EP:190 | Blood Trailing Deer Dogs

This week we are joined in studio by deer dog recovery expert Zach Crowley and his legendary tracking dog, Dayah (a beautiful black-mouthed Cur). We hope you never need one, but if you do it’s great to know there is a network of recovery dogs that can make the difference in recovering your deer. Zach explains what steps to take after a nominal shot, and how to get in touch with a blood trailing dog owner in your area. We also talk about how you can typically expect a wounded whitetail to behave, and the basics of how to train your own recovery dog. Dayah doesn’t say much, but Zach is a wealth of “been there done that” information. If you hunt whitetails…you’ll pick up something useful. Listen, Learn and Enjoy.

[@blksn8k]

I had my first experience with a tracking dog last month after 55 years of hunting whitetails. Sadie is a full blooded German Shepard and solid black in color. What a gorgeous animal. She had been though all of the certification tests but had never actually tracked and found a deer in a real hunting situation. Her owner is a member of the United Blood Trackers here in my home state of Pennsylvania. It took Sadie almost two hours but she did find the deer. It was a 130 class eight point and was I ever happy when she found it! What a great experience watcher her work!
The deer lunged forward at the shot and the arrow hit it back and low but the Swhacker broadhead luckily did catch just enough of the femoral artery in the lower groin area. The deer ran through a recently timbered area which made it tough to follow through all the brush and tree tops but Sadie tracked it about 250 yards to where it had fallen in a dry creek bed. I had hit the deer the evening before and because of the extremely marginal hit waited until the next morning to go after it. I'm sure it was dead within a minute or two after the shot but I had no way of knowing that at the time. I spent about two hours the next morning looking in the last direction I saw the deer headed but the deer had gone in a different direction once it was out of sight. It took a dog like Sadie to figure that out.
BTW, in PA the law requires that a tracking dog must be kept on a leash.

[@MossyOakGameKeepers]

Great story!

[@imyourhuckleberry7069]

Awesome podcast this week. I loved that saying from Bobby about a dog. Awesome! Great work guys!

[@robertpettit2636]

Miss my Labrador’s you guys made me tear up after 4 years