I am a proud parent once again...

[whiskey]

However, this time it's my furry kid that shined in the deer woods. Beanie is a 23 pound long-legged Jack Russel. I am sure she is mixed with something along the way. Beanie turns two years old next month and today was her first official day "working" in the woods.

I shot a doe this morning and I watched her run from the ridge top we were on, through the bottom and half way up the other side of the next ridge. I watched her stop and lay down. I knew she was hit well and I eased over to where she was standing when I shot. Lots of bright red blood. Great! I jumped in my truck and hurried home to get Beanie. I have been wanting to teach her to blood trail and this was the perfect opportunity.

We got back to the woods and it had been raining on and off for about 2 and a half hours at this point. I didn't take her immediately to the blood trail. First I took her and let her run around a little in the pasture and play a little to get the excitement level down a bit. I hooked her on a 20' lead and took her over to the blood. She hit it hard! Her tail went up and her nose went down and she was off through the woods. It was about 150 yards to the deer and she got off the trail twice, but immediately circled around and was back on the trail within 2 seconds. Straight to the deer, using the blood trail, perfect! I praised her and made a big deal of it and she got excited and grabbed the deer by the ear and shook like mad. Then she bit it on the butt a couple times.

I am certainly excited by her first real blood trail. I had worked with her a little around the house, but she passed the test today. Of course this doesn't mean she is going to be golden on a cold trail with little to no blood, but it's a good start.

This is Beanie and her older sister, Suzy. This is their standard "guard" position.

[chemprof]

Congrats to you both!

[mcurrier]

Congrats! He has his father's...

[DaveS]

Awesome whiskey! JG said ya got a doe today. No details though! Congrats on the babies...look just like ya! (jk)....call me about some rabbit hunting. Gonna start hitting them hard!

[whiskey]

Awesome whiskey! JG said ya got a doe today. No details though! Congrats on the babies...look just like ya! (jk)....call me about some rabbit hunting. Gonna start hitting them hard!

JG brought his lab out to trail the doe too. She did ok, but she is still too young to get serious about anything. She was also have to track through mine and Beanie's trails.

I'll give you a call after the new year.

[DaveS]

Will be waiting on your call! Dogs are rearing to go!

[Daniel]

They look like my old dog which was a "Fiest." I use quotation marks since after I looked the breed up I found it that it wasnt really a breed at all but more of a style of short hunting dog.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feist_(dog)

Mine looked like this.

He lived with my mom back in Knoxville. He died while I was in Iraq. No one told me. I got home and first chance we were in Knoxville I asked where Bubba was and they told me that he had died. No one wanted to say it while I was deployed.

Edited December 30, 2010 by Daniel

[whiskey]

Daniel, I am very familiar with feists. They are hugely popular as squirrel dogs. I am sure the breed is not recognized by the AKC or the CKC, but I do consider them an actual breed, as do a lot of hunters and breeders. I have seen lineage on dogs that goes back many years. There are 3 basic distinctions that I am aware of, Feist, Treeing Feist and Mountain Feist. I think these are more of breeding lineages more than differences in the dogs appearance. I know one guy that breeds them locally.

[enfield]

Beanie's a beautiful Jack. Congratulations!

[roverboy]

Maybe she'll be good at trailing deer. My daughter's got a 3 yr. old Jack Russell and I tried her once on a deer that I shot and she showed some interest. I need to work some more with her.

[KahrMan]

Cool story. on the doe.

[whiskey]

Beanie tracked her second deer today. I got invited out to a friend's farm for a deer drive today, the last day of regular gun season. I took "Bean" with me in the hopes that someone would shoot a deer and I would have a chance to work her. Well one of the kids shot a doe, so I got Bean out of the truck and started her where they saw the deer leave the field and enter the woods. She hit blood very quickly. She was wild as a buck today, so it was a little more work. She was hot on the trail but the woods were thick and she just wanted to get down the trail fast. I was nervous about her staying on the right trail, but she looked like she was hot, so I just let her go. I was seeing blood here and there, so I knew she was on the right trail. She pulled me up a hill to a brier patch and straight into the briers. No sooner than we got in that mess, the doe jumped up and covered another 150 yards before disappearing over another ridge. She got back on the trail, but the deer went across a creek and over a long rocky area and she was having a hard time staying on trail. She hit a few times, but there wasn't enough blood for me to be sure she was on the wounded deer. We worked another half hour or so, but finally threw in the towel. I didn't count this as a failure though. She did great and found the deer the first time, just like she was supposed to. The kid just didn't make a great hit and the deer sure didn't look weak on the run when we jumped her. Tonight we are picking briers out and staying warm.

Next weekend we have one more chance with the final weekend being a youth rifle hunt. A few of us are taking our kids out for a deer drive on a farm that didn't get hunted this year. I would like for Bean to work one more trail this year and hopefully recover another deer. I really need some blood for the freeze to work her with over the off-season too.