I have shot a few deer and my sons have shot a few we have lost a few due to bad shots or just not being able to find them. 99 percent of the time we find or game but there is always that one that just cant be found. A few years ago a boy came to a local hangout for hunters and was asking for help to find his deer said it was a monster and really wanted to find it and would pay for any help he could get. One of the guys there told him he be happy to help and would go get his dogs to look for the deer.
Later I saw the fellow with the dogs and asked if he had any luck sadly the answer was no and I asked about his dogs. Told me they were his bird dogs and they would run a grid and if they came across the deer they would bark like crazy. Well not much for tracking but if it work it was better then nothing but it got me to thinking. At the time I had the family pet/hunting dog that was eager to please and loved it when a truck showed up at the house with a deer licking the blood and claiming it for her own lol.
She was just a cattle dog some call them red or blue healers which tracking and go getting doves and ducks are not in her breed but she would do it swimming was not her strong suit lol.
So I told my sons if they shot a deer near the house even if they knew where the deer was to get the dog and see what she would do. Long story short he would hit the blood trail track the blood to the deer if it was not dead she hold it until you got to her. So my friends and family that needed help finding that deer they shot would call and we load her up and put her to work. Out of about 30 deer she found all but around 4 that I believe did not die from the poorly placed shot.
I found out late in her life that he tracking skills were so good and age was creeping up on her that we were missing out on a lot of fun helping others and the dog loved the job of tracking.
Since then we have been working on the new family members (dogs) to see if they were any good at tracking. Training well there is none we let them lick the blood off the deer and give them a leg bone or chunk of meat when we are cleaning the deer. I have a black mouth cur well looks like one my wife saved from the pound that looks like he is going to be a tracking just have not tested him yet. And my son got himself a beagle and he has been doing the same thing with her.
OK to the point son shot two deer today dropped on the other he shot running and as the wife to bring him the dog. She shows up with the two little girls 5 and 8 and the dog which is wearing a flash gordan outfit lol. Shows the dog the blood trail and the little girl pulled the lease hard until she got to the deer. So were were very please since it looks like we have a tracker in the making.
The point of the way to long post is if you have a dog that is showing interest in you kills licking blood and pulling hair you may have your very on tracker. Could be a poodle a beagle or a mutt from the pound they all have noses and want to please their owners so do not overlook what you have right in front of you that old flea bag may find your wall hanger for you.