Blood Dogs Are Not Hard To Find

And neither are lost and wounded deer if you have a good blood trail dog!

If you are getting ready to take home a trophy buck or meat for the family this coming hunting season, and you want to push your game plan to a whole new level of success, you won't want to miss out on the opportunity to be fully prepared for avoiding the most difficult aspect of deer hunting; losing a wounded or dead deer because of not having a blood trail dog. There will be lots good times ahead at the camp this season, and lots of hours of waiting patiently on stand. Make sure you don't forget to have your best friend close by when you need him most.


Elijah, a five year old son of Patch and Ruby, and he will trail.

Many people not aware how simple it is for a dog to find wounded deer, because they have never used a dog for trailing blood. Many times we are not allowed to use a blood dog because of state legal restrictions or hunting club rules, but we need to lobby the law makers and rule makers to open the opportunity for us as deer hunters to make every effort to find and take home the deer we shoot.

For me, I have for the most part always hunted state land in Louisiana where there is no restriction on me using a blood trail dog. And because I hunted close to home for the most part it was never an issue to go get a dog out of my yard if I needed to.


Little Ray, a double glass-eyed, yellow leopard, house broke, well travelled, and eager to please.

Also the fact that my dogs eat a raw meat diet all their life, made them naturals that did not need any special training to figure out that a blood trail led to a tasty meaty meal.

Jesse guarding a frozen block of raw meaty bones as it thaws on my driveway.

Most of the people calling me about blood dogs are shopping around, and it seems they think they can call me at the last minute during deer season, and find a trained dog and the dog will work a blood trail, if it is trained to do that.

And I say yes, if it is trained by me it will work for me, but if it doesn't know you, and that takes a few weeks or maybe even months for a dog to get warmed up to someone, it may not work for you come hunting season if you have not bonded and warmed up the dog prior to the day when you need it to find the deer you cannot find.

Bud is a two year old, black and white, neutered male, house broke, very quiet and shy, but eager to please and gamey, when there is blood on the ground.

And in my opinion, a good blood trail dog should ideally be a loyal, obedient, well socialized member of the family or even better to be working in some way and feel usefull year-round.

Just like you prepare the stand, feed plot, camo, boots, ammo, weapon, scope, ATV, boat, etc you should be planning to have a dog that is familiar with you, the people you hunt with, and your style of hunting, your camp, other dogs, etc, so come deer season, the dog is not only trained to trail blood, but also not distracted by anything new. Because dogs are neauvophobic any new smell, sound, person, animal, or locality,is a cause for fear. And if a dog is worried about anything but finding what is at the end of the blood trail, his performance is diminished.

So to get the elite high performance you need from a Catahoula blood trail dog you need to get the dog months before you need it and haul it to the camp, ride it on the ATV, or boat as you scout and fill your feeders in the off season, allowing the dog to know your routine, locale, and hunting buddies.

Big, a three year old, glass-eyed, red leopard, neutered male, house broke, well travelled, in boats, around horses, has a great nose, and like most of my finished dogs will catch, if your deer gets up and tries to run.

I have several started dogs at all times that are almost a year to 3 years old that are well socialized, obedience trained and are gamey and ready to hunt for you should you have a situation where rain washes away the visible trail of the deer, or it crossed water, or worse stopped bleeding externally.

All of the above are no obstacle for a well bred, and well started blood dog, because the smell of blood is so powerful to a hungry, raw meat fed Catahoula from de la Houssaye's Catahoulas.



Always feed your dog raw beef as much as possible and any venison from last season, that may have got freezer burnt.

If you would like to contact me to discuss any questions you may have about specific breeds, or raising, training, or handling a blood dog, I can be reached at 337 298 2630.

Training A Blood Trail Dog; just do it!

If you buy a dog or puppy from me I am available for consultation for the life of the dog. You are not on your own.

Training a bloodtrail dog is easy, but the real challenge is training the hunter who thinks it is hard to find a lost deer, and assumes the same applies for a dog. It may be hard for us, but for a dog, it is a simple walk in the park. Problem is we don't know what the dog is doing most of the time and we want him to do what we think he needs to do and won't let him work it out on his own.

We see the world, but for a dog, they smell the world and if you allow them to be free in that respect, you will be amazed as I often am.


Here are some threads I copied and pasted in here and my review of their post.

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What kind of dog you got?...hounds and labs are the best for deer tracking imo. It just takes time & effort but its not hard to do.
1st you got to have some sort of blood to lay out a trail..check with slaughter house for that.
you lay out easy & obvious trails and work dog with a leash...go from easy, hot trails to working into faint colder trails as he gains experience...you help keep him in line in the beginning but make it fun and exciting for him...always reward him and brag on him when he finishes each trail.
during hunting season you will switch to deer blood...hopefully you have some buddies that will also let you help them track their deer..just to give the dog plenty of experience.
once this dog gets to tracking deer, he'll know thats his job...


My review: the most important thing here is repetition and a relationship with the dog. As the writer pointed out, any kind of blood, then repetition, and make it fun and rewarding. and very important come deer season, go onto every kill site you can even if the deer is already found.

