Shelby & Roush first track(working dogs)

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Any other hunters on these boards? Better yet, anybody else hunt with dogs or have dogs that "work"? I've got two Lacy dogs and they are some blood tracking fools and hog crazy!! Well I've been training them for the past year and finally all of the training paid off and they got to track down their first deer. Thought I'd share my story!

It's unfortunate I've got no pictures because I had planned on taking a break from working with the dogs and instead decided on getting some hunting in with my dad since in Delta County during Thanksgiving break you can legally shoot does instead of the Turkey! Anyways I got there and as soon as I pulled up and unloaded the dogs my dad hollers at me guess we'll see just how good those dogs are. He had a friend that brought his nine year old daughter up and she swears up and down she had shot this doe and it took off. Only leads the dogs had was a few fresh tracks from the large amount of rain the night before and a fingertips worth of hair..... No blood at all.

Well at this point I'm thinking well, heck. I've taught these dogs to scent blood but we'll see how they do. In the back of my mind I'm thinking I'm probably setting the dogs up to fail but I wasn't about to turn down the opportunity obviously to put these dogs to work. So we geared up and rode the Ranger to the spot where the girl had shot the doe. I turned Roush & Shelby loose together and showed them the fresh tracks then let them scent the piece of hair/skin and told them to get to tracking! For what it's worth I track off lead and just followed the direction the dogs went and about a couple hundred yards away in some tall grass there laid a doe. Roush got to the doe first and when Shelby showed and tried to get near Roush wouldn't even allow it, lol. He was one proud pup and I was one very excited/proud handler. That was their first real track and all of the hard work and training exercise paid off very well.

So does anybody else use working dogs? Whether it's bay competitions or just herding cattle? I'm about to look into getting them both into (SAR) which is "Search & Rescue" but for right now we're sticking with Blood trailing and baying hogs until they get a bit older. Have to let them enjoy being a puppy as well!!

Everyone enjoys pictures so I attached a couple recent ones.

Roush @ 6 months old



Shelby @ 1 year old

[Audrey]

I don't hunt or train animals at all, but your dogs are beautiful. A well trained working dog is really amazing to see in the field!

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Originally Posted by Audrey

I don't hunt or train animals at all, but your dogs are beautiful. A well trained working dog is really amazing to see in the field!

Thank you, I'm very proud of them!!!