Crow River Tracking and Big Game Recovery

06/21/2025

05/20/2025

We have some news!!!! Lady & Huck are excited to have more room out in the country to stretch their legs and smell all the things. 😀 Were Headed to our forever home in Twin Valley MN which is close to the North Dakota border not far from Fargo. After taking a season off were excited to continue training back home close to friends & family. Huck & Lady have both picked up right where they left off & are so excited to be back doing what they love to do.

We hope to see many new and old friends this fall!

03/09/2025

Huckleberry does a little prance some people call it a hop step but either way he gets pretty proud of himself lol

03/09/2025

Started training tracks today. Just a couple ahort ones to see where we are at and both dogs did pretty good. Got an idea of what needs work and we will go from there

02/04/2025

Welp. Minnesota deer season has been over for over a month and I'm sure there is like 2 people curious on how it went for us. The short version is it didn't go well. The long version if any cares to read an essay here it is. We started off our season with leaving a confirmed deer in the woods. It happens to everyone and I understand that but in the back of my mind it's hard to just let that go and ultimately it effected our dog handling the next couple tracks after that. So we took several more tracks after that and found myself questioning my dog more than I should. We took a small break to kind of get myself in the right state of mind again. After reaching out to a member of our network and was encouraged to keep going so that weekend we took 4 tracks. First one I believed to be a brisket shot. Lots of blood lots of white hair and Lady had no interest in following the blood. There was a lot of it but she was acting like there was none. Next track was similar good blood trail but she didn't want to follow it. These 4 tracks I followed my dog with very little questioning and all but one she was off the trail for the most part with lady going one way and the hunter confirming sign the complete opposite direction. They say trust your dog but I also believe in know your dog. Lady was not performing like I've seen her many other times but I could not figure out exactly what the problem was. A week after the last track we did right before firearm season started she went into full blown heat. Now I'm sure there are dog people that will say they have never had an issue and it doesn't effect them. Like I said I believe in knowing your dog and you can find just as many people say it doesn't effect there dogs as there are folks that say it effects theirs. She definately had no interest in finding deer or finding anything else when I took them out looking for pheasants which I try to do as much when we don't have tracks. So with me doubting Lady and her in heat we decided to hang it up for the season. I don't know how long her heat cycle would effect her and I really didn't want to feel like I was wasting hitters time by not knowing how she would perform.

So if anyone that follows us that called us last fall and we couldn't come out thats basically what was going on. We do have two dogs and I should address that also. Huck was our tracking dog our first year tracking and he is a good tracking dog but the second year for training I was training both dogs. Lady seemed to excel at tracking so after our second year of tracking I focused more in training with lady and me and Huck focused more on hunting pheasants because he seemed to enjoy that more and I did not train him at all for tracking last year. We have never gotten enough calls that we were able to use both dogs in a season. My goal for total tracks taken in a year is at least 30. We get a little over half of that number so that's why I had focused on just using one dog and that was lady.

Now moving forward to 2025. We are changing things up as far as handling and training. Moving forward samantha will be the only one handling Lady Mae and I will be working more with Huck and I will be the only one handling him but that will be under certain circumstances. I think for this fall also we will just be tracking for family and friends and local people and see how it goes.

Also for training in spring and summer I'm going to try and mix it up and see if anyone that follows us or people we know if you have land and are curious to see how we train we can come out and give you a demonstration. This isn't a sales pitch this isn't me telling you how to do it. It's just simply trying to get my dogs in different areas and different scenerios.

Well thats a breakdown of how it went for us. I was really hopeful for our 2024 season but stuff happens. We learned from it regardless and we just have to see how it goes from here.

Thanks to everyone for following us

10/27/2024

09/14/2024

Pretty interesting.

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-do-dogs-see-with-their-noses-alexandra-horowitzYou may have heard the expression that dogs ‘see with their no...

08/26/2024

I guess it's national dog day. Here's a couple pics of these two doing dog stuff lol

08/25/2024

Check out gettrakr’s video.

08/10/2024

With hunting season quickly approaching and everyone is making preparations. Here is a reminder that there are a lot of tracking teams in Minnesota to help hunters if they need it. Many teams track bear as well as deer. Most teams don't charge a fee and most teams can give you advice over the phone on what to do. The TRAKR app is a fast and easy way to reach all trackers in your area. Reach out to the Minnesota Tracking Dogs network for questions or advice or get ahold of a team in your area. So many ways to find help if or when you need it. When you're unsure of your shot back out and get ahold of someone. Good luck to everyone hitting the woods this fall