Bad Idea for the Weekend

Sunday Track

Sunday was a great day to lay and run a track.  There was a thin layer of snow on the ground and with temps in the upper 30's, it was wonderful vest weather.

This was only the second track we've run since early November.  If you watch the video below you'll see how tightly that wet snow holds scent.  It was a man track only (no blood or other scent).  Aged about 3 1/2 hours.

I also hope that it shows Sparta slowing down as she matures a little bit.  It could just be that she was tired.  I've worked her hard over the weekend, going out on numerous scouting trips in the heavy snow.  If I walk one mile, she goes three, and the snow is up to her chin.

This track  also contains the first back track I've given Sparta to figure out.  It is also a good idea that I see how she behaves in such a situation.  Thinking about last year's blood tracking, some of our mistakes (or most) were based upon Sap error more than canine error.

The app used for the map to the right, Dog Tracks, is a good help but it does not replace a thorough job marking your trail.  We ran a tighter track than the picture lets on.  The map you get is only as good as your GPS signal and I think the tree cover throws it off a bit.

Watching videos of someone else's dog track might be as interesting as Uncle Melvin's slide presentation of his Jamaican vacation.  But I think these illustrate how well scent stays put in the snow.

The videos below show different legs of the track but in each one she's moving from footstep to footstep in a slower and more deliberate manner than I would expect.

She acted like we'd never crossed a road before.

I was pretty pleased how she worked through her first "backtrack."

The last corner,

Leerburg Tracking

What does tracking wounded game have in common with police or Search and Rescue work?

Getting the job done is more important than how you look when you're doing it.

There is a lot to respect in Schutzhund, but my reluctance to adhere too closely to their training methods arises from the fact that strict adherence to form (smelling each and every footprint) is substituted for effectiveness.  I'm glad that tracking clubs help people get out of the house and do something with their dogs, but as long as they tow the AKC line, my non-AKC unspayed bitch is not allowed to compete.

Tracking a wounded deer is easier while the sun is still up, so speed of progress plays a roll.  A police officer tracking a bad guy, time is even more important.  Both parties are more interested in finding what we are tracking than how we look in the process.

No one cares who the sire was when you're hunting down a rapist.  No one cares how much time the nose spends up or down when you're tracking a wounded buck of a lifetime.

Enter Leerburg's Introductory tracking video.  It's not cheap, even hunting for a used copy I still spent $40, but it was worth the expense.  I watched it once this weekend and need to give it a second go through when I can take notes while watching.  I will probably watch it once a year on an on-going basis as I try to figure out how to train in the off season.

The video addresses a couple of issues we ran into in our first year of tracking wounded deer and gives a few ideas how I can start to train for them in the off season.  First and foremost, starting a track when no one can tell you where the track begins.

I'll look into the other videos and training they offer.  I've always found the quality top notch, it is just that the price is as well.  It is a great product but if you're starting out, training in a small group with an experienced tracker, even if they're not a wounded game tracker, might be a better use of funds.

Disclaimer: While I don't know the folks at Leerburg, they are located less than twenty miles from my home so that makes them a little bit of my hometown team.

From the website:

There are 2 types of tracking, "foot step tracking" and "tracking thru drive." Foot step tracking is taught with food and a ball. It is designed for sport dogs. Tracking thru drive is designed for service dogs. Here the dog is taught to follow the track at a dead run and there is always a man at the end of every track. Tracking thru drive is the only way to train a police service dog. 

If you are a K-9 officer who trains his service dog with food & a ball you already know that you only catch 3% or 4% of the people you track. The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) catch 45% to 50% of all the people they track (this includes suburban and urban tracking). If a suspect runs in the country, they catch 95% of them.
This 2 hour video was filmed in Alberta, Canada at the police dog training center for the RCMP. The RCMP instructors are the best tracking dog instructors in the world. They have been training police tracking dogs since 1935. I filmed three videos with them. This is the first video. This video will show how the RCMP can train a dog (in 60 training tracks) to follow a 1 hour old, 5 KM unknown track that contains back tracks, road crossings, fence crossings and articles. 

