Misty's 2014 Hunt

[jweese]

Saturday prior to the hunt I received a call from a fellow who had bow shot a deer and was unsuccessful finding it - after a quick one hour walk the next day Misty had it. It was warm, and the deer had spoiled but this was successful blood track number seven for her (7 finds, no losses yet!)

The week started off quite terribly to be honest. We arrived at the camp on Sunday before rifle season started and she seemed to "mope", just acted tired and unenthusiastic.

Monday morning rolled around and I got her suited up in her vest, GPS collar, and beeper locator - I headed into the bush and left her for the dog man to handle. An hour later I hear the dog man running dogs through the bush, it was an unsuccessful dog regardless but when we got back to camp he noted Misty didn't leave the camp, he had leashed her and walked her into the bush and when he took the leash off she again returned to camp.

This kept happening with each run until Wednesday evening when I decided to run her myself and do some dogging (I'm not built for dogging, I'll tell you that!). She dogged perfectly, as she had the previous year and pretty soon was off my radar - running through the bush and bringing the deer to the shot.

I figured, perhaps she was just not feeling well the first couple days so we let the dog man try to run her again on Thursday - but the same thing happened, she refused to go; and returned to camp. It was a shame, and everyone was getting down on her; I felt embarrassed to be honest.

She redeemed herself on Friday when a deer was shot and ran two kilometers into a swamp before dropping. She blood tracked it immediately and it was recovered. Saturday however, three deer were shot (two does being chased by a buck); unfortunately none of them stopped immediately and was time for Misty to swing into blood tracking action again - she was able to locate one of the does, again deep in the swamp. She couldn't locate the buck and the other doe however because they had crossed paths on the run so many times the trails were confused to a point that I couldn't figure it out either. She would eventually just keep tracking the trails back to their point of origin (a question I'm going to pose to the BGBTO group once I figure out how to word it).

So far, Misty is 8:2 (8 finds, 2 losses). I'm quite sure she located one of the losses later on while dogging - she kept taking off into "the black swamp"; a thick, 10 acre, over grown cedar swamp with mud so deep it could sink a car. We tried to get in and follow her but it was impossible unfortunately. She returned to the middle of the swamp at least six different occassions. A local said he was going to take a look through the swamp in that area today or tomorrow once he had his argo fixed however - so perhaps not a loss yet. The temperatures have all been below zero so a harvest might still be in the future.

Received a call today about tracking a lost doe as well; just as I was suiting up to head out however he called to say he had found it.

That's all for now!

[Marker]

Good work on the finds.

[Sharon]

You've done a great job with that dog.

[jweese]

I am quite pleased with her blood tracking ability for sure. She'll also track deer tracks quite well, but she lacks the confidence to go running after them, keeps looking back to see if I'm still behind her.

Honestly, at this point I don't mind, having a blood tracker is important to our camp as well, since we dogged for years with the two legged version and no hounds.

[TurkeyRookie]

Sounds like you've done a great job with her, and she is rewarding your efforts nicely!

[Greenhorn]

Some times dogs know better than us. Congrats on a good dog.

[Marker]

Some times dogs know better than us. Congrats on a good dog.

Yep - I cant count the number of times I pulled my dog off a trail only to realize later she was right.

Always trust the dog!

[jweese]

Just an update, we found one of the lost deer - the doe. Bedded deep down in the swamp, retrieval was insanely difficult. Unfortunately, the temperatures since Saturday had fluctuated to the point of no return for the meat however. It was satisfying just letting Misty find it.

It was also an eye opener for a couple party members; the disbelievers that thought she was wrong all along. We did a large circle around the spot where the paths crossed and she took off on a tangent, nose to the ground. I told everyone we needed to trust her, and just follow along. We followed along, and my friend, one of the disbelievers stepped into some fresh snow and noticed blood in his footprint. He was shocked we were on the right track - not a disbeliever anymore.

So, now she is 9:1.

When I get back to the camp this weekend I'll take her out to try to locate that buck. She found a deer last year 4 days after the kill, and 2 kilometers away. I'm sure she can find it, but the deep cedar swamp it went into might make it impossible to retrieve. Will keep everyone updated.

[vom Dufenshmirtz]

sounds like you've got yourself a good blood hound very satisfying finding all these animals, congrats!

[welsh]

It was also an eye opener for a couple party members; the disbelievers that thought she was wrong all along.

My rule is, the dog is never wrong. Nothing more satisfying than watching your dog prove it!