Larry Mueller

Coonhound Self-Help

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:38 -0400

We've seen the bumper stickers: Coon hunters do it all night. For Jerry Shaffer, the sticker should have read: Coonhound trainers do it all day and night. The hang-up was his 11-acre starting pen. Shaffer had to stay with the youngsters because if a coon didn't show itself promptly the pups might become bored and wander back to the
gate. End of session. And Shaffer couldn't afford to cool his heels in the pen when he needed to be working more advanced youngsters in the 100-acre enclosure.

Shrink the Pen: Shaffer's solution was to reduce the pen size and improve the main attraction. He took about 20 feet of 6-foot-wide, 2- by 4-inch number 12 wire mesh fencing, rolled it into
a 20-foot tube secured with hog rings and fastened it between two trees about 12 feet overhead. The coon sleeps in a box at one end, while food and water are on a platform at the other.

Fake 'Em Out: The setup is ringed by about 300 feet of wire fencing, which forces the young hounds to stay within a 50-foot radius, where they're sure to notice the coon running to eat and drink. They can't see the coon on the platform, but they can tree by scent-if they already know what
a coon looks and smells like and believe it to be a worthy adversary to bark at.

Get Closer: The best way to awaken that interest is closer
contact. Shaffer cut a 12-foot section of den tree with a hole at the bottom and set it up near his house, again surrounded by 300 feet of fencing. This time, a 75-foot wire tunnel was placed on the ground, fastened to a feeder at one end and over the den hole at the other. A platform was fastened high in the hollow tree for two boar coons to sleep on because their vocal squabbles get the attention of pups running free in the small enclosure. Brave in groups, the pups investigate, smell and chase when a coon runs out to eat. In time, they tree when it returns to the den. All on their own, the pups prepare for the suspended tunnel, where brief glimpses of coon make them more dependent on scent than sight for barking treed. This is important. Although big-game hounds commonly see their prey, coonhounds rarely do.

Roll Tape: Shaffer uses video cameras to monitor individual progress. When pups are ready, he takes them in the daytime to the 100-acre enclosure, where a number of automatic feeders are placed in trees about 12 feet aboveground. Well-fed raccoons lay trails to nearby trees, which the hounds are allowed to bark up only briefly to minimize sight treeing. Deer are encountered as well. Dogs that give chase are corrected by e-collar. When this is under control, the hounds begin hunting strictly at night.

The starting phase has gone smoothly, and owners easily finish their dogs by hunting during the season. (shafferstrainingfacility.com; 304-965-6824)

Have Lunch Box, Will Travel

The MuzzleLoader, from GBPet, looks like a small, sturdy
suitcase. When opened, it separates into a 7.6-quart canteen and a double dish, one side with a cover to keep
5 cups of food dry, and the other for water. This nifty device is a compact essential for hunting trips near or far, dog meets, tests or any other time your best buddy goes along. ($18; 888-877-4738; gbpet.com)

Shake, Rattle and Roll

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:38 -0400

The simplest yet most unusual training aid ever to arrive on my doorstep was a plastic pill bottle filled with small rocks. Not surprisingly, it came from amateur trainer Don Goodwin Jr., who teaches dogs with fun and games.

The bottle is the essential ingredient in a two-step method for
getting a soft-mouthed retriever without force training.

Step one starts on the pup's first day in its new home. Goodwin begins preconditioning with variations of the food-bowl techniques outlined in my book Speed Train Your Own Retriever. His sequence is sit, heel, sit-stay, come.

During heel, he shakes the food bowl, which rattles the kibbles and captivates the pup. After a short heel, he slips the leash around a table leg and does a sit-stay, holding little Duke in place as he seats himself on the floor with the bowl in his lap. Being on the dog's level makes the pup want to come to him, so when Duke settles into a short held-in-place sit-stay, he releases the leash with a come command and shakes the bowl again. Duke eats his meal as Goodwin runs his fingers in and out of the bowl, teaching that a hand around the mouth is a normal thing when something important is going on.

As the pup eats, Goodwin takes advantage of the time to establish pack dominance. He simply leans forward over Duke and strokes him, saying, "Good boy."