The RCMP has 3 Levels of tracking. This video covers Level One or tracking in a rural environment. Level two and three (Video 208) deals with suburban and urban tracking.
I have had literally hundreds of K-9 officers call or write and say, "This is the only way to train a police dog to track." They wish they had seen this video when starting to train their dogs. Many officers have said, "This training method put the fire back into my police dog. Now he enjoys tracking and we are catching people that used to get away."
The RCMP now uses my three videos in their police dog training center in Alberta. They also send them out to their handlers in the field. 

The other two training videos done with the RCMP are:

• Training Police Tracking Dogs Level 2 & 3

• Track Laying for Police Tracking Dog

Kurgo upgrades a harness

After trying a number of harness my favorite for heavy tracking use also happens to be the cheapest: Kurgo's True Fit Smart Dog harness.

Fancier harnesses with any material other than nylon webbing look  great but begin to fray after just a few hours of use in the brush blood tracking takes us into.  Until such time as I feel flush enough to buy a nice leather harness, it is hard to see why we would need anything other than the simple Kurgo.

Stoic will start spending more time doing some blood track training so I went to Amazon to pick up a second copy of the harness so that I could have one fitted for each terrier.  I thought I was ordering a clone to my first harness but thanks to my own inattentiveness, I got something better: the Kurgo True-Fit Enhanced Strength harness.

The only thing I did not care for on the original harness was the plastic clasps.  They are practical and hold up well but I preferred the metal nesting buckles I had seen on other Kurgo harnesses.  Imagine my surprise when the new harness arrived, made with those metal nesting buckles as well as additional stitching along the back strap.

Both harnesses exceed expectations at less than $20.  Measure (your dog) twice, buy once.

Let's Go (man) Tracking

I started Sparta's training on man-tracks.  It was fairly easy to transition her to follow blood trails this past fall.  If it did create some a problem, she had a more generalized sense of tracking than a dog who was only trained to track wounded game.  If the hunter was mistaken on the location of the hit or the course of the trail, she'd follow the closest trail available and not necessarily look for the wounded deer.

It could have been why we had trouble staying on the wounded deer, but it is a problem I think we are overcoming.

While the bow season continues until year's end, we haven't had a tracking call since the week before Thanksgiving.  I needed to get out of the house.  She needed to get out of the house.  So I laid a short (~160 yard) man track with two turns and let it age thirty minutes.  I didn't know how well she'd do so I kept her on a shorter leash.  I thought I might need to keep her on a tight track.  My concern was unfounded.

She never had this kind of energy in tracking before.  I will have to see if get her to work a little slower if we try to pass a tracking test, that and she will have to re-learn how to indicate she has found an object.

She learned that she gets a great reward at the end of a track, (a piece of deer hide/meat/bone).  It wasn't particularly practical to have her show me an indication when we were tracking dying deer.

Note the yellow flags at each turn.

Is it Better to be Lucky or Good?

I love calls on Thursdays.

I'd slept through my first night after working the night shift the previous nine.  I had things I wanted to do but as my body adjusts to the new schedule all I feel like doing is eating the kids' Halloween candy, drinking beer, and napping.

I was about to give in to an noontime nap when the phone rang: gut shot, twenty hours before, large intestine, 75 minutes away.

Perfect!  Suddenly I had a reason to stay out of bed.

The hunter and his party had started to track the deer the night before.  They lost the blood trail and, as it would turn out, that was to their good fortune.

I arrived and the hunter, an employee of his, and a nephew headed out to the stand.  While the hunter had a good idea of where the deer was when he shot it, the blood trail had been obscured by a dusting of morning snow.  Starting at the hit site, I tried to keep Sparta going slow but there was almost no way to confirm she was on the correct track.  Using GPS the hunter was able to tell me we were close but that is all.

The spot of last blood had been marked by a piece of toilet paper.  Did I mention that there had been a dusting of snow?

Still Sparta took to a line and I let her follow it, farther than I would have normally.  At some point I realized the hunting party had veered off in another direction.  It was at this point that I realized that in my excitement to get started, I'd left my phone in the car.

