Kyboy88

Well that's a interesting idea using a dog to tail them back to the den do you look for a track or something​ showing were a fox has passed or just let them in a good area let them found a track and see if they lead to a den also I have been thinking would you think a bait station would be a good place to cut a track and work it back also would you think they would have a good chance of flushing a coyote like you do a fox

MudderChuck

Both, let them work a good area and/or look for tracks after a rain. Fox don't really like getting wet the will avoid the tall grass if they can when it's wet, farm tracks,lumber trails, established game trail are preferred. The also hunt and walk fence lines especially in pastures.

Same thing with Yotes but in a bigger way. Spot a likely area, look for tracks. Like I mentioned near water is a good spot some places. Or look in an area with a lot of Rodents, Jack Rabbits or whatever, where their is food there is Yotes. I found the early evening is the best time to try and dog them. Where I hunted them a decent shot was hard to come by, either tall grass or thick brush. One of my favorite places was right after some farmer cut hay, A lot of Rodents get chopped up, it opens the ground up and makes the surviving mice easier to catch. Use the terrain and the wind, pop up over a ridge. The dogs would often lead me to a Yote scat pile, territorial maker. Where I hunted water was the best spot, especially in the hot months, they show up to drink in the early evening, dusk.

Antedote: was out with my dogs and came across a family out for a nature walk, bitch Yote with her teats hanging was trotting away from water, had just finished drinking. The mother of the family thought it would be a good idea to feed that mother Yote, Mama actually came up and took the food right out of her hand along with pieces of her fingers. Play stupid games win stupid prizes.

Yotes are often brazen and will keep a distance but won't panic and run off like most Fox will.

Kyboy88

Cool giving me some spots to watch for the only thing with hunting over here in the evening is we are only allowed to hunt up to 30 minets after sunset so just wondering have you ever had any luck with going really early in the morning we can be out 30 minets before sunrise have you ever tried cutting their tracks off of a bait sight I was wondering because my cousin husband had good luck shooting them off of bait using game calls but he has a lot of private land were he is the only one to hunt on it

MudderChuck

I was trying to bring the European Rabbits back and establish a colony, they had all but disappeared from our lease. I planted cover, piled up rocks to make the Fox digging them out harder. I put a lot of effort into the project.

Noticed the Fox where interested in a steaming horse manure pile in the middle of winter. I dug a hole in the manure and buried a hundred pounds of chicken bones ( Colonal Sanders dumpster). The heat from the manure kept the scent cone active even on the coldest mornings. I picked off a bunch of Fox with their tails in the air digging. Baiting is frowned upon here, but due to the extreme overpopulation the rules were relaxed, as was hunting Fox at night. One of those blind eye type things, same for hunting Hogs at night. I thinned out the Fox, the Rabbits re-populated.

On another lease I dug some holes with a post hole digger in an out of the way spot, I shot Fox with their tails in the air trying to get to the offal in the bottom of the hole. The Fox on this lease were killing off most of the Hare. Most often I'd be sitting for Deer or hogs and would shoot a Fox at the end of the hunt. I actually shot a bob tailed Fox there, guess it was born without a tail. I glassed it multiple times trying to figure out what it was.



Remember what I said about cut hay fields, the Yotes and/or Fox will show up.

If I find multiple tracks in the same road or trail I set up an ambush early morning. Chances are if there are multiple tracks they are either leaving or returning to a den, a reliable food source or a favored bedding area. Early morning is a good time to hunt roads, like I mentioned they will tend to avoid tall grass when it is wet, not always but often. They also hunt the weeds on side of farm roads or ditches, a lot of wild seed the mice eat.

Hunting is mostly about using your noggin.

Ambush is my favored hunting technique, I get a feeling of satisfaction matching wits with predators.

I called some back in California, never tried it here. I had some success with a Hawk calling it's mate and then a wounded Rabbit call. Yotes thought dinner is served. They'd usually come in fast and stupid.

Kyboy88

Cool I will have to keep my eyes open for some of them would be cool to have one help find were they were bedding down

archeryrob

Mine is trained for waterfowl and I am starting to work on tracking slowly. I have been a bit busy with other tasks around the house, but the dog loves ground hog hunting also and sniffs out all the active holes so we can setup on them later on. A couple hole on the ridge near the house she loves to shove her head down in them like she thinks she can crawl down and get them.

Working on the trailing, but the dog is so hyper and I would like to slow her down for that. Waterfowl hunting fast is good, but in tracking slow is better. I have a bumper with deer rawhide with the hair on sewed around it and use that to drag and hide for her to trail and find. She kind of grid searches on her own until she is down wind and then runs up on it. I can train them for waterfowl, but this tracking is giving me a fit with this hyper Labrador.

Kyboy88

Huh that's cool don't hear about Labrador tracking was the ground hogs something she started on her own or did you start her would be interesting to have a dog make dens

archeryrob

I started this, I'd kill ground hogs and make my dogs carry them through our yard and into the neighbors hay field to drop them for the vultures. Her first live meat retrieves were with the first ground hogs of the year. She is taught on the search command for finding downed birds, so its not a stretch. She is highly interested in any game animals. I just have to watch how its done in the heat as she overheats fast. She flat out loves doves, but I have to watch the September days I do it and take her.

I started with the last one, which was tamer, as I hunted on the neighbors and the wife would come over with the garden tractor and drag the dead deer back home. I watched my previous lab back trail toward the neighbors field. Then used him to trail ground hogs shot that got back to their holes. It's nice to know how to track a wounded deer, but much easier to put the dog on it that can find it in no time flat.

Kyboy88

That is cool we don't have that many groundhogs since the coyotes get in here in good numbers is groundhogs and deer recovery the only game you use her on besides brids was carrying groundhogs all it take to get her going after them

archeryrob

Yup, just carrying them. I think they are hunting dogs and we just assume they are Bird dogs only. She wants to hunt and knows birds becuase that is what we train them to do, but they can do anythign you can teach them and they just want to HUNT! The dog gets crazy excited when the neighbor shoots anything and wants to run and help. She knows someone is hunting and doing it without her.

She goes nuts for ground hogs as after carrying them she know they are a prey animal for her. I attach a pic of her a s a pup doing retrieves with one. I would hold it by the back legs and spin and throw it as far as I could and then send her on it.

She knows deer too and would chase them if allowed, but she is not allowed. She sits and watches them and goes and sniffs after they leave. She is trained on tracking and finding deer rawhides. Also, being a bird dog she can roust up some Turkeys just by tripping over trails. We've been looking for deer and she'll bust a hen turkey of of some brush and then look as us as "Why didn't you shoot it?"

That is all I have done, but You could train them for any animal. My uncle had a black lab that would run rabbits as he let her out when he let the beagle run. She would waterfowl and then learned to brush bust and trail rabbits too just from watching the beagles work.