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Best Dog for the Job

CooterBrown

CooterBrown

Well-Known Member
SH Member
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Sep 1, 2020
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What is the best breed of dog for wounded deer tracking but also good at finding sheds?
 
CooterBrown said:
Can you name a few of them?
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I have a mountain cur mix & beagle mix that both do really well on finding deer. They’re hit or miss on sheds but find more than I do on my own. I’m NO trainer & convinced they would be much better with a real handler. The added bonus is my wife likes that they like to shed hunt & I’ve had better success for permission to look for sheds if she comes with. I know lab mixes are good at both if you can find the right one.
 
A working line German Shepherd is hard to beat in my opinion. They are extremely intelligent, drive to spare and great noses. As a bonus they are great family dogs and protectors. I had one years ago and kept until she passed, I recently bought my wife a shepherd puppy and have already started her on deer liver drags, she wild over shed antlers, we take her to obedience class and shutzhund classes as well. I’ve trained dogs of all sorts all my life so that will help with the process. It really all comes down to preferable breed, or mix breed for that matter. All dogs can use their nose but not all have great brains, the smarter breeds seem to excel and are much easier to train! My friend has a great deer recovery dog that is a Weiner dog, but doesn’t use her for sheds.
 
ive been looking in to this a bit as well because my weimaraner is 13. all he can track is the best spot on the couch or my bed but i love him dearly.

bloodhound seems to be the leader of the pack for trailing, unsure on sheds. dachshund was also frequently mentioned. boykins and drathaars as well, but a lot of conversatinos come back to the lab or "any working/sporting dog CAN do it, it's the training" like already mentioned. one detail that stuck out to me, dont remember where it was from was the use of a harness- use one ONLY for blood trailing (because lots of places the dog needs to be connected to a lead anyway) and that helps the dog get in blood trailing mode vs shed/general exploring mode.
 
Bloodhounds have without doubt the best noses of any other hound breed, just be informed that they are extremely stubborn, have a very distinct odor and slobber everywhere lol. Just thought I would point that out. Nose wise they lead the pack with around 300 million receptors, then the beagle/basset/black&tan coon hound with like 250 million then the shepherds/malionois with like 225 million receptors. Lots of other breeds fall in this category as well! Like previously mention beagles are sweet but stubborn as can be, that’s why so many people train the shepherds, labs and bird dogs because they really aim to please their masters.
 
This is irrelevant and in the quick interwebs search I didn't find anything but I watched some show on dogs and this guy mixed jackal and different domestic dog breeds and made this hybrid that has a sense of smell that was crazy sensitive...they took a vile with a single virus put it in a backpack, packed it to try to mask/hide, and carried the pack into an airport and checked the bag....that dog took 15 minutes to search an entire airport and found 1 virus that never touched the ground....if I remember correctly some western European country was breeding and using them in all the airports....

I have nothing to add except the head game warden for a local wma that sees a bunch of hunters every year told me he has a local guy who he always calls for hard recoveries and he has a dachshund and the dog has over 200 recoveries
 
Do a search on versatile breeds and tracking breeds. I would want to know more of what type of dog you are looking for, indoor, outdoor, family dog, will you be doing the training or having someone else do it, how many acres do you have to let it roam and work it… so many options but the limiting factor is ultimately going to be you. Some good suggestions above.

I run a Drahthaar, great bread of dog but they are not easy to handle and require a lot of time and space to work and run them. They do everything from tracking to pointing to retrieving…. But comes at a cost and if you don’t know what you are doing or don’t dedicate a lot of time they can be a disaster.

I see a lot of dash hounds and labs tracking blood and both are excellent dogs if you find the right breeder.
 
Jagger0502 said:
Do a search on versatile breeds and tracking breeds. I would want to know more of what type of dog you are looking for, indoor, outdoor, family dog, will you be doing the training or having someone else do it, how many acres do you have to let it roam and work it… so many options but the limiting factor is ultimately going to be you. Some good suggestions above.

I run a Drahthaar, great bread of dog but they are not easy to handle and require a lot of time and space to work and run them. They do everything from tracking to pointing to retrieving…. But comes at a cost and if you don’t know what you are doing or don’t dedicate a lot of time they can be a disaster.

I see a lot of dash hounds and labs tracking blood and both are excellent dogs if you find the right breeder.
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It would be an outdoor dog. I would be doing the training myself. I have 13 acres of land.
 
Tim0712 said:
My beagle will sniff out a blood trail from coast to coast but man good luck getting him to listen to a single command in the meantime
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Ain’t that the truth!!!! Both of my dogs got loose the other day & the mountain cur immediately came back inside when I called & sat next to me eyes locked, waiting on the next command. The beagle was zigzagging in the woods & reluctantly came over to investigate whether I actually had bacon or it was a bluff……..
 
I think any dog with the desire to please its owner would work. Just keep in mind it will take a lot of training to make this work.

Malinois are nice because they can only focus on one thing at once. But they have crazy crazy crazy energy. They listen really well and are easy to train. But they shed quite a bit. Also did I mention they have a lot of energy?

We got our Malinois more for protection. I've been pondering tracking with him too. I may take him with on my spring scouting trip.

If it were me, I would look at something you could use to hunt other game/birds with if you're into that. More things you can do with the dog the better.

Also, if you decide to get a dog for this, look at getting another dog to replace it after 7-10 years. Dogs really can help to train each other.



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Man idk I come across an unleashed german shepherd in the woods I am not going to be too happy if it isn't super chill. It's definitely on the top 5 or so breeds that I am not at all comfortable running into if it shows any signs of aggressiveness or defensive response. If you run one of those things through the woods around armed people, its behavior better be on point. Any dog, but especially certain breeds. Not against them but something to consider if you aren't a training expert.

Trailing and retrieving both, that's an interesting one. I'm not a very good dog trainer, I'm just not. Not gonna lie I'm lukewarm on dogs in general, but my wife wanted one and we got a lab. When she was a pup I stated her on sheds and she was doing okay but I didn't follow through with training at all really and she hasn't picked one up in years. I've never actually tried to train her to find a deer. But growing up around a couple different hound breeds I can tell you the trailing insincts are way higher level. Labs have a good nose but they just don't have that instinctual nose-to-ground chasing genetics to even close to the same degree.
 
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