Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 139

I wanted to start this thread about my daughter's bluetick and our efforts to train her. I enjoy reading Blueticker's hunt report thread, so hopefully y'all wlll enjoy these training and hunting reports.

My coon hunting background: Almost none, but I've always wanted to. Before last year, i had only been coon hunting a few times, and the most recent was about 15 years ago. My family got a four year old walker from a local shelter as a pet in the spring of 2018. I showed him a caged coon, he was curious and calmly sniffed it until it hissed at him. He then went nuts. The first time I turned him loose in the small patch of woods behind the house, he treed two in the same tree. It's always that easy, right?

I started taking my kids out with me. Ages 7, 6, 4, and 2 (doesn't go much) at the time. We all had fun. I ordered Coonhound Bloodlines and my oldest daughter decided she needed to be in the magazine with our dog. She wanted to be in Bench Shows. I wanted another dog, and convinced my wife we need to get our oldest daughter a puppy for her 8th birthday. Back in February, we got her a Bluetick puppy from Josh Ratliff out of Buck Jr x Rivers, born in November '18. We named her Jolene.

Training so far has consisted mostly of basic obedience training. Also, my daughter works with her regularly on the bench for a few minutes at a time, that's about all the time her attention span can take. I help some. We don't know what we're doing. We just try to get her to pose like the dogs in the magazines. I've read the Walk with Wick books and have been trying to follow his advice. We took her to the woods to run a few times, but never at night. I didn't want to introduce her to coons or hunting until she was at least 10 months. When it they time rolled around, it was still blazing hot, so I waited until it cooled of a few weeks ago to show her a caged coon. When it hissed it, she started bawling (different than I had ever heard her do before), and treed on it when I raised it up in a tree. I let my walker come in and tree, so they could get used to do it that together. I tied them back and turned the coon loose. It ran about 40 yards to a big tree, ran up four feet, ran around the tree, and jumped off. It then went about 50 yards and ran up another big tree. The dogs couldn't see it from where they were. I cut them loose, and they started tree on the first tree. I pushed them off and told to keep going. Jolene found the correct tree first, and was actively smelling it and looking up, but not treeing. Shortly after that, the walker came in and started treeing, then Jolene joined in.


I took her hunting with my uncle, his dog, and my other dog. She was not overly interested in what they were doing. She came into a couple of the trees we made, but didn't get too excited. Of course, we didn't see any coons, either. We blamed the leaves. She opened on a track of some kind a couple times and worked it a ways, but the other dogs were never interested in whatever it was. She did get out around 600 yards by herself. She's not afraid to "get some yonder".
The next trip, I took just Jolene with my oldest and my son, 7. She got about 200 yards from us and struck, she worked it about 150 yards and treed. Of course it was across a big ditch with steed sides. By the time I got across with the kids, she had moved on. Friday night, I took both dogs out with my oldest and the 5 year old. We went to public land I've never been to before. It was mostly flooded timber, except for the walking trail through the middle. In one area the dogs were very excited but somewhat reluctant to get out in the water too far. There was a thin layer of ice on top in most places. They would strike, and kind of want to tree, then move on. They come back to that spot later and get a little further out, then leave again. My walker hates water. He'll go through it reluctantly, but will work hard to stay dry. Jolene was definitely getting out more into the timber, and the third time they came back to this area, she went out furthest and started treeing, then then walker worked up his courage to join her. I made my to them and they were treeing on a big cypress that was broken off about 20' up, and appeared to be hollowed out up there. I'll take that for progress. We plan to hunt her by herself most of the time.


My daughter has put her in several bench shows, and she is now a Champion. My daughter is dying to enter Nite Hunts, so I'm sure we'll be doing that some when they're both ready.

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Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Calhoun City MS 38916
Posts: 22

Keep it up. Sounds like most mentioned will alot of learning experiences in the near future!

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Registered: Jul 2015
Location: mo
Posts: 749

Sounds like the pup and kids are doin awesome. Keep up the good work and reports, I loved reading it. Tell Betsy I'm wishing her and Jolene the best of luck always.

