Roy Hindes Documentary

Sarge Had A Close Call

Attention trackers, we need to start lobbying our legislatures to allow us to carry large caliber sidearms for personal protection. Tracking is a dangerous business.

This buck had a broken front leg. Shot with a crossbow.

Miller Deer Tracking 810 240 4891 Michigan and Ohio


Insane amount of blood for over 400 yards. We found him bedded in a standing cornfield. Sargent actually went past him and as he was looping back I'm fighting my way back through the cornstalks holding his 30' long leash when we jumped him and instead of the buck running away he charged Sargent hitting him in the head. U can see a piece of hair removed from Sarge's forehead.


I started screaming at this spooked the buck. I wasn't prepared for this intense situation because I was fully expecting to find the buck dead. MICHIGAN laws prevent me from dispatching any deer. Only the hunter can. In this case, my client didn't even have his crossbow and my pistol was in my backpack.

 Even if I did dispatch to protect my dog, chances are I'll get charged for poaching!!! The buck runs off and ends up laying down in a river. When we returned he was pretty much lifeless from bleeding out. The artery was cut inside the leg and the other leg was broken.


Using our pets to help hunters is very dangerous and hopefully one day our state changes the laws so it makes it easier to dispatch deer and to protect our family pets.

I Am In A Wilderness Area With No Internet Or Cell Service

OK, it is deer season and I am loving it and not spending much time on blogger.

Sorry, I will try to post more often, but I am in deer season and wilderness areas and I don't have an internet service connection 24/7. I have great photos and will try to catch up with new posts soon.

Here is my good friend Paul Couget with his red leopard Catahoula Cur blood tracking dog Roux
and what is forecast to be the new world record whitetail deer.

Paul tracked this deer in northern Alabama and it had a rack in excess of 100 points.

Paul is a professional tracker and trainer of blood tracking dogs
 and he is near New Orleans, La. and can be reached at 504 250 7456

I am practising using a drone camera in anticipation of producing my new TV show next year

I will try to post an aerial video as asap.

In the meantime check out these Catahoula Cur puppies who never seen a hog until this day.

Here is another deer Paul tracked a couple of days before Thanksgiving.

OK folks that settles it, when I am rich AND famous, I am buying a ranch in northern Alabama.

Any questions?

Now y'all keep warm, stay dry and be safe. Don't forget to teach the young hunters to always leave the woods cleaner than they found it, and always respect the animals that put the meat on our table.

I don't know about y'all but I am so blessed and putting more meat in the freezer as a professional blood tracker and having more fun tracking other people's deer than I ever did sitting in a tree.

Here is the thought for the day: If we let 'them' take our guns, what next? Our Bow and Bowie knife?

You want it? Take it!

I am Marcus de la Houssaye and you can contact me by email; catahoula1@gmail.com

Sorry, I don't want to answer a cell phone during deer season if I can help it.

Don't forget...

Come on smile...

Cat Covered 8 Point Buck With Leaves

I am sure a lot of people will not believe this with so much FAKE NEWS in circulation these days. 

This was a cool track for a good friend only about a 10 mile drive each way.

Not much blood and no hair. We only found 3 drops that Roux showed to us                                          about 150-200 yards from the hit site.

A few hundred yards further and Roux showed us this 8 point covered with dirt and leaves. I was told that bobcats do that, but had never seen it with my own eyes.
It’s a good feeling when you recover for a friend.



A couple of days earlier and Roux found this 45 + point record-setting Alabama buck.

And the next day Roux found this world record Alabama buck below

I confess that I am writing a book and developing a TV show for next year and neglecting my posts on this blog. I will try to put up more new pictures and some stories as the season is peaking all around the country.

The Right Genetics Is More Important Than Proper Training

Ten years ago, in my mid-fifties, I retired from hog hunting with dogs and started breeding and training my Louisiana Catahoula Curs to be blood trail dogs. 

When I first started researching the aspects of my new business, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries agents told me that they estimated half the deer shot were not recovered and I was stunned by the meat going to waste. And then I considered all the time wasted by deer hunters tracking and searching for dead or wounded deer without a dog.

