Tracking Hounds

[skyhightree1]

I had to drive down to my grandmothers land to pick up a dog that I left out since saturday to try and track him to take him home. He was in the same spot I turned him out at. I tracked him before leaving saturday and sunday and he was a long ways away in places I could not go. I only have a handful of dogs that come back where I turned them out at. I do have some dogs that will walk home beside the road and either walk all the way home or wait till I pick them up. I called him to come get in the box he looked at me like are you kidding man im not going back to the doggie jail im free, He then started walking in front the truck for a while then stopped and looked at the truck as if he were saying I give come get me. I put him in the truck turned the lights on in the box for a lil bit of heat and I could hear him snoring in the box when I took him back to the pen. Every place I drove truck sank down and had to drive in 4x4 the whole time in there when I wasnt on our main road through the pines. My hunt club is hunting today and its pouring down rain I can't do it rain makes me miserable if im hunting in it and I think my dog felt the same way.

 

[highgrit]

Every deer dog that I have had would be back to where you dropped him off, if someone didn't pick him up. I was blessed to have a old man help me train a deer dog. I would take him out very young 12 weeks old, and as soon as he would get out of sight I would hide on him. After a while he wouldn't let me out of his sight. I never just threw the dogs out and tried to cut them off. I would find a fresh large track and if the dog barked on the track, I would get my gun and we would trail the deer up. What you can't teach is, most of my dogs wouldn't bark again till you jumped the deer. The dog the old man helped me train was my best. I killed 27 bucks on the jump while I was walking behind him. Some of them bucks would let the dog touch them before they jumped up, nerves of steel I guess. I killed a bunch within 10 yds. the thicker the woods the closer the buck would let you and the dog get before it would jump. I use to really like hunting behind a dog. I have one now that will blood trail off leash and let you keep up. All my dogs slow trailed, till the deer jumped then the race was on if I couldn't get a shot when it jumped. But within in 2 hours the dog would be back, the best one was back within 30 minutes.

 

[skyhightree1]

Every deer dog that I have had would be back to where you dropped him off, if someone didn't pick him up. I was blessed to have a old man help me train a deer dog. I would take him out very young 12 weeks old, and as soon as he would get out of sight I would hide on him. After a while he wouldn't let me out of his sight. I never just threw the dogs out and tried to cut them off. I would find a fresh large track and if the dog barked on the track, I would get my gun and we would trail the deer up. What you can't teach is, most of my dogs wouldn't bark again till you jumped the deer. The dog the old man helped me train was my best. I killed 27 bucks on the jump while I was walking behind him. Some of them bucks would let the dog touch them before they jumped up, nerves of steel I guess. I killed a bunch within 10 yds. the thicker the woods the closer the buck would let you and the dog get before it would jump. I use to really like hunting behind a dog. I have one now that will blood trail off leash and let you keep up. All my dogs slow trailed, till the deer jumped then the race was on if I couldn't get a shot when it jumped. But within in 2 hours the dog would be back, the best one was back within 30 minutes.

High I am like you somewhat I love taking the dogs in the woods as thats how I kill most of my deer with dogs and during the early part of the season a couple yells from me in the woods and the deer are hauling arse all over the place. Now since we hunt everyday they will not move unless you or the dogs step on them basically. I only have walker hounds and i have 5 out of all my deer hounds that have a extremely cold nose. 1 that will trail a bleeding deer and bay till you get there but you cant keep up with it you gotta let her go she doesn't like trailing with a leash. I don't want my dogs coming back looking for me that to me is a bad trait. We do dog trials and we run for way more than 2 hours. I don't mind looking for them which is why I have the tracking system. I do mind them coming back while its still light outside lol There is alot of people in my club that have dogs that will not run a deer track by themselves... NOT ME.. I take each dog out individually and if it doesnt run that deer track I put him on he has to find another place to gobble up some over priced dog food.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Every deer dog that I have had would be back to where you dropped him off, if someone didn't pick him up. I was blessed to have a old man help me train a deer dog. I would take him out very young 12 weeks old, and as soon as he would get out of sight I would hide on him. After a while he wouldn't let me out of his sight. I never just threw the dogs out and tried to cut them off. I would find a fresh large track and if the dog barked on the track, I would get my gun and we would trail the deer up. What you can't teach is, most of my dogs wouldn't bark again till you jumped the deer. The dog the old man helped me train was my best. I killed 27 bucks on the jump while I was walking behind him. Some of them bucks would let the dog touch them before they jumped up, nerves of steel I guess. I killed a bunch within 10 yds. the thicker the woods the closer the buck would let you and the dog get before it would jump. I use to really like hunting behind a dog. I have one now that will blood trail off leash and let you keep up. All my dogs slow trailed, till the deer jumped then the race was on if I couldn't get a shot when it jumped. But within in 2 hours the dog would be back, the best one was back within 30 minutes.

If ours ran over a quarter mile and were not right back to me looking to jump another deer they were culls.
The reason dog hunting is outlawed here now is over yahoo's dumping out a bunch that ran for days.
People got sick of the behavior so we lost the right over idiots.

 

[skyhightree1]

Hmm... not sure if thats implied I'm an idiot. But we are all farmers and hunt all our lands we own and lease to farm totaling over 19,000 acres in large blocks so a dog running short distance does us no good and would be pointless for me to have 33 hounds 70x40 concrete covered kennel with a run and septic system. If it only ran 1/4 mile I may as well be man driving. Even my rabbit dogs run more than 1/4 mile. 1/4 mile I'll walk through woods with air horn and scare them out. My dogs work hard for there kibble lol

 

[highgrit]

Sky, what your missing is there is no way to really cut our dogs off. We have thick woods and real thick woods. You guy's must race around in your trucks talking on the CB, and cutting the dogs off at the closest crossing. And if the dogs get by, you haul tail to the next crossing. I have done it that way but it's just not my thing. We would hunt with 3-4 posters and 1 guy driving the buggy to pick us up. Or we all just walked, miles and miles.

 

[skyhightree1]

Yea, we do that with trucks and 4 wheelers and radios. We have a lot of cutovers we hunt and big woods. Yea, dogs are big $$$ here we have a ton of chase pens here.