Urban Deer Recovery-October 27th, 2022

 




Learn to trust your dog!


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.

High Mountain Deer Recovery-October 2nd, 2022

 





Cheers for a successful recovery!

On the evening of October 1st we received a call about a deer that had been shot with a muzzle loader on a high elevation mountain range. The hunter had shot the deer nearing the end of light hours and attempted to track the deer down the hill, but ultimately lost track of the blood and called it a night. Hearing word that we started big game recovery work they made a call to us. He explained the situation, the evidence, the placement of the shot, and sent over pins to the location. It just so happened that we were planning on going up the same mountain for Amanda's deer tag to scout for the upcoming rifle season so it worked out for us to pack up Beck and Lottie and see if we could be of service. We attempted to use Becks, but he was extremely over stimulated and had a difficult time keeping his nose to the ground to work the scent. Lottie however immediately took to the scent and lead us to new blood the hunter had not located. She worked her way to a clearing in the trees where she seemed to have lost the blood trail, but began scenting the air. We worked out way down the hill to the next set up trees where she was using her nose to guide her and came up on the bucks final place of rest. We were so thrilled to see that we had a successful recovery on a deer! The hunter was able to salvage quite a bit of meat and pack it home for his family.

It was a great recovery and exciting to watch Lottie really take over the job and work her nose. Based on her body language you could see when she was on the right trail and when she had lost it needing to back track. The smile and excitement on the hunter's face said it all when you could see the hope come back into his mind when she was leading him to blood they hadn't seen.

Our First Dabble Into Big Game Recovery-September 30th, 2022

 

Big game recovery? What is that?!?


A newer working sport has been emerging out here in the West. Dogs being used to track and recover big game animals. Most often heard of in the Midwest and in the Southern regions of the states, the Rocky Mountain Region has been developing a good list of trackers to aide hunters in the recovery of animals they have harvested, but been unable to locate. A well trained dog and knowledgable handler will be called out by a hunter who will then start them at the original shot site. With a quick introduction to the blood and a cue to search the dog begins to use their nose to work along the wounded animals path. The goal? To find the deceased animal and take it home or complete the kill and save the animal from any additional suffering after the original shot. Not all times will the dogs recover the animal, but with an incredible nose the odds of locating the animal are higher than a human trying to track the blood that may not be fully visible.

We quickly found the only nationwide club designed for big game recovery teams called the United Blood Trackers. After a phone call with a local tracker he encouraged us to "just try it." He explained that the dogs natural instinct quickly chimes in and with nothing but encouragement a dog can become extremely successful. He explained a few ways to practice at-home tracks, but really pushed us to take a few calls and try out the real thing.

I took a call from a local gentleman who explained that his son had shot a deer earlier that evening and they were unable to locate him. They were hoping we could go out and help them in the search. I explained that we were brand new, had little tracking experience, but would love the opportunity to try out a live track. Long story short, we didn't track the original deer, but we did track and recover a second deer that the daughter shot on our way out to the first. With such a short window of light, a lack of packs to carry out two deer, and not even reached the starting point for the first deer we called it a night and helped pack out the newly harvested animal. This experience was a great first experience for us as it taught us a lot of different things to prepare for with future tracking calls. From gear to wear, questions to ask, and expectations to set we we're one step into building experience for our future in tracking.