Which dog breed is the best for tracking?

[huntresss]

[huntresss]

I couldn't post the video and this text on the same post for some reason. That video shows what we get to do nearly every night when we get called out to track. Our dog tracked that particular hog over a half mile after finding only one small droplet of blood about fifty yards from where it was shot. After she got the hog bayed, she held it while we fought our way through the brush to get close enough to finish it off. Unfortunately it was about thirty yards from us and behind a deadfall, so you can't see much on the video but you can hear what's going on through our conversation. This is the only part of our job that scares me to death...when my husband has to squeeze the trigger on a hog that's not only trying to kill my dog, but he's shooting through brush at a dark hog that has a black dog dancing around in front of it as he's getting ready to shoot. We have to track hundreds of hogs each year and end up killing over 150 or so each year this way...you'd think I'd get used to it. That little dog puts her life on the line every time we have to go out on the track of a wounded animal...and she does it with more heart than any other dog I've ever owned.
-Cheryl

[Burntorange Bowhunter]

German Shepherd Dog....hands down. World wars 1 and 2....ground zero.....search and resue......HELLO. Dominant in Schutzhund as well in which 33 % is tracking. Hey, it's not the world's top breed for nothing.

Mine would have finished the hog off and dragged it to my truck.

[Deer Tracks]

ttt for Jerry G.

[Hafernick]

Solo,

That is a beautiful dog, alot of charater to him.

[Bones]

Court,

I talked to Jerry yesterday. He said that it took a long while but they would not have found the deer that night with out a dog.

Steve

[LeifBarnes]

SIKA...email sent.

[Miki]

Wow how about a Bloodhound. Face and ear are made to hold sent.

[Jerryg]

Court,
I was not on the track but what I gather from Bob, they thought it was going to be an easy track so they put his new dog on it. The buck was hit good but the arrow got one lung and liver. They had some good blood at first and it kind petered out with small droppings every 20 yards or so then a good splatter. They would loose blood and start gridding, I hear this went on for about 1 hr until someone suggested..."hey why dont we follow the dog he seems to be standing in the direction whe keep finding blood anyways".....after some encouragment they followed Speck to the deer. Bob did mention that Speck would look at him....like...wheres my treat, it was a long track for him. We had actually done a mock 100 yard blood track to a doe I shot a few weeks ago, he did great. We dont work our dogs on lead because of the brush down here, Bob actually had him on a leash but after a while he decided to let him work it out on his own....

[Cotton]

Wow how about a Bloodhound. Face and ear are made to hold sent.

The bloodhound has the best nose bar none! Actually more nose than you need for deer tracking, they can track a human riding in a closed car. Most hound breeds have to be worked on led and my arms are covered in scars from my 30-pound dachshunds pulling me through the brush. Can you imagine a 100-pound dog… ouch!

[BIG D]

The bloodhound has the best nose bar none! Actually more nose than you need for deer tracking, they can track a human riding in a closed car. Most hound breeds have to be worked on led and my arms are covered in scars from my 30-pound dachshunds pulling me through the brush. Can you imagine a 100-pound dog… ouch!

I have to say this, ouch is right. I have 90lb bluetick that I bought for the sole purpose of tracking. He is great at it and just last night made a great find on a single lung shot buck that went quite far in heavy cover. Cotton is right though, I have bled many a drop of blood being drug through the brush with that dog. I love him and he loves to track but it may be more than some people want to deal with.

[Cotton]

LOL Dwayne! Sometimes I think I'm leaving a better blood trail than the deer did! I finally got smart and wear my blue jean jacket no matter how hot it is.

[duck or bleed]

duck or bleed- the breed doesn't matter so much as the individual dog's trainability. A dog with a strong desire to please it's owner is the easiest to train to track blood. While you can force train a dog to retreive birds, the only way to train a dog to track is if they want to do it. It's hard for most dogs to resist the temptation of taking off on a hot trail when following a cold track, so the dog has to be smart enough to differentiate between the two. The only way to do that is to have a relationship with that dog so that it wants to hunt for you, not for itself. While our dog loves finding the animal at the end of a track, she will eventually leave it to come get us and take us to it (assuming it's dead) because that pat on the head is more important to her than wooling on the dead critter is. It's something that's really hard to describe here, but anybody who's ever had a close working relationship with a dog knows what I'm trying to say...you can just tell when a dog loves doing that job and that's what you have to try to find. Either a dog is going to be a good tracker, or it isn't.
-Cheryl

Cheryl- I know what you mean about loyalty in a dog! I competition coon hunted for a lot of years, and I have seen a hound be completely exhausted, and would not hunt for anybody, but when I unsnapped him he left out full speed because he wanted to please me! That's the ultimate in dedication right there! When a dog loves you so much that he's willing to give his life for you! It's a shame it is so hard to find humans like that!

[Deer Tracks]

Thanks Jerry! Cool story!

[leoparddog]

i am a catahoula man and i now will track with a tracking collar due to deizel my dog jerking the lead out of my hand and running off which he has never done came back 1 hr 45min later bleeding from mouth with deer hair in his mouth but was too smoked out to return to deer he was baying that deer but i could not find him so he returned after all that I could not hear him due to terrain . Scared me to death!!!