I've read several posts concerning hunting in the US where the tracking of a wounded animal is done by the hunter himself without the aid of a dog. Here in Sweden it's common pratice (and nowadays even a law) that you should have the aid of a good tracking dog if your hunting big game.

Are there regulations that prohibit the use of dogs or is there another reason? I'm just curious since I've always had dogs myself to aid my hunting. When you've got a good dog hunting is twice as fun!

Some states and local areas allow hunting deer with dogs.

In Georgia Outdoor News(magazine) they sometimes have adds listing people to call for a tracking dog if needed. I have used a friends cocker spanial, of all things, to track a poorly hit doe. I think the main reason is it isn't often needed for deer and most dogowners don't want to teach their dogs to run deer.

Mike

My uncle uses his dog to track deer that have been hit and run off. It's much quicker and easier than tracking it yourself. I think some people enjoy tracking the animal, others don't have dogs or have traveled somewhere without their dog. I believe there are some states that don't allow deer hunters to use dogs, as well. Some southern states allow you to use dogs to hunt the deer(before the shot).

We got into this with the Fish and Game guys. The law is that you can't HUNT with a dog. You can track as much as you want, but you can't carry a gun, cause then you are hunting. But you can sure hike in the woods with a hound! HTH,Dutch.

We have a dog for tracking wounded deer on most of the Texas whitetail ranches we huntl.

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

This is just my opinion, but here goes. I think that most states are afraid of hunters using dogs because, (1 To easy to use the dogs in a commercial hunting scenario, several hunters using several dogs to run animals past the shooting group, (2 A code of ethics that kind of says you should do the hunting alone to make it a more fair sport, without trauma to the animals. Personally, I like the idea of a well trained dog helping his hunter friend locate and track his game, 1 dog 1 hunter, no groups. But then I don't hunt for the kill either, just for the meat, and regularly turn down shots a lot of people would make, just for a better shot or maybe to be in the field longer.

Here in mississippi we use dogs for driving deer and also tracking wounded deer. The reason they're not used that often for tracking wounded deer is that a good tracking dog is hard to come by. My neighbor had a good tracking dog that recovered several deer for us, once was after tracking the deer for a half mile through a cutover. When we found the dog he had grabbed the deer by the throat and was drowning it in a creek. The temperature was below freezing and after the dog finished I had to go into the creek to get the deer, almost got hypothermia from that one. That dog was one hell of a tracker, he always got his deer.

I believe Maryland allows dogs for tracking wounded deer, it's new for this year. There are many specifics and I believe DNR must be consulted before using the dog.