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Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 139

I started the day by laying out an incredibly convincing argument to my wife for why the oldest two kids should be able to go hunting with me last night, even though it was a school night. Let the record show, I won that case! It’s a rare feat. When my 8 year old came home from school, her attitude provided new evidence showing how tired she already was. Mom reopened the case, and I lost the appeal. I took Jolene out by herself. We were hunting around a soybean field that had already been harvested. We came across an armadillo right away, she looked at it, but then moved on unconcerned. Success, I’m a great trainer. Then I came across evidence a skunk had been startled recently. The first skunk of her career. I was so proud. Not long after that, she struck a track and began to work it out into the field. The further she went the faster she ran and the faster she barked. My other dog basically only barks when he trees, so listening to Jolene work was very exciting. She worked that trail out into middle of the field and when she stopped, she was chopping as fast as she could go. I hustled to her to find an angry old possum with a chunk taken out of his back. Training opportunity! I started with a mild verbal correction, didn’t work. Strong verbal correction, no response. Mild electronic correction, that got her attention. She backed up about 10 feet but wouldn’t leave it. After a little higher electronic correction, she came off it. At this point I led her away from the possum about 150 yards back towards the tree line. I cut her loose and she immediately turned around and ran towards the possum. That earned a strong electronic correction. She changed her mind and came back to the woods. At this time I notice some eyes shining at me from a very low fork. I’m only using my red light at this time. I turn my light to the spotlight (though I had been instructed not to do that) to figure out what this was, and it flinched and scooted up the tree. It had a ringed tail. At this point I realize Jolene is back by the possum, but she’s silent this time. A longer correction brought her running back to me. She smelled all around where I was, including the tree with the coon, but didn’t get excited about anything. I tied her up next to it, while I tried to find the coon again. She began barking, mainly because she was tied up. She began barking at the tree as I was shining it. Of course this tree is right against a creek that’s about 20’ wide. I try to walk across to get a look from that side. Step two brought me almost to the top of the hip waders, and I was slipping deeper! Oh boy, we’re having fun now. I managed to gracefully get out and remain dry, probably couldn’t do it again. I tried to find a way across, but was unsuccessful. Still couldn’t find the coon until I managed to catch a glimpse of the end of his tail on the back side of the tree. I shot at trying to get him to move, no luck. As I was debating whether to just take my britches off and wade out there or give up and move on, the coon decided to cooperate and move out on a branch. I shot him, he falls into the water. Cut the dog loose and she flys...right to the edge of the water. I try pushing her in, she’s better at backing up than I am at pushing. I’m afraid the coon will sink, so I rake it to me with a long branch. When I get it to the side, I let her chew on it and pet her up. Telling her good job. After a bit I tell her it’s dead and pick it up. She walks with me back to the truck without trying to mess with it while I’m carrying it. We’ve already worked on that with other objects at home. As you can tell, we’re both new to this. I’ve never had to break my other dog off possums. I won’t be putting much more than 2 nights a week into hunting. I live in the middle of the city, and have to drive an hour to hunt, so that limits my chances. She will just be a pleasure dog, for the most part.

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Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 139

Work and the weather have kept me home since my last report. I was asleep tonight when I woke up to my walker barking. I live smack in the middle of Memphis, and there is a decent amount of car and foot traffic around my house all the time. I keep a bark collar on Jolene most of the time due to the endless amount of chipmunks that get her attention, but Huckleberry only barks if there is good reason. Typically, that reason is someone walking by the house. Well, around 1:30am I wake up because he is barking, but it’s not his normal, leave my house alone bark that he greets the various pedestrians of Memphis with (people typically cross to the other side of the street when getting near my house, good boy). As I’m laying there, he starts to get fired up, and before I can get downstairs, he’s treeing. I grab my light as I’m heading outside and sure enough, mr ringtail has picked the wrong yard to scoot through. I take the bark collar off Jolene and she follows suit. She sat down and let out some beautiful bawls. This is the second time I’ve seen her sit down about 5 feet off the tree to tree. The other is seen in the picture above when working with a caged coon. I really hope this is her treeing style. Maybe Josh can chime in to say if any of her ancestors treed like this? Anyway, there I am standing next to my dogs, in the front yard, wearing just my boxers and a cap light, smiling and waving at passing cars and my neighbors’ security cameras. I know the women on the street enjoyed it, and will probably be passing the video footage around 😁. I pet the dogs up, let them tree for a little bit, then had to lock them up in the back. I wanted to shoot that coon out, and a .22 short would’ve probably been the quietest gunshot in my zip code tonight, but I figured it wasn’t worth the risk. I’m still fired up and trying to get back to sleep. My in-laws are coming in town tomorrow/today for Thanksgiving, and since they will be staying at my place, I’ll feel extra pressure to get out and hunt the rest of this week, but my boss has informed me I can’t hunt every night her family is in town.