For me, I never wasted time tracking deer or lost and wasted meat, because I always had a dog to help me find a dead or wounded deer if I needed one, because I was a hog hunter, dog breeder and a dog trainer.

And because I lived on a houseboat in the Atchafalaya Basin Swamp since 1986, my dogs were companionship, hunters and security.

I have never locked doors on my house, for the last 34 years 

What I didn't realize when I first started training my dogs to track wounded deer was the high genetic prey drive in my dogs made it easy to 'train' them to find wounded or dead deer. I also did not realize my dogs were not only smarter than I had first assumed, but they were also actually smarter than me.

The photo below is proof of my low IQ

The evidence of their intelligence is obvious in the photos above as you may notice that the dogs had enough sense to stay in the boat! 

And I know what you are thinking, but that is not a dead alligator as you can see in the photo below.

The 3 photos above were taken on one of my Louisiana Swamp Tours at Lake Martin

Ten years ago I was a firm believer in making man-made blood trails and training my dogs year-round like everybody else did and gradually I came to realize the fact that my dogs ate a raw meat diet and had a high prey drive, that all the fuss about training year-round was  not applicable to my dogs and that may be in large part due to genetics.

Below are some of my favorite de al Houssaye's Louisiana Catahoula Curs

Luke Skywalker a grandson of Patch and Ruby

Ruby and a puppy in training

NALC registered C Arrow Patch

Samuel, a pure-bred wolf with Patch on a training track

Samuel and Valyrie on the boat ride deep into the Atchafalaya Basin Swamp

Jessie and Simon

Valyrie and Samuel last day of deer season in Louisiana in 2014

As a professional tracker, there is nothing more satisfying in the cool days of October than watching a happy archery hunter drag out a spike buck and put wild-harvest, organic meat on the table for his family on the first day of deer season.

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

Duck Dogs Are Natural Blood Trackers

For years, I have been trying to convince people with 'duck' dogs that the retriever trained to retrieve ducks could also easily find deer because duck blood smells like deer blood. 

Come on, blood smells like blood, whether it comes from a duck or a deer. 

But here is proof from a young dog that was getting it done both ways! 


Below is a story from R N J Adams
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know there are specific ways to train a blood trailing dog, but let me share what I did. It’s definitely a different approach that’s for sure. I trained my dog to force fetch for bird hunting first. If you don’t know what that is, look it up.

 I never had intentions of having him blood trail... until a friend shot a deer with a bow and couldn’t find it. I took my dog to the location the deer was shot let him smell and lick the arrow and told him to fetch it up. Well, they had enough scent on the ground and he had enough common sense to know that I wanted him to go find and get what he was smelling. 

He made a perfect 100 yd track straight to the deer on a 12-hour old trail. I skinned that deer and did several drags with the hide over the next week varying the distance from 50 to about 500yds. Each time just pinching off a little hair to hold by his noses for him to smell when I told him to fetch!

 I put a bell on his collar at the beginning of every track. He then associated the bell with tracking and would start searching when the bell was put on him. He never failed me once on a drag. I’d play tug a war with him with the hide when he found it and that was his reward.

 He found 3 deer for friends of mine last year and took us on one track for almost a mile that we found light blood every so often until the deer hit a creek that we couldn’t get across. So I’d say he did allright. 

So I guess what I’m saying here is don’t think your duck dog won’t trail a deer just because it’s never done it before! My dog was 9 months old and never seen a deer in its life when he found his first one. My method of training, in the beginning, was unconventional and accidental but it worked pretty well. 

                      Here is Reid, a Texas Blue Lacy pup the day he found his first deer!

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Editor's note: For all of you out there trying to train your dog and making it too complicated to be practical, I suggest you lighten up and let your pup be a puppy for the first two years and....                                  

 HAVE FAITH IN THE DOG!

Your mantra:

TRUST THE DOG!
TRUST THE DOG!
TRUST THE DOG!
TRUST THE DOG!
TRUST THE DOG!