Sometimes you make your own bad luck.  I wasn't worried but I knew at some point I needed to stop Sparta and reconnect with the search party.  I'd have gone farther if I could text the hunter to let him know what I was doing.  It would turn out that it was good luck that I could not contact him.

"If we hadn't started searching for you, we might not have found the deer."

As I was deciding how far to let Sparta lead me on this trail before taking her back and restarting her, the hunting party was feeling the need to reconnect with me.  They'd been searching an area they thought the buck had traveled but left it to head in my direction.

About half-way between where Sparta had taken me and where they had begun their search there was a shout of 'Deer!"  The hunter's hired man found the missing buck.  It had travel ~100 yards from last blood but in a different direction than the party expected.

When he field dressed the deer, it was still warm.  It had been dead just a couple of hours.  In other words, if they'd had a better blood trail the night before they would have bumped him and that trail, potentially, could have grown much, much longer.

After getting the buck back to the truck, a story in itself in those Taylor County low areas, I congratulated the hunter on finding his deer and added something about how maybe they wouldn't have needed the dog after all.  The hunter smiled, "You never know.  We might not have found it if I hadn't decided we needed to find and check on you."

There is a saying that goes, "it is better to be lucky than good."  I guess so far as results are concerned, that much is true.  Still, for my mental health I find focusing on being good, or at least being my best, and ignoring luck the better path.  Doesn't mean I won't embrace Lady Fortune when she smiles on me.

It was an afternoon well spent.  We met some nice people, saw some nice country, and got to be part of a deer recovery and, when the rubber hits the road, that makes for a good day.  I don't forget, however, that Lady Fortune can take away just as capriciously as she gives.

Tadeusz Kuntze: Fortune, oil on canvas:National Museum, Warsaw

Grid

Talking to hunters I have discovered that terms like high back, brisket, or back of the shoulder can mean different things to different people.

Our eyes can fool us, especially in low light.  We can think our arrow hit the deer in one place at a certain angle when, if fact, the recovered deer shows wounds in quite another.  Reality is hard enough, there is no need to compound the problem through unclear communication.

I'm not sure who we owe for these nice illustrations, I got them from Mark, a tracker who lives near me.  He received it from someone else who likely had it passed on to him from yet another tracker.

I am still not sure how to incorporate these images into my pre-track interview.  When texting with a hunter, it is easy enough to send the images and ask them to comment on where they believe they hit the deer.  Over the phone, it is a bit more complicated.  I suppose I will just print them and keep them with my tracking journal.  Then I can ask the hunter whenever we meet in person.

Quarting Away

Quarting toward

True Broadside

"Let's go Trackin'!"

She usually curls up to go to sleep when we get in the car, unless she see's me picking up her tracking harness.

Training the Sapien

This is our first year tracking in a serious way.

Sparta is concentrating on her craft.  I am concentrating on how to read her but also how to manage the other sapiens in the field so that she can better do her job.

Two weekends ago I let a situation spiral out of control.  She worked, but was delayed.


The hunter had called us at the right time, as the blood trail pooped out, he pulled back and called for a dog.

When I showed up, I was a little overwhelmed as five guys gathered around to walk out to where he shot the deer.  It is nice to have other people to keep an eye out for blood as we walk, but I had a hard time remembering which one was the hunter.

All the camo coats looked the same to me.

We found the blood trail and I started Sparta on it.  Taking some time to slow her down and keep her on the track we moved slow.  Approaching last blood I didn't notice the large search party gathering around.

They were curious.  They wanted to see the dog work.  I had mixed emotions.  I have nothing to hide.  I want to show off the dog.  I'd like it if their were fewer people.  A crowd is off-putting.

Sparta appeared to go off track, I restarted her.  She didn't want to restart.  I was feeling crowded.  I almost said something about giving the dog some room.  I didn't.  It would turn out that this was a rather significant error of omission.