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Registered: Jun 2014
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 3433

That's convenient pup training. Having the coon come to you. LOL

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Registered: Jul 2015
Location: mo
Posts: 749

BJ and Rivers are both belly up tree dogs. Sometimes BJ well stand back but Rivers don't. She's tight to the wood. Some BJ pups do stand back or sit down. The Buggs male I'm hunting stands back maybe 10 feet off the tree sometimes. Less likely to get in trouble that way, but doesn't make for a good picture. He's not far enough away to take minus but not belly up all the time.
Sounds like your hounds are doing good. Maybe the weather will cooperate and you can sneak out for a bit. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

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Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 139

Well, I was soaking wet when we got back to the truck, but I couldn't be happier!!!

Took my oldest two with me last night, and both dogs. Right out of the truck, Jolene strikes, huckleberry opens a little bit with her. They appear to be working together. As they separate a little, huckleberry falls treed. Jolene heads straight to him and covers. Slick. I send them off they tree again close by on a big tree, but can't find anything. I had trouble getting Jolene to leave that tree. Leashed them up, and walked a ways.
Recut them, The got about 250 yards out and struck, worked it a bit then start treeing. Due to a couple streams deeper than than my hip waders, speaking from experience, it took us a long time to get to the dogs. When we got close enough to see them, they were split treed, but we weren't to them yet.

The second stream was still between us. They stayed on their respective trees while we left to figure out how to get to them. This really impressed me. We got to within 20 feet of her, shined what I could see of her tree, and left to find a way to her, and she stayed put. After we got across that water, the dogs did come to us when we were about 100 yards away. I used a semi harsh voice to send them back, didn't exactly work, but after continuing to walk to about where they had been, they started treeing on their respective trees again. We came to huckleberry's tree first, small and slick. I tied Jolene at her tree before starting to shine. Couldn't see anything. I can't squall, but the kids, especially my son, are pretty good at it. As soon as they started squalling, the coon climbed up out of a big crotch in the tree, looked at us, and kept climbing until he ran out of space! Is it a requirement that coons always fall into water when they're shot? Jolene would not go into that water after the coon, but had to have swam it to begin with because she was all wet. Maybe when they were chasing the coon, they weren't concerned about the water. It was a long walk back to the truck, and we were out longer than these kids have been before, but everyone remained in good spirits the whole time. While walking back to the truck, Jolene struck again and drug Betsy Cate a few yards, on her belly like a cartoon, but she didn't let go. I wouldn't cut her loose again. We had had enough fun for one night.

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Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 139

Went out last night right after a big storm rolled through. It was hot (66 degrees) and humid. Took Jolene and my oldest two kids. I want Jolene to be confident around water, so that’s where we went. Took her to some flooded timber along a river. She struck within the first 50 yards, and worked it out to over 300 yards Along the river bank and then worked it back close to us. She either lost it or gave up on it. She then meandered around until she ended up in a field. I had seen a group of deer in this field as we came in. We were still in the woods at this point, so I do not know if the deer were still there. The appeared to have been scattering earlier. The Garmin showed us she was working a zigzag all across the field, silent the whole time. I don’t know if she was running a dear or not. As we entered the field she struck on the other side and worked it back into the woods. due to water, we had a bit of a walk to get near her. She eventually started treeing, but didn’t seem real confident. When I got to her, it was a small slick tree right on the edge of deep water. She may have treed because she wasn’t willing to go further via swimming. I couldn’t get all the way to her and couldn’t get her to swim to me. Eventually once we waded away, she figured out another path to us. Does anyone have any tips for getting a dog to swim? I’m planning to lead her out into water that is higher than her chest (she turns around now when water hits her chest) just to show her she can swim. Of course I don’t want to do that while it’s cold 😂.