Step two starts after Duke has learned sit-stay without restraint and as he tries his first clumsy retrieves. Goodwin introduces the bottle of rocks. Shaking it sounds like kibbles rattling in the bowl. Duke comes running, all pumped up by Goodwin's excitement and the rattling bottle. When the dog is totally focused on the bottle, Goodwin says "fetch" and opens his hand flat to allow Duke to grab it. Duke runs around a bit, rolling the bottle in his mouth, but a leash assures that Goodwin can quickly take it again as he says, "Leave it." Lavish praise follows.

There will be few repetitions of this shake, rattle and roll before Duke bites down and Goodwin hears plastic crack. He instantly scolds his pup but quickly makes up and goes on with the game. Duke soon realizes that chewing on the bottle displeases his pack leader and is on his way to becoming a soft-mouthed retriever.

By the time Duke is ready for formal fetch training, Goodwin already has a buddy that wants to please, won't go through the "I got the dummy/bird; try to catch me" phase, accepts hands around the mouth and finds delivery to be a natural extension of the ongoing game. Finally, that game will include retrieving ducks reliably and without teeth marks. Rarely if ever will this fun-trained pup and his owner need to face confrontational force training.

Popsicle Cure

Dummies are firm enough to discourage hardmouth habits from developing in most dogs. But a soft, fresh-killed duck is a whole new level of temptation. It's wiser to introduce duck scent through fetch practice with a hard frozen bird. But avid duck hunter Don Goodwin's latest dog, Pete, a Chessie, adamantly refused to take cold objects in his mouth. So Goodwin got a popsicle, seated Pete, and teased him mercilessly, bringing it near but then jerking it out of his reach. When Pete wanted it so badly he was drooling, Goodwin brought it close. Pete knocked it off the stick and devoured it. At the rate of just one a day of his favorite flavor, banana, Pete was soon ready to fetch frozen ducks.

Rattle Training In 2 Easy Steps

1. Use feeding time to train for sit, heel, sit-stay and come. During heel, shake the food bowl so that the kibbles rattle, becoming a sound that
excites the pup.

2. When the pup attempts to fetch, switch to a rock-filled pill bottle for the rattling sound. When the pup is overcome with excitement, let him grab the
bottle and mouth it. Eventually, the plastic cracks and the pup is mildly scolded. The game
teaaches that hardmouth is unacceptable.

Pheasant Finder

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:37 -0400

Ilse was exceptional from the beginning. Illinois hunter Stan Augustyniak and his son each selected a pup at the breeder's house, then went to the kitchen to write checks and fill out paperwork. When they were finished, they turned to the doorway. The two 12-week-old pups they had chosen were standing there as if they knew. The others were outside playing.

Although he's a hunter, Augustyniak decided on Dobermans because he loves their personalities. Ilse was his fourth and the only one that exhibited the early intelligence and cooperation of a superdog. Seeing this, he began training her immediately. Augustyniak showed her his wallet, hid it in the house, and told her to find it. She did. He switched to hiding and dragging a pheasant wing. Later, the wing was hidden or dragged outside.

By November, Ilse had been introduced to the gun, and she thoroughly understood the odor of a pheasant wing. It wasn't necessary to teach her quartering. Augustyniak had taught "come" by saying the command and simultaneously pulling his hand toward himself. Dogs learn physical signals most easily, so Augustyniak could whistle softly for attention and wave her in

if she ranged beyond 30 yards. If in doubt about her distance, she'd look back for his opinion. On her own, she learned to hunt into or across the wind to discover bird scent quickly.

"Other hunters looked at me like I was crazy for bringing a Doberman, but that ended when she'd mop up pheasants behind their dogs," Augustyniak said. "She'd hear a shot and watch, and if the pheasant flew on, that's where she'd find the next one. Their dogs would be searching a hundred yards ahead. I remember one runner that she trailed for a hundred yards and still flushed within gun range. I really didn't try to perfect her hunting style. She was more productive doing whatever worked for her. Ilse would retrieve rabbits to hand. With pheasants, she insisted on pinning them to the ground with her mouth or a paw, but I never lost a bird I hit."

Head of the Class

Eventually, Ilse learned 70 words, short command phrases and hand signals. Treats didn't interest her. She just wanted praise and a playful tussle. "I taught her to bark on command," Augustyniak said.

"Then I added stroking my neck with thumb and forefinger with each command. Ilse learned everything quickly. She was soon barking to neck strokes
without voice commands. The kids loved it when I said Ilse could add and subtract in two languages. They would watch as I gave her problems in English or Polish and she'd solve them by watching my neck strokes."

