My dog is nine years old and I trained him to find things since he was a pup. The place we hunt in East Texas has heavy brush and I knew sooner or later we would have to find a deer in the thick brush. I trained him at home by hiding dog biscuits in the house and teaching him the command "find it." Then when I would go hunting I would always keep him where I could get to him and when I killed an animal and knew where it was, I would still bring him out and get him to "find it."

Well, last night we finally needed him. My son shot a deer just at the last of the visible light and it ran somewhere in the brush. We never had any issue with the Core Lokt rounds killing the animal but this one ran into the thick stuff and left no blood trail that we ever saw. It was dark as pitch and even with the lights we had no clue which way it ran. Brought the dog and he found it in less than 10 minutes, not 20 yards away in the thick stuff. As dense as our place is, without the dog we would have been out there a very long time on a cold dark night searching very thick woods that is very hard to walk through. The dog earned his keep. Man, that was a relief how quickly he found him.

So guys it wasn't hard to train him. I never spent the time to train him to actually track, just find, so he does a random search, but he doesn't give up till he finds it. Found this one pretty quick and saved us a long night of searching.

Great dog and outcome!

Nice and congrats

Fantastic!

Nothing like a dog, good boy

good boy!

Fantastic! I swear some dogs just have "it." 'Hope he's getting pampered right now.

Well done pup, now give that good dog some kind of very nice treat.

Great job doggy

Makes a fellow happy when things work out like they should.

Love it...!!!

Love it, same think I told my Brittney when trailing one. Some dogs just have it others not so much.

All those years training that dog to find things on the chance that we might need him, then losing that deer in the dark……..man o man it was such a relief seeing that dog find that deer. He did exactly what he was supposed to. Saved us a long night of frustration. I’m still feeling good days later.

The day we got him from the pound he was sniffing the ground.

Awesome story and outcome!

Gotta love our canine friends! Great story!

Congrats!

I trained my last a beagle from a pup using her food and eventually graduated to saved blood from deer. Used her only two times but she found them both. Lost her this year at just shy of 16 years old.

This last year I started getting my kids 6 & 10 to start tracking, they found 2 this weekend.

That's cool

I would say he has definitely earned his keep and the some.

Score one for the pooch. Great outcome.

One of my Westie dogs was a great tracker [ they are all good ] and could find anything . Once we came upon a lady crying on the jogging track , she has lost her old family 1 c diamond ring . She had been looking for about a hour . I let my dog stiff her and left him go . He found it within 5 minutes , it had been trampled into the dirt . She gave him a big reward . His best deer track [ of many ] was when we were called out about 2 hours after the fact . He got on the trail [ the hunter kept saying it was the wrong way ] and after 30 minutes and over a mile through canyons he pointed to where the wounded deer was laid up and then the deer was finished off . Reading the dog is also important . Once we were scouting a field with the land owner and my dog picked up pig scent . The land owner said there were no pigs on his land . I said my dog says there are . That evening the land owner shot ........ a pig .

Gotta love it, good pup How did you teach him to find deer?

My dog took to it right off . He seemed to understand hunting and that deer were edible .

Great end to a good story.

Nothing like a good dog.