A.J., I did say "usually". I do know when my dog is on the right track, even when there is no blood, because I can "read" her when she's on lead. I wouldn't follow her a half-mile or more with no blood, as I often do, if I couldn't read her and trust her. A tracking lead in no way holds a dog back, except maybe swimming a pond, and in that case I just send someone to the other side to catch her when she comes out on the deer's trail. I do have permanent scars on my forearms from tracking on lead. One of my best dogs, Ol' Bob, never tracked a step off lead. This was before tracking collars. Sometimes under the right circumstances I allow my dog to track off lead for a mile or more. You have to if your going to bay up a neck shot, broken leg, etc. Your right about getting to a call quickly, it saves a lot of meat and the only tracks you need to wait a few hours on are gut shots and liver shots. You didn't say how many of the calls taken were put on the tailgate. Just saying it is nice to have a dog that can do both.