She took us in the direction of some tall marsh grass and she started to work the edge away from the search party.  As she came weaved in and out of small trees on the edge I dropped the leash, gave the command for her to "go slow" and began to walk around the thicket she was working.

The second the leash hit the ground she jumped into a sprint.

She didn't not respond to my recall.  She did not respond to my whistle.

There are things that Sparta is not yet rock solid on.  This is not one of them.  It is a special whistle we use in the field and she's not failed to return to it for over a year.

One member of the search party volunteered to join me to search for my dog.  He'd come from downstate.  My home is his "up north" and he'd lost a dog while "up north" in the past.  He was more worried than I was.  We live here.  She could take care of herself.

Half an hour later, Sparta back in hand, and myself feeling a little more humble, the search party itself had shrunk with the dog and handler appearing rather unremarkable.

They had found blood in that same marsh grass in our absence.  I restarted Sparta and she worked steadily and slowly taking us through the grass.  Broaching the other side of the marsh I became a little less sure of her track but she took us deeper into the woods and toward a property line we did not have permission to cross.

The hunter was confident permission would not be given.  The buck was big, but they didn't even think it was worth the effort to try to gain permission.

Unable to follow her further, we returned to the grass which extended for a distance at a 90 degree-angle to the presumed track.  We worked through an area where she'd shown some interest but to no effect.

We continued to fish around for scent for a while without result and the hunter decided to call the search.  We had a good conversation about Sparta, her therapy dog work, the powers and limits of working dogs, their positive interactions with Brian Schlomann who tracks with Chesapeake Bay Retrievers out of New Berlin, WI.

I was glad I got to meet those guys.  I learned that reading and trusting my dog applies to more than just following the track.  It also relates to being more assertive with the other sapiens we encounter in the future.

What are the Chances?

Growing up in Shelbyville, Illinois the closest movie theater was 45 minutes to the southeast in Effingham.  Effingham lies along I-70 and, until the "Reagan Boom" of the 1980's, was the closest source of chain restaurants, Walmart, and other conveniences of mass culture.

Ron Slifer and his bloodhound "Dio" are based in Effingham county but track wounded game all around the area.

  Last week he had this memorable experience.

Spent the better part of the day tracking this buck for an out of stater, a real nice fella.

Anyhow he was upfront with me told me he was high and back on his shot, with no exit and of course no arrow. Going into this track I was thinking negative, but I've been fooled before. He had tracked it yesterday morning a couple hrs after he had shot it. Good blood for 200 yards to a railroad and he stopped there. He seen that the deer had crossed the tracks and backed out to wait for me and Dio this morning.

We sat out on the blood on the tracks and tracked the deer into a 3 acre thick as heck brush patch finding small drops of blood all throughout and some really fresh scrapes...Uh-ho I've seen that before!  

Anyhow we pursued and found the deer angled out of the thicket and walked right along the RR tracks in the rocks! I left Dio tied up in the thicket, because we could visibly see drops of blood and I wanted him to slow down a bit. He is usually a bit wound up on the first track of the day as this one was, I find this works. I also didn't know how he would track on the RR rocks.

The hunter and I went nearly a 1/4 mile doing this util we couldn't find anymore. I then walked back to Dio and off we went down the rocks a lil past where we had lost blood. He stopped and came back and shot across the tracks and wouldn't you know it BLOOD on some grass! We then went in a bean field towards a finger of woods shooting out into the field (looked good to me), but no blood. 

Tis but a scratch

We worked hard through this woods to find nothing. When I came out the hunter was standing in the bean field. I asked him if he seen anything come out, he said no! About that time I looked out in the field and there laid a DEAD DEER. I jumped and yelled and hugged the hunter, we had put almost 4 hrs in this track already. 

We ran over to the deer only to discover it was not his deer! What are the odds of a dead buck laying in an open field? There was no visible wounds on this dead buck, although it looked as if a battle of some sorts occurred where it laid at. Talk about a huge BUZZKILL!!!

So on the way home from the 2 hr drive I got this pic.! I knew it he was alive! I am certain he will survive this wound. 

