pup training

[plott hunter]

i have a pup that is 5 months old. my question is. what is the best way to get her started? any tips would be appritiated.

[bigdog061]

walk,walk,walk,walk,walk,walk, find coon tracks in snow, do allot of walking in the mornings when temperature is warmest! Yes you can tree coon in day time this time of year! Basically know where the coon are at all times of year and expose the dog to da coon. Older honest dogs are good help, but for this hard headed hillbilly.......I will never be convinced that you need an older dog to make a dog!! Coon dogs are born, not made!!!!!!! Exposure,exposure,exposure!!!!!! Just my opinion!

Paul

[Calkins]

Well said.

[MN Mad Dog]

Get yourself a cage coon and start trying to get your pup interested in that first. Then drag it a ways and hang it in a tree and let your pup find it and tree on it. Thats a start. You will never get anywhere just walking the pup through the woods hopeing to stumble onto a coon. You can contact me for more info.

[kayla090205]

I think you should let a pup be a pup for a while longer because its gonna be an adult dog forever when it grows up. I would start teaching some basic obediance and manners (like come, no, heel, load up in the truck) and do alot of socializing around other people, places, and dogs, and alot of walking in the woods and crossing over all kinds of natural obstacles (you would never believe how many dogs are afraid of water when their younger). I wait until 7-8 months before I really started "coondog"tranining. I would show the pup a few, and I mean a few, caged coons. Turn some loose and let the pup track that good hot track and tree. I lay a few drags for mine with a fresh killed coon here and there to just for some easy confidence building tracks also. I split my pups time up between hunting with older experienced dogs, by itself around feeder, and by itself in just good woods with no feeders. I think this helps to have a balanced hound. After that, just keep it in the woods and hunt it !!!

[briarpatch]

Kayla, that is excellent advice......as good as I have heard from anyone at anytime. Pups mature at different ages so are ready for different stages of training at different times. Don't PUSH them too early with any phase of training. MOST OF SO CALLED TRAINING IS WASTED EFFORT. It many times is only entertaining the owner. Teach them to handle, trash break them and the rest should come naturally per their genetic schedule. If it doesn't then you may need a new strain of dog.

briarpatch

[plottchaser]

time! just keep the dog in the woods and after a while lay som drags and encorage the pup to tree on it.

[michael.magorian]

Don't rush the pup with live coons already. Like what was said already, let a pup be a pup. Walk the dog in the woods during the day and night, and when it gets confidence about moving through the trees and using its nose a little let it off the leash and let it adventure around. Right before you are thinking about hunting it, within a month, let that pup see and play with a live coon. There is no reason to jump into things too quick. This is the time when you can easily wreck a pup.

[plottchaser]

Don't rush the pup with live coons already. Like what was said already, let a pup be a pup. Walk the dog in the woods during the day and night, and when it gets confidence about moving through the trees and using its nose a little let it off the leash and let it adventure around. Right before you are thinking about hunting it, within a month, let that pup see and play with a live coon. There is no reason to jump into things too quick. This is the time when you can easily wreck a pup.

i think a dog should see a dead coon first. i have seen people show a pup coon that was bigger than them. then it hisses and jumps at them and they are terrified. i would lay a drag or two when they are ready.

[bigdog061]

Mn mad dog....where i live coon are thick, maybe there not in your area! Have you ever pondered how folks like Ben Lilly trained young dogs? There is nothing wrong with trapping a coon and turning it loose or even all the other stuff people suggest. However I believe it should be done no more than 2 times. I had a dog once thar went nuts on a cage coon and would tree turned out coons. That dog never did tree a coon on it's own and was in very thick coon country.

It is just my opinion/expierence! Now on the subject of just walking around just stumbling on a coon. again...How did the old timers train dogs? Like I said I myself am in thick coon country. If a person walks a pup/dog in thick coon country 2-3 hours a night say around 20-30 times and the dog don't tree an easy coon....well, the dog won't be eating my food anymore!

In this day and age, folks just don't walk like they did in the past! I know for fact you can catch coon road hunting.....however, you take a dog and road hunt it 10 nights, then take the same dog and walk hunt it 10 nights.......you will catch more coon walking! given the same amount of time! Law of average tells you eventually you will walk over hot coon tracks eventually and if the dog is bred right, it has to tree eventually! Plus all that time spent with the pup/dog is very valuable time together!