Most of her training began with a simple task, such as having Ilse step through a tire. Next, Augustyniak held his arms in a circle in front of the tire. Then he removed the tire and finally he raised his arms gradually higher until the dog was jumping through them. Ilse enjoyed all that, but what she loved most was hunting.

Early Weaning Update

In response to my column on
Dr. Dennis Hermesch's success with early weaning, some callers have asked if they can simply take a pup at five weeks. The answer is no.

Pups need to remain together for six weeks to learn how to get along with other dogs. Hermesch keeps the litter together and becomes their "mom" until six weeks. His pups imprint on him and then accept other humans as new moms. For the article, click here, or send an SASE to RR1 Box 143, St. Jacob, IL 62281.

Pandora's Virus Box

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:37 -0400

We're facing a serious problem. Someone has to bring it into the open or we'll have to start over, breeding dogs from wolves-if we can find any that haven't been exposed. "I've spoken to more than eighty breeders who produce at least two litters a year," said Jim Helm of Ord, Neb., developer of Signature Series Setters, "and almost all of them have seen one or more of the symptoms."

The problem is canine herpes virus (CHV), which can be passed sexually or just by sneezing. Historically, it caused a mild runny nose in adult dogs. Veterinarians were taught about the virus, but serious encounters were so rare it was nearly forgotten. Back then, unless a dam's pregnancy had been confirmed by palpation, whelping-day wipeouts were blamed on a mysterious "false pregnancy." Today, CHV has become a nightmare.
Bitches who are infected by the airborne virus may resorb their puppies or abort early. If the virus is passed from under the sire's sheath, some pups might escape infection during birth but will get it later from vaginal secretions or diarrhea from infected littermates. Once infected, pups usually die within 24 hours, suffering terribly. They stop nursing, become chilled, cry loudly and steadily from intense pain, and experience abdominal distension, loss of coordination and a yellow-green diarrhea. A quick autopsy will reveal heavily mottled kidneys. (The virus, incidentally, is distinct from the human herpes virus and poses no threat to people.)

The threat lasts for the first three weeks of life, when a puppy's body has no heat regulation and cannot mount a fever response. Herpes virus replicates at temperatures in the high 90s but stops
multiplying at 100 or 101. Providing 102-degree heat for those three weeks keeps herpes at bay until the pups have their own defenses.

There is just one heat source that can be set
precisely and remain constant regardless of outside temperatures or where the dam and pups lie on it: Scott's Whelping Nest (800-966-3647; scottsdog.com). Pups should be born in this nest and remain in it at 102 degrees for the full three-week period.

Some breeders are also experiencing irregular or no-heat cycles and litters with few or no females. It is unknown whether these are linked to CHV.

Why the virus has turned deadly over the past decade is a question that needs prompt study. It could be a new strain. Stress is clearly a factor and can be caused, for instance, by being flown to a strange place to be mated. Another factor might be the presence of a second infection, which places increased demand on the immune system. Even some vaccines reduce the strength of the immune system for two weeks. It makes one wonder what the the growing list of vaccines against disease, and poisons to kill parasites, is doing to a dog's immune system.

Speaking of which, there's now another vaccine dogs in the U.S. aren't getting-the one for canine herpes virus. Merial has developed a shot that has been used effectively in Europe and Canada. The U.S., however, prohibits the shipment of biologicals across the border to individuals, and the FDA has not approved the vaccine for bulk shipments to the veterinary industry.

Pet Peeve

"I can't tell you how many people I've encountered over the years who've worked with different sporting breeds, especially Labradors," says Kathryn Osborn, a flat-coated retriever aficionado from California. "They breed a bitch and it doesn't take, or sometimes the bitch is
palpated or x-rayed and there are pups, but suddenly it's whelping day and nothing-the litter is just gone. I've seen this with my own eyes, been there, been at the vet's with these people, and I've never once heard a
vet say, 'You know what, let's do a herpes titer.' We need their help. Herpes is not specific to 'unclean kennels.' It's as common to dogs as colds are to us, but now it's deadly. Breeders need to ask questions and talk opeenly about this."

Satellite Tracking

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:37 -0400

I don't believe there's ever been a hunter in an after-the-hunt conversation who hasn't wondered out loud how far the dogs ran that day. Ted Gartner is an avid bird hunter who wondered about that and more...and did something about it. He taped a global positioning system, or GPS, to each dog's collar; each dog's owner carried a unit as well.

