A Blood Trailing Puppy?

Here is an email from a a satisfied customer who bought a puppy last year. That puppy is only about 4 months old now and already working a blood trail just fine.

Here is Stacy's email to me.


Here is a new pic of our baby girl. She was from the catahoula/cocker spaniel litter. We picked her up from you in early January. She was 4 lbs then, here she is at 4 months and about 18 lbs. She is a very smart baby, VERY active, but such a sweetheart! We love her very much. She did her first blood trail this weekend, she did awesome.

Stacy

If you need a blood trail dog, get it now!These guys and girls are bored, need a job, and a good home.

Just because you show up at my house with money, does not qualify you to own my dogs.

I suggest you call and talk to me a few times to see if one of my dogs fit your service needs.

I do not need to sell these dogs, I spend a lot of time getting them right for you. I need to find the right people for them.

Don't wait until this fall and you have a downed deer you can't find to contact me.

You spend all year planting feed plots, scouting, planning, buying more camo, ATV's, outboard motors, guns, scents, treestands, calls, knives, gloves, hats, videos, etc.

And you don't have a blood trailing dog?

I have a few left from this litter and they were bred for blood trail work.

These puppies are bred to be easy to handle and devoted to what ever you need.

Be it security, companionship, or squirrel hunting, these dogs wait on you hand and foot!


I have several crosses specially for blood trail and quality pet placement.

I have found that crossing with a Cocker Spaniel, Beagle or Chihuahua makes a better pet, or blood dog because they are easier to handle and it takes some of the wild wolf behavior out of them.


These pups will hunt and help you find a dead or wounded deer, but are easy going, and much easier to train and handle, not like my elite,(as seen below) high performce, smart, fast, gritty, hog dogs that will not stop at a dead deer and wait for you.
Because a pure bred Catahoula can be a hand full for most people, I recommend you consider getting a cross bred dog for pets or blood trailing.

Bob, the father of Jesse, Spider, and Whiteboy


Beau Jocque, a son of the legendary, Maurice
Sammy, a son of Maurice and Alida

Bred to Hunt, Then Trained

I am in awe as to the gross myths people run with and inaccurate assumptions of people who call me looking for a good blood trail dog.

Myth #1. Most people assume if a dog has never been on an actual deer hunt and found a dead or wounded deer and thus has no experience, it won't work for them.

Truth: The only deer my dogs has ever not found were the ones where we were stopped by property lines, emergencies, lack of faith on the hunters part, and the hunter give up and called the dog off, or extended time and bad weather factors.

OK, I understand their caution and concern, considering the B.S. we have to hear from people, the media, politicians, etc. trying to sell us on lies everyday, not to mention the tall tales of fisherman and hunters in general!

But... everytime I have taken one of my dogs out for the first time to trail wounded game whether they were a pet, hunting dog, security, or cow dog, they blow my mind with their enthusiasm, scent ability and intelligence, not to mention the desire to serve and get the job done.

I have actually watched dogs go in the opposite direction that the hunter thought the wounded deer went, and we found the deer!

Here is a link to a great article about tracking
a deer with blood dogs: www.bowhuntingmag.com

Myth #2 Most people assume you need to use deer hide, deer blood, tarsal glands, etc, so the dog knows it is trailing a dead or wounded deer.

Truth: A blood trail is scented with blood, not the animals scent, and blood is such a strong order to a dog, that they can follow it days after the kill, right after a strong rain, across flooded wetlands, and through lots of other game scents and still stay on track, ultimately finding the deer.

Even if the deer stops bleeding, as is often the case in a hard to find kill, the scent of blood is usually on the deers feet and legs by the time the wound stops bleeding and the dog can follow it anyway. The point I am hoping to drive home here is that is not the scent of the animal, but the scent of blood that the dog should track, because in some hunting clubs with a lot of game and a variety of game, it is easy for a dog to get distracted before finding the kill.

If they are trained to follow blood, I don't care if it is a wounded calf, deer, hog, buffalo, human, or bird, they are on it!

Furthermore, a really good, well bred, hunting dog with a lot of drive and an obcession for live game, especially a yuoung one, will sometimes not stay at a kill site and wait for you. They want action and might take of and go find something on the move. For this reason I recommend using a leash on a new or young dog to help them stay on the job at hand.

After they figure out what you want them to do, based on several kills, having that experience behind them, you might see how they work off leash.

Below are photos my daughter took of me conducting a first time training exercise for a group of 6 month old Catahoulas on my property.

For a first time exercise I like to start the blood trail at the gate, before I let the puppies out of the pen.

After letting them out, we walk down a drive way, to establish the understasnding in them as to the line of service I am working on.

Next we head into a vegetated area
to exemplify the normal terrain of the tracking work,
trailing a deer.

At the end of the trail give everyone a taste of raw liver and it helps to let them bite and pull on some raw deer hide, as seen below.