Registered: Jan 2010
Location: tell city, in
Posts: 358
I don’t care how good a dog you are packing. If you get a smart coon it will run all night in those fields it it wants too. Most dog these days don’t have enough heart or drive to run in a field very long.
Registered: Jun 2014
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 3369
quote:Originally posted by 2ol2hunt Why would a coon want to run all night in a field? Because it's smart?
That's a question I've been asking for years. Why would a coon leave big woods with big oaks and hollow trees everywhere to go in a cut-over with no trees for refuge. I've often heard fox hunters say a red fox enjoyed the chase as much as the dogs. Does a coon enjoy being chased? He obviously does when he can run to the nearest tree and climb and he doesn't do it.
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Washington, NC
Posts: 3301
Cut overs offer a lot of food for coons like bus, berries, etc. Coons are very intelligent and if they learn that to be treed means to die they can be very hard to tree. Had some friends over hunt a place and the coons would run like deer and only go up wherethey were safe.
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Bill Harper
Washington, NC
252-944-5592
So if a coon “likes” to play around and try to “fool” the dogs by “outsmarting” them why is it that they don’t seem to play the same “games” on the semi- silent or totally silent track dogs?
From my perspective, any game will seek refuge when chased by a dog that has the ability to put enough pressure on them that they either have to find refuge or get caught.
A silent dog will usually tree more coon than a fully open trailing dog.
Registered: Jun 2014
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 3369
quote:Originally posted by DL NH So if a coon “likes” to play around and try to “fool” the dogs by “outsmarting” them why is it that they don’t seem to play the same “games” on the semi- silent or totally silent track dogs?
From my perspective, any game will seek refuge when chased by a dog that has the ability to put enough pressure on them that they either have to find refuge or get caught.
A silent dog will usually tree more coon than a fully open trailing dog.
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Washington, NC
Posts: 3301
Deer can and will run in front of most dogs all day as long as they are open trailing so the deer knows where the dogs are. Silent running dogs catch a lot of deer because they ambush the deer. Deer panic run from a silent dog and after a few panic runs the deer is exhausted and can no longer out run the dog. A coon can stay ahead if he is no pushed to hard. If he does not want to tree ahead of dogs all he needs is to keep buying a couple of minutes here and there.
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Bill Harper
Washington, NC
252-944-5592
A silent dog will likely tree more coon on most nights than an open trailing dog. They get up on their coon quicker because they are for all intensive purposes “ambushing” their game. The coon likely doesn’t know the dog is anywhere around until all of a sudden the dog is coming on to it so the coon’s only choice is to tree or be caught.
I’ve actually witnessed coon come out of a cornfield race with open trailing dogs in pursuit, leap 4-5 ft up onto the side of the tree and listen to the dogs trailing through the corn. Then when the dogs get to close for comfort jump off the tree and run again.
My experience with a silent or semi-silent coon dog is that it will usually put the coon up quicker than a fully open trailing hound. I’ve never owned a silent coon hound and never would. I’ve run with a few that were tight mouthed and some that were silent. Just not what I would want in a hound.
For me, it doesn’t get any better than listening to a good track dog unravel an old track, turn it into a hot running track and then that moment of total silence before the locate followed by the rhythmic tree “song” declaring the coon is up!
Right but there is a big difference in running a 20 min old track and one were the coon was 1 min ago. Thats the advantage of a silent or tight dog. Thats why you see more coon on bad nights with them. An open dog working a track the coon have time to fine a den and take shelter. The silent dog just shows up on top of the coon and they have to crawl up the 1st tree they come too.
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