The hunter was leaving for home today. He will return next week before the gun season. Hope he gets a closing to this buck. I think he stands a good chance to see him anyhow.

If you need Ron you can contact him here. He also has a Facebook page.

Bonus

I went to my local processor to pick up a steer we took in a while back and came home with a box of training aids to boot.

Each leg can be chopped into 4 or 5 dog bones.  At the end of each longer training track one a tracking dog will find a piece of deer.  Twenty legs from five deer and I have enough for 80 to 100 training tracks.  More than enough to Sparta to much more complicated scenarios in the off season and to get Stoic started and see if he can channel his natural nosing ability and prey drive in the direction of blood tracking.

In related news, the dogs now have two shelves of dedicated space in the upright freezer.

Enough for training and the occasional treat.

A Marriage takes more than Love

She is stretched by allowing me to thaw out blood and deer heart for a training track in the fridge.

I work at being considerate enough to label said blood to reduce any chance of misunderstanding.

In this case, her's is probably the heavier burden.

Giving it Back

I do not remember when this bow was not a part of the family.

Before I was born Dad received it as a gift from his father, an untamed man in his own right, who passed away this fall.

Dad doesn't have too much opportunity to bow hunt at present so I was using it this year.  Color me sentimental, but I would have very much liked to have killed a deer with this bow.

I didn't loose it.  I gave it back.

As I was taught, I should have unstrung it.  Contemporary opinions differ. Maybe I am glad I left it strung.   If it had to break, I'd rather it break in the garage than when drawn on a target or otherwise held in my hand.

There is nothing that is permanent.  We're all just taking turns.  Today I eat a grouse.  Tomorrow the earth eats me.  Alfalfa eats dirt.  Grouse eats alfalfa.  Man eats grouse.

The bow is wood and wood, too, must return to the earth.

Calls you can't take

Last night came the first snow, and this morning my first deer call because of a blood trail lost beneath its melting.

A tough 10-year old girl was hunting in the spitting rain and snow with her Dad.  Her shot landed just behind the shoulder and 2/3rd's up.

I can't make it out for the track.  I was asleep by the first time he called.  I woke up to the phone ringing again but by the time I account for the drive, there just isn't enough time before I have to head into work tonight.

All I could tell him is to tell his daughter that the tracker is lucky to meet a lot of hunters, but being out in the rain and the snow, she's probably the toughest hunter I've heard of this year.

I am thinking for that in 2016, the rut would be a good time to spend down any vacation hours I'd be at risk of loosing.

Buck Found, Lessons Learned

When I was ten my father lost a hundred dollar bet to my mother.

In 1983, that was a lot of money.

She was going to let him off.  I will let you keep the hundred dollars if you will just say, "Honey, you were right.  I was wrong.  I will try to keep that in mind in the future."

Dad thought for a few seconds, "I think I'd rather give you the hundred bucks."

------
Out of Sunday's three tracks, the first not-found buck bothered me the most.

Something did not add up.
Something just wasn't right.
The still quiet voice said "It is here if you would see."

I was ready to blame the dog for not being capable.  Maybe.  She's still green.  She's going through a bit of "pup-a-lescence," but I am the big ape with a little bit of poetry in him.  It is my job to bring the value-added problem solving.

Regardless,  I am thrilled to say the buck has been found.

The landowner found the buck and called the game warden.
The game warden called the hunter and asked him to describe the rack.
After passing the description test the warden invited the hunter to come out and collect his deer.

Junior collects his buck

The meat was past saving, but the hunter was still ready to throw his tag on it.

What I got wrong:

• It was not a brisket shot.  He shot it in the hind quarter and the arrow went out through the belly.  That is why we had such a great blood trail.
• At one time I walked within 20 yards of clear line of sight of that dead deer.  No brush, no saplings, nothing but mature canopy.  My head was down looking for blood.  He'd bled that much, it was open forest, I should have walked through another time with head up.

