https://www.facebook.com/101138612487362/

Lost and Hound Deer Tracking

Home
United States
Syracuse, IN
Lost and Hound Deer Tracking

Maple is looking to add more deer recoveries to her resume! Tracking in northern Indiana.

01/26/2024

Mr. Cottontail picked the wrong yard this morning.

01/25/2024

2023 Deer Season!

Total tracks: 23
Recovery: 8
Proof of life: 3

Overall a great season for Maple and I although I wish I would have been able to take on more tracks. I’m going to try to take more for the 2024 season. My hunting and just life in general kept my tracking numbers pretty low this year. I’m also not super excited about nighttime tracking because honestly I like sleeping and the woods are kinda scary at night😬. I’ve had eyes glowing back at me more times than I’d like. I will probably take on more night time tracks next season though.

Maple’s brain is catching up to her nose and she’s giving clear signals when she is telling me this deer is still walking. I’m getting better at listening to those signals and not trying to
push her and causing frustration for her and myself.

I know we left one out there for sure but it was one that was going to take several days to expire. After bumping that deer at the 24hr mark and I believe again at the 36hr mark we had to call that track off.
We also hit a couple property lines at 2 other tracks that we were unable to get permission to cross, so for those unfortunately I will never know.

I don’t screen calls to only take the tracks that are potential recoveries. If we can make it, we show up. If you need us in 2024, give me a call or send me a message!

01/08/2024

Went out last night to get Maple a “practice track” for one last hoorah before the 9month break until next season. What should have been a piece of cake track turned into a full blown, Maple this is the real deal, track. I hit this doe totally broadside at 30yrds in a perfect spot for a double lung hit. I figured we would go 150-200yrds at the most. Well 200yrds became 400yrds and then had to make a call to an adjacent property owner. Then through their backyard and I see a pair of eyes looking at me. Opossum 15ft from the trail, Maple never took her nose of the deer path. Hit a creek and had to cross the creek by balancing downed trees covered with snow. Made it across without getting wet though! Hit another property line, called for permission. Crossed the hay field with no blood to be seen and across a road into a corn field. Saw some blood here and there in the field and got close to another property line. Called for permission again. Back into the woods and maybe another 75yrds Maple started wagging her tail. Yelled back to my dad and said we got a tail wagging and I started to look for a body. Shined my light under a downed tree and 2 eyes were glowing back at me. Backed out to go get my bow but when I got back the deer had got up from the bed and walked another 40yrds and was expired in the 2nd bed. Went back to get Maple to finish the track and she was one happy hound dog! There is no way we would have found this deer without Maple. Good blood for about 50yrds then nothing for 100yrds then good blood then nothing the whole way. We ended up going 3/4 mile from where this deer was hit. These animals are tough and thank goodness for a dog with a good nose and a desire to work!
I’ll post pics of the entrance and exit wounds in the comments.

12/20/2023

Maple’s practice track on my deer last night. Only sat an hour so she was very excited with how fresh this track was. I’m pretty sure she would have made a straight line to this deer with the direction the wind was blowing but I knew where the deer entered the woods so stopped when she wanted to make a straight line and made her go in the correct entrance to the woods. She made a good (short) line into the woods and ended up turning right at one point which was probably one of the other 8 deer that had spooked out after this deer was shot. If she is easily redirected I know she isn’t on the correct path. I questioned her and she looked back at me(that’s a definite she’s not on the right trail) she probably would have self corrected soon after if I didn’t already call her from the area. Back on the right path and she was only like 15-20yrds away!

12/06/2023

Proof of life!!

11/17/2023

Took this track a couple weeks ago. Hunter said it was a long shot but felt it was a good hit but tall grass made tracking difficult. We headed that direction and started our track about 2 hours after deer was shot. Bolt was not recovered due to the tall grass and we started about 40yrds from where deer was shot. Maple got to work on good blood but as the track went on we were just finding drops. At 400yrds into the track Maple started indicating a live deer was in front of us. We decided to back out and try to locate the bolt in the grass for some more information on where the deer was hit. Found a tiny piece of corn after poking through a bit of blood!! Still no bolt found. So glad we backed out when we did!! Told the hunter to give it 24hrs. Sent a text the next morning to see if we were needed again. The hunter found it near a creek about 75yrds from where we had backed out! Happy hunter and I’m glad we could help out even though Maple didn’t get to put her nose on him!

11/12/2023

Got him!

