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Young dog advice

Have a 13 month old male pup that is pushing me to the limits now. When he was 9 or 10 months old his accuracy was pretty good for how much we was taking him out. Now he is 13 months old and pulls more slicks than anything. He will slam a coon on the 1st turn of the woods then after u recut u can bet money u will walk to a slick off every recast till u move to another woods. Then is starts all over. He has every tool plus some to be a nice hound but his accuracy is horrible.

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas I can try this kill season to get him back on track. I know he can tree coons cause out of the box he will do it in style and be 100% alone every time unless a dog backs him

Tree Minded Young Dog

You have your work cut out for you on this one. You have to accept that you may not be able to fix this flaw. It sounds like he is young & talented and you like him. He might be worth some extra work. Only you can decide when you have had enough. Below are a few things I would try with him. I’m not trying to tell you how to handle your business but I would recommend neutering him so you don’t breed him if he turns out nice.
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Go back to square one. This will sound like a waste of time and like your moving backwards. In reality, you are. Trap at least 5 Coons. Turn them out, give them a few minutes head start, and let him trail & tree them ALONE. Session is over. Take him home & put him up until the next session.

Hunt him alone. If he’s already treeing wild Coons and splitting from other dogs, he’s ready for it. He might be overly competitive with other dogs right now which might be causing him to grab bad trees just to be first.

Do not recast him. If he trees a Coon right out of the box, put him on a lead, go back to the truck, and drive to another set of woods. He might be getting motored up by the first tree causing him to grab other trees in those woods.

Keep him on the lead after the first tree until the other dogs strike. This may not be an option with him if he’s as independent as described. I don’t like teaching one to cover but it’s better than walking to slicks.

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Happy Huntin’
Leon

Another thing to consider. It may not be something you want to hear but did you cause some of the issues he is having? Petting, sqaulling, encouraging treeing, rushing him. Etc.

If you are shooting coon out to him , stop.

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Thanks , Warren. for Smokey River Blueticks

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This is a tuff lesson to learn. First of all I have found young dogs are more accurate when they first start. Reason is they haven't developed and when the do something like treeing it is generally because a coon is there. Then the owner comes into play, not realizing the dog has do develop. They miss a few and no correction is given because the puppy was so accurate and the owner doesn't want to do anything to discourage the natural he thought he had. Then it gets worse very fast. Why because the young dog saw the excitement the owner had for him when the owner should have been stern with him.

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www.ConkeysOutdoors.com
"Boss Lights"

Thanks for the suggestions. We didn't rush him by any means. We just turned him loose and let him run while we hunted my older dog. Turned a couple coons loose for him. If anything we didn't do enough training on drags or tracking part.

And we have been hunting him solo since season came in. I will try to trap a couple coons and see if that helps.

Thanks again

Not sure what the country is like where you hunt. If it is mostly hardwood then your leaves are off or will be soon.

I’d not say anything to hm at all when you go in to the tree until you KNOW he has the coon. If he does give hm a pat on the head and an attaboy. Either shoot the coon or leash him up and move to another piece of ground to hunt.

If he trees in a tree and your POSITIVE he’s slick treed say nothing to him and turn around and head out and give hm enough stimulation with the collar so he knows it and is uncomfortable and make him come away with you. At that point I’d leash him up, return to the truck and move. I wouldn’t pat him up at all or say a thing. Just move to the next drop.

If on the next drop he trees and has the coon give it to him. If he doesn’t, repeat the process you did at the last empty tree.

I think it’s real important not to give any encouragement at all unless you KNOW he has the bacon!

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Dan

Since leaves are off now completely i dont squal or anything. I check the tree if coon is there I shoot it out to him. Let him chew on it and recast him. He takes off good and will go between 100-400 yards and tree again. Most the of trees are good trees he is on just nothing there. He doesn't seem to be grabbing trees to just get treed.

When you recast and he trees is he running a track into the tree or just falling treed with no track?

Any chance he’s treeing flying squirrels? Flying squirrels at night can be almost impossible to see.

For one they can and do, easily leave the tree. Secondly, my experience has been you’ll almost never spot them with a light. They’ll move around a tree and stay on the opposite side of where you are.

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Dan

He is dead silent on track but watching him on the dogtra he is moving around good like his is on track.

