Stuck in the Rut

Our December issue had an article by John Phillips about deer tracking dogs that help bowhunters recover wounded animals. In that article, which focused on the use of tracking dogs at Southern hunting operations, we included a promo box that directed readers to this blog for more information about tracking dogs in the North. Please see the sidebar article below:

Andy Bensing, president of United Blood Trackers, and his wirehair dachshund, Arno, located this tremendous, 203-inch buck in December 2008 for a hunter on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Arno found the buck piled up a thicket in the same area a group of hunters had grid searched for hours.

Tracking Dogs in the North

Many Northern states today use wire-haired dachshunds for tracking wounded deer. John Jeanneney, founder of Deer Search Inc., studied forestry and wildlife management in France while on a Fulbright Scholarship. He became friends with German exchange students and learned how they used wire-haired dachshunds to track big game. Intrigued, Jeanneney bought a dachshund in Germany.

“For the first 10 years I owned wire-haired dachshunds, I didn’t use them for blood trailing deer, which was illegal in New York,” Jeanneney said. “But then I wounded a big doe and searched for her an entire day. A week later, hunters found her about 300 yards from where I’d shot her. I knew I wouldn’t have lost that deer with a tracking dog.”

Jeanneney then applied for and received a research permit for leash tracking in 1976 from New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation to determine whether leashed tracking dogs could reduce the numbers of animals lost by hunters each year. After Jeanneney successfully used his dogs to find shot deer for conservation officers, the department allowed him to add designated agents who owned tracking dogs to his permit. Jeanneney and his friends then formed Deer Search Inc. and obtained support from sportsmen in New York to pass legislation legalizing the use of dogs to recover deer hit by hunters.

Today, some states allow hunters who want to use their dogs on leashes to help hunters find game to take a test and purchase a five-year license for $50. Deer Search Inc. has dispatchers who receive calls from hunters who can’t locate the deer they’ve arrowed. The dispatcher notifies the handler living closest to the hunter. Handlers with these permits and dogs can carry firearms with them at night to put down wounded deer and/or to protect themselves from predators, always working their dogs on leashes. Most Deer Search members use their dogs voluntarily but do accept donations to help with mileage and travel expenses.

Jeanneney, whose dogs have found deer up to 48-hours later, explains that, “I like my small wire-haired dachshunds for tracking because they’re easy to carry on a four-wheeler and make good pets. A good tracking dog even can follow the trail of a wounded deer that’s covered by six inches of snow. Also, rain isn’t a problem for a quality tracking dog unless the area has a torrential downpour. The hunter may not be to see the blood, but the rain spreads the blood out and that enables the dog to smell the blood better.”

Jeanneney believes tracking dogs first learn to trail deer from the smell of the blood. However, as the dog gains more experience, Jeanneney believes it learns to smell scent particles that come from the deer’s wound and interdigital glands.

“I’ve even learned that a dog can identify an individual deer from other deer and stay on that one deer’s track, perhaps due to the scent of the interdigital glands. I’ve even laid out a trail with deer feet and then used other deer feet to cross that trail. The dog can distinguish between the trails I’ve made and will remain on the original trail.”

More recently, Jeanneney helped found United Blood Trackers, an organization that promotes the use of leashed tracking dogs to recover wounded big-game animals. UBT also sponsors numerous training seminars and blood trailing workshops to help interested dog owners develop their own tracking skills.

For more information, visit www.deersearch.org or www.unitedbloodtrackers.org.

– John E. Phillips