Thanks!.....I�m excited about next year already. I really want to go ahead and start training a second dog in the spring but AJ thinks I should give it one more season. I�m a little torn between what to do. In one way I completely agree with him that it would be much easier to spend one more season focusing solely on Otis and getting him fine tuned. On the other hand, I know it�ll take the same amount of time to get my second dog fully trained and I�m afraid if I wait that long then I won�t have a second dog ready when I need it. If I wait another year to start a second dog then you�re looking at a min of 3 more tracking seasons before I would have a second dog ready to go. The way I�m currently growing and getting my name out there�.I�m afraid I�ll be running Otis in the dirt by that time if he is all I have to use. One bad cut or sore foot and I�m shut down with the phone still ringing. Right now, I still think I may go ahead with getting a dog next May. Otis�s puppy year was nothing more really than a bunch of runs to already located deer. I think I can spend the summer months training the pup and then just let it re-run some of Otis�s real tracks during hunting season. What do you think?

One more question while I�m asking advice��.I was thinking about getting a female dog this round instead of another male just to change things up. Do you think Otis would get along/work better with one over the other�.male versus female?

My two cents, don't be in a hurry to take on another pup. Concentrate on getting one finished. Then if your new pup let's you down on the real thing you will have a dog that can take over and show you what is really going on. Probably be a good idea to go with a female when you do. Then I can have one of the pups.lol

Females in my experience learn a little quicker and are more even tempered

A female it is then. I guess I�m going to have give getting another dog this year so more consideration. The fact that two of the �old timers� agree that I should put it off another year carries some weight. Even though I want to do it one way�.I may defer my decision to y�alls experience on this one.

Back to the last track......I�m not going to be able to show any pics of the 24 hr old gut shot find. I don�t post those pics without first asking the hunter�s permission. The hunter was an aldeer lurker who has never made a post. I took some pics with my good camera and while we were discussing how he found me on the forum, the hunter mentioned telling the story with his first post if the club president was ok with it. I told him not to feel obligated to and that I completely respected everyone�s right to remain anonymous if they choose.

Any who��At the first of the season I made a promise to donate my finder�s fee back to the forum when I found one for an Aldeer member. Since this hunter found me through Aldeer I�m counting this one as that find. Promise made�.promise kept. $100 donated back to the house. Thanks Aldeer for running a great forum and allowing me to be a part of it.

It�s pouring rain here so I'll tell the story about yesterday�s track. Tracking deer is teaching me new things about their behavior that I never knew before. One thing I�ve come to learn is that deer have an instinctive behavior they turn to when they feel like they are being chased/tracked by a predator. In order to try and lose the predator that�s tracking them�.they travel a little ways and then they run around in circles in a small area crossing back over their own scent line again and again. It makes it difficult for the pursuing predator to continue to follow the scent line through all the erratic changes in directions and multiple lines run across one another. This just reinforces the importance of giving a deer PLENTY of time after the shot before tracking it. Most of the time the deer doesn�t even know what has happened until the hunter starts pursuing it. This "pursuit" of the deer can flip that instinct in him and completely change the nature of the track.

This is what happened on yesterday�s track. The hunter shot the buck with a bow at a quartering away angle with it�s head down. He thinks he just yanked the shot because the point of impact ended up being in the back of the neck right behind the skull. He said the buck left with the arrow sticking out the back of his head. They had tracked it for several hundred yards and then ran out of blood. For the first 100-125 yards there was little to no blood at all. However, at around 150 yards there was a really large spot of blood the size of a hula hoop or a couch cushion�..big spot with lots of blood. After that really large spot it went back to being spotty and finally trickled out.

Here is what I believe happened. The buck bolted out of the hit area but once it got 150 yards away it stopped and just stood there. This is where the large spot of blood was located. It probably stood there for a very long time and only moved when the hunter eventually got down and started tracking. The buck may have even bolted and left when the hunter was coming down out of his tree and the hunter never knew it. At that point the buck knew he was being pursued and went into his instinctive flight strategy to lose the predator. This is why the blood became really spotty again.....the buck was on the move or even running. When we got there to track the buck 6 hours later�.we tracked it beautifully right through the search area and several hundred yards on past it. However, once we tracked a few hundred yards farther the deer starting that circling crap.

