RE: Deer tracking dog
Oh boy! I get to brag ... again! Seriously, I have 2 Dachshunds. One, Tex, is almost 14 and Mojo is 4. I am very thankful for these two dogs. (Thus my sign in - Mojotex.)
Both are smooth hair, miniatures on the large side. I rescued Tex when he was about 1 and Mojo was given to me when he was a pup. I did nothing special to train Tex. He sort of trained me. I took him to hunt squirrels (he's a fine treeing squirrel dog). So happens we had a buck shot that afternoon and I took him to track it ... deer only went 30 yards or so, and we knew where it lay. Just wanted to introduce Tex to tracking because of what I had read about Dachshunds doing this. Worked with him on every chance I had that fall. By the 4 th. deer, he had the idea. Tex has been tracking since then, some 10 years ago. Used Tex to get Mojo started. Mojo is now excellent as well. I figure tracking is in these little dogs because neither came from so called tracking stock. But i want to try a pup from such stock when Tex's days are over. He's still gettin' it , so I take him every time I go to the camp. So far he and Mojo have recovered 6 of which 3 would have been tough finds without them.
Neither of these dogs seems willing to quit a trail ... and many times they have stayed on a "blood trail" that I for the life of me could not see one iota of evidence. They have a sort of gate when they are on a trail. Definitely know by their body language when they have lost the trail or when there is no blood to follow.
Tex became famous at our camp several years back finding a big, gut shot buck and them pushed by an inexperienced hunter. After getting the guy to lay off the tracking for about 6 hours, we started up again about dark:30. Track was a conservative 1 3/4 miles long, in the dark, sleet set in about 09:00. Took over 3 hours to recovery, and included 3 creek crossings. Mojo started solo tracking fall 2006 and has been great so far though he is much more lively than Tex ever was.
Obviously, I would suggest that you consider a Dachshund for a smallish tracking dog. If you know anyone that has tracking stock, I'd be trying to get my hands on a pup. If not ... my two were essentially free-bees and they have both been excellent trackers.
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Fred D. Waites
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