ETA: the best part of the night, she came close enough to a possum that she could’ve noticed it, and I know she ran across it’s track out in the field, but she paid it no mind. Either the last training session was successful or she just didn’t notice it. Time will tell.

Last edited by Nick B on 12-01-2019 at 08:41 PM

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Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 139

Jolene has decided she’s not going to wait on me. She woke me up treeing at 2:30 this morning. I thought she was just making a ruckus for no reason because the walker was not treeing, and “not treeing” is not one of his faults. Sure enough, she had a coon. I have an underground electric fence, and it happens to prevent my dogs from getting all the way to this tree. Maybe that is why Huckleberry didn’t tree. No clue. Maybe Jolene saw the coon and chased it to the tree, so that’s how she knew or maybe she winded it. I have no idea, but I was very pleased. After a few minutes, I moved the dogs to the front yard, and put a bark collar on Jolene. Gave them a dog biscuit and called it a night.
My wife told me this morning that she loves how I’m very annoyed when I get woken up by the dogs, but I’m overly joyed when I return after finding a coon.
I should probably start putting on some pants before I go out in the yard, though. Maybe a shirt, too.

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Registered: Jul 2003
Location: Columbus, Ks
Posts: 5398

I belive that coon would have parrished to insure I didnt get woke up because of him again.

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Gr Nt Ch Natural Smokey River Flo UKC Top 20 placing 15th UKC World 2011, top 100 2014 (Rebel x Mailes Lil)


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Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 139

Yeah, I’d like to, but I’m not sure that would end so well. There are plenty of gunshots in Memphis every night, but I’ve got bad luck. Police would have probably be looking for whoever fired off the .45 rounds and hear my .22 short. I have considered getting a high powered pellet gun for when this happens in the future. Those are not illegal.

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Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 139

I had the opportunity to hunt two nice pieces of property this weekend. On Friday, my friend who has been wanting to coon hunt, took me to his hunting club in MS. Took both dogs. Nice gravel roads I could drive my two wheel drive truck around with pretty much no issues. We turned loose next to a big lake. They worked around for a few minutes, and then Jolene struck after she was about a 100 yards out. Ran it into a pine grove. They ran all over for a bit, separately most of the time, but never treed. When they got near me again, I gathered them up and recast down the other side of the lake. This lake had been drained down quite a bit to deal with a grass problem. Both dogs strike quickly and are working back and forth out in the shallow lake, 1’ of water. They appear to be struggling to work it out, but finally Huckleberry trees on a huge cypress out in the lake. Easy walk out there. The lake bottom was that nice mud that lets your foot sink in 4” and thens locks it in a vice. Fun times. Jolene is off doing her own thing until I start shining the tree. Then she came in and treed. This tree had a large cluster of growth at the top, and I couldn’t see the back side, due to water being too deep to get out on that side. I did not find a coon. After that, we moved to another spot. Dogs go their separate ways, Jolene didn’t strike until she was about 200-300 yards this time. She worked it out to around 700 yards. She is working at a deliberate speed, but not a sprint, and not in a straight line. At this point she was about halfway to a highway, surely she won’t to that far, right? Wrong. I start driving that way. After 900 yards and still working towards the road, I start toning her. Turns out, when she’s trailing something, this has no effect. Normally, she responds well to this and will come back to me. I’m now driving like Bo Duke. I can get within 200 yards, then I start walking quick. She’s still not stopping. I’m now sprinting (or my version of sprinting with hip waders on) and trying to shock (I think the collar was too loose, her neck is still skinny and I didn’t put it on the tightest hole because I thought being loose might help her bark deeper/louder), but I can’t get her to stop, she keeps moving from me, and is right by the highway. I can hear cars. She is running parallel with the road, and I can’t tell how far off it she is, but it’s close. Thankfully after I ran at least two hundred yards while calling, she turned around and came back. That ended the night.
Saturday night, I was invited to go with my uncle and his friend to hunt on a private island in the Mississippi River that no one coon hunts on, only deer. My uncle’s dog is good. I just took Jolene. We hunted off four wheelers. Jolene does not like four wheelers, probably because She’s ridden on one once before and accidentally got pushed off, bad deal. Now she is skittish around them. Anyway, she would consistently strike first, and end up by herself. She ignored the other dogs. She would tree, but move when the four wheelers got within 200 yards. She treed once at 400 yards and after moving when we got close, the other dogs came and treed, in the same area my garmin said she had been, on a large den tree. At one point she went out over 1.1 miles. I couldn’t make her come back again. When she finally worked back, she treed 500 yards away, but moved when we got close. After that, she was confined to the four wheeler and walked to the tree when my uncles dog treed.