Otis has successfully worked through several of these areas on other tracks but this one through him for a loop for some reason and looking back on it I wish I would have handled it a little differently. He was trying to work his way through it with enthusiasm for a little while but after giving it several attempts he came to me and �said� that he couldn�t figure it out. Here�s what I should have done differently. We had already walked a long ways in to where the hunter was setup along with tracking a � mile and working through a search area. When Otis hung up on that area I think I should have sat down and taken a break. I gave him some water but we immediately went back to trying to work around the loopty loops. I should have given Otis a little mental break and then let him tackle the puzzle again with a fresher mind.

As it was, an old buck ended up giving a young dog and a rookie handler the slip. We grid searched the area for another 2 hours but never came across the buck. I almost want to believe he doubled back on us when he exited his scent loops. Lesson learned though. We�ll try a different approach on the next go round. I honestly don�t know that we would have ever found this deer no matter what we did. The hunter hadn�t hit any vitals nor had he cut the deer�s jugular. At best I think the deer may eventually die from a fractured skull or it could possibly live. The important thing I think we should all take away from it though is learning that deer react differently if they know they are being pursued. Had the hunter not pursued the deer after the shot he may have eventually laid down right where he was standing and bleeding the puddle. At worst case I think he would have just walked to another area a short distance away and bedded up where we could have tracked up on him much easier.

If you know it�s a bad hit fellas�..slip out of the area very quietly and give it several hours before proceeding. Don�t trigger that flight instinct in the deer and I think we�ll all find more of them....even on ones you track alone where a dog is not needed.

I am the hunter that CNC was referring to in regards to a "gut shot" 24 hour buck recovery. Anyway....my shot on this buck was a little too far back and the bullet tore thru the bucks stomach. It was a 200 yard shot and when I went to the location of where the buck was at (powerline) when I shot....there was no blood to be found. However...there was a significant amount of stomach contents spilled on the ground....I followed this for about 20 yards (edge of power line)and decided that my best bet would be to call a tracker.

Texted CNC and he stated that we should give the buck some time...so we arranged to meet up the next morning to try to find him.

While waiting on CNC to arrive....I went to the same powerline to look for buzzards and to just pass some time as I was a bit nervous about finding the buck. As I am looking down the powerline...I see a small 8 point cross in almost the exact spot where I shot the other buck. This worried me as I wasn't sure if Otis would track the recently crossed buck or the one that was gut shot.

Anyway....CNC arrived and I told him the details of all that had gone on....CNC was confidant that he could get Otis working the correct track. Otis suited up in his tracking collar and started his work. Things looked promising early but I could tell that CNC was thinking that possibly Otis had taken the more recent track rather than the one we wanted.

We went back to the location where we began and CNC restarted Otis on the track. This time Otis went left rather than right and not very long after that.... we started to find blood and other indications that OTIS was dead on with the correct track. After just a few minutes.....CNC looked at me and stated that OTIS was no longer moving. We went to her location and found OTIS standing over the buck with his tail wagging like crazy. OTIS had worked the track beautifully and we were able to recover this animal after 24 hours. Thankfully....temps were below freezing that night and the coyotes had not found the buck.

Congrats and job well done to OTIS and CNC for this recovery. Very grateful to have been able to recover this buck. Thank you CNC!!!

Thanks Bluwater!....It was nice meeting you. Let me know if I can ever help you out again.

Here's a pic of Bluwater's buck now.

Great job Otis and CNC.
Congrats on the buck!

X2

Great job!! Amazes me as to what those dogs can do!! Congrats!

Otis wants a hamburger steak..........

nice job!

Congrats, Hunter and H., that's a case where hunter, handler and dog have to work as a team and make the right calls.

Thanks fellas!


Here's this morning's find. Another low gut shot. If you look by Otis's back right foot you can kinda see the shot placement.

congrats again to you and Otis, good job.

seems like folks would learn to shoot BEFORE going out and shooting at live deer....

Thanks Troy. I appreciate it.

I think the problem is trying to shoot with all the adrenaline that hits them. Making decisions becomes a lot harder when someone becomes instantly �tweeked out� after seeing the buck. It carries over into the bad decisions that are often made after the shot as well. Folks are so amped up that they don�t use the same rational judgment that they normally would. I�ve had to sit there in a tree and fight it myself before�.�Don�t get down!.....Just go look��Don�t get down!......Just go look.���inner turmoil. Luckily the folks from the track this morning just backed out last night and didn�t push the deer.

Troy....
If you are referring to me in regards to learning how to shoot.... Please know that I am a veteran of the United States Military who has deployed 3 times to the middle east... I think I know how to shoot. In this case..... I shot at a moving animal that I could not get to stop..... not an excuse.....just my mistake which i freely own up to...I have taken plenty of animals with bow and gun without ever gut shooting any of them. All of them recovered successfully.