Using tracking dogs to recover deer has become very popular over the last 5 years or so. Many folks choose to call in a tracker with a dog often times specifically bred and trained for the task. While many hunters will continue to do so in the years to come…..a lot of you probably already have tracking dog and don’t even know it. All dogs are descendants of wolves and they’ve all been manipulated in different ways to create the many breeds we see today. Many of the hunting breeds have been bred to retain much of the natural hunting instinct also called prey drive that was passed on from its wolf ancestors. A lot of your pet breeds have had that instinct taken out as much as possible in order to make them more docile and less aggressive. This doesn’t mean that its completely gone though and some breeds and individuals may express it more than others.

While you may not go get your next dog with finding deer as a consideration for why you’re buying it……If you’re an avid hunter I would encourage you to do a few tests with a deer liver and leg with the litter of puppies your choosing your new dog from and see if any show a natural desire to track or follow the scent…..You may just be going to get your girlfriend a poodle but you may also have the opportunity to have a deer tracker as well. Dang near all of us have a dog of some kind and they can be an extremely valuable sidekick in assisting us after the shot….Now that I’ve seen how far superior they are at the task than us humans….I’m surprised we’ve never used them up until just recently.

Most of us who track for the public are going out on tracks that are 12-24 hrs old that have been tromped out by hunters and many times it’s a very marginal hit. Now those types of tracks probably would be better suited for a seasoned hunting dog that tracks dozens of deer each year……but finding a deer that you shot an hour or two ago with decent blood and no disturbance from a search party…..those types of tracks can likely be easily followed by your pet you have at home. The key to it is just working with them on it some…..Let them go find every one you shoot as well as any others you may be able to get them experience on…..You don’t have to train them like you’re trying to make it a world champion or anything but introduce it to them when their young. Let them chew on a leg and eat a little piece of liver so they can see how much they like it. Progress from there to short basic liver drag and short bloodlines just so they put two and two together and figure out that a treat is waiting on them at the end.

Dogs are our companions that help us in many aspects of life from guarding our house to fetching are ducks to just being man’s best friend. Don’t overlook how they can also assist you in recovering your deer. I encourage more of you to take advantage of this ability our furry friends can provide us even if its just your pet mutt or your girlfriend's lap dog. There may be a tracking dog sitting on your couch beside you right now. By working with them some you may end up with handy little deer finding tool that you never knew you had.

I had a Chihuahua that would Blood Trail deer.. dog whet ever where I went.

Gotta three month old JR laying beside me right now I hope will be a goodun

I’ve actually been thinking about doing a thread on this for a while now……Partly because it really is a shame that more of us don’t give ‘em a chance. I had a cocker spaniel for 15 years that would have probably been a good one….I just didn’t know how to train one back then. The other reason I wrote it is so that folks would know that when I give people advice on here about blood tracking then they know that my intentions are good and they can trust the information I give them…. Its easy for folks to the wrong idea and picture you as just a snake in the grass when you’re giving them advice on the same thing your selling.

I thought mine would be a natural. Part beagle, part terrier.
But I just don’t think his nose is very good.

I have tracked and found with a Blueheeler and German Shepherds.

Does he show any interest in it at all? Id bet he has plenty of nose for it... especially fresh tracks.....You can buy beef liver at the grocery store and use it until you get some deer liver......but cut it in little chunks and feed it to him as treats for awhile. That'll give him a reason to WANT to follow a scent line that you make with the same liver.....start with a short drag of 10 yards....then progress to longer ones as he picks the idea of connecting point A to B.....

You never know what a dog can do. I had a pitt bull when I was a kid that was a great squirrel dog.

I had a coon hound when I lived in Arizona that I used to just feed deer scraps and never trained. I shot a buck, saw it run 50 yards, turn to the left and then disappear. I brought the dog to the area a few hours later since there wasn’t a blood trail and I was at a loss on what to do next. I kept dragging it down where I saw the deer go last and the dog kept trying to go to the right. I kept thinking to myself how it was the dumbest damn dog I’ve ever had and how I was wasting my time. After fighting it for 30 min I just let him run where he wanted and he found the deer in less than a minute.
Turns out the deer turned left and then had immediately cut back to the right to bed down and I was the dumbass because the dog knew the whole time

I have a dachshund as a house dog thats pretty dang good at finding deer. I have a pen full of deer dogs that will trail a cold track and run the hide off a deer. If I need one to trail a deer where I can run dogs I will put them on it. If I need one where I can't run dogs, I go grab the Wonder Wienie.

my cat Jr only trails fried chichen

I have a 5 year old Jack Russell that I've invested a good bit of time training. He has an ok nose. It took a couple years to catch on. I tried tracking on lead the first 2 seasons but the last 2 have been off lead . He's not able to track a 2 day old trail but he can find one before I can find em blood trailing. He's a great family dog. Sturdy, adgile and smart but he's not quite as tenacious as most jacks.

My wife’s 3 pound yorkie sat in the shooting house more times than I care to admit. She loved going and was a good tracker except when briars got bad. You had to pick her up and get her past the thicket and she’d pick it up again. And man she loved to fish. Passed away in February, gonna be tough not having her along this year.

One I got now is a live wire , gonna be a hand full and loves women. He's 3 months and already stalking stuff . He'll get his toys in a pile and kill them or hump them . He fetches good but don't want to give up the toy good yet.

Be damn glad when I break him from biting . Sharp teeth is killing me . You let him he'll bite a little and look at you then he'll clamp down . May have to introduce him to a fly flap on that one but he is getting better

Looking forward to introducing my new lab pup to it this year.

I've never had to, but I figure just about any dog would have an interest in picking up a blood trail and discovering
what was at the end of it.

I know it sounds crazy, but I have a Feist that was a biter like that as a puppy. Found online where someone said that if they didn't socialize long enough with their sibling pups, they may not know what they are doing is wrong. To fix it, you need to do what the other pups or mom would do if they bit them - squeal loud or make a real quick high pitch sound and pull back acting like it hurt. I started doing this and it's crazy but it worked, the first couple of times she would jump back acting surprised and just look at me. Didn't take long before she realized it was her biting that did it and stopped.

My dog, Maggie has "found" deer before. I just put her out and let her sniff her way right to the deer. if she works up real far ahead of me, I have found her before laying next to the deer chewing on a leg, or she will run back and forth between me and the deer. I cant't take any credit though, I didn't teach her any of that. Pretty cool though.

I got a border collie I believe will track a deer till she runs across a squirrel sent 🤣

My Golden retriever will flat find one. He has had zero formal training.