OK, posted this last Monday but the site went down and the post was lost.
What a great weekend at the bow lease! This year I have been seeing a lot of does, so I decided I would take one if the opportunity presented itself. Friday morning I had a good sized doe come in late in the morning. She was in a good position and I had her in the video frame, but she was not centered. I tried to center her in the camera, and that made some noise and she spooked. I decided to go back to that blind the next morning, and like clock work she showed up again at 9:45AM. I drew back on her once, and she moved. After a few minutes she got in a good position slightly quartering away. I thought the shot looked good, but it was a little far back and high. After a while I got out of my blind and looked for the arrow, and could not find it. I knew I had a pass through and it had to be around somewhere. I decided to give her some time and head back to camp to eat. My wife Christina wanted to get out in the woods and this was a perfect opportunity. She loaded the kids in the Ranger and I loaded Lola my lab on the 4-wheeler.
Lola is trained to track blood. She has tracked several deer/hogs that were already found, and we have had her on trails that never ended in an animal. She had yet to find one we could not find already. I put Lola on the trail while Christina stayed back looking for sign. I started Lola over twice from the beginning, but I could tell she was not picking it up. We had almost no blood, and it took a while before Christina finally found some blood. After that I went back to look for my arrow, things were not looking good. I did find the arrow, and there were no guts, just red blood. Did not look like lung blood, but the arrow was lodged in the ground and it had been out there for a while so it was tough to tell. I was starting to feel a little better, but knew we needed to find some sign or this deer was going to be lost. At this point I had pretty much given up on my dog and started to track by eye. Christina and the kids are working one trail and I am looking down another. I noticed Lola is traipsing around kicking up dust. She is happy as can be to be out there in the woods, but I start having some very negative thoughts. I am thinking, "you worthless dog, here you are messing up what little sign we might have. You are just making things worse! I really should get a real tracking dog, but what if a new dog is worthless like Lola?" I am also cussing myself for making a poor shot. After a while of not finding any blood I started to think we would not find this deer. I began to feel sick and guilty. At this point I decided to say a little prayer, "God, please help me find this deer so she does not go to waste." Right after I finished that prayer, I look up and I can see Lola about 20 yards ahead of me. She smelled something, her ears are perked up and she is sniffing like crazy with her nose in the air. I sure hoped it wasn't a skunk or rattle snake. I follow her about another 30-40 yards and she starts crawling though the brush and as I get closer I can see she found my deer! That doe crawled up into some thick stuff and I think it she would have been hard to find without Lola. Thank you Lola, and thank you Lord! Christina hears me telling Lola "Good girl, Good girl" and I let her know we found the deer. I am happy as can be, and then I hear Mary singing a song that they sing at her school. It goes something like this, "may the good Lord bless daddy, may the good Lord bless you, may the good Lord bless Daddy...." It surly was a blessing from God. I am as happy with this doe as any buck I have killed. I hung her up on my scale at camp to clean her and it showed 120lbs. I was surprised so I lowered her back down and double checked my scale to make sure it was zeroed out. Pulled her back up and there it was again 120lbs. It looked like I hit her diaphram and most of the bleeding was internal.
Even though I have been training Lola for the past 3-4 years to track blood, Lola has always been more of a family pet than a "tracking dog". I got her as a rescue/free dog here on TBH. Now I would say she is officially my tracking dog! I will not make the mistake of giving up on her again.
What a great weekend at the bow lease! This year I have been seeing a lot of does, so I decided I would take one if the opportunity presented itself. Friday morning I had a good sized doe come in late in the morning. She was in a good position and I had her in the video frame, but she was not centered. I tried to center her in the camera, and that made some noise and she spooked. I decided to go back to that blind the next morning, and like clock work she showed up again at 9:45AM. I drew back on her once, and she moved. After a few minutes she got in a good position slightly quartering away. I thought the shot looked good, but it was a little far back and high. After a while I got out of my blind and looked for the arrow, and could not find it. I knew I had a pass through and it had to be around somewhere. I decided to give her some time and head back to camp to eat. My wife Christina wanted to get out in the woods and this was a perfect opportunity. She loaded the kids in the Ranger and I loaded Lola my lab on the 4-wheeler.
Lola is trained to track blood. She has tracked several deer/hogs that were already found, and we have had her on trails that never ended in an animal. She had yet to find one we could not find already. I put Lola on the trail while Christina stayed back looking for sign. I started Lola over twice from the beginning, but I could tell she was not picking it up. We had almost no blood, and it took a while before Christina finally found some blood. After that I went back to look for my arrow, things were not looking good. I did find the arrow, and there were no guts, just red blood. Did not look like lung blood, but the arrow was lodged in the ground and it had been out there for a while so it was tough to tell. I was starting to feel a little better, but knew we needed to find some sign or this deer was going to be lost. At this point I had pretty much given up on my dog and started to track by eye. Christina and the kids are working one trail and I am looking down another. I noticed Lola is traipsing around kicking up dust. She is happy as can be to be out there in the woods, but I start having some very negative thoughts. I am thinking, "you worthless dog, here you are messing up what little sign we might have. You are just making things worse! I really should get a real tracking dog, but what if a new dog is worthless like Lola?" I am also cussing myself for making a poor shot. After a while of not finding any blood I started to think we would not find this deer. I began to feel sick and guilty. At this point I decided to say a little prayer, "God, please help me find this deer so she does not go to waste." Right after I finished that prayer, I look up and I can see Lola about 20 yards ahead of me. She smelled something, her ears are perked up and she is sniffing like crazy with her nose in the air. I sure hoped it wasn't a skunk or rattle snake. I follow her about another 30-40 yards and she starts crawling though the brush and as I get closer I can see she found my deer! That doe crawled up into some thick stuff and I think it she would have been hard to find without Lola. Thank you Lola, and thank you Lord! Christina hears me telling Lola "Good girl, Good girl" and I let her know we found the deer. I am happy as can be, and then I hear Mary singing a song that they sing at her school. It goes something like this, "may the good Lord bless daddy, may the good Lord bless you, may the good Lord bless Daddy...." It surly was a blessing from God. I am as happy with this doe as any buck I have killed. I hung her up on my scale at camp to clean her and it showed 120lbs. I was surprised so I lowered her back down and double checked my scale to make sure it was zeroed out. Pulled her back up and there it was again 120lbs. It looked like I hit her diaphram and most of the bleeding was internal.
Even though I have been training Lola for the past 3-4 years to track blood, Lola has always been more of a family pet than a "tracking dog". I got her as a rescue/free dog here on TBH. Now I would say she is officially my tracking dog! I will not make the mistake of giving up on her again.
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