she was off the track and correctd herself most of the time. We're still working her on a lead, but have graduated to a 20 foot length so there isn't as much influence from us. We let her get off the trail when she loses it, but then watch her start circling back to try and pick it up again. It's time for her to start using her own brain to solve problems, instead of relying on us to get her back on the trail.

Here she is with her first whitetail trophy!

From: writer
02-Dec-14
Go Kai!

I'm curious, Matt and Cheryl, what your procedure is when someone comes in and tells you they've for-sure gut shot a pig, the kind of animal you know could stay alive for several more hours.

Do you put the dog on it right away, anyway, and hope they can bay-up the injured hog if it's still alive?

02-Dec-14

Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
If it's a hog, we put the dog on it immediately. Unlike deer that typically bed up when gut-shot, hogs will usually keep moving. The picture above shows just how tough hogs are. That hog was shot several days prior to me seeing it out on the edge of the road feeding. You can see a large portion of its stomach/intestines hanging down below the abdomen. Our only hope for recovering such an animal is if the dog can catch up to it before it covers too much ground. Fortunately, they leave such a strong scent trail that it makes it easy for the dog to track them.

That's one aspect of tracking that not we are very blessed to be able to use our dog for. If a wounded hog is still running, we are able to use the dog to bay it up so we can dispatch it. It always amazed me to see Sage cut the wounded animal out of a whole group of healthy hogs and hold it all by herself until we arrived to dispatch it. Sometimes that would take a half hour or more for us to catch up to her. Fortunately we have gps collars available now, so Kai will have a technological advantage that Sage didn't have.

From: midwest
03-Dec-14
Love it! Thanks for the update!

11-Dec-14
Kai is progressing nicely with following blood on aged trails. We have also finally graduated to a harness, now that she is big enough to fit into the smallest one we could find. Now that she is used to wearing the harness, we only put it on her when we're getting ready to track. We want her to know what she's supposed to be doing when we put her "work clothes" on. We are also taking her out for walks in the woods every day so she can get used to seeing and smelling healthy animals. A good tracking dog needs to be able to discern between which animal you want them to track and which animals you don't want them to track. There's nothing more frustrating than to have a tracking dog break off a bloodtrail to chase a healthy animal.

We had a good opportunity for a quick lesson yesterday when a fallow buck let us get too close while she was running off-lead. Before we knew it, the chase was on. The buck took off with Kai right on his heels. Fortunately, we had been working on her recall since a very young age, and for the first time in her life it paid off. We shouted "no" and then "Kai come" and she stopped chasing and returned to us. I hope we can get her to do that as an adult, but I'm not banking on it. If there's one thing that jagdterriers don't do well, it's breaking off of game. That's why we have to work so hard at channeling that instinct toward only wounded animals.

We are also doing a little bit more off-lead work with her now since that's how she will be doing most of her tracking jobs later. We get her on the known bloodtrail and then once we are convinced she is staying on the track of that animal, we turn her loose to find the animal with no influence from us. Eventually she will be baying up live wounded hogs, so this is good practice for the day she has to do that.

From: boothill
11-Dec-14
Thanks for the update on Kai. Just over 2 months till we get back down to see you folks. Don't want to have to call her out to trail but would love to see her work. She is progressing very good it seems.

From: Drahthaar
11-Dec-14
Cheryl,Kia is doing great, you are very lucky to be able to put her on a lot of natural tracks. does kia have the same bloodline as sage ? Forrest

From: cityhunter
11-Dec-14
good Job !!!!

From: writer
11-Dec-14
Looks so cute tracking, towing big Matt behind.

I can't tell, Cheryl, is Kai having any fun living with you guys?

From: Rayzor
11-Dec-14
That is awesome!!

From: midwest
11-Dec-14
Good girl!!! lol...I was smiling the whole video!

11-Dec-14
We're looking forward to introducing you to her Brian. It's going to be nice to have that "insurance policy" against lost hogs again.

Forrest- she's from a totally different bloodline than Sage. Sage was out of Knite Hunt background and Kai is out of James Mills Cumberland Pack. Her dam is out of Croatian blood and her sire, Serbian (if my memory is working properly right now).

I know it's hard to tell Mike, but I think she might be having a good time chasing those piggies! Wait 'til you see the video I'm trying to upload of her first introduction to a live hog! Let's just say we won't have to worry about her being afraid of those "not quite so dead" hogs :)

11-Dec-14

Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Nick, Kai is smiling with you!

From: boothill
11-Dec-14
I always knew Matt was a big softy but that video proved it. Hearing his voice praising her was great. Can't wait to see the next video.

