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Just wanted some ideas of what you guys do in the summer to train young pups. Scent drags are getting kinda boring for my pup but cant run much here in the spring or summer.

a lot of time in the field, with an emphisis on handling and a lot of swimming.

i wouldn't be shy about coon hunting him,that wiil teach him to trail and tree pop a few out to him. let him get some fur in teeth,that he earned, come fall he'll be ahead of the game. give him alot your time, hunt him every chance you get,that pup is bred to hunt. larry

hey, ive got one of larry's pups as well, Ive been doing sent drags, and dragging a coon hyde for her, I plan on doing this a while longer untill she can keep up with other dogs, then ill start to run her on coons. I have also just taken her on a few coon runs so she can see them in the tree and sent a bit herself, she seems to be doing good. good luck to you and your pup.

kehrer10 wrote:Just wanted some ideas of what you guys do in the summer to train young pups. Scent drags are getting kinda boring for my pup but cant run much here in the spring or summer.

hows that??? since coon season is year round in MT and given your location, hunt it on coons, coons and more coons. What id give for a tenth of your coon population.

well this is my first hound, so i dont have any good spots for coon yet. i will be looking for some spots in the next week or so, most of the river bottoms are private so i have to do some knocking. i need to get him on something that runs, he figured out it was fun to chase the wifes rabbits, that didnt go over too well for me ( basically i was laughing and egging it on and she was not). Larry youre right he is a little hunting machine, sure am glad you brought him up and it all worked out. well if anyone wants to go coon hunting let me know, the trucks fueled up!

Just wondering if he opens up, mouth wise much when on trail, Mine is just starting to. If your ever down this way look me up we might be able to find a coon or two

Hi Jeremy,

What do you ultimately want to trail with your hound when its older - cats , coon or bear ?

I have 6 pups that are going to undergo a new regime of training that is a far call different to the way I normally train young dogs. Mostly my youngsters just get introduced to hunting by joining the older seasoned hounds and pick up from there. However I am in the fortunate situation where I can hunt year round with my hounds with no restriction on lynx or jackal.That being the case we can have up to 14 strike dogs between two teams which is understandably a lot of depth - we just very lucky and privileged to be able to have this.

At this point I want to start a new pack that will only be focused at hunting and trailing cats.

The way I intend doing this is by going out in two vehicles with radio communication between them. One with the hounds that will be stationery but not to far off.The hounds will include two or three seasoned hounds that have a preference for cats + the pups.

In the other vehicle I'll go out and call in African Wildcat or caracal ( lynx ) with my Foxpro caller. When we locate an incoming cat we'll back off and call in the crew with the hounds.Introduce the older hounds to the trail and when they start working it we'll feed in youngsters slowly maybe no more than two at an outing.I'll alternate the youngsters this way untill they all start to get the picture.

As they develop you can even hold them back a while to let the age of the scent grow so they not always getting dumped on a fresh trail. You can even start to do exercises by timing the age of scents more accurately by knowing for sure when the cat was there.

This is just an idea I want to try and I'm sure it will work on coyotes as well.

Let me know what you think - Regards - Roy.

shoot4fur, he hasn't started opening yet but he's mainly just been on drags. he did do a great job yesterday on a couple drags down by the river, he sure knows what lion scent is and is starting to move a drag like it's too easy. Roy, i'm going to focus him on cats, that's what he was born to do and what i would like to focus on. I'm sure your knew method of training will work real good, besides I think you have a good idea of what will work. good luck with the new pack.

If you have the time you can always drop down to Utah for their pursuit season. The license, bear tag, and lion tag will run you about 130 for non-resident. Then you can go chase all you want, just no harvest. My buddy and I did this last year. Also if you want to drive a day and spend a few days a trip down to some of the units in Arizona are open year around for Cats. Bear opens the first of August. As far as drags are concerned if the dog is accomplishing them too easily start picking the drag up and just touching it to the ground every couple of feet, (Mike Leonards method) and then double back on it and make it alot longer. Anything to make it a little harder on your dog will help in the long run.

JMO

Hey go to the feedlot(resturant) there in shepard and keep going until the road turns first house on the right is jon schelhammer ask him if you can coon hunt,also head towards roundup and get n the musselshell river tons of coons and pretty cool ranchers up there.