What I got right:

• It had lost enough blood to die.  I doubted myself by the end of the trail but that deer was dead.
• After we loss the trail, my best guess was that the deer went into the near-by treeline.  To be fair, after one restart, that is where Sparta took me too.  A better handler might have let her lead him farther despite the absence of confirmation.
• I asked Junior to drop me a note if the deer showed up.  I am so glad he did.

What was awesome:

• The landowner made an effort to find who had killed the deer.  A lot of people would have just cut off the head, saved the skull, or cut the antlers.
• That buck went about seventy yards after it stopped bleeding.  Imagine you've lost enough blood that you're no longer bleeding, then walk 70 more yards.  "'Dem deer are tough."

Biggest Lessons:

• Under similar circumstances, walk through one more time with your head up.
• Remember how much blood that deer loss.  Next time add another 70 - 100 yards.
• Remember, there are some awesome people in the world who go beyond fair chase.

Always be ready to say "I was wrong and I will try to keep that in mind in the future."

Sparta gets a Win

Artemis: Sometimes a homo sapien just needs to whisper a prayer somewhere.

What does it take to get two men in their forties, who've met just an hour before, to embrace in full scale man-hug?  A hunter finding a deer that he had feared was lost.  A tracker gets to see his dog work.

We are homo sapien.  200,000 years of evolution made us this way.  We are hunters.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

-------------
Saturday night a neighbor, the father of my oldest son's friend, gave me the number of a gentleman in need of a tracking dog.  A few text messages later and I had arranged to meet the hunter the next morning.  A shot to the lower chest: lots of blood that ended in a clover field, fat found along the trail.

Arriving Sunday morning, I got pretty excited.  I had Sparta start the trail near the beginning because even though the trail started heavy, we were going through some tall grass and a small wetland area.  I prejudged the situation thinking it was a strong possibility that the buck had back tracked from the hunter's point of loss.

I wanted to check and mark any place Sparta wanted to go off the obvious trail to look for smaller bits of sign.

It was a clear trail and Sparta followed it well for close to a mile.  I marked a couple of spots to investigate later but as we exited the cover into a harvested/plowed corn field, I began to doubt by thesis.  The deer continued to bleed as heavily as before.  Unless he stepped in his own footsteps on the way back, it would be difficult to see how he could backtrack without leaving evidence.

About forty yards into the clover field, the blood quickly reduced to nothing.

Sparta led me another 100 yards parallel to the corn field toward some wooded cover, but I never found another bit of evidence to point to.  The hunter had to leave for a confirmation and party.  I spent another hour or two circling the clover field looking for sign.

I began to doubt myself.  If there is any problem with a dog, it is with the owner/trainer.  I was entertaining the idea of pulling her from active service to put more time into training.  The situation did not make sense to me at the moment.

Synthesis: the deer stopped running and had lost a fair amount of blood.  Both worked together to lower its blood pressure.  I am told that a brisket wound can bleed profusely, like when a person gets a cut to the head, but unless the arrow gets to the heart/lungs/artery are often non-fatal.

-------------
Another call came in.  The hunter said he honestly could not make out the point of impact.  He described a mile long trail through swamp and field.  I confess I like him, even over the phone.  So I explained it sounded like a bit of a long-shot but I was willing to give it a try and we made arrangements to meet.

The hunter and his tracking party were Amish.  I was impressed at the meager blood trail they had been following.  

They were, hands down, the most patient, most efficient, and most accurate sight trackers I have ever met.  I tip my hat to them and the effort they put forth.

I was able to take them another two hundred yards: though each time is was they who pointed out the visible blood.  The deer went into a tall grassy area and I could only guess about which way he went out.  The area had been so think with deer since the night before that I could almost smell them.

I huddled up the team.  They knew the score.  They practically completed my sentences at every turn.

Daniel: Was the blood that color the entire length of the track?
Hunter: Yes it was.  Yes it was.  I must have hit it in muscle.
D: Did you ever found a wound bed?
H: No, he was able to keep going the entire time.

"Work 'em hard; treat 'em like heroes."