If I shoot pool once a week, and you shoot 6-7 times a week, who ya reckon is gonna be a better pool shooter????????

Paul

[MN Mad Dog]

bigdog061... Dog training in my opinion is a series of steps set up in a way to make the dog succeed and progress forward. So here are 2 scenarios to ponder. Scenario no.1 I take my young dog that has no idea what we are looking for walking in the woods to tree an easy coon. But before we come to the easy coon the pup runs into a skunk and thinks this is great and proceeds to kill it. Now what do you do correct the pup, praise it, or do nothing? In this situation no matter what you do it is a set back. Yes it can be overcome but is a setback nonetheless. Scenario no.2 I expose the pup to the game I want, be it caged coon, dead coon, or coonhide. Get the pup excited on this and praise it.( By the way I do agree that this should be done no more than 2-3 times) Now make a drag with scent alone and put some scent on a tree, the pup should be able to run this to the tree and tree on it, even if you need to help get it excited on the tree the first time. After 2-3 times it should be running and treeing on the scent with no coaxing. Now it is ready to take to the woods and tree an easy coon, but if it runs across a skunk first, an appropriate correction can be made and we have forward progress with no setback because the pup already knows that coon are a good thing. From here on out, you hunt the hair of the dog giving the appropriate praise and corrections as needed. And as to your shooting pool question, I make my living training all types of hounds, retrievers, and pointers and I have 30 years experience training dogs. As for Ben Lilly I am sure he would have been extra careful to make sure that his young dogs had as few setbacks as possible because he couldn't afford not to.

[cecil j.]

bigdog061... Dog training in my opinion is a series of steps set up in a way to make the dog succeed and progress forward. So here are 2 scenarios to ponder. Scenario no.1 I take my young dog that has no idea what we are looking for walking in the woods to tree an easy coon. But before we come to the easy coon the pup runs into a skunk and thinks this is great and proceeds to kill it. Now what do you do correct the pup, praise it, or do nothing? In this situation no matter what you do it is a set back. Yes it can be overcome but is a setback nonetheless. Scenario no.2 I expose the pup to the game I want, be it caged coon, dead coon, or coonhide. Get the pup excited on this and praise it.( By the way I do agree that this should be done no more than 2-3 times) Now make a drag with scent alone and put some scent on a tree, the pup should be able to run this to the tree and tree on it, even if you need to help get it excited on the tree the first time. After 2-3 times it should be running and treeing on the scent with no coaxing. Now it is ready to take to the woods and tree an easy coon, but if it runs across a skunk first, an appropriate correction can be made and we have forward progress with no setback because the pup already knows that coon are a good thing. From here on out, you hunt the hair of the dog giving the appropriate praise and corrections as needed. And as to your shooting pool question, I make my living training all types of hounds, retrievers, and pointers and I have 30 years experience training dogs. As for Ben Lilly I am sure he would have been extra careful to make sure that his young dogs had as few setbacks as possible because he couldn't afford not to.

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I don`t know there is alot of pretraining neds beeing done and first accomplished first, but then there is if your tryen too make a streight cooner into afinished top hound maybe next step.Ya put him in the hunten rigg dog box at 19-20 months old and hes allready had daytime romps of everyweres ya will hunt him atnights by now so he is not scard of the dark now and ya drive too an area ya can spot lite ! To Berrissia lake area is my favorite old haunts too do this. Ronnie Rice handled the spot lite duty and I drove my land cruzzer and his Redbone pup and my 20 month old Walker dog hunted that way for a year and we left town at dark thirty and pulled backin too the house by day lite most of those nights and hunted no less than 3-4 nights a week ! Those 2 hounds got finished out on warm & hot tracksin that 18 months time and they was on over 350 coon. If they didn`t know how too do it and do it right by then they never wpuld learn it.
Then we mved into drop hunten em in the sacramento valley river bottems & rice fields & slue ditches an Island tulley chain areas and completed them in worken up cold tracks and all. Big Bow (walker) and (little boe) redbone was known all over them parts and was the best 2 coon dogs goen in that erra of time. So I guess a diet of hunting like that night after night then swithcen and changing after the dog has graduated it and ready too walk hunt and learn the rest of the trade/ just worked for us anyways.

[MN Mad Dog]

cecil j..... If I have to wait till a dog is 20 months old and still have to find a coon for it with a spotlight I would not brag on it.

