Registered: Mar 2013
Location: Liberty, KY 42539
Posts: 626

There is always a lot of talk about using drags and teaching pups to start tracking, but does anyone ever try to teach a young dog to wind a coon??

I myself have laid many drags for young dogs in past years but I am always looking for the type that runs a track, head up and slams the tree. I could imaging using a drag but not letting it hit the gound and maybe just brush against some higher foliage. I would like to hear if anyone has ever tried to train for a heads up kind of dog as opposed to allowing one to track?

One night of hunting with a quick action packed heads up female and I have forever changed what I look for in a good track dog.

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Clay Hoskins
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quote:

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Originally posted by bgs2009
There is always a lot of talk about using drags and teaching pups to start tracking, but does anyone ever try to teach a young dog to wind a coon??

I myself have laid many drags for young dogs in past years but I am always looking for the type that runs a track, head up and slams the tree. I could imaging using a drag but not letting it hit the gound and maybe just brush against some higher foliage. I would like to hear if anyone has ever tried to train for a heads up kind of dog as opposed to allowing one to track?

One night of hunting with a quick action packed heads up female and I have forever changed what I look for in a good track dog.

---

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Registered: Aug 2004
Location: North east Texas
Posts: 323

Clay this is what I have done,I lay a drag with a coon hide rub it up and down the tree then take the coon hide about thirty or fourty ft. away from the rub tree and hoise it up in a different tree.I have had them tree on the rub tree and I have had them put that head in the air and go to where the coon is .

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Registered: Mar 2008
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A dogs track style is determined in the stud pen, not the woods.

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Registered: Mar 2013
Location: Liberty, KY 42539
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I too think that most are probably born with it or not but wouldn't certain training techniques possibly help bring those desired traits out? Not trying to re-invent the wheel but maybe more creativity can bring results...

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Clay Hoskins
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I believe it is a trait that some have and some don't, but here is a way that you can try, I float hunt a slow moving river with a flat bottom boat with a rigging platform on it (yes its rigging) but I took dogs that normally didn't rig and they used their noses to wind coon from the boat. What ever side of boat they pointed and barked thats the side of the river I put in on they would usually head out until they picked scent up on ground. These same dogs would do this when dropped off from vehicles after awhile.

Now the bad side if it is a bad side, when comp hunting your fellow competitors would want to scratch you for having a babbling dog. one hunt 4 out of 5 turn outs my female struck from leash, gave them oppurtunity to split points, no dice. 5th turn out I agreed to scratch if she barked off of the leash, she didn't. Forgot too mention previous 4 strikes she treed a coon within 400 yards each time.

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quote:

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Originally posted by john Duemmer
A dogs track style is determined in the stud pen, not the woods.

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Registered: Jul 2014
Location: IOWA
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I have not trained a pup this way, but I once saw a video a guy had on how he trains his hounds to wind a track with head up instead of tracking head to the ground . He took pups at a very young age and his drag on a 20 foot pole and made pups run in a circle chasing drag on a pole and every day he raised pole a little higher and after some time of doing this he then started to just walk with the drag on a pole keeping it 4 feet in the air and then placing it in tree. After pups start figuring out the short 30 to 40 yard trails he went out to 50 - 60 yards when they got to were they could wind a drag in the air for 100 yards it was wood time. Has anyone every heard of this method

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Registered: Mar 2009
Location: wisconsin
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quote:

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Originally posted by John Carroll
I might be wrong, but I believe winding is a knack that a dog either has or doesn't have.

They either do it naturally or they don't.

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quote:

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Originally posted by John Carroll
I might be wrong, but I believe winding is a knack that a dog either has or doesn't have.

They either do it naturally or they don't.

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Registered: Mar 2013
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Could it possibly just be a dog that has a better nose and understands how to use it turns out to be that type of heads up kind of track dog? I have watched a lot of my hounds that have had their nose on the ground but more times than not their nose is just close to the ground, I am assuming so they can smell the scent better. But in a way they are winding that track too, only they have to keep their nose close to the source smell it.

I am certainly not disagreeing with the knack coming from the breeding pen, but could it be more accurately described as breeding for a good nose??

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Clay Hoskins
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quote:

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Originally posted by bgs2009
Could it possibly just be a dog that has a better nose and understands how to use it turns out to be that type of heads up kind of track dog? I have watched a lot of my hounds that have had their nose on the ground but more times than not their nose is just close to the ground, I am assuming so they can smell the scent better. But in a way they are winding that track too, only they have to keep their nose close to the source smell it.

I am certainly not disagreeing with the knack coming from the breeding pen, but could it be more accurately described as breeding for a good nose??

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Registered: Dec 2012
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 2027

quote:

---

Originally posted by bgs2009
There is always a lot of talk about using drags and teaching pups to start tracking, but does anyone ever try to teach a young dog to wind a coon??

I myself have laid many drags for young dogs in past years but I am always looking for the type that runs a track, head up and slams the tree. I could imaging using a drag but not letting it hit the gound and maybe just brush against some higher foliage. I would like to hear if anyone has ever tried to train for a heads up kind of dog as opposed to allowing one to track?

One night of hunting with a quick action packed heads up female and I have forever changed what I look for in a good track dog.

---

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Registered: Dec 2012
Location: Pennsylvania
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quote:

---

Originally posted by bgs2009
There is always a lot of talk about using drags and teaching pups to start tracking, but does anyone ever try to teach a young dog to wind a coon??

I myself have laid many drags for young dogs in past years but I am always looking for the type that runs a track, head up and slams the tree. I could imaging using a drag but not letting it hit the gound and maybe just brush against some higher foliage. I would like to hear if anyone has ever tried to train for a heads up kind of dog as opposed to allowing one to track?

One night of hunting with a quick action packed heads up female and I have forever changed what I look for in a good track dog.

---

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"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man."
Mark Twain

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