Buying and Handling Finished Tracking Dogs and 30 Years of Breeding 7 Generations

Often times, I don't hear about my dogs after I sell them, but I make every effort to communicate with people and make sure everything is going smooth after a sale because that can be a big adjustment for a finished dog who has been with me and his family for years and literally ALL of his or her life, and it helps the dog and the new owner to bond and adjust, if I can explain what is happening to the new owner and be there to train the new owner to properly handle and 'be trained' to the dog.

Think about it, if you are buying a trained started or finished dog,

 shouldn't you 'be trained' to the dog, so you can at least know the verbal commands?

There are no rules carved in stone when it comes to dog training methods, and there shouldn't be  because breeds vary and individual dogs vary within the breeds.

Remember, somebody else trained that dog, and unless you know the breed, 'how it was trained', and the dogs peculiarities, you cannot get the same level of performance out of the dog as I did, because you don't know how it was trained, and are not 'working within' the the dogs training program and natural abilities, and then doing your part as a team player to keep advancing the track.  

Tracking wounded deer and hunting wild hogs with cur dogs are dangerous activities and because the dogs natural abilities of well bred dogs are so high performance, you need to as much as possible encourage and motivate your dog and 'allow' them to do their job. 

And... sometimes tracking is a process of elimination, and that means you need to trust the dog and not interfere with the dogs natural movement and processes.

 And ideally except in rare instances that means working the dog off leash.

I just got some photos of one of my finished dogs who went out early in the season to Kansas as a blood tracking dog. Photos above and below.

Below is a photo of his father Little Bob

                     
                                               Little Bob is a son of Jesse who is below

Jesse is a son of Angel and Bobalou

Angel above, a daughter of Patch and Ruby

Bobalou is below

And Bobalou is a son of Frank below.

I have been breeding Catahoulas for over 30 years
and working them in a variety of functions along the way.

  

Blood Trail Dogs For Sale out of Choco and Priest born Oct 22

Choco is a great grand daughter of Diamond Cutter on her daddy's side and a grand daughter of C Arrow Patch and Ruby on the bottom, so hold onto your hats because these babies are gonna roll!

We have a double glass eyed grey patch/blue leopard female in the 3 photos below.

The blue eyed, blue leopard male is in the background of the photo above.

We have 2 solid blacks, also in a male and female

The black female has the white tipped toes.

Above is Choco nursing her babies...

If you are interested in a blood tracking dog, by this time next year, these cuties will work for you.

I am Marcus de la Houssaye and I can be reached at 337 298 2630 for more information.

Cookie and Jesse Puppies Born 9/25/2017

Here is a double glass eyed, blue/red leopard female, and she is spitting image of her daddy!

At 8 weeks old, I begin blood trail dog training...

Below is a male, brown leopard, and size wise he is the biggest and is the farthest ranging of the four.

Below is the other male, who is in my opinion the pick of the litter based upon color as I like to breed darker dogs, and I am partial to the red markings on the face and head.

Below is the other female blue leopard

She is also in the top of the photo below, and the glass eyed female is to the left.

Below is Cookie who is the momma of these pups

I shot videos of these puppies on their first training track, but due to technical difficulties it is not loading, so I will try later...

If you are interested in buying a puppy or started dog, you can email me catahoula1@gmail.com

The Truth About Training Blood Tracking Dogs...

Training blood tracking dogs that are bred right is not complicated or scientific, and is in fact, simple and easy, but we humans tend to complicate and 'make' it harder than needs to be because we operate under the presumption that if the dog is not 'trained', it will not hunt. OK, maybe!

Now genetically speaking that may be true for dogs that are not bred to hunt and are 'genetically predisposed' to be nothing more than someones lap dog and pet. And with proper blood trail training most dogs will respond to the dietary conditioning(because hungry dogs hunt) and proper training and maybe you will luck out and have a tracking dog in the end.

A dietary condition such as feeding raw meat is often overlooked by most new tracker/trainers.

I operate a blood trail dog training facility, so I believe in training, but I see too many people put too much emphasis on 'performance' of the dog in training, and not give the dog a chance to prove themselves during the hunting season. And that may be due to our expecting too much too soon from a puppy or our failure to make training excersizes fun.

For dogs that are genetically bred to hunt, we are more likely to screw things up trying to train them in the off season, than if we are patient, and simply allow nature to take it's course during the hunting season. Which is to say that the 'real' blood trail dog training occurs during hunting season when we have fresh blood on the ground and the dog has fresh raw meat 'treats' in the skinning shed.

