I've been checking out this forum for about three years, and I'd like to put in my two cents about training a young dog. I've only had two coonhounds in my life, about twenty years apart, but I think my technique merits some consideration. My present dog is a beagle / walker cross that I got at a year old from a city couple and I don't think he'd smelled a coon in his life. He had a great nose and a big voice, so I thought he might make a good coonhound. My philosophy boils down to this: we are not simply trying to teach a dog to perform a task, we are trying to create a raccoon addict. My first season with my dog, I did not let him off the leash unless I was sure he was on a coon. I would go to a corn lot and shine a coon, and I would take the dog to the coon. He would get excited about the scent, he would work his way to the tree, and I would encourage him to jump upon the tree. I would tie him off, shoot the coon so that he was mostly dead, and turn my dog loose on the coon. Think about this. This was probably the most fun my young dog had ever had. Adrenaline and dopamine were coursing through his veins. He was experiencing a very strong, albiet natural high, and his nostrils were full of raccoon scent. When we were done, I took him home. He dreamed about that coon. That was all we did that first season was find coons and let him get a snoot full of fur. At the end of the season, I has a raccoon addict. The rest has been easy. I think too many guys get in a hurry and try to end up with a finished dog at eight months. To do this they run dogs with older dogs and hope they catch on. What they end up with is "me too" dogs that get excited by the actions of other dogs. What we want is raccoon addicts that want nothing more than to track a raccoon on their own. The rest is easy.
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