Why not using dogs on blood trail?

[Elmer Keith]

On the weekend I watched "Traditional Harvest I-IV.

It was very interesting and amazing to me as I'm living in a country where bow hunting is illegal.

I was quite astonished that in the U.S. bow hunters use dogs for trailing a mountain lion but do obviously not use dogs for trailing wounded animals, whether wounded by shots or car accidents.  

I always saw the hunter in the video following the blood trail without the help of the good nose of his especially trained four-legged companion.

In Germany we have a long tradition to trian hunting dogs like the German Shorthair or Longhair as well as the Weimaraner and other dogs not only to point hare and pheasant to the hunter but also following a blood trail.

Some German hunters even have special purpose dogs only used for trailing wounded animals on their blood trail after being wounded by a shot or car accident. These are the "Bracken" and the "Hannoveraner Schweißhund" and the "Bayrische Gebirgsschweißhund".

To those who are a littel bit familar with the German langauge, German hunters call the blood after leaving the body of the game animal "Schweiß", not "Blut", which would be compared to your "Sweat" and "Blood".

As far as I know you use dogs for retrieving killed waterfowl. So why not for finding larger game?

[Brian Krebs]

Because we too often cheat; and would use the dogs to chase the game for a shot.
 Some states I believe do allow dogs for blood trailing; but most do not.
 You can use a dog for bears as well as lion; so if you wound either; you can trail it with dogs.
 My state; Idaho; requires a hound hunter permit to do so.
 I have used my german wirehair; also known as Drathaars on a lead- a leash-  for bear.
 We now have such a wolf problem; you take a huge chance of losing a dog of any kind to the wolves.
  If people here could be trusted to use dogs only for tracking wounded game; and not for the hunt; it might have a chance of being legalized.
 But frankly speaking; there are too many people that think other people would cheat.

[philil]

I heard that bloodtrailing with dogs was getting more popular in America...pretty sure a reputeable Moose outfitter uses them in Canada.
I think David Quidort (sp?) hunted with him.

Good to see that tradgang gets more and more attention internationally.

Legalize it!!  

[killinstuff]

Most guys I know have no problem using a dog to help track if they are having a little trouble with the recovery of arrowed big game. But there is no need for it on every shot and following a blood trail yourself to your reward is a big part of the fun.

[dino]

I used to hunt with a guy that had a couple of labs that would track wounded deer.  Both have since passed away.  But in their time they probably had recovered 30+ deer.  Never trained, they just did learned it themselves and were darn good at it.  Like killinstuff said, there was no need for them all of the time.  Sometimes we would let them track a deer because they enjoyed it, a few times their were very instrumental in finding a deer.  They were very handy to have. dino

[Kip]

My yellow lab has been trained for ducks and bloodtrailing just in case the trail is bad.When ever I cooked some deer meat I save the blood as it was defrosting, while he was growing up I made a drag line with a weiner at the end for the reward.He loves to blood trail and I will have no problem in the piney woods and especially the very heavy palmettos I also hunt using him if needed.Kip

[ckruse]

Elmer, utilizing dogs for blood trailing is gaining favor in the United States, with many states now allowing the use of leashed (and in some cases off-leash) tracking dogs. Here are a couple of sites that support that:

 www.unitedbloodtrackers.org  
 www.born-to-track.com

A popular breed for trailing wounded deer is the European Wirehaired Dachshund. I think this is due to thier smaller size in using on the leash. My dog Fred came from Darmstadt, Hessen Germany:

 www.bismarck-eiche.de

 

CKruse

[NDTerminator]

Here in ND the reg reads as follows "It is unlawful to use any animal except horses or mules as an aid in the hunting or taking of big game". Notice it doesn't mention "recovering a wounded animal". I believe this law was left purposely vague.

It's been my experience that our CO's (Conservation Officers) are OK with using a leashed dog to try to recover a wounded deer, if you have first tried and failed on your own.

I'm an amateur gundog trainer (I work with Labs) and when my dogs are in the "polish" phase of their roughly 18-24 month program, I train them to blood trail.  It's really just an extension of the phase where I teach the dog to scent trail birds that are down but still able to cover ground, not unusual with a tough bird like a pheasant.

Most Labs just love this work.  My 5 year old lab Josie (Jacie's Dakota Gold), working on lead, has found a number of deer for myself & others after other methods have been exhausted.

BTW, I also teach them to find & retrieve lost arrows.  Saves me a bunch of work!.  Here's my younger Lab Sunny (Gabbriella's Dakota Sunrise)
retrieving arrows.  Josie is honoring pretty and waiting her turn...

