Want to start my bluetick on coons

[beauhunter]

New to hounds need advice to get started on coon please help with any experience

[KFhunter]

get friendly with trappers, or trap your own

[bearpaw]

How old are the dog(s) you want to train? Do they have any hunting experience?

[beauhunter]

 1 male 1year old, and yes I would like to train as much as possible. I guess my question is do most houndsmen start the do on scent or live? Thanks

[bearpaw]

You could start laying scent trails with a drag, you can get scent easily online.

When I was first getting dogs going I did a lot of that to get dogs started. At the time I didn't realize I was doing it the hard way. Since I've had good dogs I mostly just take the young ones hunting with the experienced dogs and the young dogs either pick it up or they don't. You can start by trying to train a young dog yourself, but it's way easier and often more effective to find an older experienced dog and let the young dog learn from the old dog.

The dog isn't too old to learn but you need to get on it soon.

[Machias]

Be VERY careful, speaking from painful expereince, using a live coon for training that you or someone elses trapped is a great way to get arrested.   Gross misdeamanor in the state of WA to keep a wild coon in captivity or to move it from one location to another while it is alive.

[beauhunter]

I didn't intend on the coon to be alive, I was saying the body being present for training or just the scent of it. I was figuring on dragging the physical carcus so there will be some scent. But I might just look into finding someone who already has seasoned dogs

[Machias]

   Just trying to help keep a fellow hound hunter out of trouble. 

[beauhunter]

Much appreciated.

[Machias]

You ever want some company on a coon hunt let me know!  I'll bring one of my inexperinced dogs and we can run all kinds of deer, elk and moose. 

[beauhunter]

Sounds good, I will let you know when I'm going out

[CementFinisher]

@Machias  LMAO you forgot coyote

[bearpaw]

If you can go with someone with experienced dogs that's your best bet, you and the dog will learn. 

You may find out your dog does not know what to do even when a coon is spotted and other dogs go after the coon, he may not do anything and just stay with you. It's hard to say what level of hunting instinct he possesses until you take him out.

If he doesn't go with the other dogs and you still want to try and turn him into a hunting dog you can try other methods. If you have a dead coon hide already in the freezer or if you can get a road kill to skin so you have a hide to drag so you can lay scent trails for the pup to follow that can work. In this day and age I don't know if it's legal to pick up a road kill coon, so call WDFW and ask about that. If you can't get a hide you can use a clean rag (no detergent or foreign smells) with coon scent applied, but I think real hide is much better.. Split your hide into 2 or 3 pieces so it lasts longer, tie a 1/4 nylon cord to each piece and freeze them in individual bags for later use. When you want to train the pup take a piece of hide out to thaw a few hours in advance. Refreeze the hide after each training session. You will get many sessions out of those pieces of hide, but throw them away when they start stinking and use fresher hide that smells like a coon.

You may have to start by just dragging the hide while running and trying to get the pup to chase it, when he catches it, praise and pet him. Next try having someone hold the pup back while you drag the hide out of sight then shout to them to release the dog and see if he can follow the scent trail to you and pet him up good when he comes. Do this numerous times.

The next step is to get him treeing. Drag the hide a short distance in the woods to a tree, be sure and rub a little bit on the bottom of the tree, throw the hide over a bottom limb and tie off the rope so it's hanging just out of reach. Go back to your vehicle and get the dog out and see if he can follow the scent trail, if he cannot you may have to walk him with a leash along the trail to the tree, let him sniff the tree, then tie him close to the tree and then use the rope to tease him with the hide handing in the tree to get him excited and barking. Eventually you should be able to lay longer drags 1/4 to 1/2 mile and then go back to your truck, get him out, and he should follow to the tree and bark up the tree when he gets there. This may take many training sessions to accomplish.

It would be much better if you had an older experienced dog for him to run with and learn, but this method can work if you can't hunt him with an experienced dog or if he at first won't follow other dogs. I trained some dogs this way when I was first getting started in hounds. Looking back now I know how hard it was to start this way but it did work. Now, we won't keep a dog that doesn't naturally try and go with the older dogs. Often times they will fall out of hunts early (especially bear hunting in Idaho) but over time they get much better or we don't keep them, we expect dogs to be running good by 1 year of age but have kept some dogs longer, sometimes they don't start to shine until they are 2, but it's much better to have dogs that are pretty well started and running by age 1.

[Huntingfool509]

I have a 6 month old bluetick, I would like to connect with a coon hunter here in western Washington or Eastern Washington to go with
Anyone looking for someone to go with??? 509-270-3930

[Huntingfool509]

Looking for someone to go coon hunting with in western or eastern Washington I have a 6 month old bluetick and I’d like to take him with someone who has some experience