![]() ![]() ![]() They have a list of deer tracking dog handlers on their website, organized by state. Probably the best way to locate such a person, if you don’t already know one personally, is to check with a national organization like the United Blood Trackers. It can also help you vet potential tracking dog handlers and prepare yourself for any expenses that may be involved in the track (more on that later). This will eliminate having to scramble to find someone late in the evening or at night when you’re trying to find a deer and the blood trail has gone cold. Preparing for Using a Tracking Dogīefore you head out for your first hunt of the season - or your next hunt if deer season has already opened in your state - I would encourage you to find a few trackers in your area that you could call on should the need arise. But it’s important not to wait until you actually need one to figure out what to do, but to prepare yourself now for that possibility. The only seven states to still prohibit their use are Arizona, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington.Īs long as you aren’t hunting in one of those seven states, I would encourage you to be open to the idea of using a tracking dog, if needed, to locate a deer you otherwise may not find. In 2019, that number had climbed to 35 states, and today 43 states allow the use of tracking dogs. ![]() In NDA’s 2011 Deer Report, 27 states allowed the use of tracking dogs to locate dead or wounded deer. While using a dog to find a dead or wounded deer is not a new concept, it is one that has increased greatly in popularity and acceptance over the last 20 years. Fortunately most of today’s hunters have another option – the use of a tracking dog. If the blood stopped altogether, I would gather as much help as I could to perform a grid search of the area until I felt like I had exhausted all possibilities of recovery. For most of my years as a deer hunter, those efforts included following a blood trail as closely as possible, often getting down on hands and knees if the trail got sparse. Unfortunately, if you hunt long enough, it’s a feeling you are likely to experience at some point. There’s no worse feeling in deer hunting than losing a deer you’ve shot despite your best efforts for a recovery. ![]()
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