From: Paul@thefort
11-Dec-14
TandH, Well it seems as the saying goes, that "dynamite does come in little packages".

As an owner and trainer of hunting Labradors, I can surely appreciate your devotion to train a dog the way it was bred to be. Kai is a "hoot".

I have surely enjoyed your adventure and will continue to follow along.

My best, Paul

13-Dec-14
We had somebody ask us a good question that I thought I would go ahead and address here while it's still on my mind. We were asked why we didn't buy a pup and let it learn from tracking with Sage, and there are a couple of reasons for that.

Blood tracking dogs are different than other hunting dogs. When you train a blood tracking dog, you learn to work as a team. As I mentioned earlier, one of the most important traits of a tracking dog is its desire to please its handler. The only way to forge that bond is to go through the training process together, and not have any other dogs with which to bond. We always want our blood tracker to be an "only child". In my opinion, a dog that is part of the family works harder to please us. Also, when you only have one dog, that dog can become another "once in a lifetime" dog. In the past when I've owned other breeds, my first dog of that breed was always the best. I could never understand why that was. Over time I've realized it's because I put so much more of me into training that first dog and had a much stronger bond with that dog. Whenever I brought another dog into the family, it always played second fiddle and never got the attention or training that the first one got. It also tended to bond more with the first dog than it did with me. That's fine when you have a team of bird dogs, hog dogs, sled dogs, or whatever...but in my opinion a blood tracking dog needs to be bonded to the handler and the handler alone.

Whenever Matt or I were out tracking with Sage, we could read each other's body language. We could tell when she was just looking for blood versus when she was on the blood. She could read whatever slight movements I made that let her know which side of the tree to go around while on a lead. With a new dog, you're constantly going one way while the dog goes the other, but with Sage it was instinctive for us both to go around the same side of every obstacle. It was uncanny how we could read each other, and that's something I miss dearly right now. Hopefully it will come with Kai as we both learn the ropes together. It's been difficult trying not to compare her to Sage. It think I'm expecting too much from her at such a young age, but at the same time she sure seems to be up for the challenge!

My second reason for not getting a second dog is purely emotional, and I'll spare you all having to read all that.

13-Dec-14

Now here's where we depart from typical blood tracking training for a little bit. Kai is going to be used primarily on our hunting ranch to track wounded hogs. Unfortunately a vast majority of wounded hogs are not dead when we find them, so a big part of her job is going to be to bay the wounded hog and hold it for us to finish it off. This is something that the breed must instinctively have in it. You need a dog that has enough grit to be willing to do what it takes to keep an injured hog from running off, and that's a tall order for such a small dog!

Part of what makes the jagdterrier so appealing to us is the fact that it's less likely to be mortally wounded by a big boar hog. When a boar connects with a larger dog, it's more likely to be cut or gored, whereas a smaller dog tends to get pitched through the air. As frightening as this sounds, Sage tangled with many hogs ten times her size and in over a decade only sustained one serious injury with a proptosed eye (but that was rectified before we even got her back to the four wheeler- thank God for miracles!). Another time, we were tracking on-lead and didn't know the wounded boar was in a brush pile ahead of us. As we approached the brush pile, Sage cut around in front of the pile as I was walking up to it. The big boar rushed out of the pile and I instinctively pulled on the lead and ended up pulling Sage right into the boar's open mouth! The boar grabbed her by her back and shook her one time before dropping her and taking off. Fortunately she wasn't injured and that only made her hate hogs that much more! That's one of the few hogs we called off on tracking. I was just too traumatized to turn Sage loose on it.

This week, for her sixteen-week birthday we got Kai a big surprise. We trapped these two hogs and turned her loose to see how she'd react to them. This was her first experience being so close to a live hog. As you can tell from the video, she's not going to have any problem learning how to bay a wounded hog for us. It will be a while before we turn her loose on a wounded hog, but for now we're letting her build her confidence. One of the hogs had a large cut on it's nose, so we made sure that there was some blood associated with this lesson. We don't want her chasing healthy hogs so we always make sure that there is blood for her to be able to discern that this hog is "fair game" for her to chase, when the time comes for her to do so.

After she bayed them for a little while, we shot one of the hogs and then opened the trap and let them both run out. It was a good opportunity to expose her to more gunfire while she was amped up on piggies! We took her home and then came back about six hours later and let her sniff around the trap. Before long she picked up on the bloodtrail and tracked the hog that had been shot. It ran about 80 yards and piled up, and she tracked blood right to the hog. It sure has been an exciting week for Kai and us both!