My next order of business is to work with her more in non hunting situations on responding to tone and vibration on the collar. I was really pleased with a lot of things she did. Disappointed that she moved on from the trees, but there were multiple four wheelers impacting that, I believe. I am enjoying listening to a dog that opens while trailing.

Also, Betsy Cate went with us Saturday night. She is getting good and recognizing her dog’s voice amid the crowd, and when it changes. She can hear better than I can. She was a real trooper, never once complained about being cold.

Last edited by Nick B on 12-09-2019 at 09:08 PM

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Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 139

I ended up taking both dogs out tonight by myself. Jolene leads the way and strikes when she's about 200 yards out. She barks one more time and goes silent. Huckleberry is right behind her and starts treeing. Jolene kind of whines and then keeps going. I find the coon. Jolene is now 400 yards away. I brought a cowbell we use around the house to call the dogs. I used that along with toning her and she came on back. I lead her to the tree. She lets out half of a beautiful bawl, then a yelp and tucks her tail. I'm petting her and trying to encourage her to tree, and she is just acting super weird. I tie her by the tree while I shoot out the coon, she is definitely interested in chewing on it, but kind of timid. Very odd. Send off again, Huckleberry trees 30 feet away. She's kind running around, but not interested in coming to the tree. Same as tree one, but after shooting this one out, I realize her moron handler left her bark collar on. That guy should be fired. After that, she would not leave my side for a long time. I was limited out, but I was going to walk around until she relaxed enough to make noise again. After a while, she started getting out some, but was still silent. when the dogs went across the field, she struck hard on something. Hooray!!! the walker joined in,and then he treed on the edge of the field, she kept going. As I walk to them, I walk through fresh skunk smell. Oh joy. when i catch up with them, they are rolling in something rotten at the base of the tree the walker had treed on. They now smell like skunk and some other nastiness. I run them out of that, the Jolene trees on a big cedar in the middle of a bunch of thick stuff. When i get there, she's actually got one in a hole. This coon looked kind of odd, though. Mostly black with some white striping. Does anyone have any tips for getting rid of skunk smell? I certainly didn't shock her. I just gave a harsh "NO" and she went on. I was tired of having fun at that point, so we came on home. Betsy Cate and I are taking her to the BBCHA sectional bench show tomorrow and will hunt her by herself after the show.

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Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 139

After bathing Jolene in vinegar, then Dawn, then scent blocker shampoo, then dog shampoo then human shampoo, then some strong smelling conditioner, you can barely smell skunk. We drove 2 hours to a BBCHA sectional show, didn’t win. Jolene just wouldn’t settle down on the bench, and the competition did a good job. In her mind, Betsy Cate already had that Queen of Show plaque hanging in her room. She was so disappointed. It was good for her. Then we went hunting where I had gone the night before. Jolene got out about 400 yards and struck. We started easing that way. She would settle in one area from time to time, but never tree. After we had walked about 600 yards, she was still about 400 yards away. She got silent so we called her back in. Hunted back towards the truck, but she never opened again. The moon was so bright, I didn’t need a light to walk through the woods. Is there any correlation between moon brightness and coon movement? Maybe I shouldn’t hunt the same area two nights in a row. Jolene did better responding when called. Training continues...

