Everyone who knows us knows that our dogs and deer tracking are a huge part of our lives. A while back, I was talking to Matt Burger about the American Blood Trackers Association (ABTA) podcasts they present to the public, and I really started following and listening. I heard some very interesting conversations about their tracking test process for the four levels of testing, and it got me thinking. Our older dog, Oakley, will be 10 years old at the end of August. She’s really unimpressed with running practice tracks, but we decided to start her down the four levels of the ABTA test. If she stayed interested, we would stick with it. It would be something we could look back on and be proud of.
Earlier this summer, Matt was our judge for Oakley’s started (level 1) and seasoned (level 2) tests. It was a fun start and got us familiar with the process. We booked our finished (level 3) and potentially the Elite test (level 4) only if she passes her prior level 3 test at the first ABTA event held over this past weekend. She passed her level 3 test on Friday, so Saturday was the big day for the Elite level test.
The author collapse to his knees to praise his tracking dog and love on her.
The Elite test throws out a whole new challenge and puts a lot of pressure on the handler to really test you as a team. I know Oakley by no means has the drive on practice/test lines as she does on a real deer track. She might not even want to do test lines two days in a row, but we will give her the opportunity. If she doesn’t want to, that’s fine.
Friday afternoon, we passed the finished test with Calvin Dennis judging us on a tough test that included new challenges and went through some really thick cover.
As the sun breaks the horizon on Saturday, our day is finally here. It’s going to be another hot and muggy day, and we’ll be the first team to ever try this elite test. Everything about Oakley’s daily routine is disrupted as we camp out in the hall parking lot. I walk around the lawn with Oakley, sipping my morning coffee, and it hits me. This is such a big day for me, but it means nothing really for Oakley. This will be just another practice line with no dead deer at the end. At almost 10 years old and closing in on 1,000 real tracks run, another fake line isn’t much to get excited about. If Oakley decides she isn’t going to run this line today after everything we’ve done lately, I will feel silly in front of everyone, but I’m ok with it. We are a team, and she is truly trained to track fatally wounded deer.
Mid-morning, I’m informed that our test will be at 11:30 a.m. This is getting real very quickly, but we aren’t going to let them see us sweat. I can feel the nerves climbing, but I’m trying to play it off. Julie and I head to the camper to get our “tracking clothes” on and get prepared. We expect 25-30 people to follow us or act as a distraction during our test. An entire convoy of vehicles heads to our track to see how this plays out.
On this elite test, the first 450ish yards simulates a deer tracked yesterday with another dog and was “jumped,” so we’re here to finish it today. The track is 24 hours old, and we can start either at the beginning or at the jump site. We decided to start at the beginning because that’s what we always do on a real track. As with all American Blood Trackers Association tests, we have a time limit, but I want to keep everything as routine as possible. I know we’re about to face some challenges, since our parking lot crowd is about 15 people, and the rest have disappeared into the woods. We have to wait for everyone to be set, and over the next 10 minutes, I will go through my normal pre-track speech with everyone standing around our vehicle, explaining how we track and what to expect. It’s go time!
Finally, we head to the “shot site” and begin our track. It’s absolutely clear from the start that Oakley is not very impressed that we got dressed for another fake line today! We have a very slow start as the hunters start in with a thousand questions about my dog, and they keep trying to walk around looking for blood. We waste a good amount of time here and try to get Oakley excited about it. As we finally move up to the jumped site, I can hear talking ahead of us. Before long, it can see what looks like about 10 people walking in circles at the jump site, “looking for blood” and trying to help. Not knowing it at the time, there is about a 60-yard scent gap here where everyone is walking, and we need to reconnect with the line.
After getting everyone to stand still and let my dog work, we make a few large circles around the area. As it looks like Oakley has reconnected with the line, one of our spectators (the ABTA president) purposely tries to step in front of us. I don’t want to distract Oakley, so I just nonchalantly cut him off and stand right in front of him until Oakley gets 40-50 yards ahead of us and gives us room.
The track slowly drops down off the hill into the shade of the woods and I can see daylight and full sun ahead at a small field back in the woods. The moment Oakley breaks out of the woods, I hear one of my judges say, “Yeah, Darrell, you better stop Oakley there. “This is a property line and we need to call the landowners.
We call Matt, the owner and he makes it very clear that there is absolutely no way we are crossing his property. In fact he and about 6 buddies with a dog are going to come out and stand at the property line to make sure that we don’t step foot on his land!
