Registered: May 2016
Location: Palatka, FL
Posts: 5106

Craig I agree with you that in the 90's and in 2000 there was a lot of training done on the dogs. But lately I think there has to be something in the water.

I know what an independent dog is and I breed a couple different lines of hounds. One line is Wipeout top to bottom and they are the most independent ones and I expect and want that out of them. No training, born that way. Really if you described why it is HUGE HUNT and they don't wait for something to hunt with them. The pups aren't for everyone to train as hard hunting can lead to problems until you get them focused on coon, but the ones that have anything close to balance make nice hounds.

Last night was my sociable non wipeout dogs turn. Had 4 work together in a hunt, 2 were mine one was a black dog and one was blue, after the coon about whipped them on track, they got it lined out and they came treed with 2 coon up one tree about 600 yards from where they started the track.

Reason I started this post is I see independent dogs showing up in bloodlines that they really are not bred to be in.

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Last edited by Bruce m. Conkey on 11-18-2016 at 12:13 PM

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Registered: Jan 2006
Location: WV
Posts: 821

I have experienced independent dogs in the Bluetick breed for over 4 decades. My first taste of an independent dog was a dog I had back in the early 70s out of Gr Nt Ch Morris' Blue River Boomer. That dog was deep as they come and it didn't matter if anything went with him or not, his main goal was to find a coon and get under it. You could run a freight train past him and he would not pull. He was natural at that because I hunted him with many dogs and it was the same alone or in company. One big difference, he would tree with another dog and even honor one as long as he didn't have his own thing going. Through the years I have tried many different Bluetick bloodlines and have found some produce this type of hound more than others. The Jet line are notorious for being very independent and in some cases to a fault. I had a brother and sister, different litters, that was different as night and day. One would pack and the other absolutely didn't want anything with him. I think you can do some training on some dogs to get them to a point of not going with or to other dogs but some lines are just born that way. I had a pup out of Super Jet 6 once that would leave a tree if another dog came into him. I call that just plain jealous! One thing I found out about some dogs like this is after about 2 years old they will start to pack a little if hunted with the same dogs. I raised a litter out of my old Hammer bitch and Hindman's Broad Ax Blue Max that was very independent. The female I kept out of that litter started splitting at 8 months old and did not want to tree with anything. I had her in a hunt one night where all 4 dogs were treed and blowing it down including my female. When we arrived at the tree we found 3 dogs treed on a coon in the bottom of a hollow tree just out of reach and my female treed not more than 15 feet away with a cub coon. She was like that from birth, I had nothing to do with it. I believe it has gotten worse with the modern day coon hounds, I've seen it in every breed. I do like my dog to stay hooked once treed but I also want them to honor another dog if they have nothing going. What ever happened to the guys setting around bragging about who's dog was in the lead or which one got first tree. That's where the fun was, at least for me.

Bruce, I used to road hunt years ago when there were enough back roads around to do it. One thing I found out about it, If you had a dog that was too wide you could tighten him up by road hunting him, at least it worked on most of our dogs. I sure miss those days, drinking black coffee and smoking Camel regulars and following those dogs till daylight. Now I don't do none of the 3, LOL!

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