G.W. Harring
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Nov 2016
Location: Nebraska
Posts: 65 |
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To try and help clear up some misinterpretation of the point I’ve been trying to make, I put together this mock scenario. Please read it real slow and maybe even twice and please do it with patience as it’s sometimes hard for me to put my thoughts into words that make sense, but I give you my word it will be my last attempt to get my point across on this subject. LOL
A certain county had a problem with an over population of coon in their area and hired (4) men with registered coonhounds to come thin them down. They were to all hunt together and at the end of one weeks hunting they would be paid $100 cash for every coon hide that they turned in. They were allow to shoot as many coon as their dogs could tree taking only (1) coon per tree, and the owner of the dog that treed the coon first would get credit for the coon and would be able to keep the hide. At the end of (1) week they were to return to the Fair Grounds and trade in their hides for CA$H. They all agreed and left out hunting.
They hunted every night and they covered the whole county. They hunted swamps, hills, crops and big timber. Some night’s coon moved well and others they didn’t. Hot tracks, cold tracks, lay-ups, they experienced all of it throughout the week. At the end of the week the group of four hunters rolled into the Fair Grounds with their pile of hides. Who would have guess it, all totaled they had taken exactly 100 coons!! Dog A-65, Dog B-20, Dog C-13 and Dog D-2, all totaling $10,000.00 in hides.
It just so happens Pat was the owner of Dog A, who was obviously the TRUE COONHOUND out of the four dogs. He treed ahead of the other three with a coon 65 times that week for a total of $6,500.00 CA$H. He ran cold tracks, he treed lay-ups and he worked out feed tracks with multiple coons running together, he even caught several on the ground. He was consistent in the fact that regardless when and where you dropped him, he had a coon when he treed and he did it faster than the other 3 dogs the majority of the time.
I on the other hand was packing Dog D, who didn’t fare so well. No doubt I was hunting a lesser/slower track dog and/or a less accurate tree dog than the other three or both. He did happen to stumble across 2 so I ended up with $200.00.
Just when we are getting ready to settle up, the Ole boy with the moneys says, “You know, regardless of the totals we are seeing here in hides, I am of the belief that there should be a “strike” credit given and since NO HUMAN can say with 100% certainty when a dog actually “strikes a coon track” or just “barks” I’m going to call it what it really is and give credit to the “FIRST BARK” dog. Hot track, cold track, lay-up, feed track, swamps, hills none of that matters to get this credit (ALL THEY HAVE TO DO IS BARK FIRST), I want to know which dog was the dominant “first bark” dog because I believe he deserves credit for “barking”. Well…. I said, “Mister that would be ME!!” Ole Dog D can wind coon scent from 400+ yards and “bark”, he’s got such a good nose he’ll “bark” WAAAAAY before them other dogs. Those other dogs just have to be hot nosed pop up dogs because they don’t “bark” near as much or near as fast as mine. Mine is the BESTEST BARKER and he “barked” before ANY of them other counterfeit hounds, why he must have started every track because he “barked” first EVERY TIME and you KNOW FOR CERTAIN if he “barks” he’s ALWAYS got coon scent because after all he’s a coon dog and also because “I” can tell. I know this to be fact because the only time he isn’t smelling coon scent is when he isn’t barking!! (Hee, Hee, Hee!!)
The Ole boy was so impressed with my dog’s dominant “barking” ability he decided that everyone else should give me 1/2 of their money and why not….they’re his rules, and he thinks hounds that are open mouthed and “barking” first at WHATEVER (BECAUSE IT CAN’T BE PROVEN OTHERWISE) should get just as much credit as a dog that trees the coon first right?? $100 & $100 and anything else is the first looser. You should have to “bark” before you tree a coon or you are a mutt and “barking” first should be worth more. In competition hunts it can be worth 75pts more!! And if my dog “barks” FIRST and gets credit for it and one of them other slow 2nd, 3rd or 4th “barking” coondogs can tree the coon, I’ll still get paid, right? Sure, A, B or C could have “barked” on “honest” (still a guess) coon scent, but hey my dog did “bark” FIRST and since we can’t prove any differently you’ll have to give that “bark” credit to me. He agreed……
Old tally (awarding credit to the dog that figured out the track, ran it faster and treed the coon first REGARDLESS OF A STRIKE ORDER): COONDOG A-(65 coon $6,500.00), COONDOG B-(20 coon $2,000.00), COONDOG C-(13 coon $1,300.00) and FIRST BARK DOG D-(2 coon $200.00)
New tally (awarding credit to the dog that figured out the track, ran it faster and treed the coon first AND awarding credit to the first dog that “barked” – BE IT AN HONEST STRIKE OR NOT BECAUSE IT CAN’T BE PROVEN): COONDOG A-(65 coon $3,250.00), COONDOG B-(20 coon $1,000.00), COONDOG C-(13 coon $650.00) and FIRST BARK DOG D-(2 coon $5,100.00)
If the rules of the competition reward your first “bark” dog, by all means, enter that sucker and promote him and argue with anyone that would try to get rid of your “bark” advantage in that competition. Just don’t try to convince me that EVERY first “bark” dog is a TRUE COONDOG because they “bark” first and that a “bark” is nothing more than a “bark” until I see a coon.
Because NO ONE can know with certainty what each and every dog is truly opening on, we can only refer to it as a “bark”. Don’t muddy the water by calling it a “strike”. Once a person admits this and substitutes the word “bark” in place of the word “strike” everywhere you read it in any rules, you will see just how ridiculous it is to give points/$ for “barking” and just how easily it can be abused. So what?? A dog “barked” first!! It doesn’t make him a harder hunter, a better track dog, a colder nosed dog or even a coondog. Any mutt can bark too, but if we’re comparing mutts…..give me the one that trees coons, you can keep the “barker”!!
If you get nothing else out of this silly mock scenario remember this, TRUE COONHOUNDS…..TREE COON regardless of what order they “bark”! Some “bark” quick, some medium, some slow and some don’t “bark” at all, but until they are sitting under a real coon…….it’s just a “bark”.
PS – I’m trading Dog D off to Tar for some fish. LOL!!
PSS – Pat, I’m sorry I didn’t have a name for your dog in this mock hunt so I just used Dog A. (Besides, all the good names like X-Con, Willy, Shack, Dark, Knock-Out, and some others were already taken….)
Again, just “MY OPINION” so rant away, I’m done with this subject for a while….. (My Crayon just broke!)
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CORNERSTONE TREEING WALKERS
Greg & Marcia Harring
Syracuse, Nebraska
402-209-5053
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