He found that his pointer ran 2.5 miles for every mile he walked. His buddy's Lab covered 1.5 miles for every hunter-mile. More fascinating, they hunted prairie chickens and sharptails in Nebraska sand hills, pheasants in South Dakota and ruffed grouse in Minnesota and discovered that while speed and distance covered varied with terrain, the hunter-dog travel ratio was the same. This ratio will vary among breeds and will change for every hunter/dog partnership. Essentially, a cooperative dog will hunt at a range where it can comfortably keep track of, and pace with, its hunter.

Because dogs have an incredible ability to remember places where they have found game, I wondered how often they recheck those spots. On a Texas quail lease, Ted discovered that it turned out to be every time. He identifies each covey find on his GPS with a waypoint and two numbers, such as 12-1. The first refers to covey size, the second to birds taken. The same circuit was hunted every weekend, so birds, place and time of day were very similar each time. How often dogs would recheck without this constant reinforcement of birds remains unknown.

Mystery Solved

Interestingly, at midseason the
circuit's three coveys vanished. When Ted found them, he discovered that coveys of 8 and 20
bobwhites had traveled over a big ridge and roughly two miles south-southeast to cover, water and distance from a road that was very nearly a mirror image of the habitat they had left. Ten blue quail farther east did essentially the same thing. All coveys left an altitude of 1,312 feet and resettled at...1,312 feet.

Ted learns all this by opening an electronic topo map on his computer screen and overlaying it with the GPS records, a study
of which can produce amazing insights into canine intelligence. During a recent Hondo, Tex., demonstration of an exceptional German shorthair, the wind was from the north. The men walked two loops but most of the time were traveling either west-east or east-west. Whenever the men walked across the wind, the dog searched north of them. When they swung south, it made long reaches so it could hunt back into the wind. No training went into this dog's search technique.

Advanced Involvement

A team led by Dr. Leonard Brennan, the Endowed Chair for Quail Research at Texas A&M, used Garmin Global Positioning Systems extensively for a study published this year in the Journal of Wildlife Management. Until now, our understanding of quail hunting has been largely anecdotal. Harvest management has been based on intuition and trial and error. Discovering how well quail learn evasive tactics, and how long those tactics are remembered, might take further study, but much about the bird and the hunt has now been quantified. (Write to infofill@hometel.com for a copy of the study.)

Feeding for Smarts

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:36 -0400

Dad always said that fish was brain food. I thought it was just his excuse to go fishing. Mom always made me take my cod liver oil. I thought it was her punishment for whatever misdeeds she figured
I'd commit that day. It turns out both of them were on to something. Research from Iams shows that ingesting a component of cold-water fish makes puppies smarter and more trainable-so much so that we should add it to our growing list of ways to build superdogs.

The ingredient, also found in mothers' milk, is docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid that makers of baby formula have also become aware of. Researchers at Iams have determined that dogs require about three times the amount of DHA as humans do
to enhance neural development, since puppies acquire 70 percent of their brain mass by 6 weeks and 90 percent by 12 weeks.

Supervised by Martin Coffman, DVM, the Iams team evaluated 39 genetically similar eight-week-old beagle pups. Twenty of them were fed a typical DHA diet, while the other 19 received the enhanced DHA formula, now called Iams Smart Pup, as did their mothers during pregnancy and lactation. All of the pups were socialized with the same kinds of human interaction and play. Everything was highly controlled to ensure that there was nothing different about the pups except the amounts of DHA in their diets.

The trial would test memory and trainability through shape recognition and food rewards. All pups underwent identical training for one week prior to the trial. For the trial, the pups entered a maze, where they saw a symbol fastened to the opposite wall. If that symbol was a circle, a food treat would be found by turning to the right. If it was a square, finding the treat required a left turn.

Beginning at nine weeks, the pups were tested multiple times a day for 30 days. Every time, each pup was evaluated by how quickly it could successfully complete its task. Midway, symbol signals were reversed. A circle meant turn left and a square meant turn right. Beagles persist when food is involved, so they all found the treat, but those getting enhanced DHA caught on fastest.