                                 Now, you can love me or you can hate me because:

I am Marcus de la Houssaye
and the more I get to know people, the more I love my Catahoulas!

                                    Partnership for a liberal free America!
                                    Helping to control the moron population...

Mission Impossible in the Rain

It is not too late to get a puppy NOW for the upcoming 2019-2020 hunting season...

                                       A 4 month old Ladner BMC puppy on his first find


At only 4-6 months old, you may be amazed at what a foundation bred southern cur puppy can do for you.

When shopping for a tracking dog, more than the breed, you need to consider foundation-bred genetics.          
And what that means is generation after generation after generation, the dogs were bred to hunt!

If you are shopping for a breed to use as a blood tracking dog, a southern Cur dog like a Louisiana Catahoula, a Texas Blue Lacy,  or a  Mississippi Yellow Blackmouth Cur is hard to beat in tough conditions like rain and a wounded gut shot deer. 

Not only do they have a nose, grit and speed, but they will also have the drive to become a great running catch dog at 4-5 years old. 

And don't forget, that they are also the best pet for your little children back at home and I pity anybody that tries to get in between that dog and 'his' kids!


I love this Ladner Cur Dog bloodline.

Here below is the story of what is often thought to be a Mission Impossible.

With all of the rain we've had, I want to share this story so hunters won't give up on a track and a possible recovery due to rain.

A hunter in south GA called me to track 2 bucks for him.

 He said he debated calling because it had been 24 hours and non-stop rain the entire time. He said both deer ran downhill into a creek bottom from the top of the ridge. All signs of blood had been washed away in the short time that he waited to go look for them.

 I told him that I could be there in a couple of hours. We put Xena on the trail and had this buck 15 min later.

 It would not have been possible to find any other way. 

We jumped and bayed the second buck for another recovery as well. I wasn't able to get a picture of that one because the bottom fell out. With temps in the low 30's and pouring rain, I was in a rush to get in.

                                                         Curt Ladner with a Ladner YBMC


Editors note: Curt Ladner, in my opinion, has the best Yellow Blackmouth Curs in America and is in Poplarville, Mississippi.          He can be reached @ 228 868 5279.       Email:  Paklad1@aol.com

 curtladnerblackmouthcurs.com     

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I am Marcus de la Houssaye, the editor of this article and I approve of doing business with Curt Ladner.

And if I wasn't into spotted dogs, I would definitely have a Ladner Cur!

           de la Houssaye's Valyrie

Now, let's go get into the woods and get us some!

The Times They Are A Changing...

Green - tracking wounded big game with dogs is allowed
Red - states where tracking with dogs is still illegal







Ten years ago, it was the other way around! We are having a positive effect! 

Good show, blood trackers. Keep up the good work.

Hunting big game without a tracking dog is like hunting ducks without a retriever: Wasteful and STUPID !

I Don't Care What Anyone Thinks Of Me!

Neuroscientist Studies Dog Emotions with MRI and Concludes “Dogs are People, Too”

https://www.healthy-holistic-living.com/neuroscientist-studies-dog-emotions-mri-concludes-dogs-people/?fbclid=IwAR2CCwv7z_yvzv1VLIydDeAohrc677fV85-DF4Ux0-ZqXOw-j2F5BEqY2HY

The Best Time To Train A Blood Tracking Dog

I have always said the best time to train is during deer season when there is fresh blood on the ground and a dead or wounded deer is somewhere nearby.

 I understood many years ago, that deer season is when the rubber really meets the road when it comes to training a pup, started dog or fine-tuning a finished dog, because you will never create a man-made track as complicated, challenging and educational as a wounded buck. And it fascinates me how so many people believe a dog will forget how to track deer if they are not constantly 'worked' or re-trained in the offseason! Come on folks it is kind of like riding a bike, if you got it, you don't lose it!

But there is more to training a puppy or dog to track blood than putting their nose on the ground and hunt.

An often unknown and critically important element of tracking wounded or dead deer is your ability to verbally control your dog off-leash and call out or call off a dog from the track and possibly save its life.

