Chicken Hearted!

[slash]

I got a decent hound that loves his nose in the dirt following something but once he gets to a coon he has no care what so ever he will walk a coon to death following it but he wont talk or be aggressive. He is 6 months old and i jus cant seem to get any fight in him. Any ideas in putting some sauce in his blood? what can i do to hopefully anti up the attitude.

[carlisle]

roll cage a coon and if you have another hound that the pup is familiar with let him out to and that should give the pup some courage...just make sure the older dog isnt going to get possessive of the coon...i would first try and get the pup going on the caged coon by itself and if its still isnt showing interest then get the older dog to show him what to do..

[Grzyadms4x4]

I would let him grow up a little more then let him run with the big dogs. I know we all want them treeing game by 6 months, but that really is a little young to expect much. Just have fun with him right now and try again in 6 months or so and see what he does then. My guess is he'll get fired up just fine.

[timothy]

Mine was slow cathing on too, but one day I had a coon in a roll cage and he was barking at it a little but mostly just walking around it inspecting it. so I thought to myself, Self make the coon mad. so I did and it got my dog fired up a little. Then I thought to myself, Self your dog is very protective of you. So I grabbed the cage and made teh coon strike at my hand, then I proceeded to act like it hurt me. Well I thought my dog was going to eat the whole cage. I had to eventually pry him off of it. Now he is coming along pretty fine.

[radar]

Put'em in a small room with only him and the coon only one makes it out alive!

An old timer told me he did that with his brothers dog when he was yunger.He said the coon jumped on the dogs head and he made a cuple of laps around the room screamin, trying to rub the coon off with the walls and floor, tell finely the dog pawed it off and fought it tell the death.He said after that the dog wanted nothing more but to track coons down and either fight'em on the ground or make'em tree!!

I wouldn't do this if hes only six months unless hes about to get cut from the team.The best thing is which I think some body already said it but, a coon in a roll cage with an experinced famialer dog, should aleast get him to bark and the hair on is back stand up.JMO

[pegleg]

six months isn't any where near grown regardless of breed or what others say I've heard the tales and so has everyone else. it's great to brag up how tuff your hound is but the truth is they are hounds not fighting dogs. that said wait a few months for the pup to grow and mature. if this pup is readily trailing coons unaided at six months that is progress enough to rate well. the advice of letting the pup watch another hound/dog bay a roll cage coon is right on. but don't over do it. if the pup is intimidated by the other dog try a different one or wait some more. Remember any dog can bark or fight a coon its the desire to trail and tree/bay one that sets hounds above the curs and other breeds. now if you have a abundance of coons and are likely to stumble across them regularly a less specialized breed may get you a few coons. otherwise let the hound learn his craft in his time, so long as he is progressing be proud. often those folks that are overly proud of their hounds and tell of the lightening fast progress of their pups are not really lying they just haven't seen how good a well bred properly trained hound can be.
good luck and hope you enjoy your hound!

[cjohnson1178]

Wow! Theres some bad advise here. Listen to Pegleg and Grzyadms4x4. The dog is young. Putting the pup in a room alone with a coon might be the stupidest thing I have ever herd and might get you in trouble with the law. Encouraging aggression by manipulating the dogs possessive instincts is another bad idea. If you do use a roll cage do it right. Lay a drag, tie the cage up in a tree. Make it like a real hunt so the pup learns to use its nose to find a tree. And he won't turn into a babbling idiot running around looking for a cage. Tracking and treeing is what its all about. Fighting has nothing to do with hound hunting. I've seen many dogs that look great on a cage but thats about all they can do. Keep the pup in the woods and encourage it to get deep and alone. THe pups natural grit will come out as he matures and gets confidence. Work the track and tree and what ever grit the dog has will come out naturally. You can't teach grit the dog either has it or doesn't. Hunting with an experienced good dog is a good way to build the pups confidence.

[radar]

Oh my, I forget how soft you guys are.A story that was told to me by an old houndsmen that happend over 30yrs ago realy struck you guys the wrong way is almost as funny as the story I hope your guys is dogs are as serious about this stuff as ya'll

[cjohnson1178]

Your story didn't bother me. I could care less if a guy did a cage match with his dog and a coon. I wouldn't do it with my dog but I'd probably buy a ticket and watch someone elses . I just think its bad advise to give a guy considering the world we live in. 30 years ago was a much different world and I wouldn't wan't Slash to get into any trouble. Where at in Colorado are you livin Slash, I lived there for 25 years.

[montananative]

Hes young yet, There is going to be plenty of times where this dog WILL end up catching them on the ground. theres no need to instigate a fight. i believe a dog does not need to see a coon in a cage unless its just a complete last resort. My first dog saw one caged coon my second saw zero. Both are hunters and will jump on a coon without hesitating.

