If you have little to no knowledge of how a tracking dog finds a black bear or deer that has been hit with a bullet or arrow, I highly encourage you to read the Grand View Outdoors article from Juliet Flint titled, “Blood-Tracking Dogs — The Nose Knows.”
Juliet has been working with her German Shepherd named Stern for several years recovering wounded bears and whitetails in northern Minnesota, and I asked her to write a story for this website simply as a guide for what every hunter should know about blood-tracking dogs. Be sure to follow the team’s adventures on the Facebook page, Stern Game Recovery.
This paragraph from Juliet’s article might surprise you: “It bears mentioning that the term ‘blood-tracking dog’ is a bit of a misnomer. A trained tracking dog does not actually rely on blood in order to find the target animal. The leading theory among handlers is that the dogs are actually following pheromones: adrenaline, cortisol, invisible ‘I’m in trouble’ signals emitted from a mortally wounded animal.”
In the 8-minute YouTube video below, Minnesota black bear outfitter Bernie Barringer highlights a recent recovery for his Bowhunting Road channel. Bernie is wise to call Juliet to put Stern on the trail after it’s clear the bear wasn’t hit as well as first thought.
Because of the crazy-thick cover, you won’t see much of the actual tracking by Stern and Juliet. That said, what I find most interesting is simply the process, specifically how Juliet explains in no nonsense terms how the recovery mission will proceed, all while Stern is waiting in the truck. There’s NO question about who is in charge; I love it!
Watch and enjoy. And congrats to Stern, Juliet, the successful hunter and the outfitter!
