Here is a recovery that should not have been difficult! If I'm being honest we should have found him in 1-4 minutes. Instead it took over 4 hours! Why?
Because Sypris my main dog at the time got away from the scent and was in search mode. Because I have 100% trust in her and we tell all handlers to trust you dog. These are things we learn while training during the off season however we can never duplicate real scenarios so most of our learning is hands on field experience while trying to help hunters. This is why it's important to start dogs on known kills from family and friends because they will be more patient with you. Thankful TJ is one of my best friends and he gives me the freedom to track without PRESSURE!! I
I add a ton of pressure on my self and my dogs and this isn't helpful however I take pride in being my best so pressure automatically comes with it. We knew the shot was liver, gut and the buck wasn't tracked the night he was shot and when I put Sypris down at the shot site she had a clean scent trail to work with!! She started off with cautious tendencies so my first thoughts were coyotes moved in during the night. I gave her many words of encouragement and she slowly moved ahead finding tiny droplets of blood along the way. This section we were tracking in has an extremely high deer density and unfortunately we tracking down the main run that goes across an old Beaver dam going through a cedar swamp. I'm struggling to read sypris as she isn't acting normal. (dogs have off days and this was one of them)
After 75 yards I wasn't seeing any more blood and Sypris is starting to track faster and this is very typically when you get closer to the dead deer as the scent trail gets easier so my confidence is growing. Knowing the land I knew we were heading back to a river and known bedding grounds so I was confident in her work even tho I'm not seeing any blood. As we approach the river she starts checking all the runs crossing the river and not hitting on any scent and eventually she goes into search mode. We have gone several hundred yards with out seeing a bed or blood so now it's time to back track and do a restart. Their was a section she was very focused so I assume she was correct and restarted her at the location. She now takes a different route ending up at the river just down stream and again starts checking the crossings. She will swim when she has scent otherwise she will never just cross a river to continue searching for scent. These are the little things you will learn about your dog. So now I'm getting frustrated and she knows it so she goes back tracking! (Some dogs will pretend they are following scent to just make you happy and this is the case with Sypris) I quickly realized what she was doing because she keeps looking back at me from time to time and when she is locked on theirs no looking back as she is moving forward with confidence. So now it's decision time! Do I do a complete restart or go get Sargent from the car and let him have a go at it. I'm not liking that idea of walking back to the shot site as my confidence isn't very high and my confidence with him isn't the best either. Sarg is handful straight out of the car with over the top high energy. However I'm forced to because I know this buck is dead somewhere in the swamp and Sypris had her opportunity so I pick sypris up and blast through the swamp on a straight line to the car and I got Sargent vest on and he's ready to GO! As in the past he's ready to get to the prize before putting in the work so it takes a few sit down commands to get his mind right so he can stay focus on the task at hand. After the third restart he is slow and methodical and I'm holding the lead saying prayers in my head meanwhile TJ is getting worried. Sarg takes me past the last blood and continues the same route Sypris takes to the river and he goes down the first run and quickly crosses the river so I drop the leash as it's too deep for me and this is another reason why it's so important to have a GPS Ecollar system on your tracking dog. I run down the bank and find a giant tree laying over the river and this is where I cross. Once across I cut the angle and with in a few minutes I'm back holding the lead. In my opinion it's very important to not break your dogs focus once they have locked on to the target scent. By stopping them and pulling them off the scent so I could cross the log your basically telling the dog "No" and it can take a few tries to get your dog restarted. We go couple hundred more yards and this is when I realize theirs no way he is tracking TJ buck. Fuck I say to myself and now I'm getting really frustrated. I try to restart about half way back and he goes the second route that Sypris took so now I'm convinced he is struggling so he is simply following my scent. This is very common when you lay your own tracks the dogs learn to follow your scent to get to the prize!! So I call TJ and advise him and his buddy to start blood tracking from last blood. I need help advancing from last blood to get a line of direction to get my hounds back on track! Meanwhile I'm using the wind with Sarg trying to air scent the dead buck. Sarg locks on to something and is pulling my arms off. We go back to the river and cross and end up on a island that the river separates creating a island and it's long and thick. Sarg is getting very excited and jumps up on a dead fall and a big 8 point exploded from his bed scaring the hell out of me! A phone call to TJ explaining the rack and we quickly agree no way it was his buck and they also haven't advanced at all. Several hours have passed and I suggest I call another tracking team because my hounds are not figuring this out. I made a few calls and one tracker was willing to make the drive however he was still had to finish the track so this wasn't the news TJ wanted to hear. We gathered up at last blood and we all sat down to take a break and collect our thoughts and sarg was just smelling around being a dog. I'm deflated and extremely frustrated and I hate letting my friends, clients down. Sarg is 20 yards away when I see his tail curl up and is in tracking mode. So I got up from sitting on the ground to catch up to him and that's when I see TJ buck dead 30 yards in front of sarg. Sargent doesn't know it yet because we were all up wind of the deer. I made several handling mistakes almost costing my buddies deer however in the end YOU LEARN THE MOST BY MAKING MISTAKES!! This was a turning point with my relationship with Sargent and he started crushing tracks because he could sense my confidence in him. Lastly a coyote did eat one of the rear legs!
