Update: Project Wiener - development of a Blood Tracking Dog

[Ryan Rothhaar]

Some of you guys that hang around here alot know that over the last couple of years my wife and I have really gotten into the blood tracking thing with our European Dachshund (Teckel) - I thought I'd give a pictoral update for those interested, and maybe get the word out a little bit more about the value of a well trained dog for recovery of poorly hit deer.

To begin at the beginning, we had mulled over the idea of getting a pup to try to develop into a tracking dog for a few years.  My wife is from Eastern France and there, as in much of Europe, blood tracking wounded game with dogs is very common.  She also had experience owning a (non-hunting) Teckel, and that is the way we wanted to go.  Of course I had the typical preconceived notions of the "wiener dog" - but she's a dog person and I couldn't argue with her experience.

After reading John Jeanneney's 1st book (a good primer, by the way) - and doing a BUNCH of searching in the US - we finally found a breeder that was producing what we were after - standard sized smooth haired Dachshunds from pure hunting lines (European stock).  These dogs are bred first, foremost, and last as hunting dogs, from only top bloodlines.  

Of course who could say "No" to this face?

   

We brought our new buddy "Oskar" home at 8 weeks old, and with plenty of time, patience, and help/support from our breeder we set out to develop him into a blood tracking dog.  Of course he taught us more than we taught him - the bloodline, abilities and desire were there, we just needed to develop the proper teamwork and relationship and learn how to read our dog on the lead.

By 10 weeks he was doing artificial bloodlines of 300-400 yards long, with multiple turns/tricks that were aged overnight. I think the real eye-opener for us was when we mistakenly laid a portion of a new track over a 3 day old track when he was 11 weeks old and he got onto and followed the 3 day old track with no problem....we just looked at each other and shook our heads...

He tracked his first real deer (an easy track) on a doe I killed behind our house when Oskar was 12 weeks old...the switch went firmly into the "ON" position!

   

[Rob W.]

I'm going to make sure my wife doesn't read this or I will be buying another dog!

Good stuff.    


Rob

[Ryan Rothhaar]

That fall - with the season ending when he was 6 months old - Oskar found several deer, including a few that would have been very difficult, or totally lost without a dog...

Here is a doe that my wife Katia found with him for one of my family at Thanksgiving time that year.  This would have been a very difficult recovery without the dog, but we made the 400 yard track in probably 1/2 hour...the drag up the hill took MUCH longer!

 

By 6 months old Oskar had been in on finding 12 deer, of course several were "training tracks" - but we felt he was well on his way to becoming the "Real Deal".

Here is Kelly Peterson with a fine buck we used for a training track.  Oskar even won Kelly over! (And he's a grouch     )..

 

[Ryan Rothhaar]

more to come

[Ryan Rothhaar]

We started taking calls from hunters - cold calls just by putting our name/number out there - in 2010, no charge, just to help folks find deer and to get Oskar onto more tracks.  Unfortunately for posting pictures on here most of our calls are from "modern" type bowhunters, but we've had a great time and found quite a few deer.  The biggest antlers have been a 150 class 8 pt and a 140ish 4X5 that my wife found for 2 hunters the 1st week of November last year...both were "deer of a lifetime" for these guys.  Of course the dog doesn't care about horns, and the hunters are as happy when we find a little doe as a buck, generally.

[H-MANEOD]

We own two dachshunds, wire and dapple color.  The only thing they can find is the food bowl.  They have killed a squirrel, mole, snake and a bird.  I friend of my wife tracked with dachshunds while we were stationed in Germany.  Awesome!!

[kennym]

Cool!! He would come in very handy at times!!

[Ryan Rothhaar]

A typical call that results in a found deer is generally a single lung/liver or full out gutshot.  The hunter generally looks around quite a bit before calling us (I WISH THEY WOULDN'T!) and 9 times out of 10 jumps the deer - whether they know it or not.  The track usually ends up something between 800 and 1000 yards and can get tricky after the deer is jumped.  The reality is that the point of loss for the hunter is the HARDEST part for the dog - if we can get past the point of hunter loss then the odds go way up.  The dog doesn't just track by blood, but by disturbed ground, deer scent, tarsal/urine scent and other factors that indicate that deer.  If a hunter (or worse, him and 4 buddies) spend several hours mucking up the area then it really confuses things for the dog.  Generally we can make the 200 yards or so to the point of hunter loss in a few minutes (this takes the hunter generally 1-3 hours earlier) then we spend the bulk of our time getting past the loss point.

As an example the largest buck Katia found this year was searched for by the hunters for several hours.  She made it to point of loss in under 10 minutes, spent about an hour working things out, then went the last 700 yards of the track (no visible blood at all) in about 1/2 hour to the dead deer.

We have a typical recovery rate on all calls of about 35%.....keep in mind though that many of the deer we are called on (I'd say over 50%) end up obviously non-fatally wounded when you track them - usually high back or shoulder hits.  We call the track off when we make this decision - usually after the blood sign and distance (usually over a mile) indicate that the deer is not going to die.

From the trackers I've talked with this is a very normal recovery rate.