From: Drahthaar
14-Dec-14
cheryl, Awesome Kai is doing great. its a alot of fun watching a pup progress. my curent dog(Flo) is 8 years old now and I am debating on geting a pup. probally another year. like you I think it is a very close bond between handler and dog. which Flo dosen't no she is a dog. by the way something I did with Flo was to keep a log book on all of her tracks,temp, wind,moon, distance of track, find or lost, jumped, caught,how old the track is. pretty cool to go back and read. Forrest

From: writer
14-Dec-14
Cheryl,

Solid advice on training a dog yourself, one at a time, versus letting them "learn" from another dog.

They bust their wagging butts to serve the pack and please the alpha. You want that to be you, and not another dog.

Same reason I haven't started a puppy when Hank's almost 14. Get a young dog and an old dog, and neither gets the attention they deserve.

(Took the ol' guy out for a hunt yesterday morning so he could stumble around a bit. Shot four mallards, two of which he had to find for me. One, he got to trail about 30 yards which really made his day. Used to be Hank slept a lot on hunts until I started calling. Now, he's content just to sit there, look around and take it all in. I'm pretty sure he knows he's about done.)

But still can't tell if Kai's enjoying living at Shiloh? :-)

From: StormCloud
14-Dec-14

StormCloud's embedded Photo
StormCloud's embedded Photo
My dog Bell is Bloodline of John Jeanneney.. He and his wife have formed the Born-to -Track web site. I trained Bell since she has been 8 weeks old she is now 9 years old. So far she has found 46 whitetail deer in 53 attempts.Recovered 11 Black Bears in 13 attempts..Her greatest tracking accomplishment was finding an eighty three year old lady that was suffering from dementia ..She had wandered off picking blue berries and became lost. I just happen to stop at a gas station and heard they were looking for help in the search. Bell located her 500 yards away.She was sitting on a log sobbing..She called me Steve ,and told me she was happy to see me.My name is Vern. She told me she was out checking the mail and got turned around. This was by far Bells greatest accomplishment to date. I trained her by dragging deer hides. I train her by hiding on her in the woods. Once Im hid. I radio my wife and tell her to start looking for me. She always finds me.!!! We have a 1 year old smooth coat in traning now. Here is my wife with Bell and our young dog Corkey. Another happy young man and his beautiful 8 point buck.

From: INbowdude
14-Dec-14
Feisty little booger isn't she!

15-Dec-14
Forrest- that's one of my greatest regrets. We never kept a log of Sage's tracking jobs. After she passed I was desperately searching the house for every picture, memento, etc. that reminded us of her. I really was't very good at keeping stuff put up and lost almost everything, including pictures. That's why I'm documenting everything with Kai.

Mike, you know exactly what that second reason for not getting a pup is....you don't want to do that to Hank. I'm happy to hear he was able to go get a few more green heads. Knowing that you couldn't find them without him is what keeps him going :)

Vernon- that is an awesome story! How did you let Bell know what she was supposed to be tracking? Did you have a piece of clothing or something from the old woman?

Mike-feisty is an understatement with Kai! She's an absolute terror. She lost two front teeth yesterday when she ran head-on into the couch frame. She never hit the brakes. Lord help us get though the puppy stage.

From: Drahthaar
15-Dec-14
cheryl, lost two front teeth, that remindes me of one of my twins, just had a root canal don on one of her front teeth , she ran into her sister on her bicycle and nocked it out. kids & puppys. alot of fun and headakes. Forrest

From: writer
15-Dec-14
" Lord help us get though the puppy stage. "

Lord has already blessed you with yet another great member for the Napper pack.

...and who knows what kind of home Kai would be in if you guys wouldn't have gotten her?

Not as good as at Shiloh, that's for sure.

17-Dec-14

Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
We truly have been blessed with Kai. She is sure catching on quickly. We are making sure she has every opportunity to become a great tracker.

We have been going out to track every hog we possibly can with her, and we are very grateful for every one of our guests who affords us this opportunity. We realize that it means getting in from the woods a little bit later, but each of these tracks will pay big dividends later!

Here is Kai posing with Ken from California in her very first "hero shot". Ken shot this pig and then texted to tell us he had shot it about an hour prior but didn't track it. We put Kai on the first drop of blood and she followed it about 70 yards straight to the hog. We had one little bump in the trail when the lead rope got tangled on some greenbriars, but after I got her freed she continued right on to the pig. I truly believe that I am somewhat of an anchor to her. She would be finding these pigs much faster without me on the end of that rope. It sure does make us smile when she follows the blood so effortlessly!

