Looking for tracking dogs
Wisconsin
Contributors to this thread:
Need to find someone to track a deer I shot just before closing. Lomira area
Try the United Blood Trackers website, they have a listing of people available to tray. I have to work today and have someone coming to the house tonight to buy one of my bloodhounds, so i won't be able to make it for you.
http://www.unitedbloodtrackers.org/
Lomira is about 15 miles south of Lake Winnebago. I tried the unitedbloodtrackers website and the two closest listed weren't available. Ended up getting someone but not sure it was the right guy. After I found blood and dog was put on it we were led along a blood trail for about 150' in the woods. Then it proceeded through the woods and came out the other side. Came back to original blood and tried again. This time dog went off original trail and got fresh deer scent and headed out to corn field. Tied her to tree and we looked for blood on her first trail. Same as before first 150' or so that the dog led us on originally. Tried her again and she seemed to me to have lost interest. Kept wandering off of where we knew blood was. Through the woods and out the other side again. He figured deer quit bleeding and left woods on her trail and we gave up after 3.5 hours. When my son came home from school he wanted to go look so him and I went out again. I took him to our last sign of blood and we started searching. We ended up finding about another 500' of blood trail before dark probably 60' east of where the dog had taken us. Gonna pick up again today after kids soccer game is over. I imagine todays wind will make picking up the visible blood even harder with new leaves falling and blowing the ones on ground. Is it to late for a better trained dog or do I chalk it up to experience and take the blame for a poor shot. The deer was walking broadside as I shot and I tried a bleat to get it to stop. No deal. I ended up hitting it farther back then I'd like to see. Arrow penetrated about halfway in. Rage broadhead
Sorry you didn't find your deer. You did the right thing calling in a dog even if it did not prove to be successful. I have a couple of dogs I use for tracking and sometimes they just cannot pick it up, but like anything there is no substitute for experience. I am curious what are the rules for using a dog to trail deer in Wisconsin? I am in Texas, where you can use up to 2 dogs to trail a wounded deer. They do not have to be on a leash. There are some counties in East Texas where it is not legal to use a dog at all.
Dog has to be on a leash in Wisconsin.
Were in the middle of a drought and dogs have a hard time with scent.My dog did much better last fall under moist condtions.Its not always the doga fault.
BugBox: Few quick questions here for you and my two cents on the subject. First of all, what kind of hit did you have? -I know you stated it was a little further back than you were shooting, but did your point of impact tell you liver, guts, etc? What did your arrow look and smell like? What type of blood were you finding?
As far as bringing a dog in... Never too late. Your woods are f'd up for a while now and you may as well bring in everything you can to find that deer. A true blood tracking dog can only trail blood, but he will also go nuts if he smells a body. -These guys can smell way better than us. I would also get up early and watch for avian flight- crows and maybe even vultures. I don't know the lay of your land or how big it is, but you need to think like a deer and look at the contour and downright nasty thick areas of the property and adjacent property if you can get permission. Most times a hit deer will run downhill, even if it is ever so slight, may actually look to get water, and often times will bed up in the thickest stuff near the water. Good luck. We've all been there in one way, shape or form; some of us more than a few times... Remember to think like a deer when you've exhausted your blood trail and follow your instincts.
Duke: I would say my first thought when I seen the hit was gut shot. Blood wasn't dark like liver but I never found any guts. Size of blood was good initially but then tapered to drops. But my tracking two days later turned up larger amounts farther along the trail. The color of the leaves makes tracking very slow. If I find blood and scrutinize the spot its amazes me how much more I overlooked. As far as the arrow it stayed in the deer. I found a spot on the brush along the trail with a mark from the broadhead and blood so I know it penetrated.
Corn surrounding woods was removed yesterday and no deer was found.
I was under the impression that the dog would track blood and not scent. His charge was less than I would have charged for 3.5 hours of my time so that's not a problem. I have no problems with him but I wonder if the results would have been different with a better dog.
Well, i know this isn't very comforting, but a dog doesn't necessarily follow the blood trail like a human would. Wind can push a dog off the actual trail and they may be 30 feet away and still tracking true. While comforting to a hunter to see blood as you go, 90% of the time you are on a tough track with a dog you won't see any sign of blood (a lot is still detectable to a dog, but invisible to a human's eye). that is why it's important for the people tracking with you to hang back and look for blood until you find the next visible sign.
a good dog can actually track individual deer by their interdigital gland between their hooves. If they are on a hot trail, they can actually individualize the scents on that trail. If the dog is good enough, they can figure out which deer scent the blood comes from and continue tracking that scent even if no blood is present.
Neighbor stopped by the other night, said he had a ten pointer on his trail cam twice since my search. Described him and the bucks he was hanging with so I'm pretty confident and relieved it survived
I've seen my dog run a blood trail 12 feet to one side of the blood. It must drift.
He and I have been on 12 Rage broadhead trails. Found 2 deer. I now ask what kind of broadhead and won't go out on Rage trails.
Bowmania
Agree with walteman. as my mountain view curs can stick to one track and that one only when serching wounded deer. Also when on the leash as they gotta be you have to go with there instinct and have a man woman or child following up just incase the track gets over run or fudged up some how
I have a deer down I need help tracking in Mondovi Wis.
Is there anyone I could talk with? A phone number? jerry
"He and I have been on 12 Rage broadhead trails. Found 2 deer. I now ask what kind of broadhead and won't go out on Rage trails."
We hear how great a "Rage in the Cage" is all too often. It's refreshing and disturbing at the same time to hear the other side.
ANY sharp broadhead "in the cage" will do the job, but that lack of hyperbole doesn't sell a lot of overpriced product, does it?
Good luck deer down.
http://www.unitedbloodtrackers.org/find-a-tracker/?state=wi
Good luck. Hope this link helps you.
+1 walterman. When I first started hunting with a few guys years ago. All they had were track straddlers. Worse yet had to have the nose in every track. Took them awhile to understand the benefits of a dog that could run on the wind with their heads up. Yet, the brains to put the nose to ground when the track got rough.
I surely understand the doing it for the love of the dog work. I also got to wonder what these guys are charging folks to do it. Traveling some distance to track any animal is costly. Had a guy want me to drive 75 miles one way to track a bear this fall. Out of my pocket of course!! Can't see anyone wanting to do this for a deer either.
So what are some of the fees for this??
Fees depend on the person tracking. Some have a flat rate, some charge by mile from their home. I just told people to cover gas cost and tip the dog, since i was just holding the dumb end of the leash.
I have quit tracking for other people, as it got discouraging really quickly. Been on a lot of tracks, been on very few where the hunter was honest with themselves and with me in regards to the type adn quality of shot placement as well as the amount of sign they were seeing. Doesn't matter to me what broadhead is used as long as the hunter is honest about the shot. Might as well blame the bow, arrows, release, adn whatever else the hunter was using. Narrowing it down to the broadhead is kind of foolish.
So far this year i have tracked and found a bear adn 8 point buck and weren't able to find my 9 pointer and a larger 10 point last weekend. Pretty confident neither deer was dead within tracking range of where they were shot.