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I remember some years ago, I ask Steve Rissinger from Carrizo Springs in south texas why he was using running walker, instead of tree walker for hunting bobcats. He told me that he had tried some tree walkers (he didn´t told me which line or blood he had tried) but as they mature or get older they began to slick treeing, when the hunt got tuff, that was why he use running walker and where he hunted they were lots of bobs.

I read also from the book of John Wick that as the dog gets older the tree instinct becomes more develope or the dogs with the pass of the years they tree harder.

I have a big game hound from Chris Todd (Jeff Allen, Mike Leonard and Cameron Breeding) he just turned three years old. I dont hunt that much, because of the heat and the snakes. I just hunt him from October to March and maybe about 30 nights in the season. Maybe I dont hunt that much and is not fair for the hound, but I hunt for hobbie and pleasure and I have to work, so I can only do it in the weekends.

He is a very good dog, handles just perfect, likes to hunt, good nose, not that hard to stop him from running deer and coyotes with the tritronics.

I try to train him on coon and then be able to run some cats we have down here. Lions, Onza, Tigrillo.

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His first season when he was 1 year old, I hunt him with a female hound that she was 6 years old from Doug Meyer Breeding from Idaho. That female the year before she was 5 years old and almost every coon she started, she finish at the tree. But in this season, she slick tree a lot, she was just 6 years old, and I cull her. So Red, didn´t got any experience at the tree. He will never honor her.

Last season I didn´t have any trained dog to hunt with him. He started a lot of tracks of coon, but he will not finish them. In several occasions I find the coon at the tree where he quit the trail, but he was not able to locate him and bark at the tree. So another lost season.

What I have notice this last month, where I live at my house in the city, squirrels are coming very often to my yard at the trees to eat some seeds. And I have notice in the lasts weeks that he has start treeing hard to those squirrels. I have to go put him in another smaller yard where he can not smell the squirrels to be able to quit the barking.

For me those are good news. The question is: Do yo think that the tree instinct is coming up and now he will be able to locate and tree some coons when the season begins? Time will tell.

I have had experience with hounds (two) that started treeing at an early age, but then as the years pass the began slick treeing.

Hector I think he will do fine but remember he is big game bred not coon bred or even squirrel bred. I am glad you culled that false treeing Bam Bam bitch I think you will get things sorted out. I kill fighters and slick tree dogs and I don't look back. I have ridden and walk too damn many miles to put up with that crap. I have owned some wonderful coon dogs and I never put up with slick tree dogs. A crappy dog or an ill dog is just that. That dog got use toi following old what's her name just let him go catch them on there own. Hope them Joggs pups are doing good, he is a natural tree dog and I have never walked to a slick tree with him. Same goes for Little Blue.

Good hunting to you Amigo!

funny thing, those slick trees. I have scolded poor little "Hook" and started dragging her to the truck after spending an hour or better trying to find what she is barking at. only to look back over my shoulder from 100 yards and see a lion or a bobcat in the top of the tree. I would have bet the farm that there was nothing there. I have seen a lot of smart coons that will cover their eyes and you can't see them until you get up in the tree and dam near step on them! are you really sure they were slick?????

as for the dog not treeing, I had a few dogs like that when I didn't have older dogs to teach them. I started climbing the tree, getting their attention,and kicking the coon out of the tree on top of them. fixed a few that way.

Mike, I have high hopes of him, this season I think he will be able to do it. I just have to wait till October to take him hunting again. I have two puppies of him and Molly. They just turn one year old and the female shows a lot of promise. She is also treeing those squirrels and I was able to hunt her in March and April and she show good things.

Houndnem, at the end of the season I was able to do it twice, climbing where the coon was at the tree and this dog start treeing. I knock the coon out, he was able to grab him and he kill the coon very fast. It was a medium coon. The second time it was a bigger coon, and I tie him down, I let the coon run, he run the trail, but was not able to tree the coon again.

Thanks for the replies.

houndnem wrote:funny thing, those slick trees. I have scolded poor little "Hook" and started dragging her to the truck after spending an hour or better trying to find what she is barking at. only to look back over my shoulder from 100 yards and see a lion or a bobcat in the top of the tree. I would have bet the farm that there was nothing there. I have seen a lot of smart coons that will cover their eyes and you can't see them until you get up in the tree and dam near step on them! are you really sure they were slick?????

as for the dog not treeing, I had a few dogs like that when I didn't have older dogs to teach them. I started climbing the tree, getting their attention,and kicking the coon out of the tree on top of them. fixed a few that way.

Honestly, ever make some loose treeing dogs by doing that ?

not so far blacktail. by loose treeing you mean they slick tree? I have only had a couple slick trees in my ten years of running. the one was after we had chased a three day old tom track for two days in a row in deep deep snow. the dogs physically could not go any farther and they came to a tree that the cat had slept in over top of a kill.

as for what I suggested, I don't recomend that you keep doing it for months on end. just do it a few times and once you have the dogs trying to tree and locate, go back to your normal every day buisness.