After Hours
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Jul 2019
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Posts: 52 |
Lucky and Phoenix
Todd was given another cage coon on Tuesday. So, he had a little training session last night. He carried the coon to the back of a field and turned it loose. Said it took him 10 minutes or so to get back and get pups out, collared and turned loose. Side note: he did mention he got to do some correcting while attempting to put collars on. Anyway- he says the pups just scorched the track. Coon ran good. He said 300 yards. He, of course, didn’t know anything ahead of time about which tree the coon went up or if he was still running. Dogs had not seen coon before he turned it loose.(sorry had to add those details)
Side note: most of the puppies I have seen before will always find the tree and bark a time or two and then go back to hunting, bc they can’t see the coon I presume. Could be other factors including genetics, etc I suppose. And maybe there are puppies elsewhere that don’t respond the way mine have. I am simply trying to state what I have seen out of puppies I messed with in past.
Knowing this info, Todd was trying to stay close to the pups. The prevailing idea here is if you can happen to see the puppies when they smell up a tree and locate and maybe even tree bark a time or two, then you know exactly which tree this happened on and you can look for the coon. If coon is there, you can start heaping on the praise. If you are say, 300 yds away and you don’t get in any hurry, could the pup lose interest by the time you arrive. Even though garmin shows pups was really close to this tree where I see the coon, how do I know that is the tree puppy located on? So Todd is tearing their the woods trying to keep up, and the pups are just to the point now where you ain’t gonna keep up. He is listening the entire time and he hears Lucky locate a tree bark (or change his bark over) for a couple barks. By the time he gets there, of course, puppies are milling around, hunting and what not. He turns light off and waits and sure enough Lucky goes back and rears up on tree and barks some. Not blowing the tree down or anything, but enough that Todd feels Confident that is the tree he smells the coon on. Todd shines tree and there sets the coon. He leashes up Lucky and Phoenix and heaps on the praise. According to his account, Lucky did not say as much on the track as Phoenix(by a long shot) and Phoenix wasn’t quite as interested in treeing. He said Phoenix did tree some but not as intense about it as Lucky. All in all, it sounded like a perfectly fine training to me. Small progress each time adds up to big improvements I suppose.
I am always glad to get past he making drag phases and keeping the coon in the cage phases. I always feel like I am borderline giving dogs too many easy exposures. I feel like I am close to being ready to swap some puppies around again.
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