F3 hunting expo dixie deer classic

What a great weekend promoting the tracking dogs and workshop. Great time hanging out with Sian,Stefan and Lee,Michael Waddell and Tiffany wasn't a bad addition either. Hopefully we will get a few tracking jobs in the future, they loved the pups.

F3 workshop seminar

Pics and Info on this years workshop to come.

not only for tracking

Here is a pic of dozer with one of the ducks he ret this fall.

Tough Luck

Well Dozer and i traveled to Glen Arbor area which is about 4 hrs drive to help Ryan find his buck of a lifetime. We arrived about 1230 in morning and got introduced and started or trek up the side of this hill which was just straight up. I didn't want dozer working to much on the way to the site so he got his first ride in my backpack which he did handled well. We got to the site and he said he had stumbled across some blood about a quarter mile away, i set Dozer down and told him to find the deer he took off and went the opposite dirct. off where the blood was at so we were concerned he was on the wrong deer but about a half mile later we arrived at his hat and gloves where he marked the blood he had found earlier that day so we new he was on the right deer. We found a few specks of blood and after he figured out which way the deer went it took a little while because it was so tracked up from searching the area we went the wrong dirct a couple times he got on a live deer and started voicing so we picked him up and brought him back to the blood and we traveled about another mile or more with no blood i was really starting to second guess whether the dog was on the right trail and sure enough he brought us to a wound bed that had a few drops of blood in and we went about another half mile to the swamp that was so thick we couldn't navigate and decided after 2 miles with barely any blood knowing that he hit the deer really high and center we were Leary to start knowing it may have not been a fatal shot but after 2miles of tracking we were pretty sure this deer is going to live to see another day. Wanted to thank Ryan for the opportunity to track his buck of a lifetime. I know the deer wasn't found but i gained a lot of confidence in Dozer ability to track that far with no blood.

dozers first deer

Finally Dozer got his first live call, was at a DU banquet fri night and got two calls within an hour. The first one the hunter lost the blood trail about 80yds from the hit site and had it marked with toilet paper. It was nice because he gotta outta the woods and didn't disturb the area until i arrived 4 hrs later.We put dozer on the blood at the hit site and it was on he followed and hit every piece of TP so we knew he was on the right deer, the deer made two circles and went about 800yds he got real excited towards the end and actually yipped a couple times so i thought he picked up a fresh deer track from a live deer so we picked him up and brought him back about 100yds and started again but he went the same direction and sure enough about 25yds from where i picked him up there was the deer. He let a low growl out and went right for the throat of the deer, it was awesome. I will post pics when i get back from SD. The 2nd call didn't go as well they looked for it the whole time they were waiting and also had a friends dog out there looking we ended up going prob 400yds farther than they had made it but the first 1000yds was really tough because there was so much sent and confusion for such a young dog from everyone walking around we quit looking at around 230 am and would've gone back in morning but i was leaving for SD at 6am. This just another reason when you call a dog in don't go in the woods and create a bunch more work for the dog, would like to thank both guys for calling me and hope we can help some other hunters in the future.

Thanks

I'd like to thank Rob Miller and Scouts tracking service for help setting up the site.