   

   

   

[gregg dudley]

Using hounds to hunt is an older traditional activity than archery.  It continues to be legal across much of the southeast and is a time honored tradition that unfortunately is frequently bad-mouthed by people that have no experience with it whatsoever.

Like most people I know, I prefer tracking and recovering game using my own skills.  However if the trail goes cold for me, I will not hesitate to get a dog when one is available.  My friend has a beagle that he puts on every recovery just to keep it trained up.  It is pretty amazing to watch a dog turn a trail that took me an hour to unravel into a five minute walk in the park.

[Shaun]

There is some blood trailing work done in the US. It is mostly through German registered breeds and testing system - tested here through breed clubs like VDD. New York State has passed a blood tracking regulation similar to the German system with certified dogs allowed to track on lead. Other states have a relaxed attitude about the use of dogs for tracking but no official regulation.

You must remember that we in the US are still primative. We did not even have game harvest regulations until the early part of the last century. Hunting is much less controlled here than in Germany.

[vermonster13]

Blood trailing dogs are allowed here by permit and several game wardens I know here have such dogs themselves. Rather have someone recover a kill with a trailing dog than the animal feed the coyotes. The dogs of course may only be used for recovery of animals not hunting.

There are hound permits for bear hunting here, but I only know of two folks that have them.

[Emilio]

Hi from Spain,

I´m agree with you, Gregg, using dogs for all kind of hunting situations is something as old as hunting is.

Personally, I enjoy trainning my dogs for hunting as much as I do while hunting with them.
It is not so easy to have a well trained dog, does not matter if it is for bird hunting, tracking wounded animals, or just as a retriever.
There is a great book written specially for trainning dogs on tracking wounded deer by bow, and it is written by a US writer. The name of that book is "Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer", and it is a great book.

I believe that the use of tracking dogs is permitted by the Pope and Young rules, and it should be allowed in some of your states.
Using a tracking dog at your Country, where coyote and other predators live, takes much sense for me.... Of course I undestand that some of you prefer to recover his wounded deer by themselves, but in some cases using a dog is a great and powerfull tool to recover some of those wounded deer that will finally be eaten by a Coyote or other animal.

Trainning a dog, becomes itself a part of my hunting trainning skills, as shooting my bows is.

Best Regards and nice hunt for all.

Emilio.

[TRB]

I have been told, by a game warden. That you cannot use a dog to recover a deer in Iowa. Too bad. Seems like a waste. I also have German Wirehairs. Their good at tracking.

[bowdude]

I know if you sit and read the wisconsin regs most of the laws are written from the perspective that assume the public is going to cheat and poach at every given chance.  Backtags, baiting regs, scent use, etc.  I have even written an article on our regs about this,  published years back in our WTA.

  I personally am against the use of dogs as when do you draw the line between recovering a mortally wounded animal and a messed up shot, push the animal with a dog until???   And with Wisconsins attitude of, How do you enforce that, because people will be hunting them that way?

[SteveB]

Legal with permit in NY - leashed.

 http://www.deersearch.org/

Steve

[ChuckC]

I believe it is all based upon tradition.  period.  Sometimes it makes no sense at all.

I imagine that we are currently starting a new tradition, that is, the tendency to use a trained, controlled dog, especially a small dog, to blood trail a wounded animal, but this will take time.
ChuckC

[Bmac]

It is legal in Michigan (since 1998) to use a leashed dog to recover a mortally wounded or dead deer.  You can not have a firearm or archery equipment in your possession during the tracking.

I have several weimaraners that are trained as bird dogs and a couple have been successfully used on blood trails.

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

A few years ago Illinois passed a law allowing the use of dogs to track wounded game so long as the dog remains on a leash. I'm sure it may have happened, but I have yet to hear of anyone abusing that privledge.

It seems, at time, our opposition to certain things is based more on emotion than facts.

[Emilio]

Jason,

Hunting itself is based more on emotions than in facts, the "fact" is that, for some of us, (obviously my traditions are in some cases different than yours), hunting without dogs (with the exception of stalking), is uncommon.
As I posted before, trainning a good blood tracker is something that takes some years, and in most of the cases, the handler plays a role as important as the one that the dogs plays. It is not a magic tool that you buy in Cabelas....
Of course there are some rules that must be applied to track a wounded deer using a dog, and one of them is that the dog must be leashed (not necessary in Spain but absolutely recommended), and some others.
It is some of the most beautiful things to see how a well trained dog works!!

Regards,

Emilio.

[Bill Turner]

Wirehaired dashounds are a very good trailing dog used for trailing wounded deer in this country. I've seen several work their magic. If they are on a leash you should not have a problem in Texas. I will do whatever it takes to find a wounded deer with a dog or without.