I confess that when I first started training my dogs about 8 years ago, I believed that I had to train them to 'make' them into a tracking dog, or they wouldn't hunt. I had a lot to learn.

And I experimented with a lot of methods and combinations of techniques.

But I realized that my dogs genetically predisposed prey drive was more important than anything I 'put' into them.

In the end, I am beginning to realize that my dogs have taught me more about blood tracking than I ever taught them and I must confess: they are not only smarter than I thought they were, they were smarter than me.

If you are looking for a trained blood tracking dog, I am a breeder and trainer of Louisiana Catahoula Curs and would like to talk to you. My cell phone is 337 298 2630, or 337 704 6330.

My email: catahoula1@gmail.com

Blood Trail Dog (actually 6 months old puppy) Finds 3 Deer In 1 Weekend!

About 3 weeks ago, a deer hunter calls me up shopping for a tracking dog and told me the story of how his 12 year old daughter shot an 8 point buck opening weekend and was so frustrated with the outcome that she was considering giving up deer hunting because she was so discouraged after shooting the first deer of the season and being unable to recover her trophy and the meat!

Well her daddy decided to 'fix' that by getting a family pet/tracking dog for the family hunting club.

During the first weekend with the dog out at the camp they didn't 'need' the dog to track, but decided to lay out a man made 'training' track using some fresh blood to see what she would do. And to make a long story short, I get a report a few days later that she had ran a 200 yrd track in less than a minute!


Well the next weekend same dog was needed to help find the deer and in less than 48 hours she had found three, and all in her first weekend of actually helping to find lost and dead deer in the 2017 hunting season. The deer below was recovered late on Friday evening just before dark.

And then Saturday evening in the dark, Coal a 6 months old de la Houssaye's Catahoula ran a 1,000 yrd + track and recovered her second deer of the season in just over 24 hours!

What they did was to put a green light on top of her collar to keep visual track of her, should they let her off leash, they added a bell on the bottom of her collar to keep auditory track of her.

But the most interesting part of the report was how there was very little blood visable after the first 50 yards or so, but Coal would stop and stand over every drop of blood she found 30-50 yrds apart and made sure that they knew she was on it!

Someone even suggested that the tracking dog was leading them on a wild goose chase, but the wife insisted that they press on and follow my advise and: "Trust the dog!!"

Coal was acting like an experienced veteran tracking dog should, but had actually never been through a hunting season as she was born after the 2016 hunting season.

This is what often happens when someone buys a started or finished dog from me that was born, raised, and trained in my blood trail dog training facility. They HUNT for food!

It didn't end there and when bright and early Sunday morning another one of the kids sticks a doe that ran off and could not be tracked visually by humans, Coal was brought in and made short work of finding her 3rd recovery in less than 48 hours.

The family is so pleased with the results of Coal's performance, that they also later got a 6 week old puppy as a back up and team tracker, and... now their 3 kids have a couple of pups to share and play with, and the hunting club has 2 new 'high value VIP members'.

If you are shopping for a puppy, started dog or finished dog, I can be reached by email only...

I am Marcus de la Houssaye and I can also be reached by email: catahoula1@gmail.com

I do not always answer email right away, and I do not carry my cell phone so I will reply to your email asap. If you have a lot of questions about my dogs and need to talk, I can call to see if your personal needs fits my dogs style of hunting, and I will have plenty of time to answer them.

Blood Trail Dog Puppies

Now that deer season is open, if you are shopping for a working dog with a strong prey drive, that is easy to handle, train, is great with children and makes a great family pet all year long, you might be wondering...

What is a good breed of dog for blood tracking wounded deer?

You are looking at it right here...

The Louisiana Catahoula Cur

And if you are shopping for color, this girl has it all!

Blue leopard, blaze face, ring neck, white tip tail and double glass eyes.

The four photos above is a Alida

We have 3 females in this litter of Louisiana Catahoula puppies for sale

The next 4 photos below is Beau

This girl has one glass eye and is very attentive of me as you can see...

She is very dark with large black and grey patches and blue leopard markings

At 7 weeks old they are ready to go and I have started them on blood trail dog training...

In the 3 photos below is Carlie and she is a blue leopard and she is my pick, due to the fact that she has picked me first...

I am Marcus de la Houssaye and I am a breeder and trainer of Catahoulas for 30 years and live in Lafayette, La.

 can be reached by email: catahoula1@gmail.com

If you email, please send me a phone number to call you and let's keep it short until we can get on the phone. Thank you for understanding that if you have a lot of questions, I talk a lot faster than I text, and I do not always have cell service or internet in the wilderness. This time of year I may go for a few days before checking my email due to hunting season.