I have a bluetick female that is about 2 years old. She was 18 months when I bought her at the Grand American this year, and of course the gentleman I bought her from said she would tree her own coon. I'm a little embarassed to say I've only hunted her between 6-10 times since I bought her. Earlier in the year I was still driving a Trans-Am so I really didn't have a way to take her by myself, and once I bought the dog my fiance decided he just wasn't really into coon hunting anymore so it was a chore to get him to go with me. Now I've got my own truck and am able to bring my hounds with me when I go out of town for work each week, so I'd like to work with my dogs more. Since I've never trained a coon dog before, I'd just like to see what some of you would work on with my dog. The first time I hunted with her she did strike once, but never treed. After that, we bought an older, more experienced Walker to hunt with my younger dogs, and she did tree with him once. A couple other times he treed by himself, and she did come in with him but would never tree. As a side note, those couple times I never saw a coon in the tree so I guess I should be happy about that! I know she's been worked with in the past. I've worked her with a caged coon a couple times and she goes absolutely crazy. She stays 100% focused on it, and the last time I worked with her she never left the cage, even when the Walker seemed to lose interest. The only thing I noticed was when I drug the cage up in the tree she would get on the wood a few times and open up, but she mostly milled around the base and chopped. I know it's not a good idea to work a dog with a caged coon too much, but like I said I wanted to see where I should go from here. I was thinking about catching a coon, wetting it, and dragging it up to a tree, then seeing if she will track and tree it at night. I really would just like to see if she can even do it. Do y'all think this would be good to try? If not, what would you do? I doubt she'll ever be a competition quality dog, but I would like to be able to at least pleasure hunt her...and I can't afford to have somebody train her, because I have a real nice little redbone that I'm sending out. Sorry for rambling on, just wanted to try and give y'all as much info as possible! I'd love to hear your input.

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I'm sure a lot of people here know many tricks of the trade that I couldn't even guess. All I know is what I did with my dog, either right or wrong. When I started hunting my [adult] dog he had the basic idea that coon was the enemy. All I did was keep throwing him in the woods and basically let him figure it out by himself. He was poor on track and extremely loose on tree, but we just kept going since I can't really teach the dog how to follow a track. We went on a LOT of coonless hunts (sometimes I saw the coon but he didn't find it). He's gotten a lot better though! Through experience he's learning. More and more consistently he's tracking and treeing his own coon, without another dog to help. He's no competition dog, but man we have fun! Definitely didn't have half the fun in the beginning while he was learning, but he needed to figure it out on his own.

I'm very much against caged coon for training, but that's a dead horse I won't kick anymore than to say this- once a dog has been in the woods hunting, there is NOTHING a caged coon can do to help her ability.

Is there any chance the other dog she has been hunting with may have gotten rough with her on the tree?

The BEST thing you can do for her at this point is to hunt the feet off her and get her used to hunting. If she's not skittish, you may drop one out to her and let her chew on it (I happen to know kill season starts next week). You may even establish a feeder and turn her loose on it ON A LIMITED BASIS to get on some hot tracks.

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Try to learn from mistakes- preferrably, someone else's.

im like Kyra i never used a drag or a caged coon with doc i didnt train him he trained himself he just got a ride to the woods, thats all he got out of me lol now the only time i had to ever had to correct him one time for treeing off game and it was a possum no problems with deer either

Thanks so much for the input! Coleman, I doubt Miller got rough with her at the tree. We bought him to be used as a pup trainer, and he's generally really gentle with all other dogs. You may know the guy we got him from...I can't remember his name off the top of my head but he lives out toward the Boy's Home in Belton. I'm glad to hear that she'll probably straighten herself out after being hunted regularly. I won't love her any less if she doesn't turn out-she's a beautiful dog, and very sweet. I just don't want to be the one to ruin what could otherwise be a decent hunting dog. Thanks again for your suggestions so far, and I'd love to hear what more of you have to say!

Are you talking about Harold Kay? I only live a few miles from him myself. Where are you?

When ever you buy a older pup or unstarted dog.Chances are they have already been worked with..At least most have...With any new dog it takes at least 15-20 times in the woods to really see what you have to work with...Even some older broke dogs can take that long to see what they really are.Ive seen older broke dogs never miss a beat while others never like the new owner and never hunt right like they once did... Also some dogs will not hunt alone. You need another dog along for them to even hunt...........

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Check (Wild River Kennels) or me on Facebook. We have a few pics and video clips of our dogs Co-owner Tyler Stroh :Richmond IN Treeing Walkers
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This my opinion - Put a couple of feeders out, this will get the coonz coming to where you want them not just out in the forever forrest. This will allow you to put her on some hot tracks. Keep taking her! As she progresses begin taking her to the "Big Woods". The instinct is there - you just have to take her alot - I mean hunt the hair off her - till her feet are sore.

Don't let your expectations (or impatience) outweigh your dogs abilities.

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Yep, that's his name...I thought of it right away when I didn't need to tell you LOL! He was a really nice guy, and I've heard he has some good dogs. I live in Williamston, actually.

Chet and Lil' Pig, I really appreciate yall's advice!

Oh, yeah- Harold is as good as they come, and if it's on the end of his leash, it's a COONDOG.. I'm only about 5 minutes away from you on the other side of Pelzer. We should turn 'em loose one night.

Sounds good, just give me a holler.

Does harold have a name on here or email. Id like to send him some pics of a pup off his creek crawler dog that I got from him. She is doing real well running and treeing herself. She has a dern good nose.

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Sorry I'm trying to figure out this whole downloading pics from my phone