D: It has been a pretty straight track, hasn't it?
H: It has.  We're only, I'd say, 100 yards off of due east from where I shot it.  He is going back to his core area.  He is probably going to live.
D: I think you're right.  You did show me that area where he ran around in circles as if chasing his tail and you haven't found the arrow.  If I had to guess I'd say a shoulder or high neck shot.

I really liked those guys.  Humility kept the hunter from talking about it but I am thinking that must have been some buck to get them to work that hard and then call me in.

Synthesis: I should have done more to dissuade the gentlemen from having me come out.  They had buck fever, I had enough information that, had I thought rationally about it, would have assumed that the deer had been muscle shot and would survive.  Still, I am the better for having met them.

------------
While I'd been out, two more calls had come in.  They arrived at about the same time.  With three hours of daylight left to us, I called the one closest to my current location.

Artemis, I whispered, let it be a gut shot.  We could really use a good, smelly, gut shot.

Gut shot.

I'd never run Sparta on three tracks in one day.  It had been eight hours since we left home, but Sparta needed a win.  Let me be honest, I was projecting.  I needed a win.

We arrive, introduced Sparta to the hunter and his girlfriend (I learned that with the Amish group, Sparta gets distracted if she smells/sees someone she hasn't met) and got to work.  Sparta ran a track about 30 yards out to the hunter's last blood and then forward.

Even as we moved forward I noticed, the hunter and his girlfriend were being more careful at trying to stay out of the scent line than even I would be: props.

My emotions were a mixture of hope and doubt.  We were surrounded by wooded housing development.  You could only see one set of neighbors but the sounds were everywhere: four-wheelers, joggers, kids enjoying the last evening of a weekend, it was distracting to me.  Sparta must have been overwhelmed.  Then she was spooked by a neighbor's 3-D deer target.  This environment was way outside our training rubric and it showed.

Then, for the first time that day I got to yell it, "Blood!" ~80 yards past the hunter's loss of track, with the hunter and his girlfriend still 40 yards behind me.  A small pool of blood, but a lot more than we'd seen so far.  Sparta led me on, more blood, more blood, and then nothing.

I restarted her again.  I knew she was growing irritated.  She hates being re-started.  She was tired of this game.  She began to grab at the tracking leash, growling and tugging.  I pulled her aside for some play.  I put her on her walking leash.  Five minutes and nothing was working.  I was afraid she was going to go "the union rules state" on me with half of the most probable track we'd had all day only half-finished.

Out of desperation I pulled out the best idea I had left.  I picked her up and cradled her on her back like a baby.  I scratched.  I baby-talked.  I nuzzled.  I did everything I could to communicate love, trust, and authority without a care in the world what any observer might think.

She started to lick my face.  I put her down and we got back to work.

Giving me strong indication that she was on the trail we went forward and then it happened: blood, blood, blood: a  blood trail as obvious as the one earlier in the morning into pine saplings about eight foot tall.  The hunter and I were agreed that he should get his bow, noc an arrow, and track forward alone for a short-time.

The deer ought to be dead, but it is possible the buck hadn't read that book.

He got to a point where the cover was too thick to shoot so he motioned us forward.  With Sparta in the lead, we crept forward.  "Deer!" I shouted.  Hugs ensued.  Pictures were taken.  Sparta got some bit of liver, heart, and a bony piece of leg for the drive home.

The hunter got his deer.

I got to put away some of that nagging doubt.  Sparta and I are bringing value to hunters.  We can continue to train and hone our craft in the knowledge that while we might not yet be the A-team, we are a team, and this is what we do.

Synthesis: I do love me a good smelly gut shot and a hunter with enough foresight to back out and let us do our thing.  The deer was angling away.  He nicked the liver and one lung.  Deer bled to death internally, from the combination of internal wounds.

Happy Hunter, Happy Dog, Happy Tracker

Tracking Season Prep

Bear season opens this morning.  While I don't expect to get too many calls for bear, it is best to be ready if a call does come in.

The car was packed a week ago.  The dog is primed.  This man is stoked.

Track Training for the Bow Season

Twelve days until the beginning of bow season and the start of Sparta and I's first season of tracking wounded game together.  The closer we get to the beginning of our first season and the more realistic I try to make our training, the deeper my understanding of how this will be a truly team effort.

