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Starting My first pup questions

I am about to purchase my first coondog (a walker maybe) and have a list of questions if anyone can answer.
I am planning on doing competition hunts and I always hear people say "your dog does better if you hunt it by itself". I was planning on getting 2 pups but would it better to just get one and put my efforts into just one dog? Second I have all the basic gear I need such as collars and kennels but I need some opinions on specialty gear such as tracking collars and electronic collars. Is there gear you really need in order train a good coondog. I have seen people with and without shock collars not really sure what route to take. Any information you could give me would be great ,on how many pups and gear especially. thanks all.

I would only get one puppy and put all my time in the one it will be really hard to give two pups the same age the attention that they need it will be a long road but if you put the time the rewards will be worth it in the end. AS for the equipment a shock may come in handy.

Equipment.....tracker, we really like the garmins
as for shockers......my dad had one and only used it a handful of times. I understand why some people use them but I don't like them. My husband and dad only used it to try to break our dog of barking in the dog box and honestly it made it so he doesn't do it as often but in reality he still does it. So to me it was not worth it and only being mean trying to break him of it. JMO, my husbands opionon may be different. But I say if you can do without one than do without it. I think a tracking system is way more important and some sort of light on the collar.
The tracker flashlight actually saved our dogs life the other night while hunting. He ran out on the road in front of a semi and the guy saw the light and knew what it was and stopped just before hitting him.

Nickie

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My advice would be to forget the shocker right now, unless you can hunt with someone who knows what they are doing and can help you along. Waaayyy too many dogs are ruined by shockers. There is nothing worse for a dog than someone who doesn't know how to use one. Good luck.

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Equipment: leash and a light of some type. Box trap to get training material.

a couple of books on training might be in order to.

That will get you through your first year.


The biggest factor is the pup your getting, if you did your home work and research on the parents, breeding and such
then you will be off to a great start.

As for one or two pups, I think it is easier to get two pups started. Then you hunt them separately to build confidence in them and you won't hunt the same pup every night burning them out

Good luck!

Thanks for the input. But are there more benefits to having one dog that you hunt alone for competitions?

Yes because to make a dog hunt good on its own and not be influenced by other dogs as much it needs to be alone. If it relies only on itself to do everthing it usually will come out better IMO. Pups take alot of time and 2 are do able but when they get where they need to hunted alone to it might be hard for you to single out a dog. I am gonna have that problem but we are gonna just have to do it cause the dog really like is not my wifes favorite so gonna have to do both. You could do it by dropping one at a time. Get one and spend all your time into it.

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Chris McCrary



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