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.

Experience Versus Genetics

Most of the people who call me for blood dogs are wanting an experienced dog or what we call a finished dog. And, I understand their need.

But as anyone who has researched the purchase options for good blood dogs knows, a finished blood dog is rare to find.

Why? Because there appears to be very few people who are approaching this market demand for blood dogs as a business the way I am.

Most people who already have a good blood dog will give that dog a home for as long as it lives.

I plan to change that notion that blood dogs are hard to find, based upon offering started dogs that are well bred and well started as puppies.

More important than experience, in my opinion is good breeding or more specifically, good genetics.

I have a hog dog motto: "The experience starts with the right genetics."

Many people who are new to Catahoulas, fail to understand the versatility of this working breed. When I say versatile, I am referrring to the history of Catahoulas, working on family homesteads who lived off the land and used Catahoulas to provide fresh meat year round, and security. Also, working cattle ranchs from hundreds of years ago to the present have depended upon the breed to get the job done.

In the old days, a dog that did not work for it's keep, did not survive to reproduce. Hence, Catahoulas evolved into the ultimate working dog breed.

These dogs had to be fast, intelligent, cooperative and gentle with children and domestic livestock, but also gritty enough to survive wild hogs, alligators, rattle snakes and then as a team with cowboys on horseback, pen wild cattle.

Usually at about 4-5 years old a Catahoula will catch hogs and cattle on command and as a blood dog they are often found catching and stopping wounded deer that try to get up and run.

These genetic predispostions in the Catahoulas breed, make them the ultimate blood dog.

I am not only preserving these old working bloodlines, as I raise them as pups, I am working them in a variety of functions to evaluate each individual dogs abilities and personality.

If a dog is too gritty to be a hog dog, because it might get killed, I prefer to send them out as a cow dog. Cows are a lot bigger and harder to stop and catch than are hogs.

If a dog is not gritty enough to be a cow dog or hog dog they are more suitable as a blood dog or pet.

And no matter where or how you plan to use a Catahoula, contrary to most people's belief about spoiling a dog, I advise you to love 'em up and spoil them rotten, because if a Catahoula loves you, they will do their best to figuire out what pleases you and do very their best to earn your approval and affection through service to you.

The most important thing that many people fail to grasp about about owning, training, and handling working dogs of any breed or function is the importance of a mutual relationship between the dog and you.

And the quality of that relationship is fully dependent upon the human side of the equation to reach the dog and open up trust and affection and thus a desire for the dog to serve and please it's master.

This relationship factor is in the genetic pack instincts of the Catahoula that goes back to the Red Wolf.

Incidentally, Catahoulas are descended from bulldog, greyhound, and red wolf.

I am available for consultation if you would like to discuss this issue further you can contact me by phone at 337 298 2630.

I am Marcus de la Houssaye
http://www.bloodtraildogs.com/
http://www.catahoula.ws/
http://www.delahoussayes.com/