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Can't disagree with JB, but what I have learned to do is to lay a trail of beef fat (by dragging a piece of fat cut from a steak) across a lawn with a bend in the trail and then hide the dog's supper bowl out of sight at the end of the trail. Take the dog to the start of the trail and let him smell what you dragged for the trail on your hand as you move your hand to the start of the trail and say 'find it' or something else of your choice. Make sure that the dog is trailing downwind and after about three nights my labs were trained to put their nose down and trail whenever I just said 'find it' They would trail a wounded pheasant, duck, my daughter or son or whatever had a scent at the spot where I started them. I would just substitute the blood for my fat and give it a try for your plan.

My review: simple, easy, just do it, get a dog and train it!

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Daschunds are great dogs for trailing deer from what I know...I snooped around a bit and found this info...some of you Daschund lovers might enjoy this...imo, any dog that keeps his nose to the ground can be a good tracker... labs stand out a lot in my mind because I had a best friend that had one that would find a deer or just about die trying to! He was an incredible tracker. I have been around hounds most of my younger life and I have seen dogs that would swim a river and stay on a deer trail, but that lab was one in a million!! Anyways heres some more info about the subject of training and the Daschund breed...I think this is a cool thread and very cool subject. Can be a bit controversial but I think it to be a good thing to be able to recover an animal that you might not have gotten without the dogs help...or getting to the animal quicker so the meat dosen't spoil or coyotes get to it...lot of pluses...main thing you try not to do is foul up the woods for someone else...or have a dog running to loose out there...

My review: Most people think dogs are as stupid as humans are. Took me years to learn my dogs are smarter than me.

http://www.deersearch.org/dog%20training.htm

Finding Wounded Deer Is Very Simple

Below is a discussion thread amoung deer hunters and note that the point is made that the solution is simple: get a dog - any dog!

Most people who are shopping for a blood dog fail to understand how simple it is for a dog to find down and wounded deer.

In my opinion, many people have a good blood dog at home, and have never given it a chance to help them find a deer. We see the world, dogs smell the world. This applies to lap puppies or working dogs like a Catahoula.

I am realizing most people who call me who are shopping for a blood dog are convinced that it is hard for a dog to be a blood dog and are completely inexperienced as to how simple and effective it is to find down deer with a dog.

Read the discussion thread below.

Thu Nov 26, 2009 9:58 am
sunday evening shot a nice buck at maybe 80 yards, found white hair and a fair amout of blood about what would be in a cup of coffee , about every 20 feet. after about 60 yards of tracking the blood started to be spots of blood eventually turning into nothing. my question is from some of your experiences where do you think the shot hit him i was aiming at the left shoulder . and did find a small amount of white hair. im sick about it


Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:13 pm
I was hoping someone else would chime in on this one.
I tend to think you may have hit the deer very low and the blood coagulated (SP?). That could explain the white hair and disappearing blood trail.
I'm sure deer have survived worse injuries, but I also understand you being upset.


Sun Nov 29, 2009 8:02 pm
I agree with you Brian .... white hair usually indicates a low hit. There's no white hair anywhere you prefer to aim for. Fat deposits can seal off bleeding and most deer should be really healthy this time of year. You can hope he survived and the next time will leave you with the desired result. Good luck!!!


Mon Nov 30, 2009 12:56 am
I have shot and produced white hair and blood at least five or six times over the years, mostly from misjudging the distance and once because my trigger pull was heavy, forcing me to pull low.
I recovered deer every time but once, and on that occasion I should have killed the buck in our sixth hour of searching when we jumped him out of a bedding spot and I threw the gun up on him at 20 yards only to find I had not powered down my scope from the 300 yard shot. He stood up through the scope and ran off, swam a creek and got away. We saw that the buck had been grazed across the front of his breast and the wound was not bad.
From that story, you know I am thorough. I will search for hours and even days (next morning) if I know I made a good hit.
A low shot that gets hair, if shot from the ground or a shooting house on the ground, can get the heart and yes, if the exit wound is small from lack of bone expanding a bullet, fat can seal the hole.
The answer is get a dog. Find a dog, whether trained or not, and put it on the scent trail. I saw a lap dog (no, not a Lab) one time find a buck that had left hair and blood and then run 400 yards in wet woods before falling over dead. I'm a firm believer in every camp having at least one good dog capable of trailing.


catahoula1 on Thu Feb 25, 2010 4:47 pm
I am glad to see Bobby comment about any dog trained or not having the ability to find a downed deer. Many times I have brought in a new dog young or old, with no experience, who does a fine job at locating a dead or wounded deer. There appears to be a great deal of negative assumptions regarding the effectivness of dogs that have no prior experience with finding deer.
Many times the dogs I have used were totally green at blood trailing and crossed water or at least led us to the lake, where we then got into the boat and found the deer floating offshore a hundred yards or so from land. Because we hunt in areas often surrounded by water in south Louisiana, it is near impossible to follow blood across a swamp without dogs. I hope to dispel the myth that there are not many good blood trail dogs for sale. You can visit my site at www.bloodtraildogs.com if you are interesting in purchasing one of mine. I am a breeder and trainer of Catahoulas for hunting and trailing