Hello from Ontario!

[bullj]

Hello Everyone - !

This is just a quick introduction. What I lack in hunting experience, I make up for in interest! I bought a bluetick pup back in August - my first hunting dog and my first dog ever. I am training her to be an in-house dog. At 4.5 months old, she's fully house trained, know 'sit', 'down', 'stay' (kind of) and 'come' (a lot of the time). I have her off-leash in the 'woods' 1-2 hours, most days of the week. She's constantly following trails, but never fully takes off on me and comes back to check-in after a minute or two. She's lead me to a handful of deer, but has never treed anything in 'the wild'. Other than basic obedience, I have not started any training with her (e.g. scents, treeing, etc...). Any advice about how to begin would be much appreciated. I am also in the market for a Garmin Astro 220 + DC30 collar - I posted a topic on this in the 'Equipment and Products' forum. If you live in Canada, any information on how to buy one would also be very much appreciated.

Thanks for reading,

[007pennpal]

Get her on some drags and caged/released game. Game makes good.
Sean

[bullj]

Going to start her on raccoon. What's your preferred brand of coon scent?

[007pennpal]

Live! A drag bag. grawes is pretty good. I make my own. Coon fat and feet pads mixed with urine and dung ground into a paste. Take fresh coon skin get it wet and let it soak overnight. Wring out juice and add to paste. Works as trap lure too.
Sean

[bullj]

Sounds lovely. Have you ever tried straight urine? Know anywhere to get tanned hides?

[007pennpal]

Straight urine is not what you want. You can dry them and mail them to a fur handling company. Do a google search for it. They will give you a quote to buy them or tan them for you at a price. Or, sell them to your local fur buyer if you have one.
Sean

[bullj]

Pictures of my pup. Little over 7 months old. 46 lbs and counting...

[Mel]

Welcome to the site bullj. What part of Ontario are you from? I'm just south of Ottawa.

[bullj]

I go to school in Guelph. Very green in regards to raccoon hunting, but I'm hoping to get my pup out in the woods this spring.

[bullj]

Any coon hunters out there in south western Ontario willing to show a newbie and her pup the ropes?