Another thing is that if your going to lion hunt, or hunt bears, its not always a good thing for your dogs to go chargin in on a coon, my dogs do and i dont correct it, but ive heard strories of dogs runnin into a lion like they do a coon and they get sliced up, just food for thought,

Id just keep this dog in the woods. its will all click one of these days

[redbone4me]

Hes young yet, There is going to be plenty of times where this dog WILL end up catching them on the ground. theres no need to instigate a fight. i believe a dog does not need to see a coon in a cage unless its just a complete last resort. My first dog saw one caged coon my second saw zero. Both are hunters and will jump on a coon without hesitating.

Another thing is that if your going to lion hunt, or hunt bears, its not always a good thing for your dogs to go chargin in on a coon, my dogs do and i dont correct it, but ive heard strories of dogs runnin into a lion like they do a coon and they get sliced up, just food for thought,

Id just keep this dog in the woods. its will all click one of these days

Hey Montananative-You got me wondering now. I am getting a new pup and plan on training him for coon, might consider cat too. my question to you and anyone else out there, it sounds like training for hunting 2 kinds of prey might have some dangers for the dog. I know there's dangers in hunting with them no matter what, but if a dog thinks and knows it can take a coon, does it also assume it can take on a cat as well? It makes sense. I suppose if you had the dogs trained for bear and cat and no small game, you might be better off in regards to confusion. Seems that when you mix small and large game training you run extra risk with the dog thinking it's all the same.
I'd appreciate more enlightenment on this from all.

[radar]

Well I'll start by sayin, watching my two catch a coon on the ground alot of times looks like Jet Lee whoppin the piss out of cuple guys They are some mean little buggers and crafty as hell.I can't speak for what it will do for lions but coons can help with the dogs ground skills for dam sures.JMO

[pegleg]

the only trouble I've ever noticed is actually on bobcat. a pup trained on coon may charge one a bit recklessly. most dogs realize they're in a different situation and act accordingly until they're confident in their knowledge of the game. as far as the ol' timers I might ruffle a few gray feathers but being old doesn't automatically give wisdom. and if a six month old pup is not confident enough to approach a coon it sure won't learn by having its ass whipped around a shed. a pack of hounds occasionally stretches a lion but that doesn't mean it's what we really want or are training for. I couldn't recommend throwing a less aggressive hound in a shed with a cougar either. almost every living thing goes through a training period in its life time. reason tells us if something is unpleasant, painful,dangerous or deadly we approach it differently. how many soldiers would survive training if they were enlisted geared up and dropped in the middle of a firefight?

[radar]

What ever pegleg, never said that old timers had all the wisdom heck I'm only 28 and think i'm ful it and probly ful of something!!I thought the story to me was funny to you maybe not.Thats the blessing of an opinion and freedom to speak it. If that story was takend as adivice then I would like a ticket to like cjohonson said cuz I know who will when It won't be the masked bandit with a ring tail its going the hound with coon huntin in his blood and who is wired to do so. I have two walkers 1 male 1 female. Bitch got when she was 2 from Idaho for 500.00 bucks was told she was ran on bear and lion.She is scared as hell of both of them.Don't even like the hills much but she is coon hate'in, water loving, tule pushing swamp dog.Now my male got him localy for free.At six months old he was running with the older dogs, barking on track with the other dogs, fighting the hell out of a coon with the older dogs,getting onorared by the other hounds.needless to say he set my standards for the next pup I get.
A good friend of mine whos has some of the best coon dogs around here got a pup that was 3 months old and he did some hide trainnin stuff like that and man that little basterd want to eat the whole hide if he got ahold of it literarly eat it and shit fur for a day or two. at 5 months old that he made 3 1/2 hour race with older dogs from start to catch.Needless to say.....he set his standards and he actualy gave away a sister to my male @ 5 months cuz she wasn't cutting it and he wasn't going waste time trying to bring it out of the dog knowing that there was a hound out there who already had it.He ended up getting a brother to my male and these two brothers have been doing it since they were six months.

So whats the cut off time for late bloomers?

[montananative]

redbone- i would hope, and i cant say from experience cause ive only ran coons, but i think once a hound sees a lion they should know they are over matched. I would hope their insticts would kick in and they bay him up. Im sure more experience guys can help you out more. ive only been in this hound game 5 yrs.


On another note, Running with older dogs means nothing to me. I bet i could get a cocker spaniel to run and bark with hounds, doesnt mean a thing. its always best, IMO to single out a young hound. Im not sayin always hunt a young dog alone, use your older broke dogs to help him/her out and get him going, but maybe every second or third time take him/her out on his own. Just my opionion. When i got my first dog, i didnt know a single person that i could run with. we did it the hard way. and i think thats the best way sometimes