Is the thought of tracking romantic and intriguing to you? It should be because, quite frankly, it is. If you are serious about getting into tracking, though, you should leave the romance behind and seak the reality. If you haven’t considered some of the fundamental truths of tracking, hopefully, this will help you decide if tracking is for you.
REALITY
It was around 10 P: M. I was tired and beat, feeling like an old, broke down country song. I jumped in the car after an “unsuccessful” track, bringing me and my beat down moral and slightly aggravated attitude to the next track, a short 45 minutes away, in the opposite direction of home. I had been going all day long, and I had been doing this the whole week; It kind of reminded me of the benders I went on in college. I was still giving it my all, except now I felt the age train run me over. I looked down and found a smile and short-lived comfort in a Redbull and a Kwik Trip pizza slice. The phone rang, as it did the whole day. I answered to an anxious, curious, excited hunter exclaiming they had shot a deer and couldn’t find it, “can you track it?” Not all calls are similar, but I treat them all the same. I gathered an understanding of the shot situation and agreed to help the next afternoon after completing the several tracks that I already had lined up for the following day.
It was the whitetail rut in the midwest, and currently, tracking was the only air I breathed. It was all my brain let me think about, and the only dreams that I would be allowed to have involved tracking. Tracking is tough work, and it can drain the body and mind in a short period of time.
MOLD THE LIFESTYLE TO FIT YOU!
You can still work your 40 hour week, come home and run your dog on a few tracks in the evenings and no doubt on the weekends. Just keep in mind that if you have many other fall activities that consume your time, you will not be able to work your dog with the necessary time it takes to make him a good, true tracker.
When your dog sits too long during tracking season, he doesn’t gain the needed experience to further his success. Your dog needs this experience to not only stay in tune and sharp on his game but so he can further gain experiences to stay focused on his craft. When you get to a new track and let your dog out, he should be coming out head high and proud because he knows the job in front of him and is confident in his field. It’s time for work!
Because of this, it is within reason to shy away from having your own “from time to time tracking dog.” Purchasing a tracking pup just to run on your personal wounded deer tracks and your buddies whenever they call probably will not give your dog the experience it takes to achieve peak performance. A real tracking dog is a tracking dog because of its knowledge gained along the many tracks it has been a part of. If a tracking dog doesn’t have the proper time and opportunity invested, it will fall short of mediocrity.
When you or your buddies do shoot that big buck, ask yourself what dog you want to run the track, a dog that’s life purpose is to track, and who has a record of recoveries, or a pet that “ran a couple of tracks.” If you choose to use a once-in-awhile tracking dog and the recovery is unsuccessful, the next step is to call a reputable tracker. At which point, you will be asking the trackers to come in and run your smudged dirty track. It’s just not very inviting, and it’s like asking someone to wash your dirty underwear because your washing machine failed. I wouldn’t run the risk as hard as it is to find a good tracker.
TRACKING IS CRAFTWORK
A dog is not like a car where you turn the key on, then the car performs and takes you where you want to go. Why wouldn’t you have your own car? You are self-sufficient with it. It saves you from asking your friends to drive you around all the time. It makes sense. A car is a machine though. A dog is not.
If your car breaks down, you buy another, and it performs equally as the last. A tracking dog is an investment of time, a new job, and companionship. Tracking will be a new activity brought into your life that you and your dog will be a part of. You two will be a team. If you willy-nilly out and decide tracking isn’t for you a short while down the road, it will be unfortunate because you may have squandered your dog’s full potential away from him. It is important to ask yourself if this is something you want.
To be a reputable tracker, one must take tracking as a commitment to craft repetition. Tracking is a lifestyle that will change or add to defining who you are. It is not like your average new activity like yoga, boxing, or bowling. Most do these without much consideration other than slight interest and untapped-unquestioned commitment for six months to a year and then find something new. You can cut a slight corner by purchasing a trained tracking dog; know that you will still have to invest in the training process with your time.
CONCLUSION
Tracking is an ambitious craft that takes time to achieve constant success, and it takes hard work that should be greatly considered before entering the tracking world doors. When all the hard work has been paid, you will be left with many great wild stories that will be second to none. You will have a dog that you will look at differently, a dog that has earned his keep. You will have gained experiences that wouldn’t have been possible without the effort from both of you. You will have left behind a reputation for yourself and your dog that you can feel nothing less than proud of.
Think about this: On a track, you are being judged by the hunter. Based on their judgment, your reputation is built. This is a great reason to come into tracking with the full intent of being the best you and your dog can be. This is why getting into tracking with a willy nilly outlook towards it will leave you on the side of the road like a Mcdonald’s bag filled with somebody’s nose buggers crumpled up on a napkin. You will be unwanted. You must take tracking seriously if you want to be worth anything.
You are knocking on the tracking door, but do you have the time and stamina it takes to open it, let yourself in, and close it behind you?