If there is one thing about this recovery that I learned it's that we need to trust our dogs more when putting them to work. We received a call about a deer that had been shot and although they didn't see exactly where it was hit, it was suspected to be a gut shot given that the deer had lost a chunk of intestine while jumping over a barbed wire fence. After the hunter shared the details, the location, and pictures of the evidence they found I knew this deer would expire, but it was just a matter of when. We didn't want to push it that evening so instead we waited until first thing in the morning. After receiving written permission from the private land owner to cross the fence and pursue the deer we got to work just about 8am. Lottie immediately expressed interest in the instances and dug her nose right into the ground. This round of tracking was fun to watch as I took a step back and just let her work her nose. There were a couple of times that she seemed to realize she was off the trail and so I did help guide her back to the last place she had scent. She quickly picked right back up on the trail and let us over a barbed wire fence two more times before going into some thicker brush to where the deer had finally rested. She was definitely proud of herself for locating the deer, but didn't want to get too close to it after her initial praise. I'm extremely proud of her! This was a solo track and nearly .75 of a mile. She worked hard, persisted even when she lost the trail and took direction really well. I can't wait to go out again for another track with her.