Results were consistent over the numerous daily replications. On final tally, puppies fed enhanced DHA achieved a startling success rate twice that of pups on a typical DHA diet. Think about that-twice the smarts, twice the memory, twice the trainability.

A word of caution: Enhanced DHA cannot turn just any pup into a superdog. A genetically willful, uncooperative pup would simply become twice as wily. But add enhanced DHA to other proven ways of building superdogs and your chances of owning one will multiply greatly.

Fall Feeding Tips

Outside dogs need 30 percent more calories from December through February than from June through August.

Dogs working extremely hard
in very cold weather can double or triple their calorie requirements.

Hardworking dogs requiring premium food are those that run 20 miles a week or more.

Gradually switch from maintenance to premium 7 to 10 days before conditioning or hunting begins.

If unable to condition, begin supplementing your dog's diet with vitamin C on the first day of hunting.

Start feeding the amount
recommended by the manufacturer, then adjust for your dog's individual metabolism.
The final measure of correct feeding is your dog's ribs-they should be visible but not prominent.

Best of the Best

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:36 -0400

A "NAVHDA championship" might sound like an oxymoron. For 36 years, the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA) has held noncompetitive tests. Whether it was the Natural Ability Tests for young dogs or the Utility Tests for trained dogs, the challenge was always the points, not the other dogs.

That's still the case. But starting this year, the NAVHDA Invitational, which will be held annually going forward, has higher performance requirements for entry. Only dogs earning a Prize 1 in Utility Tests will qualify; those that earn a Prize 1 in the Invitational are given the title of Versatile Champion, with VC prefixing their names in the registry.

The best thing about NAVHDA tests is that no judge is looking for eliminations to narrow the field to one winner. No judge is allowed
a personal preference, which can lead to fads that often change hunting breeds into racing dogs.

So why call dogs champions when they pass the Invitational test? Because Americans love champions, and the extraordinary dogs that are capable of earning a Prize 1 in the Invitationals are in every way true champions. The concept of rewarding all champions, instead of reserving "champion" for a single dog that has had a better day or better luck that day, is actually quite brilliant. What follows is notoriety, after which these Versatile Champions raise the ability level of NAVHDA dogs by being in greater demand as breeders.

The Sum of Their Parts

All NAVHDA tests are based on evaluations of nose, search, pointing, desire to work, cooperation and physical attributes. Nose gets the highest index number (6), or weighting, in the scoring system. A good nose will scent birds quickly and easily and from a considerable distance but will function poorly unless the brain has learned, or can learn, to discriminate subtle differences in scents. Is the bird here? Was it here? Which way did the pheasant run?

[pagebreak]
A good nose well connected to an intelligent brain still needs desire, that animated determination to do whatever it takes to get a bird to the gun so the dog can have it in his mouth. Desire shows up in search by helping the dog quickly discover what cover holds birds, then inspiring him to hunt that cover so thoroughly that no birds are overlooked.

Cooperation holds it all together, with the dog staying in contact with his hunter right up to the moment of point, which should be rock solid and intense. And finally, NAVHDA dogs are judged for conformation and coat, because the assembly of a dog determines how well he moves and how long he holds up in hours of hunts and years of life.

The Invitational Test scores versatility in a sort of "today we hunt upland birds, tomorrow it's waterfowl" manner. The passing score is 166 out of a possible 200. In-between variations point to areas of not quite perfection. Besides the above basics, field work is scored on backing, steadiness to wing and shot and retrieve to hand. Water work adds heeling, steady at the blind, marking, honoring and blind retrieve. This is the one and only championship that produces exhaustive studies of the dogs entered.

Shorthairs on Top

The 2004 NAVHDA Invitational, near Mexico, Mo., drew 99 qualified dogs, and 32 went home Versatile Champions: 23 German shorthairs, 6 German wirehairs, 1 vizsla,
1 spinone and a pudelpointer. The shorthair dominance is explained by the fact that there are many more shorthairs, and therefore many more good ones to be found. Wirehair breeders must focus on flawless coats, and the gene pools are smaller in the other breeds. The 2005 Invitational will be held in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, September 2-4. (navhda.org)

Breaking Away

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:36 -0400

We all know you can't train a puppy in the presence of its mom, because it pays attention only to her. Imagine how much easier training would be if you could magically become your pup's "mom." Well, Dennis Hermesch, DVM, is doing just that with his German shorthair pups by weaning them at 4½ to 5 weeks and becoming their
whole world. This timing catches pups in the early stages of an enormous spurt of brain growth, but it's at a point where they're still heavily dependent on Mom to direct the neurons into making the right memory connections.

