coon dog training question

[stred]

so Ive got this blue tic its his second year of coon hunting and last year I thought he was coming along very well however this year he has started chasing alot of ghoast and treeing on empty trees im a little hesetent to scald him you see its very brushy where we hunt and I would hate to be wrong but my other old female is pretty honest. is there anything else I can do to help him figure this out

[BULFYTR]

just keep hunting him.

[radar]

False tree baby get used to it,small gameing.

[cjohnson1178]

u dont have to get use to anything "baby". dont punish the dog or reward it just keep hunting.

[stred]

thanks for the input

[walkersrule]

false treeing is a bad habit!!!!! if not dealt with, it can spread to other dogs as well!!!
jimmy

[azplott]

What the guy posted before is right. Its a bad habit, it is contagious, and it won't get better on its own. It will usually get worse.

Occasionaly a good, reliable dog will tree on a tree with some kind of food in it because the coon was up there eating nuts or berries but already came down and left. Not much you can do on those, there was coon scent going up the wood so the dog pulled up on the tree.

Othertimes they can wind the body scent drifting down from a few trees over so they pull up on the tree that is next to the spot that they smell it the best.

But most the time when a dog false trees, it knows that there isn't a coon there. You need to let the dog know its not ok to bark up empty trees. Start with leading them away from the tree then trying to pick up the track again. If that doesn't work get a little more rude when you lead them away from empty trees. If that doesn't work, give them a smack or two, or consider lightly shocking them until they stop treeing. Just verifly that it is a false tree, then turn around and walk off. After you get a ways off, then lightly shock. Just enough to get them to stop.

In your thick and brushy conditions you say it can be hard to tell if there is a coon. If your not sure, just lead him away. If he is bad about false treeing, he will eventually pull up on some little bitty tree and you will be sure its empty and you should not pass on an opportuntity to correct him.

Also, don't shoot any coons to him for a while and don't pet him at the tree. It seems counter productive but fur in the mouth and excessive praise can worsen false treeing. Those two things encourage them at the tree and if he is pulling up on empty trees he needs discouragement, not encouragement.

[Emily]

One thing you can try is put the dog on lead, and walk it in a circle around the tree to find where the track leaves the tree and continues. You want to make sure you aren't encouraging the dog to backtrack, though. You need to walk the circle far enough away from the trunk to find the track even if the coon walked out to the end of a branch and dropped down at the end. In other words, make sure you are outside the canopy of the tree.
Of course, if there was never a coon in the tree in the first place, this won't help!

[rooster]

dont pet or hiss the dog until you see eyes. be calm and after good evaluation you feel there is nothing there take him off the tree and if he is still going nuts teach him his name. they will tree both ends of a coon a lot of the time on an old track. the better and more experienced the dog they will sure do it less. you can always climb the tree to make sure but with your problem i wouldnt do it in front of the dog because it gets them fired up. if he is a true tree dog and you continue to have problems i would consider a little scold or shock if needed. if he is slick treeing you will have trees you can tell are bare, i would do a little repremand on the sure ones for sure and go back to the road or whatever and try the track the other way. it can be a real pain if you have other dogs that are super hard tree dogs cuz a lot of times those type dogs shoulder right in with whoever is treeing and it is monkey see monkey do.