dkdpumpkin
New UKC Forum Member
Registered: Dec 2024
Location: SE Missouri
Posts: 2 |
8 month old B&T training help
I’m a first time owner of a coonhound. I have an eight month old B&T (Tracker). Owned him since he was 7 weeks old. Showed him two caged coons this summer, first one when he was two months old and the second when he was four months old. He went nuts each time. I turned them loose in front of him and he treed them in the yard (the coons ran up the nearest tree so not much of a chase). I also worked with him around a dozen times this past summer with drags (partially thawed coon carcass). He consistently found the “treed” drags a hundred yards or more through the woods. He was always fast but would circle back and find the scent if he over ran it. I thought “this training a coon hound is easy” and had thoughts of great coon hunts in the fall.
I showed him his third caged coon in October, when he was 6 months old. I walked it passed him while he was in his pen. I thought he was going to chew through the fence. I let the coon loose out of site of Tracker. The coon ran down a draw in the woods out of site (my yard joins govt forest). I then let Tracker out of the pen. He ran straight to the cage, barking the whole time stayed on the trail for a few yards, over ran it, circled back, over ran it again then straight lined through the woods the opposite direction of the coon, barking and looking up in trees as he ran nearly a 1/2 mile. I finally caught him at a gravel road. He looked up at me “like did you see that boss wasn’t that great!” I just attached the lead to him and walked him back to the house.
My first thought was no more caged coons, it over excites him. Since owning Tracker, I have walked him daily 2 miles a day on a lead. We walk down the gravel road through the forest and down logging roads. We see lots of deer and he is interested but never opens up on them, even when we cross their trail after they cross the road in front of us. A couple of weeks after the last caged coon fiasco, I caught another coon, but this time let it out on my driveway, 1/8 mile from Tracker’s pen. I put the cage back in my truck, pulled up to the house, grabbed the lead and took Tracker for a walk like I do everyday after work. He had no idea I and let loose a coon. When we walked past the site where I let loose the coon, he went berserk, opened up and started trailing it, dragging me through the woods. After a hundred yards or so I got the feeling he wasn’t actually on the trail, just running and barking, with a nose full of coon scent.
I then purchased a Garmin 300 and training collar and worked with him on “coming” on a 100 foot lead. He obeyed quite well, after the first few training sessions, no tone or shock was needed for him to obey.
My son came home for deer season and we decided to take Tracker on his first coon hunt at the age of 7 months, the night before opening day of deer season which was also the opening day of coon season in Missouri. We walked Tracker down a logging road and turned him loose. He was hesitant to hunt for about five minutes then started venturing out a 100 yards from us as we walked down the trail and up a high line right of way. He hunted hard for about 30 minutes, hunting the direction we walked, not getting over 200 yards from us. Then 30 minutes in the hunt he opened up near a site where people sometimes dump trash and deer carcasses. He barked a few times, lost the trail, then opened up again, then commenced to running at full speed, barking, covering 3/4 mile through dense bottomland forest full of beaver dams in less than 5 minutes. When he was nearing railroad tracks and a major river, I started shocking him and finally stopped him with a 4 on the garmin. Took my son and I 30 minutes to reach him and he was waiting on us.
We decided to give Tracker (8 months old) another try last week while my son was home for Christmas. Tracker showed no hesitation this time when we took him off the lead about 7 pm. He hunted hard, but in his own direction, with us trying to stay within a couple hundred yards of him. About 15 minutes in the hunt he opened up again and straight lined it 3/4 of a mile in 3 minutes, up and over step Ozark ridges, dropping down in a timbered creek bottom. As he neared the edge of the 1000 acre block of govt ground I was again forced to shock him, (he showed no reaction to the tone) to stop him from entering a hazardous area (railroad tracks and major river). I had to crank it up to a 5 on the garmin to stop him. Took us 45 minutes to weave our way through the flooded timber, beaver dams and steep ridges to reach him. Again he was waiting on us. When we got back to the house, boots full of water, the garmin showed Tracker covering over 6 miles in less than 2 hours, over half that time on the lead as we walked him back home.
How do I get Tracker to settle down and actually trail a coon scent? He loses his mind when he hits a hot coon scent and seems to think if he runs hard enough and fast enough he will get the coon. I realize I need to reinforce the tone command for “come.” But getting him to actual work a scent instead of running wild, I’m out of ideas except to wait a month and try it again. But I’m afraid he’s is going to get hurt or lost given his tendency to straight line at a dead run whenever he gets a scent of coon.
Advice appreciated
David
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