I will submitt an article on breaking the gunshy dog to Buckshot for the main page. Give me a little while to get it up.

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LCK,

I read that you have started Stinger on the "tone feature" on the e-collar, and that she was responding well. Will you please elaborate on your method of using the e-collar and especially the tone feature on a new pup [Stinger].

I've read your article on "early e-collar use and conditioning".

Thank you.

Most e-collars have a tone only feature. Once the pup has shown it knows how to respond to a low level stimulation you can start giving a quick tone just prior to giving the stimulation. They learn pretty quick to respond accordingly when the tone comes in order to avoid the stimulus. It is the same principal as giving a voice command prior to delivering the stimulus the dog associates the command as a predicator to the correction and gives the right behavior and avoids the correction. I like to put the young dogs in situations where I know they will become distracted so I have a good many chances to deliver corrections. Timming is everything, you have to be focused and quick on the tone button. Dogs can do the math pretty quick and most of them figure it out in just a few good sessions.

Haven't seen an update on here for awhile LCK .. hows the project going?

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Always keep an open mind.
"Your hound depends on you every day, as much as you depend on him every night"

Not much new to report. We are just steadily plugging along with the roading and woods time and handling for now. She is coming along just fine so far. Patience is something that at times is hard to practice with promising young prospects but I am staying the course.

Sounds good .... you gonna make it too bluetick days this year?

No, probably won't. I will be hosting an all Bluetick bear hunt during that time.

thats right .. forgot about that ... well good luck with it and let all the guys know I wish them all a good hunt

Stinger got a taste of her first critter yesterday. I live trapped a coon and placed it out in a field surounded by nice medium sized tree's. I had already roaded her for a couple of miles and had her settled down etc. I let her go in the field and just let her snoop around, it did not take long and she got down wind of it and went to the scent. She was a little cautious at first and circled and sniffed and didn't really know what to do but was not leaving it. I just waited, she finally moved in just close enough for the coon to growl at her and she fired it up. As soon as this happend I got to her and calmly leashed her up and pulled her back to a fence post and tied her off. I then released the coon and carried the cage back to the rig. I then turned Stinger loose and watched. She went back to where the coon had been and was stumped. She could not see the coon run off and was using her eyes more than her nose at first, jumping and bouncing around trying to see. I just waited. Pretty son she started using her nose and took the track. It did not take long and she was in the tree line and out of my sight. I slowly followed. It took about 5 minutes and all of the sudden she started baying like the world was ending. I got to her and she had the coon bayed up on a ditch bank. I leashed her up and tied her off, giving the coon time to move on. I released her again and she did not waste time using her eyes this time. She turned the nose on and caught the coon on the ground again and bayed it up. I leashed her up and took her to the truck. I had to carry her most of the way because she was fighting the leash very hard and very much wanted to go back to the coon hunt. This is where goal setting is extremely important. My goal was to give her an exposure to coon and give her a chance to use her nose. These goals were accomplished with the added bonus of getting the chance to pull her off wanting more. I carried her to the truck because this was not the time for obediance training, I did not want to correct her for pulling and fussing on the leash. This would have negated the lessons learned with the coon because a dog remembers the last experience it had. Making her heel and behave on lead would have taught her controll and could have errased the coon lesson. I will lay her up for a couple of days and do it again.

Sounds GREAT LCK!!!!! How old is Stinger now??

She is 7 months old.

That sounds awesome! I am interested in what you are going to do next. Are you going to do the same thing for a while or maybe next time see if he will do it without the motivation of seeing the coon first. I like how you explained not to train or discipline afterwards cause that sounds like a mistake I would make. Your helping me alot so thanks again! Keep us updated.
jmh

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Boozer...

Thats awesome to hear about stinger. It sounds like everything is going good. I wish i had all the time that you have to train my dogs so thouroghly like you do. Do you breed your dogs yourself or do you buy them from someone? It seems like you have such a natural breed of dogs.

***wow*** i have just read this for the first time
it did suck to read about smoke and his problems. have u heard anything about him and his new owner????

keep it up lck this is getting good

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MEL MALONE
TO HECK WITH SAVING SOME FOR SEED...THATS MOTHER NATURES JOB

I am going to release another coon for her this weekend. I am going to wet it down and let it go without her seeing it and give it about a 3 minute head start. I think she will take the trail. It really does not matter to me if she actually tree's it or not. I am more interested in how hard she tries to find it. The most important thing to do in this session is knowing when to pull her off the track while she is still trying hard to find it if it looks like she has made a bad lose. I won't let her lose interest and quit. Best case is she will pressure it into a tree, if she does I will leash her up and pull her off wanting more and put her up for another couple of days.