 Tracking wounded deer is especially dangerous because the deer may turn and attack the dog or may jump several times and cross a road or river and your dog may get run over or drown.

Now that we are in July and it is 90' in the shade I have to confess there is no time like the present if you want to work your dog, but you don't need to put blood on the ground, because it will dry up real fast and lose the scent, and why does it always have to be work, work, work?

           Above is Molly, a de la Houssaye Catahoula Cur as a pup being attentive to her new family


Before you expect high-performance blood trail dog performance or scent track training exercises in the summertime, maybe it is the right time to consider that this is the best time for you to focus and to train for other things that are also equally important during deer season and, in my opinion, all year round and every day. In the offseason stay cool, don't push your dog, and focusing on developing a verbal handle on your dog and reinforce or train what we call checking back. 


Below is Molly a few months later finding her first buck before she was a year old

Even though you may never plan to track off-leash during deer season, you never know when you may need to turn a dog loose or you accidentally drop the leash and have a great need to have a verbal command or verbal handle on your dog in the hunting season or the offseason. Reward your dog for checking back and for coming when called.

Our best training times may not involve blood or staying on the scent line, and may mostly be just having fun with the dog and just letting them be a pet. No pressure, no rush, almost nothing expected. Yes, I want to see progress. But not at the cost of my pups or I getting bored or frustrated. And like I always say, the real blood trail dog training happens when it is hunting season and there is a natural blood trail and a wounded or dead deer nearby.

Recall or checking back is something that a lot of trainers and trackers do not value, understand or like...

Too many people want the dog to be constantly getting ahead, but what if the dog is not on a leash and it gets so far ahead of you, you lose your dog? 

I know what you are thinking... what about the tracking collar? True, but what happens if the dog loses the tracking collar, you lose the handheld, or the battery goes dead on either end?

Anyway, checking back may be the dog's way of making sure that you are still on track, happy and pleased with the progress. Or maybe to determine that you are keeping up with the dog and on track and following him or her especially if you track off-leash the way we do in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

I am fascinated by how people want to buy a trained dog and think it is finished when they get it and it will hunt for the new owner just like it did for the man who bonded with it as a puppy, hauled it around, fed it, trained it and hunted it. There is a big mistaken presumption of dog buyers wrongly believing it is a finished dog and it has nothing left to learn. Well Bubba, any dog at any age will get better and better, year after year from learning simply because every track is different. And if I trained it to hunt off-leash like we do in Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi, you may need to make some adjustments when it gets to Kentucky where it is strictly on leash tracking!

By being able to call your dog out of a bay with a wild hog, a cow, a wounded buck so you can finish it off or calling them off a track if they are not on a leash could be a life or death situation especially if you are tracking early in the season when the rattlesnakes have not gone into hibernation OR the alligators are still hungry! 

As you can see the dogs above are some very smart dogs. And may be actually smarter than me!

And don't you know alligators love to eat dogs?

 We can work on calling a dog to come on command in the house, in a fenced backyard, on a 6 ft, 12 ft, and 20 ft lead and especially if it leads to the dog being rewarded by something like coming to the truck to  be load up for a ride, because everyone knows dogs love to ride in cars and trucks!.

 If I can get 30 call outs, or recalls in a day and reward heavily when there's little or no distraction. That's when I can really develop a verbal handle on the dog and know I can depend on the dog to come on command when I need for it to do a swift 180-degree turn before going into a highway with high-speed traffic and getting run over or crossing a river, lake or pond and drowning. 

NALC reg. Diamond W Scudder

And worse what if she is maybe trespassing in a neighbour's cattle or horse pasture and some fool mule or donkey kicks them or the neighbor shoots the dog for mistaking it to be a wolf, coyote or stray dog? 

In the offseason, develop rapport, relationship and a close personal bond with your dog as best friends. Just have fun. Engage your dog. Worry less about what 'you' want the dog to do come tracking season, and focus on what the dog is doing by just being a free wild dog, and capture that moment together.

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