11/11/2023

One happy Hunter and one happy hound dog! Short track but it’s always good to give her some easy ones occasionally.

11/07/2023

24hrs after shot. Little rough getting started on this track. We had a doe bump off her bed right at the beginning and Maple was set on chasing her. Once she figured out we weren’t playing a chasing game she got to work. Hunters grandfather said he thought the deer went either into the corn or walked along the corn. Maple said nope that’s not right. She kept going back to the swamp. We crossed and Maple was in frantic search mode. Tail wag and she thought she had him but we bumped him. Followed her out of the scent pool near the swamp and got on fresh gut material and blood so we backed out. We will start again tomorrow and hopefully we can get this deer!

11/04/2023

Recovery!! This deer made a giant loop and ended up not far from where he was shot. Maple probably would have found him in less than 5 minutes except her handler doesn’t know how to listen to her dog sometimes. Hunter said deer went one direction but heard a deer come busting through near him 10 min later and then heard some crashing. Maple took a line and headed left on a cleared path and wanted to go in the woods but I pulled her the opposite direction that the deer took after being shot. She tracked to blood then nothing, then more blood then nothing and we kept going. She made a big circle and headed back towards the direction the hunter said he heard a crash. She was tired and I was running out of dog. It’s hot. We decided to go to the area where he heard a crash and sure enough put her head down the deer trail she wanted to go at the beginning!! Then I look ahead of us and there is the deer!! Poor Maple worked so hard when she probably didn’t have to 🤦‍♀️.

11/03/2023

Piece of cake recovery! Maple was very happy to get her nose on a deer today!

10/26/2023

Another update with proof of life!!

10/25/2023

It’s always nice to get info after we’ve left a track that ended in a non recovery especially when there was just so little blood it was hard to say if Maple was on the right line. Hunter found zero blood but didn’t recover his arrow so we went. Maple had worked a difficult track for 2.5 hrs right before this track so she was super tired. She went down a line 2x that ended with her indicating live deer and no blood. Went back to start and was going to call it but asked her one more time to get to work. Took the same line but made 1 slight adjustment to her path and put us on the smallest drop of blood ever. Then a little farther and found the busted back end of the arrow. Kept going but again ended up in the area of where she had indicated live deer. Took her back to the arrow and told her to get to work. She said nope at that point and she was done.
Showed the hunter the map of where Maple was headed and they went out to look some more.
Not sure if Maple was just too tired to continue or if she was telling me it’s still walking. It’s still nice to know she sent the hunters in the right direction.

10/07/2023

Maples second track but first recovery this season! This young lady shot her first buck yesterday and when they went to track him they bumped him off his first bed. He hopped a fence and blood shut off. They backed out and gave us a call first thing this morning. Maple didn’t take too long to figure out the correct path and we were able to put a big smile on this young ladies face!

09/17/2023

Last practice track before season and she nailed it!! Even walked through sand burrs and kept on going!

09/09/2023

Maple had a great tracking practice this afternoon!!! I kept it short and sweet because I had a few things I just wanted to work on instead of going for distance. She can be a bit stubborn when it comes to practice but today she was all business. Started in a bean field, transitioned into corn then ended in some tall grass. Seeing her work this track out with ease gets me very excited for season to start soon!!

07/22/2023

Evening track for Maple. Of course when I’m trying to video her working so I can go back and watch the video and critique it, my phone runs out of storage 🤦‍♀️. Distractions from the goats (that’s a hard one because she LOVES the goats), me walking across the track with goat p**p on my shoes (also hard because she REALLY LOVES goat p**p!), goat milk spilled near track path (which she stopped to lick off the ground), fresh bunny scent(thought this could be an issue but she blew past it no problem), and a TENNIS BALL! She did great staying on task and self correcting with all the extra distractions. Her reward was some raw back strap off our dinner last night.

06/26/2023

Set a short practice track in the yard today. Maple has been getting bored with our practice tracks lately so today was a super short track and I only let it set for about an hour. She nailed it with enthusiasm and got to play tug for quite awhile with the hide! There was also some raw deer burger waiting for her at the end to make it extra exciting!

02/26/2023

I can always tell when that tail starts to wag there is a deer (or deer feet) close!

02/25/2023

Maple got to play in the woods today! Didn’t let this one sit very long since I just used feet and zero blood. It’s her first practice with no blood so we kept it simple. Just shy of 400 yards. Not too bad for some practice.