Ok, Oakley, I really need your help here. We need to circle this property and find the exit where this deer kept going. We could flip a coin to decide which way to go first, left or right, but we decided to go right first. With our group of hunters in tow, we’ve made our decision and started around the property. Oakley is checking deer trails, and we keep moving. We clear the near side, then the right side, and as we reach the back corner, Oakley clearly makes a turn away from the field and heads deeper into the woods. We start working the edge of some very thick cover as we head closer and closer to a swamp.
My hunters have been asking if we should start grid searching or bring in help. They’re trying to play mind games and get in our heads. All I can do is explain to them that we brought one tool here to do this job, and it’s not them or me, it’s Oakley. Let’s just let her work.
It’s really weighing on my mind, though, that I know we are getting low on time and I don’t know how much farther we have to go. Suddenly, in just a few steps, we go from hard, wooded ground to a very wet opening with tall weeds and a very soft, muddy bottom. Unintentionally, I’m pushing Oakley along because of the time clock, and we miss a right turn across a small creek. As Oakley reaches 75 yards past the line, I hear my judges call out, “Darrell, call her back. She is off the line.”
It’s tough not to panic or push Oakley too fast and make mistakes. On a deer track, there’s no time limit, but here we are running out of time, and it’s constantly on your mind. I called Oakley back to the wettest part of the swamp, where things looked good. We start in the same direction again, and this time, she catches the turn and crosses the muddy creek. I have to jump from one grassy knoll to another to get through with my muck boots and I remember thinking, man, I don’t really think someone would go through this to lay a test line, but they absolutely did!
After the creek, we are back to solid ground, and sure enough, we see some blood on the trail! Oakley is clearly tracking, and it’s a matter of time until she finds her prize. My confidence is building and we are moving ahead. Before long, I can see another clearing of a gas line ahead with sunlight breaking through, and I’m pretty sure I hear a dog barking ahead of us. Sure enough, as we hit the gas line, my judge calls out to me that we are at another property line, and suddenly, we have a group of people ahead of us yelling over to ask what we are doing. I’m trying to be as polite as possible and ask permission to track on their property, but I also know I’m down to just a couple of minutes to get this done. The land owner explains that that would be fine, but he wants my dog on a leash because he has bird hunters on his property. I quickly hook Oakley up, and at this point, I know I have to push hard as our last minutes tick away. We quickly push right through all the people, and Oakley makes a couple of turns, gets herself on the line in the sun of the gas line, and like the sound of a sledgehammer hitting an anvil, our clock strikes zero on time.
Suddenly, it hits me like a ton of bricks: we failed. We made it through all this, but for nothing. I pull back on the lead and bring Oakley to a stop, I honestly don’t even know what to say… I can feel my heart beating and the sweat running down my back. We had all these people looking on, and we ran out of time. Then I hear Kenny, ABTA president and one of my landowners, ask, “Do you want to keep going anyway to let Oakley get her reward?” Absolutely!
My mind was totally out of it at this point, and I’m kind of falling apart, but yes, I definitely want Oakley to finish. She has no idea what just happened, but she definitely knows I’ve changed. I didn’t know it at the time, but we were only a few hundred yards short of the end. Oakley continues to the end and finds the deer hoof. I collapse to my knees to praise my dog and love on her. As I look up, we have a large group of people around us, and I don’t know how to respond to our failure.
Next thing I know, people are clapping and giving us words of encouragement. This really took me by surprise and it was absolutely appreciated. The tracking community can really come together for each other and I honestly felt it right then. Instead of kicking someone when they are down, they lifted us up and congratulated our efforts. I honestly thought I would be totally crushed if we didn’t pass this test, but to tell you the truth, I’m actually really proud of the work we put in and the way we handled everything. I really do have a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction for all the work we put in. There are no time limits on real tracks, but the test is built to challenge your mind and push your nerves. This was definitely a great test line, and it was both fun and challenging.
At the end, all I wanted to do was sit down and hug my dog! She had no idea if I was presented a ribbon or not. I brought her to a fake tracking line, and she pulled off some great stuff all along, knowing there was no real deer at the end.
I have to say, instead of being “crushed,” I was actually really proud of the work we put in and grateful that the test was as hard as it was. I wanted to crash and burn or pass something I could really be proud of. I went to the event to test but had a great time meeting new handlers, visiting friends, talking tracking, and learning valuable information. You can always learn more information. The American Blood Trackers Association put on a great event here in Michigan with lots of educational seminars and testing. There really isn’t an off-season for trackers; we work all year to recover deer for three months.
Most importantly, I had a great weekend spending time with my wife and our hounds!
Darrell Maggert, Michigan Dronedogs, 989-992-9799.
