Hey Kacie, I just wanted to give you an update on Luke “Shock Top”. First I have never had a dog where were we have bonded so quick. That dog is so loyal to me and is attached to my hip. I take him to show houses with me and the clients love him. He is super with my daughters and loves them to death.
I started training him mid August on tracking once I felt his obedience training was good enough. I started him out with liver drags at short distances and progressively got further and introduced more complicated scenarios along the way. The dog is a natural. By Late September Luke was tracking in layers. What I mean by that was he was not only identifying blood scent and organ scent but hide scent and earth scent. I had a friend during muzzle loader season call me because his wife shot a deer that she could not find. When Luke got on the ground, he took me straight to the deer with no hesitation.
At the end of October I took him up to Illinois with me. On November 1st I shot a deer directly under my tree. The angle was horrible and there was very little blood. I gave the deer a couple of hours and loaded Luke up. We started looking for the deer and he got on the trail. The dog was literally finding pin sized blood droplets in the middle of an 8 acre hay field. Long story short after a long 400 yard track Luke ran and jumped into my arms. I knew he was keyed up but wasn’t sure why. I shined my light to where he had just came from to see the biggest deer that I have ever shot laying there. If it had not been for Luke I would not have found that deer. What was awesome is his reaction when he found it. It was like he was so excited for me.
A couple of days later word had gotten to another hunter that I had a tracking dog and how he found my deer. He asked if I could come track a deer that he shot 3 days prior. To give the difficulty of this track some perspective, it was extremely windy and it had snowed the day prior. I put Luke on the track and he went to work. Long story short Luke tracked this deer for a mile and a half. His pull was consistent and strong. Strong enough to pull me through a briar patch and get me all cut up. At times the hunter wanted to give up but Luke wasn’t having it. He found the deer still alive bedded down in a creek. The hunter had placed a bad shot on him. There again, if not for Luke that deer would have had a slow miserable death. I cannot say enough about the dog that you provided. He’s a beautiful dog, and super easy to train. I love him so much and it’s so needed after the passing of my father last year. I am sending a few pics behind this text to share the tracks he has been on.