Originally Posted by
Nomercy448
Something to realize, which most non-hunters wouldn’t intuit, but seems to be a critical failing of your plan.
You do not want your blood tracking dog to be on the deer immediately, or even remotely soon after the deer is shot. If you need a dog, it is because the deer didn’t go down quickly, which likely means a less-than-optimal shot placement. You might need to wait half a day before even starting to track, else your “tracking” dog will become a “chasing” dog. Deer need time to die on a poorly placed shot, and starting on the trail too early will bump them out of their bedding and make them run farther.
It’s a critical and absolute mistake to start tracking too soon.
That extra travel time back to retrieve your dog might be extra energy, but it’s certainly not lost or wasted time.
also something to consider is a deer's nose is KEYED into smelling for dogs?
so just having a dog near you, even in the truck will highly lessen your odds of killing a deer, as you will have way more DOG scent on you, that deer will smell from a LONG ways off, and thus avoid you due to being able to smell your dog on you!
plus, a deer tracking dog must be a extremely well trained dog at tracking deer, and in some places they are required to be registered as one, and or at least ALWAYS be on a leash when tracking
and NOT all states allow a dog to be used for tracking deer!
so make sure you check state laws before using on!