"I held back a pup weaned at five weeks for more training," Dr. Hermesch told me, "then turned it loose in a fenced pasture with
its mother and another adult dog
at eight or nine weeks. It didn't revert to seeing its dam as Mom, but paid attention to me. This attention transfers to new humans who pick them up at six weeks."

Dr. Hermesch's pups easily imprint on him because their real mom served only milk, while he delivers a quality soft food three or four times a day. They're out of the kennel and in the backyard,
a new world. And they're played with and petted like never before.

A more serious play game, a wing on a string and pole, appeals to their instincts. They chase, they can't catch, and finally one stops
and points. Others soon follow the lead. When
the new owners come to get them, all are pointing, sometimes all at once. Apparently, the instinct
to "back" or honor another dog's point is being
expressed and set in stone as well.

These pups are separated from the dam and the litter a week apart, which is much less traumatic than experiencing both events on the same day. New owners report less nighttime crying.

Window of Learning

Each pup goes to its new home accompanied by a copy of my book Speed Train Your Own Bird Dog. Dr. Hermesch says he chose it because it trains by appealing
to pups' natural instincts. Training must continue at once because this burst of surplus neurons does not last long. Nature decides that sufficient time has passed to connect enough circuits to function
in life. A gene switches on and orders the production of enzymes that destroy surplus neurons and the weakest synapses.

In humans, the brain's greatest growth spurt is over by age 10.

A yearling dog compares to a
15-year-old human in potential maturity, so mathematically the window of time to appeal to a dog's brain spurt is 8 months. Like humans, dogs can learn all their lives, but the rate and ease of assimilating information depends a lot on the number of circuits connected during the brain spurt.

In my view, Dr. Hermesch has discovered a landmark addition in the making of superdogs. Buyers say his early weaned shorthairs are exceptionally easy to train, and that they automatically carry the mom attachment to the field, never self hunting, always in touch with "Mom."

AT LAST!

Oh, how I wish the Scout's Seat Saver, and the headrests to buckle it onto, had existed when
I was a teenager trying to
protect the backseat of my parents' car from wet, muddy, sometimes skunked dogs. This 1,000-denier fabric resists nearly all messes dogs carry in from the field. ($40; 800-505-8888; duluth trading.com)

Quick Tip>>

A study showing that country children have fewer allergies than city kids suggests that early exposure to dogs and other animals
is important
in building strong immune systems.

Contact: Dr. Dennis Hermesch, P.O. Box 187, Plymouth, Nebraska 68424; 402-656-3044.

Tracking Dogs

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:36 -0400

John Jeanneney pulled his trigger on a big doe in Dutchess County, N.Y., but a limb deflected his slug too far back for a clean kill. The blood trail ended
after 50 yards, and combing the area all day produced no deer. A week later, two hunters found the spoiled
carcass a quarter mile away. That was hard to take for the ethical hunter, who was determined to use every means possible to account for every animal shot. It was 1970, and it was not yet legal to use a tracking dog.

At the time, Jeanneney, a history professor, was breeding wirehaired dachshunds of German hunting stock. He knew the breed was used for tracking in Europe, so he applied to New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation for a research permit to investigate the feasibility of using leashed tracking dogs to find wounded deer in his state. After much persistence and the intervention of Bill Wadsworth, a pioneer of legalized bowhunting in the northeast, the permit was granted in 1976. Jeanneney would need help, so others were added as "designated agents." This group became Deer Search Inc., the organization ultimately responsible for the legalization of tracking in New York in 1986. Since then, 11 other states have come on board.

Counting those Southern states, plus California and Nebraska, where it was already legal, about 20 states now permit tracking in some form. Rules vary strangely. Even though 25 to 50 percent of wounded deer are found alive, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana do not allow firearms while tracking. Illinois allows tracking after dark on private property, but no firearms after legal hunting hours. Jeanneney says about 1 percent of wounded deer will charge a dog and that it usually occurs at night, especially when the animal has a broken leg, not an organ wound.

Reading the Clues

After nearly 30 years of personal experience and investigating how others adapt tracking to their areas, John Jeanneney has written a book on the subject, Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer. Chapters 11 and 12 alone are worth the price, even for hunters with no interest in tracking dogs. They detail how not to be fooled about where the deer was hit.