No win and no coon plus 5 hours of driving makes for a rough morning after. Good thing I can sleep it off at work 😂😂

Last edited by Nick B on 12-15-2019 at 04:09 PM

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Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 139

Went out a few days back and Jolene ran a couple tracks to a river. She tried to go up two different skinny trees leaning out over the river. Thankfully, she was not able to get up on on them very far. I got her back both times without any issues. She also treed on a massive oak that I couldn’t find the coon in. It could’ve been slick, but there were a lot of places for one to hide in that tree. I circled it.

She’ll be out of commission for a few weeks. We discovered she was in heat today. This morning, we were working with her on the bench and blood started dripping. I have no experience with dogs that are not fixed. It freaked my daughter out at first 😂. Between this and skinning boar coons with massive testicles, I’m getting to answer questions I was counting on her mom to answer.

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Registered: Aug 2011
Location: Emporia, Kansas
Posts: 375

when you catch ol stinky, the best I found in over 50 years is 1 quart peroxide, 1/4 cup baking soda and 2 tablespoons of Dawn. do not mix it up ahead of time.. when they get the skunk smell mix it up and lather it up all over them wait 5 minutes and rinse it off.. ( might need a little of it yourself to get back in the house (voice of experience on that! )

By the way I sure enjoy reading about your fine Blue female.

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Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 139

I’m guessing I’ll have an opportunity to try that out eventually. We passed another skunk on the road close to where we turned out the other night.
Also, I’m glad you are enjoying the reports. I’m disappointed in the timing of her heat cycle. I’ve been working like crazy in order to get two weeks off around the holidays, and now she’s out of commission for that whole time. Oh well.

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Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 139

Well Jolene is out of prison. I had fun hunting my walker while she was out of commission, but I’m glad to have her back out there again. The oldest two kids and myself took her out tonight. I think Jolene was the only one not tired before we even left the house tonight. The kids were kinda cranky and picking at each other a bit, which is unusual for them. Their momma does a great job with them. I think we’ll have a new rule that they have to nap before we hunt. We cut Jolene loose and followed along behind her. It wasn’t long before she struck. The water was up higher than I expected. I think Jolene is becoming less intimidated by it, but it’s not any easier for us to walk through. Charlie got a camera for Christmas and wanted to take it to get good pic of Jolene treeing...yeah...he tripped and fell, camera bag got wet, but was snatched up quickly... the camera is fine. I carried it after that. I felt like a walking general store carrying all our gear. A few times while we were walking/wading towards her, she would settle down in one spot for a bit while barking. On one of those spots, she made a distinctive change to her bark. It was much deeper and louder. Sadly, she didn’t stay long enough for us to get to her. We were not moving very quick. Water wasn’t much higher than 6”-8”, but that’s challenging for the kids. While trying to get across some deeper stuff I needed to carry the kids over, she got out over 500 yards away and was close to private property. I toned her, didn’t immediately turn around. One short shock, and she came running back. That training is making progress. We had been at it about an hour so we headed back to the truck. I try not to go more than that when with the kids. On the way out, I saw some deer bedded down out in a field, so I let Jolene meander that way. When she got close, they took off, she barked and bolted after them. I was ready with a short jolt. Hopefully that will be a lesson remembered. She seems to catch on quickly. I still haven’t seen her show interest to possums since our previous training session. When she’s trailing, I don’t think she is just babbling because she doesn’t take off barking and will go for long periods staying silent. When she strikes, she picks up her pace until she starts bogging down while the track is Twisting and turning. She will also go silent after a while, which is I guess when she loses a track. All of the land we have been hunting her is very wet/flooded, and I wonder if that is causing there to be so much scent all over the place that is difficult for her to work them out. I know my other dog seems to struggle in flooded areas. We’ll see.
Also, since I’m trying to make things as fun as possible for the kids, we’ve kind of started a tradition of stopping and getting donuts on the way in. There is a donut shop in town open 24 hours, so we get a dozen for breakfast the next day on our way in each time. Judging by the stare’s, hip waders are not something people see everyday.