Re: Young dog advice

quote:

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Originally posted by CStephenson
Have a 13 month old male pup that is pushing me to the limits now. When he was 9 or 10 months old his accuracy was pretty good for how much we was taking him out. Now he is 13 months old and pulls more slicks than anything. He will slam a coon on the 1st turn of the woods then after u recut u can bet money u will walk to a slick off every recast till u move to another woods. Then is starts all over. He has every tool plus some to be a nice hound but his accuracy is horrible.

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas I can try this kill season to get him back on track. I know he can tree coons cause out of the box he will do it in style and be 100% alone every time unless a dog backs him

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Donald Bergeron

Slick Trees :

I had one that would tree anything that would climb in this part of the country. He liked coon the most, but he couldn't resist treeing flying squirrels . By the time I got to the tree , the squirrel would be gone . I finally figured it out on a moonlit night . Had a serious discussion with my young hound on several nights . He listened to my advice and corrected his bad habit of treeing flying squirrels but never did listen to my advice about treeing possums .

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Purgatory Blueticks A-top of the Eastern Divide in the Blue Ridge Mtns.

Had one doing the same thing off of recuts off trees with coon, most of the time the next tree was a slick or a den. I'm convinced mine was running the coon he just treed backwards, can't prove it. He was also silent and a very fast track dog. Accurate on the first drop. This was back before Garmins

We have had several intense conversations after the slick trees and he seems to not care what i have to tell him one bit. I have walked him in the opposite direction he just came from to recut him so he wasn't going to hit the coon track backwards and he still pulls a slick on next tree.

I'd stop shooting coon out to him and see if it makes a difference after a week or two. I have a female that all year long is 90 percent accurate but as soon as I give her a couple of coon she dips down to 70 percent accuracy

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GRNITCH CH RED FEVER OUTLAW STORM HTX ( Tater x Annie oak tree)
OUTLAW SMOKIN GUN HTX (Mac x Storm)
ALL GRAND OUTLAW MAKE IT RAIN (gman x addi)
NITECH GRCH WCH TREE SLAMMING BIG RED. RIP

WOW

Slick and silent.

You my friend have the makings of a Big Winner coming on. My guess is his Daddy and Granddad had a hand in his style more so then you.


Good Luck and when they take your picture, please smile

OT

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OLD TIMER

quote:

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Originally posted by CStephenson
Since leaves are off now completely i dont squal or anything. I check the tree if coon is there I shoot it out to him. Let him chew on it and recast him. He takes off good and will go between 100-400 yards and tree again. Most the of trees are good trees he is on just nothing there. He doesn't seem to be grabbing trees to just get treed.

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quote:

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Originally posted by DL NH
Not sure what the country is like where you hunt. If it is mostly hardwood then your leaves are off or will be soon.

I’d not say anything to hm at all when you go in to the tree until you KNOW he has the coon. If he does give hm a pat on the head and an attaboy. Either shoot the coon or leash him up and move to another piece of ground to hunt.

If he trees in a tree and your POSITIVE he’s slick treed say nothing to him and turn around and head out and give hm enough stimulation with the collar so he knows it and is uncomfortable and make him come away with you. At that point I’d leash him up, return to the truck and move. I wouldn’t pat him up at all or say a thing. Just move to the next drop.

If on the next drop he trees and has the coon give it to him. If he doesn’t, repeat the process you did at the last empty tree.

I think it’s real important not to give any encouragement at all unless you KNOW he has the bacon!

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Took him out Saturday night and he treed one out of the truck then 2 slicks. Did the collar stimulation on him to come to me off both slicks. Recut him and he slammed another coon. Ended the night on a good note.

Good Handling/Training

Glad to see a trainer/handler willing to do their part to help a young dog through some challenges. He is fortunate to have you as an owner. Just gotta remain consistent with the correction from this point forward. A lot of good people with knowledge on this forum. Good to see it applied in the woods.

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Happy Huntin’
Leon

quote:

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Originally posted by CStephenson
Took him out Saturday night and he treed one out of the truck then 2 slicks. Did the collar stimulation on him to come to me off both slicks. Recut him and he slammed another coon. Ended the night on a good note.

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Dan

Thanks we are going to keep after him and hope he turns it around. Going to have him vet checked this week to make sure we don't have any health issues to deal with.