From: Drahthaar
17-Dec-14
AWESOME, kia is a keeper. Forrest

From: boothill
17-Dec-14
That sounds like so much fun Matt to again have a dog to use again. I think that you and Cheryl are having as much fun as Kai. So happy for all 3 of you.

From: writer
17-Dec-14
Ahhhhhh, technically that's not Ken's pig.

It's Kai's pig. Look at her face.

Kai may end up being the best booking agent a hunting operation could ever have...who wouldn't want to hunt with her? Cute and a pig-tracking.

From: INbowdude
19-Dec-14
What I want to know: is Matt working with Kai or is it Cheryl? Who does Kai respond best too? Not that I'd be buttering up to that person, but if it's Cheryl, I know a certain ginger ale she can't get enough of.

Kai's doing great. Thanks for letting us follow along.

From: StormCloud
19-Dec-14
Tradman and Huntress, When I put Bell on a track I always use the same routine. I hold her in my left arm,I give her a scent of the blood, arrow , fur hair whatever. I say…What is it !!!! What is it !!!!????? excitedly..Then I set it on the ground,I set her near it and say. Track Bell…Track it up… She does not miss very often….The fellow, the ladies husband took me to their car . Bell jumped in smelled around for awhile. I then picked her up put her harness on…her scarf was laying on the dash. I let Bell smell it set it on the ground and told her to track. She headed off….

26-Jan-15

Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Mike, we're both taking turns with her only because neither of us wants to be left out. I personally think it's better for one handler to train a dog. Since we will both be working with her, and we agree (for the most part) on training methods we are comfortable doing that. Now on that note...Matt loves Vernors almost as much as I do now...hehe!

Vernon, that is a great find!

Over the past several weeks we have been working on exposing Kai to more and more critters, both healthy and wounded. She needs to be able to discern between which animal she is tracking and other healthy game which she will encounter while on a track. Every day we intentionally walk her through the sheep, goats, cattle and fallow deer here by the house, as well as hogs that come out to feed below camp. We allow her to run off-lead as we walk through the critters. On the occasions where she would take off on pursuit of the healthy animals,mew would simply ignore her and keep walking on without her. Shouting "no" to a jagdterrier in pursuit would only result in a sore throat for us, and a dog that knows it doesn't have to respond to our commands. Instead, we let her see that we have no interest in these animals, and she has learned to ignore them as well.

On the flip side,new want her to respond to the smell of an injured animal, more specifically, the smell of blood. We have had a couple of excellent opportunities recently with some coons which we trapped in coon cuffs. We laid out mock trails that ended with the trapped coon at the end as her big reward. There are few things that will turn a jagd on like a live animal! We squirted a generous amount of blood on the coon and then let the trail age for several hours. I can't even describe how much she liked finding that bloody, but very much alive coon at the end of the trails!

We are now just starting to turn her loose on live trails at night. This has been a little bit of a game changer for her. While she is very bold in the daylight, or while on a lead- tracking off-lead in the dark, she is a little more timid. I'm sure that with more experience she will work without needing us in her back pocket. I have to admit that it always scares me to death the first few times our little dog ventures out of sight. We do have a secret weapon on order though for when that day comes. More about that later.

So that's where we are now. We just got a call that one of our hunters has a hog down at stand two and he saw it crash from the stand, so didn't walk out on the trail at all. A perfect training scenario! It's very important that there not be any human scent on the training track...and more importantly, no chance that the trail had been compromised by somebody stepping in blood and spreading the scent around. We'll see how she does!

From: midwest
26-Jan-15
Thanks for the update! She's really growing....we need more pics! Video is even better!

27-Jan-15
We had a very good track last night! We asked the hunter to tell us where the hog was standing when he shot it, and without any visible blood, let Kai work it out on her own. We hadn't travelled very far down the trail before I started seeing some blood and knew we were on the right track (pun intended). Matt stayed back by the stand and watched the whole scene unfold through his thermal imaging device. He could see the pig lying out in the brush, and watched Kai working toward it. He said that as soon as we got downwind of the dead hog, she picked her nose up in the air and made a b-line right into the pig. It gives us a whole different perspective on what she's doing when somebody can watch from a distance and analyze her activity.

Here's a short video of her claiming her prize!