Last edited by Nick B on 01-18-2020 at 10:42 PM

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Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 139

Went with the oldest two kids and both dogs tonight. It's cold, by Memphis standards (34 degrees), and windy. I think my walker lost his mind tonight, but it provided good opportunities for watching how Jolene would react. Until a few weeks ago, the walker had always ignored possums. Tonight both dogs are cast the same way along the edge of a field next to a bunch of hardwoods. After a little while, Huckleberry strikes and trees in a hole. I know Jolene went near that spot, but did nothing. We get there and find Huckleberry's rear legs sticking out of a whole. Pull him out, and he has a possum. What has gotten in to this dog? Off we go again and I think Jolene is treeing, but I'm not positive. I think shes got a steady chop going, and her location isn't changing. While trying to get to her, we end up in a thicket of thorns. That's fun with the kids. Huckleberry falls treed right behind us. Since we are a lot closer to him and the thorns are getting worse, I figured we'd reverse, handle Huck and then work around the thorns, not through them, to Jolene. Whelp... possum number 2! good grief. more electric correction. And now, Jolene is moving again. Oh well. This is fun. A little while later, both dog's were getting out of pocket near private land, so I called them back with the tone and yelling. They came on back quick, I'm always proud when they do that. Jolene strikes and Huckleberry makes his way over there and strikes as well. When we get over there, both dogs are circling and barking in about a 50'x50' area but not treeing. No clue what's going on. I bet the spent 5+ minutes in this area, but eventually moved on. After they left I shined around a little bit, but didn't see anything. Huck falls treed again...possum #3!!! I'm more in shock than mad, this dog was 4 for 4 the other night. I yell at him and he takes off. Jolene comes over. The possum is about 8' off the ground. I'm pretty sure she rubbed on the tree as she went by but paid it no attention. WooHoo!!! At least I'll hang my hat on that for now. Shortly after that, Jolene strikes when she is about 100 yards away, and I see Huckleberry take off that way (I have lights on both dog's collars, I recommend them). In no time at all, they are both about 900 yards away, and have traveled in a straight line. I figured it's a deer and they are getting close to private land again, so I call them on back. They don't listen this time. I have to send electric reminders to both of them. Eventually, they start heading on back, and both fall treed about 700 yards away. Not sure who got it first. These dogs stayed treed a long time. I'll try to review the garmin info later see exactly how long, but it was easily 15 minutes before we could get to them. They had the meat! We came home after that. It had been about 2 hours. We didn't stop for donuts tonight, because my awesome wife made cinnamon rolls from scratch. We got home in time to pull them out of the oven.

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Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 139

She was belly up on the tree a good bit of the time, then would back up and tree like this some. Sorry I failed at getting a good pic on the tree. Pro tip: don't wait until you are at the tree before trying to read the camera manual. None of the moving shots were any good.


And these were much better than donuts.

Last edited by Nick B on 01-21-2020 at 03:03 AM

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Registered: Jul 2015
Location: mo
Posts: 749

I might have to come go hunting one night. Tasty looking.

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Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 139

I may never own a world champion dog, but my wife is a world champion cook. If anyone wants to arrange that competition, I’ll gladly be a mostly impartial judge.