[Ryan Rothhaar]

For us the real indicator of success is dead deer in the back of the truck that wouldn't have been there without the dog.  We did get a chance to test him in the German system this Spring though, and it was nice for us as we had never watched another dog track, and had no real idea if we were doing things right or getting lucky.

In March we did 2 tests with him - Katia handling him - VSwP tracking tests.  These are very formalized blood tracking tests used to "qualify" dogs in Europe.  The test is made by using 250 mL (that is about 1 cup) of deer blood to lay a trail that is 1000 meters (a bit over 1000 yards) long.  That is VERY little blood compared to a real wounded deer.  The track is then aged and worked with 3 judges following to judge the dog/handler.  You are allowed to be called back to the track 3 times if the dog gets off of it, but after that you are disqualified.  This test can be very tricky as there is little or no visible blood, and if you are called back the judges don't tell you where you were on/off the track.  The track is also not marked so the handler can't "cheat" the dog through it - you have to trust your dog and be able to read when he is on or off of the track.  There are 3 levels of prizes, with a Prize 1 only possible if there is no callback (ie. the dog works the track faultlessly).  Katia and Oskar worked the 20 hour test track (aged 20-24 hours after laying the blood) to a Prize 1 in 15 minutes....he actually ran down the track to go 1000 yards in 15 minutes.  The next day they worked the 40 hour test track (aged 2 days) in 32 minutes to a Prize 1.  We really didn't know what that meant, we expect Oskar to not make mistakes on artificial lines, but the guy in the tie, the head judge thats been doing this for alot of years, said that Oskar and Katia worked better than any dog/handler team he has ever judged.  Needless to say we were proud!  This is where proper bloodline and a good relationship with your dog show through.

The woman with the horn is a judge from Germany, and the other fellow is a US judge.


   


And yes, I know in the DD world the dog is not allowed to chew on the animal.  For Oskar, though, this is the reward, no treat or toy at the end of the track for him...he only wants HIS deer!

[Hawkeye]

Very, very neat, Ryan.  What a wonderful and fulfilling "wrinkle" on enjoying our sport.

You Da "Man", Oskar!!!!!

[Ryan Rothhaar]

This whole experience has been a real eye-opener for us, and if you haven't figured it out I'm 1000% sold on the value of a well handled tracking dog to find wounded animals.  I think of it this way - a good woodsman will probably find virtually all of the deer he wounds mortally, it just may take a long time for some.  Having a good dog available makes those long tracks (and possible heartbreakers) into a walk in the woods.

An example (and the last deer of the 2011 season for us) was this doe that my father shot late this season....this was Oskar's 24th deer recovery in his first 3 seasons of tracking.

   


You can see the hit was less than ideal, with about 2/3 arrow penetration to the offside back of the ribcage and no exit hole (he is shooting quite light poundage nowadays).  Of course the Ol' Man has killed a few whitetails in his day, and knew his hit wasn't great.  He backed out and we didn't fool with the deer that night.  The next morning Katia, Oskar, and I tracked the deer about 350 yards to her last bed in under 15 minutes.  The first 80 yards would have been pretty easy - open woods, reasonable blood - but then she got into a high weed field (CRP) and there was no visible blood for over 200 yards.  This deer went the exact opposite direction we would have thought from having killed probably a dozen deer from this stand over the years, and crossed a fence into a brushy draw.  50 yards into the draw layed the doe.  Now we would have probably found this deer, but based on the direction/distance it would have been a body search situation with no blood once into the CRP field and probably a 4-8 hour search.  With the dog the deer is skinned out and butchered by then.

This is a good time of year to start a pup, and if you have the time, dedication, and interest in developing a blood tracking dog, then go for it!  For us it has opened up a whole new world of enjoyment and given the wife and I something else to do together outdoors (she doesn't hunt, but LOVES to track!).  Plus we've gotten a real buddy out of it and have been able to help a few folks find deer that may have otherwise been lost.

We also got to know fellow TradGang member Shaun Webb through this ordeal (thanks for the test pics!).  He's addicted to this too, and his dog Graetche is Oskar's cousin.  She's spoiled though.  (If you see Shaun ask him about his sweet little girl fighting a boar hog in Texas this spring!).

Thanks for sticking with it this long, and I hope you found it interesting!

Ryan

[Cyclic-Rivers]

 

I hope I never need one and hope one is available if I do.

[Bjorn]

Great thing you are doing Ryan! Love to see animals get recovered instead of wasted!      

[South MS Bowhunter]

That great and really add to the overall element of hunting and woodsmanship!

What are other breeds to consider for tracking dogs?

[Orion]

Excellent information.  Wish I lived/hunted a little closer to you.  Thanks for sharing.      

[Ryan Rothhaar]

You'll get lots of recommendations for breeds.  Get a type of dog that you can LIVE WITH first, then look for 1. Prey drive 2. Focus and 3. Intelligence...and you are set!  This is why we looked for the right (hunting) bloodlines as this took care of 1-3 for us.

Ryan

[njloco]

That is a great story about your dog, and she/he is still so young, i'll look forward to the stories that will come over the years.

Thanks

[3arrows]

Ryan looks like you have come a ways since comptons a couple years ago.Enjoyed the story about your dog.

[smokin joe]

Very cool.  

[JDunlap]

Sounds very interesting and fun.