Ollie The Tracker Dog

~ beetleypete

Just lately, Ollie’s tracking and hunting instincts seem to have reached a new peak of efficiency. Out walking yesterday, he suddenly picked up the scent of something, and took off, nose to the ground. In torrential rain and slippery mud, I had trouble catching up with him. But when I finally found him almost ten minutes later, he was standing by a thick clump of brambles, one front paw raised. On my arrival, he set off in circles around the brambles, snuffling at every branch. After some circuits had been completed, he stopped and stretched his neck, sniffing the air intently.

Suddenly, two small fallow deer emerged from the brambles, one was close enough for me to touch, had I not been holding an umbrella.They bounced away to the left, with Ollie in hot pursuit. It took me a while to find him again, and he was once again nose-to-the-ground, making zig-zag movements around Hoe Rough. He was so determined in his smell-tracking, he didn’t even notice me appear behind him. But this time, the deer had got themselves close to a fence bordering private land. So when Ollie finally located them and flushed them out, they escaped easily, by jumping the fence in one leap.

The weather was a little kinder today, and we even had some sunshine, despite a strong cold wind. After walking around for some time, Ollie became very interested in a tree, one in a group of six or so, some way from our usual route. He sniffed around the bark with great precision, returning again and again to one small section. Then he got his nose to the ground, and began to trot off ahead. I suspected that the deer may have returned, and anticipated a repeat of the previous day, trying to keep up with him. I kept him in sight, and stayed on the path as he headed north, on the diagonal. He stopped by the gate through to Holt Road, so I caught up with him quickly.

To my surprise, I found him staring at an elderly man by the gate. The man was wearing walking clothes, and carrying a map case and a walking pole. He seemed embarrassed as I approached, perhaps because I noticed that he was fiddling with the front of his trousers. He nodded at me, muttered a “Good afternoon”, and walked through the gate. A few minutes later, it dawned on me what had caused Ollie to track him in that way. He had probably stopped to pee up a tree, the one that Ollie had been so interested in. No doubt he had some on his shoes as he walked away, and Ollie was sharp enough to detect it. His trouser-fiddling was probably because he realised he hadn’t zipped up properly.

Ollie had done well. So the next time someone goes missing around here…

58 thoughts on “Ollie The Tracker Dog”

  2. This sound really wonderful, Pete! Hidden skills are always welcome in Norfolk too, i think. Now you are back in the Norfolk emergency team, short “NET”. 😉

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        1. Me too. But it was 16th century China. The Chinese love to gamble!
          Dog-fighting still continues here, sadly. It is big business, run by those appalling ‘Gypsies’.
          I hate those people.
          Best wishes, Pete.

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  10. Lovely picture and delightful story. Our little terrier is keen to hunt the local foxes but has the habit of chasing off along the route they have come from rather than where they are going! I think they just laugh at him. He keeps digging under the bushes in the garden and we don’t know why – but his favourite activity (!) is sitting by the garage door and sunbathing. Why a black dog likes sun i do not understand. He even lies in the sunny patches in the house.Mind you, he is so old now that his coat is charcoal grey rather than black.

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