Ecstatic

Bummer

I am more excited about this season than any deer season since my first.

Thanks to United Blood Trackers our name will be available to hunters in the area.  I have also received some good training advice from the members of that organization.

Still even the best teams have a success rate of about 50%, and that is based upon the calls they actually go out on.  The search really begins when doing a phone interview with the person wanting to call in a dog to find their deer.  There are calls where it is worth no one's time or money to even head out.

But even once you get out, even if you're dog is great, there are plenty of unknowns.

The science of scent is far from complete.  There is plenty that we do not know.  Take two sample tracks from my own dog run a week apart.  The first had me ecstatic and ready to take on the world.  The second left me feeling defeated and doubtful.

Now even the second track doesn't look that bad.  We followed the trail for a long while, but in the real world deer do not leave colorful markers to let you know you are on the right path.  Owing to the amount of blood that I used on the track and the light drizzle we'd received after I laid it (good for scent but not necessarily for visual identification), I doubt there would have been much visual sign to confirm we were on the right track.

In other words, on that second track not only would we have not found the deer, we may have never known with certainty that we were actually on the track.

I have hopes as well as doubts.

Sparta has only tracked artificial lines and while she is happy to do it to please me (and for the deer parts waiting for her at the end), I suspect her high prey drive will improve her performance when she realizes there we are tracking a real "thing that needs to die."

She will experience more in a real track than our blood laid mock ups.  It won't be my sent mixed in with cattle blood, it will be a wounded animal blowing off  hormones indicating stress and pain.  Dogs, properly trained, can detect low blood sugar, how much easier should it me for a dog trained to kill to identify a collapsed lung?

Still, I am excited at the approaching season and Sparta has loved the training so much that I can't wait to see her on the real thing.  Hopefully, photo's of her and found deer will be forthcoming.

For now, here is a video from that successful track.

The Taste of Defeat

For what it's worth, getting the shit kicked out of you? Not to say you get used to it, but you do kinda get used to it.

-Jesse Pinkman Breaking Bad "Open House" 

It is easy to dismiss Sly Stallone.  I know I have and, if I am honest, will again in the future.

The thing is, I don't think he cares, and there in is his virtue.

As I type, the taste of defeat is thick in my mouth: sick sheep, failed tracks with the dog, middle-age malaise, too much debt, and too many bills, loosing weight is getting harder, staying in shape as 40 turns into 50, will be harder, insert every other common middle-aged white guy complaint here.

Blah, blah, blah.  I even bore myself, but defeat still hurts.

Yes, I've been blessed but that doesn't lessen the taste of defeat.  Defeat, when it comes, tastes like manure and not even the well aged stuff on your garden.  Defeat tastes like runny manure straight out of the steer's anus.

Still, if you actually try to accomplish something, if you're really out there pushing yourself, pushing the system, pushing against ignorance and the ignorant, you're going to taste defeat.  In the parlance of Sly Stallone, life is going to punch you hard.


Think of Sylvester Stallone.  He really has earned what he's got.  He hit bottom trying to sell the Rocky film.  He's still an action star past the age of 65.  Is he using steroids? I don't see how he isn't.  Is he making great contributions to Western Civilization?  Not really.

Is he living his life without a concern about what some middle-aged, over-educated sheep-herding, dog-training, overpaid babysitter in Minneapolis thinks about how he talks or the quality of his movies?

Yep, and that is his virtue.  That is what he has contributed to those willing to learn from his example.

Sure, maybe Epictetus put it more eloquently but when it feels like your teeth have been kicked in, eloquence is not always the most healing balm.  Sometimes you need to remember the Italian Stallion.

If you wish to make progress, you must be content in external matters to seem a fool and a simpleton; do not wish men to think you know anything, and if any should think you to be somebody, distrust yourself. For know that it is not easy to keep your will in accord with nature and at the same time keep outward things; if you attend to one you must needs neglect the other.  

-The Manuel of Epictetus 13