01/30/2023

Proof of life and proof these animals are tough! I was working on putting another deer in the freezer and I shot this doe at 30yrds with my crossbow on December 31st. Bolt was recovered with pass through but shot was high. Brought Maple out and she kept taking me to an area that was extremely thick brush and swampy so I pinned the location and decided to look in the morning. Didn’t want to try to get through that in the dark. Next day went to the spot where she wanted to go and walked another 15yrds and found a bed with blood in it. No deer. Looked around more but nothing. Checked cameras and found her still walking around a few days later!

01/06/2023

2022 recoveries! Several other successful tracks without recoveries too but these are the ones on the tailgate for 2022 season!

12/21/2022

Maple made one hunter very happy this morning!!! She made quick work of this track but found this deer just hanging on. Told the hunter to go get his bow and Maple was able to put her nose on her prize shortly after!

12/08/2022

Tracking practice tonight!! Went about 150ish yards. One happy hound dog again!

12/04/2022

Quick tracking practice this morning!! I appreciate these opportunities so very much!! There is absolutely nothing like tracking the real thing even when it only goes 50yrds. This helps me get information on how my dog is tracking and what she will do in certain situations. Today she made a right turn about 10-15 yards away from the deer and I ”think” she was trying to get downwind to wind scent it the last few yards. She had to get a bit agile to get her nose on this one!!

11/27/2022

My knee is feeling a bit better (still waiting on MRI) so we took on a track last night. It was one of those successful tracks that ends up with a non recovery. Successful because we advanced the track another 400yrds, found about 5 drops of blood and decided that this deer was still walking and will probably show up again. It was probably one of Maples best tracks so far. She was confident in the woods at the start. We hit a field and she went out about 20yrds and decided that wasn’t right and self corrected with a half circle in front of me and found the correct line and pulled me across the field to where the deer went into another woods. I saw 1 tiny speck of blood where the deer exited the field then another 5 drops about 5 yards from that speck and then nothing. She worked the woods for a little bit but after checking several areas the group of hunter/helpers (I think there were 6 people following us? Lol) and I decided that this deer was probably still alive. This was also the first track where human scent from people looking for blood before we got there did not affect her one bit! She locked onto that deer and nothing else! Very proud of my hound dog!!!

11/16/2022

Looks like I’m sitting the bench until MRI.

Address

Syracuse, IN
46567

Telephone

+15745387308

Website

facebook.com

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Lost and Hound Deer Tracking posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Videos

Track practice!

Tracking practice

Last practice track before season and she nailed it!! Even walked through sand burrs and kept on going!

Evening track for Maple. Of course when I’m trying to video her working so I can go back and watch the video and critique it, my phone runs out of storage 🤦‍♀️. Distractions from the goats (that’s a hard one because she LOVES the goats), me walking across the track with goat poop on my shoes (also hard because she REALLY LOVES goat poop!), goat milk spilled near track path (which she stopped to lick off the ground), fresh bunny scent(thought this could be an issue but she blew past it no problem), and a TENNIS BALL! She did great staying on task and self correcting with all the extra distractions. Her reward was some raw back strap off our dinner last night.

I can always tell when that tail starts to wag there is a deer (or deer feet) close!

Full video of our track tonight. I’m trying a new harness to try and slow her down but all it did was get her tangled and made her weave on the track like she was drunk! Still found the deer though so I guess it worked! Lol. If I would have had that leash clipped on her back, I would be getting dragged through the woods with tree branches smacking my face the whole way though! Lol

Maple had a quick track practice last night on my 2022 buck!! Even though it was a short track it makes for one happy dog when we find one at the end!! Video is dark until my dad catches up to us at the end but we are the little light off in the distance.

Maple gets tied to trees while we wait for permission to cross a property line. This dog is strong and gets tunnel vision while tracking. All obedience cues go in one ear and out the other. Very happy with this track even though we didn’t recover a deer. She still needs to learn to slow down so she doesn’t wear herself out so much. And me!!

Maple: Best Day Ever!!!!! Me: sucking wind trying to recover from being drug through the woods, almost fall over. Thoroughly enjoying watching my dog get to do her job!!

Tri County Track

Took Maple to Tri County for a quick track this afternoon. Told Michael to go about 300 yards with the crazy deer boots. It’s hard to walk in those things so I didn’t make him go too far. She made quick work of it and found Michael and some deer hide to play with at the end!

Maple’s first training in the snow. She started off a bit slow but caught on pretty quick! Video is a bit bumpy but it’s hard to hold the leash, video and walk through the woods without falling all at once.