One of the more common ways I’ve seen folks charging is to have one fee for coming out and then an additional fee if the deer is found. What I would suggest is if someone is going to charge a decent amount just to show up then make sure you know that this person has a good dog. If it’s a quality tracking dog then the fault will very likely fall onto the hunter if the deer is not recovered.

I really doubt I have a charge for coming out this year just for the reason you described. My dog is still young and this will only be his second year. I have a lot of confidence in him going into this season but he’s still got a lot of learning to do. I wouldn’t charge someone to show up unless I knew my dog was going to handle it no matter what is thrown at us. I took him to a tracking seminar over in GA earlier this summer and there were some real deal trackers there putting the event on. If anyone remembers Idahomike from last season….his son was there as one of the presenters….some of the other were Randy Vick…..JJ Scarbrough…..and Jerry Russell. Those guys track deer day and night during hunting season likes it’s a religion. They take it seriously and have well trained dogs. If someone like that comes out to track one for you then I don’t think you would have to worry about the charge to show up being worth it.