GPS Dog Tracking For Hunters (1)

The woods were dark, and as silent as only the woods in winter can be, when Jason Matzinger found the first track. Standing in thigh-deep snow, he inspected the large, fresh print with a light. A large pad, round toes, and no visible claws meant mountain lion.

This new set of tracks didn’t seem big, probably a female, so he left his weapon behind. It would still be a good run for the hounds, though.

It was 6 a.m., a few days before Christmas and the temperature was close to single digits, standard for the mountains of western Montana. The cold, early morning didn’t phase Matzinger, though. He’d been chasing cats since he was 12 and knew the demands of the hunt well. He cut the new tracks through the snow and after over an hour of meticulous attention to detail, he had a solid trail to follow. As the sun shone its first rays through the white branches of snow-covered trees, it was time to release the hounds.

The three hounds charged after the tracks, only lifting their noses to fill the once quiet woods with a symphony of bays, barks and howls. Matzinger was left in their wake, fighting through the varying depths of snow in a hopeless effort to keep up with the “organized madness” ahead of him.

As the dogs disappeared into the woods, they were represented on the screen of Matzinger’s GPS by a colored icon with a name, position and whether they had treed something.

It would be easy to sit in the warm truck and follow the dogs on this screen, but it wasn’t an option. The importance of the hunt was being out with the dogs, reading the trail and following the cat to see its home and how it was living.

“I don’t want to lose what there’s to learn on the trail,” Matzinger said.

“You learn the way lions run through the country and it’s made me a better hunter.”