Take a broken leg. The hunter may say he found "pieces of rib" and lots of blood and conclude he made a chest shot. But Jeanneney asks whether the deer tried to run, fell once or twice and then took off on three legs. Is the blood bright, as with a flesh wound? Is it distributed in many small droplets? Are there bloody drag marks over branches or logs? With enough yes answers, Jeanneney knows this deer should be tracked quickly to keep it moving and bleeding. If the hunter waits to let it stiffen, the deer will stop. Blood will clot in the bone marrow, where much of the bleeding is happening. If the deer weakens no further, ending its suffering is unlikely.

Jeanneney's training skills are equally keen. He may start with liver drags, then drop occasional pieces beside the trail. The pup learns there are treats if he hugs the line. Jeanneney knows that later he'll see more evidence and will understand more about the wounded deer when his dog doesn't drift off and on the track.

Contact: John Jeanneney, 518-872-1779; born-to-track.com.

Choosing a Tracker>>

Larger, taller breeds, such as drahthaars, coonhounds, curs and cow dogs, are safer in Southern snake country and are most effective worked off-leash, but this requires huge land holdings or leases if the dog is to be seen again. Those breeds and bloodhounds have the nose and voice to track and bay, but a bloodhound's size and eager pulling on-leash overwork a handler. Labs lack the nose and tenacity of a scent hound but do well if gotten on the track early. In the North, where on-leash is mandatory, small dogs such as beagles and dachshunds are easy to handle, whilee big dogs on 30-foot leashes get hung up in thickets. Wirehaired dachshunds of hunting stock are easiest to teach, smooth-coated dachshunds are second, and hunting terriers or feists are too impatient to stick with the track.

Pennsylvania Touch

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:35 -0400

George Ryman did not originate the idea of dual show and field setters, but his is the name history remembers because he did it best. It all started with the birth of an orange belton setter (white with ticks and patches) named Sir Roger DeCoverly in 1907 at Pittston, Penn. The dog was owned, shown and campaigned by a
dentist from Wilkes-Barre by the name of Beck and eventually caught the attention of Ryman, who bred to him in 1910.

Ryman didn't own Sir Roger DeCoverly II, either, but bred to him extensively. He did own Sir Roger DeCoverly, Junior II, and by 1915 was in business developing a linebred DeCoverly strain.

Ryman constantly sought improvement through genes from hallmark field and huntable show setters as well as superior animals from his then grouse-rich region. But these were held apart as experiments. If the pups Ryman kept developed according to his standards of natural instincts,
intelligence and conformation, they were test bred. Only the minority that could reproduce their good qualities entered Ryman's breeding population. These strict rules explain how a kennel the size of
a puppy mill (175 adult dogs at its peak) could
maintain high-quality production. In addition, these outside introductions helped avoid problems
sometimes uncovered by linebreeding.

Ken Alexander entered the picture in the 1960s, after Ryman died and Ellen Ryman remarried to Carl Calkins. Alexander was under contract to breed puppies for the couple but not to sell them himself. He continued to breed according to Ryman's rules, and eventually Carl and Ellen turned everything over to him, asking that he use DeCoverly as the kennel name.

Located near Scranton, Penn., DeCoverly Kennels is where impassioned hunter Bill Reid found what he wanted in a male setter after seven years of research. Later, he acquired a female from Setters West in Montana that has relatives of Ryman descent all over her pedigree. After several years with these dogs and puppies, Reid is still in awe of their native intelligence and natural instincts. These dogs learn to communicate.

In his male dog's third season, Reid saw him on point at the top of a hill. When Reid got within 20 yards, Hunter turned his head, made eye contact, then turned his nose toward the bird and moved 50 yards into the woods. He had called Reid with a point because Reid wouldn't have seen him locked on the bird 50 yards back in the brush. That's reasoning, and Hunter has manifested it many times since.

A six-month-old pup that Reid kept figured out that standing at the door would get him put outside to play as well as relieve himself-sometimes at one or two in the morning. One night the pup went to the door for the fourth time. "Go lie down," Reid said. The dog did, by the door. Reid was about to doze off when the pup walked up, looked him in the eye, squirted the tiniest bit of pee and went back to the door. Reid couldn't deny a request communicated that well.