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Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 139

Mom doesn’t approve of the kids hunting on school nights, unless it’s an early, real short hunt, so just Jolene and I went. We got to the woods about 8:30. It was about 45 degrees with no wind. She struck in an area where I expected coon activity due to a lot of acorns in the ground. Her initial strike is a high pitched kind of puppy sounding yip. She will do this for a while , and then it will change over to a deep bark. Don’t know if that is related to how hot the track is to her or what at this point, but it’s a definite pattern. Her collar indicated she treed and the area she was in is very flat, so she must’ve been looking up but not for long. She was very active in a tight area but I don’t think she ever stopped moving. Then she kept working around the edge of the field we were close to and went silent. She got to the other side, about 600 yards away, and repeated this same scenario. We she went silent on that track, I called her back to me. I was standing in the same general area she working the first time. I was hoping she would try to work that track again. She showed no interest in anything in that area and just stood by me. Very odd for her. I put her on the lead and walked a little ways and sent her on again. She stayed close for a minute then took off. When she got about 200 yards away, she struck close to a creek and worked it for a bit, but didn’t finish this one either. She struck twice more along that creek and worked each track longer than the previous, but never treed. The last track she struck was near the truck and I would assume it was fairly fresh because it crossed the trail we walked in on, so it had to be less than 1.5 hours old. What do y’all consider a hot or cold track? She worked this track pretty hard, estimating from her distance traveled on the garmin, she covered about half mile total on this track. I could see her for a good portion as she worked back and forth in this area, I enjoyed that.
One thing I’ve noticed, so far she does not check in with me on her own. Even if she’s not working a track, she just keeps going until she finds one. She will usually come on back when called, but never just on her own.

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Registered: Jan 2019
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 139

Due to rain in the days I’ve been free to hunt combined with this cold I’ve been fighting for a while, we haven’t hunted lately.
We drove down to the winter classic yesterday morning just for fun. Took Jolene, and let Betsy Cate show her in the youth show. There were a lot of new experiences for her. She hasn’t been inside since she was a pup. She’s never been around that many people or dogs in such a tight area. She was great. I really love this dog’s demeanor.
The weather was perfect last night, upper 50’s, cloudy. We went to a new area. Took both dogs (I want to hunt her alone, but I feel bad living the other dog at the house since I’ve been hunting so little). When we unloaded, Jolene starts going absolutely berserk. I’m sure there was a coon or two close by because someone has been using this spot to dump trash. That really infuriates me. I just don’t understand why you can’t find somewhere to properly dispose of your trash. The kids got a nice earful from my soapbox about litter. Since we were right by the highway, we did not turn the dogs loose. The area we spent about the first 30-45 minutes in was mostly saplings, I guess it was an old field. No oak trees, no acorns. Didn’t see a whole lot of sign of any game. No deer trails/rubs. Seemed odd. The dogs did tree on one decent sized tree, but it was slick. I was trying to hunt towards a river, once we finally got somewhat near it, Jolene started striking and ran a track but didn’t finish it out on her own. Huckleberry ran to her when she opened. We were now in an area that was pretty much ankle deep water everywhere. They ended up treeing on a massive oak. I couldn’t find a coon, but I’m not great at spotting them. They kind of repeated this tag team approach 3 more times. On one of the trees, we were able to watch most of this unfold. Jolene slammed hard on a big oak first with a big loud bawl one time, Huckleberry was right by her and trees, Jolene came off the tree and worked around it for a little bit, smelling and barking the whole time. After working that area right around the tree she got back on it treeing nice. Again, I didn’t see a coon, but there were a couple snags in this big oak and a lot of space to hide. After that, Huckleberry trees on more time, Jolene didn’t come in to this tree, she was working another track near by. Again, I couldn’t find this one and was about to give up and move on. Just then, Betsy Cate lets out the happiest “I see it” I’ve ever heard. Sure enough, she found it. It could only be seen from one angle, and if it hadn’t looked, we’d have never seen it. After knowing where it was I could see the body. We’ve still got room to improve, ha ha. This is the first time Betsy Cate found a coon by herself. She was ecstatic, and almost as happy as me. We sent Huckleberry on and he went and joined Jolene, but they weren’t able to finish that track out, so went home. Jolene did not strike when we returned to the parking area. I don’t know if that means anything or not. It had been about 2 hours since we were there last. The dogs seem to work well together, but they aren’t joined at the hip. They will often times do their own thing, but sometimes they appear to work the same track. I’ll try to add some pics later. I also have video, but no clue how to add those.

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