After Hours
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Jul 2019
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Posts: 52 |
Update
As you all know, I have recently been working with a young male, along with all the puppies. I currently have Mack and Kate(puppies) here at the house. When I got home from work today I was messing around in the yard so I turned the pups out so they could play. They messed around for a while chasing each other and checking out the horses, other dogs, calves, etc. I decided to go feed all the calves and they ran across the barn cats in the process. Treeing contest commenced. Man what a sound. They made it sound so good I had to pet them up. I needed to run over to a buddy place to look at some cattle and I planned on stopping by Dustys farm and setting a coon trap afterwards. I threw the pups in the dog box. Figured be good for them to travel in the box. Thought I would let them tag along to set the trap. Well, after looking at the calves at the first buddies place I told him he had to look at my redbone pups(naturally, he has always been a walker guy)- ...about that time he remembered his neighbor had trapped a coon last night and he offered to let me have it. I was like a kid in the candy store.
After a bunch of consideration, I decided I would make a little training run tonight. I made the decision to use the young male as a ‘trainer’ and also turn the pups out. Figured instead of the drag training I would turn the coon loose and see if they could track and tree it. I am very particular about how I handle this situation. Right or wrong I go thru the same steps every time. I transport the coon and dogs to the spot I want to turn loose...separately. Coon on four wheeler and dogs in truck. Big thanks to my wife for helping tonight! I always leave dogs in the box(ready to go with collars of course) and I carry the cage coon out in front of the truck a good 20-30 yds. I turn the coon loose and let it get to the woods. ((Very important IMO- remove the cage at this time and get it somewhere the dogs won’t focus on it-I have had them tree on the empty cage on the ground before)). Next I get the dogs out of the box and normally keep them on a leash. In this instance I let the pups run free and kept the ‘trainer’ on the leash. My plan was to help the trainer find the track- to ensure we didn’t accidentally fail(it happens, even on older dogs sometimes)- my belief is that some dogs just don’t handle cage coons well- - -and once I knew he was on the track I would cut him loose and watch the rest unfold. I think I have stated before I started in with the ‘look for him in here, look for a coon’ talk that I always use when trying to get a pup/dog to locate(or hunt) for a track. By this point the puppies have definitely already stumbled across the track and ain’t wasting any time moving it across the pasture.((forgot to mention, I normally turn the coon loose 70-100 yds from field edge where I can see what is taking place on the track)). Young male has a little trouble tracking after I cut him loose. Have been told before that other dogs or other tracks(from other animals) could overlay original coon track and make it difficult for dogs to find track??? IDK. Just saying what have heard before. But young male acted like he could smell coon everywhere. He was so excited he was trying to run it with nose in the air. Pups did what I perceived to be a better job of tracking the coon. Took male Dog too long to hammer out which tree it was in. Pups had found tree and somewhat lost interest by time other male treed. Shot coon out, didn’t let male dog get ahold of it. Shooting it out exposed the puppies to the whole concept...gunshots, tree limbs swinging, crackling, thud on ground, leaves crackling, coon squirming, etc. puppies dove right into chewing, shaking coon. Hung it in a little tree and they treed really well on it. Mack is going to have a clear, ringing chop mouth. Kate is going to have a coarse, loud chop. On the male dog- I have always felt like not letting that dog get a sniff of every coon was a good thing. I think it helps them stay a little tighter on the tree when treeing and also drives a fire inside of them to find another one.
It was an enjoyable time to see the puppies work the track and take it all the way to the tree. If I had it to do all over again, I would have not used the male dog plus puppies. Should have probably left them segregated and used the coon for the old male only. Shot it out to them and just used carcass for drag training. Felt like the ruckus from the pups probably hurt the other males learning experience....wallering all over original track, pestering male dog, etc. Still pretty happy with how all of them acted.
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