If you have hunted deer very long, then you know that a miss or a not so perfect shot is bound to happen, especially if you are a bow hunter. Tracking a deer is serious and takes a whole other skill set to successfully recover a deer that may travel hundreds of yards after the shot. Many hunters get excited and want to pursue the trail shortly after the shot not knowing that it wasn’t the best shot in the world. This will push the deer farther from you and often at a sprint or at least a good run leaving even less of a blood trail. These deer can also cross property lines where tracking becomes even more difficult as you attempt to get permission to track your deer on your neighbor’s property.
In the past several years, deer tracking dogs have gained in popularity and they love the attention. I caught up with Natalie Spalding from Cox’s Creek Kentucky, to learn a little more about her deer tracking dog, Timber. Timber is a Yellow Labrador Retriever and is 5 years old. Natalie says that Timber truly loves to track deer, but that’s not where they started. Natalie said she always wanted a hunting dog. Natalie and her husband are both avid deer hunters, so naturally shed antler hunting came to mind.
Natalie initially began training Timber to hunt sheds where they hunt. Hunting sheds is a great way to determine what bucks made it through the hunting season. Timber did great and eventually was entered into tracking contests and did very well. Timber has earned United Blood Trackers Level 2 honors. If you need a tracker to recover your deer in central Kentucky, you can see Natalie’s Tracker Profile at https://www.unitedbloodtrackers.org/tracker-info/?user=1451
As a bird hunter myself growing up, I can attest to the love of watching a dog work. I could hear that excitement in Natalie’s voice when she talked about Timber on the trail of a deer or as a pup jumping headlong into a bush where she had hidden a scent covered rubber training antler. Natalie told me that as much as she loves bowhunting, she now prefers tracking deer for other hunters and watching Timber work with enthusiasm. “Timber knows when we’re going to track a deer, just like a bird dog knows when they are going bird hunting. He will begin to howl, much like a hound dog, until we reach the scent. Then Timber goes into tracking mode and never makes a sound while we are on the trail.” Natalie told me, laughing.
Training Dogs to Track Deer
Natalie also told me that it was herself that needed the training more than Timber. “Labs are instinctive hunters, and I was not trusting Timber like I should have in the beginning. I learned, after maybe 40 public tracks, to always trust Timber when he’s on the trail and that I’m just along for the ride.”
Be the first to comment