[cecil j.]

cecil j..... If I have to wait till a dog is 20 months old and still have to find a coon for it with a spotlight I would not brag on it.

mn mad dog, ya know most of my dogs run at 7-9 months of age and treed coon and made dogs and yet over time I made the 2 very best coon hounds I ever owned mn mad dog ! as 20 month old just starten them in the woods of age. I did not rais nor breed for either of these 2 hounds.
The Walker I got in 76 and he was the son of Cowboy a very gifted coon hound owned by Harland Maxxwell and bred Cowboy and begot Big Bow the dog I got that had been walked on some coon drags in the mtns and also been in on a few bear trees an a track or two on bear hunting with trained hounds. Back too Cowboy,he come as a puppu too Harland Maxxwell streight from Nances Old Topper being bred for by Elbert Nance in ky.
I had gottem my whole pack just 6 months earler killed on the long twin citys bridge by traffice while chaceing a fox in the franklyn slues and he come up out of the slueby pass and hitthe railroad trackand meanderedon an off the steel railing and crosse over the long spanded bridge & a semi truck whipen em all out.
Harlinn told me to go buy Big Bow from off Ralph Aston cause hed too the pup back as Jackie of Sacramento had just up and left the dog tied and Jackie leftthe country acording too harlin. Ben Moore also had part of Big Bow and had been putten him on some bearthen got drunk and in jail again and Harlin bailed him out and carryed Big Bow home and give him too Ralph to hunt. So knowing Harllins wishes on it he let me hunt with the pup an all he didwas squeek the lasr 20 ft puppy barks into the coon tree whichdidn`t go from a cow feeder 100 ft and take up a small oak tree.
I give $ 250.00 for him and as he was all I had at the time and had just made a younger hunten partner named Ronnie Rice of Rio Linda Ca. ho had a 6 month redbone pup he named little Boe after Big Bow/ Id drive around lake berrissa and slowly and Ronnie would handle the spot lite. Berrissa lake is over 160 miles of shore line andwed leave sacramento at dark thirty and fuiel up my landcrezzer and off wed go up to berrissa about75 miles from the house.
We did that 4 nights a week and comein next morning after sunup hunting 4-5 turn looses a night on spot lit coon. and in 12 months we had over 150 coon hides at burmans pacific fur and wool hide shop! By the way we never took more than 1 coon out of a tree up and lots of times ya see 1 coon and your dog ends up treeing 2-3-4-5 coon up the same tree at the end of the track. The next yr we spotlited located coon up and marked the spot with an empty cigg.pack and just drove on and didit samely again and a gin till we comeback 2 hrs later and run that same earler spotlited coon and the dogs would trail and trrup and there be the coon and a longer and bettertrail too it. that 2 ed yr we too 200 or so coon to Bill Burrman in Sacramento Ca and sld em too the furr shope!
Thje dog learned how too hold split tree ups within 7-8 months of the first yr. of spotlighten coon. Ralph aston told me hecwas ready now for the River bottem jungles and ricefields and slueline tulley padd chain island training. I was learning a new way too training em from as I knew as puppys training and hunten the river bottem jungles an rice fields and tuley slues areas. Ralph told me and it proved out too/ a hound who learns it from a 20 month oldmentallity and psyicall maturity of a 20 month old hound learns it futher and better cause he see it from an more advance brain in dog age from teachen hunten too baby as 6 months on up hunten in the woods. It worked on Big Bow and it worked on my Redbone I got off Mike Pipkensaround 18-19months old not been fooled with just raised in a pen. He turned out by 2 yrs old real well and quickly but he (peppers burgandy hank) was just as easely trianed in the river bottems hunten not spot lite hunted like i did Big Bow. How ever by 3 yrs old even though hewas also hunted 4 nights a week all night long/ he wasent the too the lomb tree locater on coon/but he was accurate and just as cold nosed as my earler walker dog Big Boe.

[Redneck]

my thought on this given subject get her to where she obeys sit come stay etc when she has these down to a tee then move on to the next step house cats ,then when she get that concept down bigger and better things coons lions bears hogs etc no matter whaT ALWAYS REWARD HER FOR GOOD BEHAVIOR not for bad firm but not over whelming to where you scare her and make her cower so on . but most of all let her be a puppy she will have a life time to prove her self to you and all that hunt with you ....