topdog
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Apr 2004
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 1120 |
Cage coon...
Some advice...a cage coon is used to develop interest in a coon and to use to show a pup where a coon goes when the track on the ground disappears. It might be fun to watch a dog tree on a cage but the fact is that they can and will develop a dependency on seeing the coon before they will tree right. Stop the cage training now and don't show him one again because he knows what a coon is and he knows where a coon goes...he's treeing and leaving so he knows the coon is there. Sometimes dogs put the wrong things together when they are trained. You can't sit them down and explain it to them so it's a matter of conditioning based off cause and effect. Does he like to fight a coon when you shoot it out? Is he afraid of a coon face to face? If he's afraid, maybe he's pulling out early because he doesn't want what happens next. If he likes to fight a coon, then it's motivation for rewarding him.
Put a bell on him or a lighted collar like some have suggested here and keep track of where he was and then where he is after he leaves. Walk or run him down once you have marked the tree and show him your displeasure by shaking him and using a rough, gruff voice to cuss him out...don't have to use cuss words...just make believe :-)
You can functionally teach a dog that the only time something good happens to him is when he's on the tree. The tough part is getting yourself to understand that you can't patch a hole in a dog by doing what makes common sense to you...unless you've figured out how to speak dog language...it has to be a cause and affect response showing the dog that when he does something good, then something else good happens... Correction after leaving a tree and praise for staying is the goal. If you can see the tree he was on, you can take him back to it after catching him and correcting him on the spot where you catch him. If a dog acknowledges a tree and leaves, he needs to be corrected. If they never really acknowledge it then you can't correct them for leaving. If he was on a tree and leaves, take him back and tie him, find the coon and then praise him and/or reward him with the coon. If nothing is in the tree, don't say or do anything...just snap him up and move on to another spot.
One last thing...you can spot light a coon if legal in your state or you can release a coon for him and see if he acts the same way on tracks that are good and that you know he has taken the right direction. Under controlled circumstances it is much easier to make corrections than it is when you're always guessing whether or not he actually even treed on a tree with a coon in it. You can't praise him on the tree if you never get to one while he's there and you can't praise him for treeing a coon without him having a coon in the tree.
Give it a try...you're spending unproductive time now so use these tactics and see if it doesn't make a difference.
__________________
Tom Solberg
T-Top Redbones
Unrealistic expectations are a roadblock to success, judge your dogs by what they are ready to give not by what you wish they'd do.
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