Also, I may not have mentioned this earlier, but another important aspect of training is evident in this video. You can see how worked up she is over finding the hog, which is good. Some dogs however can become very possessive of their trophy though and snap at you when you go to drag it out. It's important to let the dog know that they must back down when it's time to remove the animal. We don't care if she still wants to chew on it, but she must never be allowed to snap or growl. Any such behavior demands a quick correction. If a stern "no" isn't sufficient, then we would grab her and lay her on her back while holding her down by the neck while growling "NO"! We never had a problem with possessive aggression with Sage, and we want to make sure of the same with Kai.

From: Barty1970
03-Feb-15
Can Kai have her own Youtube channel please?!

There is a Facebook page for Jagdterriers if I remember correctly??

We've had great fun with our Parson Russell terrierworking him on mock trails [admittedly without having the opportunity as yet of working him on a 'live' trail...but again 'lack of opportunity does not equate with lack of ability']

Good luck and good hunting

PS The book Working with Dogs for Deer by Danish author Niels Søndergaard is also very good

From: Drahthaar
05-Feb-15
Cheryl, kei is doing great. I read where she is a little timid about night time tracking. what I do is put the pup on a lease at night and walk them around with a flash lite. the lite bothers them at first but they get over it quick. Forrest

06-Jul-15

Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
I didn't realize how long it's been since I've added any updates here until I saw the puppy pictures of Kai! She's really progressed in the meantime.

Kai has been tracking and recovering dead hogs for the past few months now. Earlier I. The year we spent at of time preparing her for the day she encounters a live, wounded hog. That's the part of tracking wounded game that scares me the most, as she will be working off-lead from this point on.

Here is a picture of her with her first encounter of with a live hog that wasn't inside of a cage. She did a great job (for the most part) of avoiding the business end of the pig, but a few close calls taught her to work more com behind the pig. This was under a strictly controlled situation where we knew the pig couldn't harm her. Oh, and just so nobody gets offended...we had some very tender pork chops for dinner that night!

From: midwest
06-Jul-15
Need more updated pics of her!

06-Jul-15

Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Tradman and Huntress's embedded Photo
Thanks to advances in technology, Kai has an advantage that her predecessors didn't have....a gps tracking collar. When we used to track with Sage, we relied on hearing the little brass bell on her collar. When we heard that steady, rhythmic "ding...ding...ding" w would know that she found the dead hog and was wooling on it. The problem however was when she got too far ahead of us, or took off after a live, wounded animal that we would lose her, sometimes for hours. She would often have to hold a live hog at bay for an hour or more while we drove around and tried to locate her baying.

No more of that! Kai now wears the Garmin TT15 collar while I carry the Garmin Alpha handheld to monitor her progress. With our ranch roads and landmarks pre-loaded on the Alpha, I can monitor exactly where she is, and how fast she's moving at all times. The compass function shows me which direction she is from my current location so I can stay with her as she works. The best part is that when she finds the hog, the device vibrates, beeps and alerts me that "Kai is treed". Now we can tell the hunters that we've found their pig well before we actually get to it! It gives me peace of mind to be able to watch her movement and see exactly what she's doing at all times now.

Here she is with another of her first finds where we got to utilize the new collar. Unfortunately, we don't get very many clear pictures of her anymore. She never holds still!

From: writer
06-Jul-15
Have the same GPS unit for my dogs, Cheryl.

It is worth every penny for the peace of mind. It lets me just enjoy the hunt a lot more.

Go Spuds!!!!

From: Drahthaar
07-Jul-15
Cheryl, thanks for the update on Kai, I new she was going to be a winner from the start. the GPS collar sounds like what I need for FLO. I work her on a 30' lead until I find the animal is wounded instead of dead. Forrest

02-Jun-18
Where did three years go? I tried to find this thread to bring it back to the top and ended up using Google to find it. I have a more recent video to add but now I have to find where I uploaded it. I'm glad my dog has a better memory than I do!

03-Jun-18

Tradman and Huntress's Link
Now that Kai has a few years under her belt, finding the hogs is no longer the challenge. More often than not however, the hogs we are called out to track are still quite alive so not only does she have to locate it, but she has to hold it so we can finish it off. Most of our tracking jobs are at night but here's a rare daytime track of a hog that was hit too far back. Many states dont allow off-lead tracking, or the use of a weapon while tracking deer, so make sure to check with your local game laws.

From: midwest
03-Jun-18
I've been wondering how she was doing! Way to go Kai!

From: Fuzz
03-Jun-18
Thanks for posting this thread! I've enjoyed this and learned a lot of info. What a great little dog! The bad thing about it is now my upcoming decision for my next dog breed is even more muddled...Ugh!! I'd never heard of these terriers. Thanks for taking the time to document this journey.

  • Sitka Gear