I have been moving from south Louisiana and it has been a while since I published a post,
so I have a lot of catching up to do.
Above is a 6 month old de la Houssaye's Catahoula who found 3 deer on her first weekend ever hunting in October 2017. She was born after the deer season closed, ate raw beef meat as a main part of her diet, and was trained by me, Marcus de la Houssaye in my blood trail dog training facility in south Louisiana. Although I trained her off leash at my facility, because she was purchased so young, she transitioned right into being handled on leash as that was a hunting club rule where she went to.
For 10 years now, I have been engaged in studying, breeding, training and selling blood tracking dogs. Like with cow dogs, hog dogs, bird dogs and all other working dogs in general, the majority of buyers who come looking for a tracking dog, are only interested in and want finished dogs.
However much that seems the easiest and quickest route to getting a high performance dog to work for you, nothing could be further from the truth!
Why? Primarily because dogs are neauvophobic which means that they are shy or scared of anything new.
A finished dog usually needs a a few weeks or even months to warm up to a new owner and many are one man dogs who will never be the same with a new owner as they were with the man who raised 'em up from a puppy.
For instance a new scent, sound, location or person(such as a dog buyer) can cause a dog to get very sensitive and not be 'themselves' and then freeze up and not work for you.
If you are a working cowboy, I am preaching to the choir, because the same thing applies to horses when around someone new. And cowboys know this from real life experience.
So based upon my experiences, for 10 years now, 95% of the people who have come to buy tracking dogs don't understand that the 'best' way to go, is to buy a well bred, high performance, genetically predisposed, high prey drive PUPPY and raise it up AND TRAIN IT YOURSELF.
Ohhh, I know the concern is that it won't work this season and we are now full on in the deer hunting season for 2018/2019 so we need a trained and experienced blood trailing dog that will find deer now.
The Catahoula puppy above was trained by me and was running 500-600 yard tracks and finding lost deer the first year she hunted and it was not even six months old!
Here she is guarding 'her' first deer after the find!
Robert Miller of Michigan Blood Trackers and his Dachsund Sypris who together have found hundreds of wounded and dead deer in the midwest.
OK, I feel your pain, but a well trained, well behaved, and 'experienced' dog FOR SALE is not something that is easy to find! The reality is that most people who breed and train tracking dogs are not selling finished dogs, they are selling puppies.
They are hunting experienced dogs, NOT SELLING EM! What they are likely selling if in the business of selling dogs are started puppies up to 2 years old.
Just think about it: how many 'for real', during the deer season, blood tracking experiences can a trainer put a puppy on and give that dog credit for finding X number of wounded or dead deer in any given deer hunting season?
One thing I have noticed is that potential buyers want a dog that has found a lot of deer on its own. And they want to know how many? Who is counting? They want experience and I understand why, but once again how common is a great dog like that offered for sale?
All this leads to my conclusion that what needs to be trained is 'the people' not the dogs! So I am available for consultation for a fee to help you get up to speed and train your dog, or help you track and learn how to handle your dog. It appears to me that many people who want to buy a trained dog, don't know how to 'handle' it when they get it. I am Marcus and can be reached by email: catahoula1@gmail.com.
I have been doing free consultation for too long! Hire me and you may be surprized at what I can share over the phone.
A well-bred, experienced, trained tracking dog is not something that you can buy like a machine that you can flip a switch and it instantly work for you. It is a living being who is loyal and needs to be a part of the 'team' or 'family' and have the heart or 'desire, to serve you and help put meat on the table.
To quote my girlfriend who is a certified NALC breeder of Louisiana Catahoulas: "People are too civilized." And what she means is that we have become too computerized and mechanized and do not depend upon working animals like horses and dogs that are born and raised on ranches and farms, like it was when we grew up 50 years ago and beyond.
How many people are actually still in the saddle today @ 74 years old like my good friend "Doc" below?
Today we have tractors, trucks, ATVs, air conditioners, computers, GPS, and many other great conviences that have removed common sense from practical working animal applications and caused a vast majority of us and potential dog buyers to think that the 'best' and safest way to get a 'good' dog is to buy a finished dog.
And all I got to say to that is: "Good luck folks!"
I am Marcus de la Houssaye and I am available for consultation and can be reached by email
catahoula1@gmail.com
