A friend and I were both hunting yesterday afternoon. About 6:00pm, he texted me that he had shot a doe. He said the shot looked good, and that he would get down and look for her before it got dark. At about 7:00, he texted me again saying he had good blood for a little bit but then lost it. He said he was still confident the shot was good, but was gonna back out to let my tracking dog Zeke find it. My friend is colorblind, and as such, it's got to be good blood for him to see it.

Anyway, I ended up not seeing anything to shoot at, so at dark I got out and went back to meet my friend and go track his doe.

My dog is a Jack Russell Terror  . He is crazy full of energy and can be very hard headed. That being said, he is also the best dang dog I have ever had!!!

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Anyway, I got Zeke ready and his tracking collar on, and he was ready to go. I carried him over to the arrow, and while looking at it thought I noticed some guts in the shaft. I asked my buddy if he was sure if the shot and showed him what I thought I was seeing on the shaft. He still said he thought the shot was money, and that she should be dead in short order.

Well, Zeke got on a scent trail real fast. I run him on a leash and he was pulling extra hard. We went a ways in a direction that seems off from what my friend had told me was her direction of travel. Maybe 75yds out, I was just about to pull him off and go back to start over again, when BAM, there was a spot of blood on the ground. So we kept going, and the blood spots became more frequent. In with the blood, I could also see guts. At this point, I knew the shot was not what he thought he had seen!

Zeke was really pulling me hard, and thru some thick stuff too. About another 100yds into it, we rounded a clump of brush and the deer jumps up and runs, still alive!!! Zeke drug me thru some patches of shin oak that were thick. I lost my hat and headlight. Luckily I caught them on the way to the ground and just kept going with them In my hand. I heard her jump up a second time a little farther on, and figured she must be pretty bad off to not want to go any farther than she did before lying back down. The third time we caught up to her, she was pretty much done for. The deer was recovered!!!! The shot ended up being a solid liver hit, with maybe the back of one lung hit also.

Im not sure if we would or would not have found this deer without Zeke, but we positively did recover her with him. When I got him, the intention was to make a tracking dog out of him. It's been a long couple years with some good recoveries, and some disappointments where we did not recover. It's a long learning process, mostly for me, as he knows what he is doing.

Anyway, I just love to see him doing his thing and finding wounded/lost deer that we likely never would have found on our own! I didn't get any pics of Zeke with "his" doe (he thinks they are his after he finds them, and is very possessive of them) as I left my phone at the vehicle when we started tracking.

But here's a few pics of Zeke doing his thing:

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When I started, I didn't really have a clue what I was doing with training Zeke to track critters. I do however hunt quite a bit, so he gets lots of chances to get after critters. I am certainly still learning to read him and figure out whether he's actually on a critter or not. We are getting better and better as we "hunt" more and more together. It is sooooooooooooooooo cool and rewarding to see him be successful at finding these critters.

Anyway, just thought I'd brag on my pup a little!!

Bisch

Sorry for the pics that are sideways!!! 

Bisch

AWESOME !! 

Quote from: Bisch on October 29, 2021, 10:11:54 AM


...Zeke was really pulling me hard, and thru some thick stuff too... Zeke drug me thru some patches of shin oak that were thick. I lost my hat and headlight...

Bisch

HaHa! Great story and great recovery!

Good stuff Bisch
Tim B

Dogs can be amazing tools for animal recovery. Congrats!! Great story

Awesome story... Thank you for sharing. Someday I would like to get a dog like Zeke 

Bragging rights...?? I say, use'm if ya got'm, Bisch!!!!

That's a great little dog right there!!!!!

My feist is also a deer tracker. We had one several years ago when he was a pup that quit bleeding after a few yards so I decided to see if oz would track a blood trail. In 14 years there has been only one that we didn't find and it was a bad hit. He is slowing down this fall and I'm not sure how good his nose is still working. He also claims every deer he finds and he is right in the way until he gets his chunk of liver then all is good.

I have to tell anyone that is around after we find a critter to stay away from the critter till I pull Zeke off. He is a gentle a dog as there is till you try to mess with "his" critter!!!!! 

And every time he gets meat treats from the critters he finds. He loves venison!!!! 

Bisch

Great story and outcome. 

My last Cairn terrier was awesome on blood.  Took him ground hog hunting a couple of times then had to stop.  He had learnt that there would be blood soon and he would pull so hard on the leash (tied to my belt) that it would nock the arrow of the shelf.

I've been following your adventures with Zeke since you started him out.   He is one great looking dog.   Great pics    Well done!!
   

Deno

It sounds like your little buddy, Zeke, is quite a dog. You are lucky to have such a hunting partner.

What a cool little partner you've got there!

Way to go Zeke!

So awesome and Big congrats to Zeke!

Excellent story nothing better than a good dog.  Congrats to you and Zeke....

A good tracking dog is hard to beat! Just hang in there Zeke people are hard to train 

 Zeke  appears he doesn't want Anyone touching any of his recovered critters    Way to go Zeke

Awesome story and you have a great dog there! Thanks for bragging on him and sharing with us Bisch! Way to go Zeke!