Saturday, November 2, 2024 | Country Acres South • Page 1 PRSRT STD ECR U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #278 Madelia, MN 522 Sinclair Lewis Ave Sauk Centre MN 56378
SOUTH S OUTH Saturday, November 2, 2024
Volume 3, Edition 6
Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
A nose for
dEer
PHOTO BY AMY KYLLO
Nicole and Josh Axley kneel by Arrow Aug. 28 on their property near Elgin. The Axleys own UncleTracker Whitetail Recovery. N
Axley family uses dog to track wounded whitetails BY AMY KYLLO | STAFF WRITER
PHOTO SUMBITTED
(Above) Twelve-year-old ld Audree Poulter holds her first buck shot during ng the 2023 youth firearms deer season in n Olmsted County. The buck was recovered byy Arrow 17 hours after the shot, following a 576-yard yard track. PHOTO BY AMY KYLLO
(Right) Arrow rides outt to run a track Aug. 28 at the Axley family’s mily’s property near Elgin. Arrow rrow can comfortably run 3-4 tracks acks a day without over-exerting herself.
ST R
Publications bli ti The newspaper of today is the history of tomorrow.
ELGIN — From birth, Arrow, a wiry-haired rauhhaar teckel dog, has been trained to be obsessed with one thing: deer. Her experience has been immersive, g on deer legs, chasing whether ggnawing her owners as they dragged a th piece of deer liver behind them or coming along to recover deer when she was a few months old. Arrow’s owners are Josh and Nicole Axley who live nnear Arrow they Elgin. Using Arrow, Uncle operate UncleTracker Whitetail R Recovery, a white free whitetail tracking service iin southeast Minne Minnesota. “ “From Day w would let 1, we her have her p p toys and pu puppy th but if we that, w going were to play with he and get her real excited really mak someand make thing seem like it’s i was a deer awesome, it A part,” Josh Axley said. ou Avid outdoorspeoAx ple, the Axleys added whitetail tracking
This month in the
more extensively to their repertoire last year during Arrow’s first season. Hunters who believe they have fatally wounded a deer but have been unsuccessful in recovery can contact the Axleys to bring Arrow out to track. “We’re involved with one of the most fun parts of the hunt,” Axley said. “We’re coming in at often times the hunter’s worst hour; they’re feeling desperate. (It) feels like they lost their deer. They’re doing this as essentially a last-ditch effort to try to recover.” During her first full season after training as a puppy, Arrow ran about 60 tracks and made 18 recoveries. Of the non-recoveries, the Axleys later received almost 30% proof of life game camera photos from those hunters. As of publication, Arrow had run 33 tracks and made 12 recoveries. “We run tracks (where) the deer might not be dead, and we exhaust a lot of effort to determine or provide that hunter closure,” Axley said. Arrow is trained to track the secretions released from the interdigital gland between the hooves of deer. Arrow’s lineage is from original hunting dog bloodlines from Germany. To keep Arrow sharp, the Axleys lay tracks for her regularly. The Axleys have track-laying boots which can be strapped over shoes. In the bottom of these boots is a place to insert the hooves of a deer. Between laying tracks, the boots are placed in the freezer.
Axley page 2
5
COUNTRY:
Thankful 2.0 Amy Kyllo column
15 Moving pastures Spring Grove
7
Returning a piece of identity Welch
18 Symmetry in the details Stewartville
Watch for the next edition of Country Acres on December 7, 2024
11 Tick tock go the memories St. Charles
21 Attention to detail Lake City