Harbec's Down Deer Recovery

02/19/2026

Today we celebrate the boy we didn’t know we needed! Happy 2nd Birthday Hendrix! We thank God for choosing you for our family each day! You have brought more to our family in the last year than I could have imagined! You sure listened and watched carefully cuz you are mamas boy and protector of the whole family just as you were meant to be! The biggest love and an absolute rockstar on the end of the lead! We love you beyond measure and can’t wait to see what this next year brings you! Happy Birthday Big Guy!! 🥳

01/04/2026

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! We have been sick yet again but wanted to share that Santa was very good to all of us here at Harbec’s Down Deer Recovery and brought us some very special gifts this year! This year we hope to make some new and exciting things available to all of those who continue to support us and our vision of Big Game Recovery! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to all who helped us make it through our toughest season yet!

12/25/2025

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us here at Harbec’s Down Deer Recovery! 🎄

12/17/2025

Now that the close of deer season has come we’d like to take a moment to thank all the hunters who called on our services throughout the season! We were truly blessed to have tracked for some awesome hunters for another season! We appreciate all kindness and support we recieved as we navigated our first season without Waylon. We may have gotten knocked down right out of the starting gates with covid but we fought through it and gave it our all the rest of the season. Thank you to everyone who called on us and to all that generously donated to our team!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

11/27/2025

Please STOP taking FRONTAL shots! This is not an ethical shot and 9/10 times it is not a kill shot. These animals are severely hurt and will eventually die most likely from coyotes or infection! Please be patient and wait for the animal to give you an ethical shot or let it walk! Dogs are not magic if you don’t make ethical marginal shots that are going to kill an animal we can’t find them! Our services are meant to be a tool for hunters who make honest mistakes, frontal shots are not a mistake they are a choice.

11/16/2025

Just a friendly reminder that this page is a positive space and if you don’t have anything positive to say and can’t handle politely leaving our page you will be BANNED!

DISRESPECT of any nature WILL NOT BE TOLERATED ON OUR PAGE!

11/16/2025

Reba doing what she does best making hunters smile! Congratulations Ian and thank you for your kind donation!

11/09/2025

Another day of great nose work by Reba! Unfortunately the coyotes beat us to it. Congratulations to the hunter and thank you for your donation!

10/31/2025

Couldn’t t say it better myself!

We as trackers and the dogs work sooo much harder when the deer isn’t dead giving it our all trying to be sure we did everything possible! There are hunters out there that I can proudly say can vouch for this as if the hunter still feels the need to look in other places most times I will offer to bring my dog to whatever location they feel the need to check cuz a trained nose is better than one or two pairs of eyes. Giving up is not easy for a tracker or a dog to do but sometimes the signs all point to the deer still being alive and there’s nothing more we can do!

“I would have paid you more if your dog would have found my deer?!?!” Sometimes other trackers and Team Jewel gets told that statement to us after a track is completed. Live deer can drive trackers nuts, as well as hunters, especially when a shot looks like it would cause a deer to expire.

I usually do not post “Proof of Life” pictures, but this is a great example of how tough deer can be and hopefully is educational. I received this trail camera pic today that was taken last night (Thursday), note the exit wound in front of rear leg. Team Jewel tracked this deer Monday evening and of course did not recover it. The deer was actually shot Sunday evening, the hunter knew the shot was a gut type of shot, so he did not track the deer Sunday night. The hunter called Team Jewel to assist him 24 hrs after the shot due to the nature of the shot (not much blood) and the fact that it had rained significantly through the night and most of the following day after the deer was shot.

BTW this hunter did compensate us well for our time, Team Jewel was very appreciative. The hunter even said after the track the deer still might yet be alive, obviously it is!

One time I heard a fellow tracker say what their response is when they get asked “how good is their dog,” they answer back “it’s only as good as your shot!” The shot placement definitely dictates the outcome. Know that it can sometimes take days, weeks, or even months for a deer to expire. Dead deer are definitely easier to find! Most trackers will spend A LOT MORE TIME tracking a live deer, than one is that dead and can be found. Please be considerate and think of all the possible situations when settling up with your tracker.

Remember: A DEAD DEER GOES NOWHERE, BUT ONE THAT IS JUMPED GOES SOMEWHERE!!!

Please SHARE this post to your hunting buddy’s. t

10/21/2025

Couple things we wanted to adress:

First it has been brought to our attention that there has been question of if we are tracking this year. YES, we are absolutely tracking this year! Despite our loss of Waylon we have three dogs that are eager to and 100% capable of tracking down your wounded game! However it has been a rough start to the season for us, we ended up having COVID wipe out our entire house two weeks ago for a solid week which caused us to have to turn down many calls. That aside we are feeling much better and are back at it!

Second, we appreciate all the hunters who call on our services, however a hand shake after we have driven an hour one way and searched for your animal for 3hrs in the woods does not feel like appreciation to us.

As a family with 4 small children we don’t do this to get rich but we also can’t afford to spend our earnings from our every day jobs to come out and help hunters. I know we are not the only trackers in the state that deal with this as we have seen others posts as well. So please if you are in need of tracking services no matter if you’re calling us or one of the other trackers in the state, remember to tip your tracker! We work hard, our dogs work hard, and we want to help as many people as possible but when we travel to certain areas time and time again and leave feeling unappreciated we unfortunately have to make a call, and that unfortunately leaves gaps for hunter’s who would really appreciate our services.

A few things that people may not know about trackers and their dogs:

- we want to find your animal as much as you want us too.

-our dogs work harder trying to locate most non recoverable animals than they do when you have a recoverable animal because they dont want to leave without that reward.

-our dogs are not just tools, they are part of our family and it isn’t cheap to feed them well or provide them with the best care possible.

If you really want an idea of what a tracking dog is “worth” call trackers across the country in states where they are allowed to charge for their services and see what it would cost you to hire a tracking dog and compare that to what you have or think you would pay a tracker. I will tell you in most states it would be double or triple what we see here in VT as an average donation most years.

Bottom line is we love what we do and we want to do it for years to come, however no one wants to do something where they feel unappreciated or used so please remember to tip your tracker!

10/04/2025

Nothing like an early morning track with Reba!

Congratulations Bronson on a beautiful 172lb 7pt!! Thanks for the oppertunity to assist you in the recovery of your trophy and for your generous donation!!

Making memories and putting smiles on hunters faces is what it’s all about!