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janet kosnik

My current practices on training a young pup have not changed much over the last 8 years. I have just fine-tuned some of my techniques, that’s all.

I like to introduce a young pup to a coonhide or rag with coonscent on it at an early age. Wait until that new pup has adjusted to your kennel, first, before doing this. If the pup is interested in the hide, let her chew on it, drag it around and tug on it. As long as she is interested in Mr. Coon, let her play with it and have fun. Before she loses interest in it, though, take it away. Let her have the hide again another day. She won’t want to give it up!! Just don’t let her get bored with it.

Later on, I’ll drag a hide with extra scent on it, a very short distance and stick it up in a tree almost out of reach to the pup, but close enough so that when she follows the scent to the tree, she can see that hide and get up on the tree and eventually, pull the hide down. You need to make it easy for that pup to get the hide and say interested. I’d say that one very important part of training a young dog is not to overtrain. Keep sessions short when your pup is still young. And make it into a game to hold their interest. Only train as long as your pup shows interest.

Gradually progress to a caged coon. I like to bring an older dog to the roll cage to get him baying it up and then turn my pup loose. It doesn’t take a pup long to figure out what it should be doing. Let your puppy get all worked up but, again, leash her up before she loses steam. Always, always lead your pup away from that coon while the desire is still there.

After your pup wants that caged coon and stays interested, throw a rope, attached to the cage, over a tree limb and let the cage stay on the ground. Now, imprint your pup by letting her at the coon, then raising the cage up into the tree, but not too high, encouraging her to get up on the tree. This needs to be done over and over again so that your pup connects that coon on the ground with the coon running up the tree. This can also be done with a hide if a live coon is not available. This is a very important part of a young dog’s training, so don’t rush it.

When your pup is wild about that coon, do some short drags, 100 yards or so, to start with. Getting the pup to the tree and treeing is more important than distance at this point. Tracking and trailing will come with age. Using an older hound to run the drag will help your pup figure out what to do. Even if the pup is not using her nose on the drag and just following the older dog; as long as she gets to the tree and barks; that’s the important part.

I don’t push my young dogs too hard when they’re 4-6 months old. Some days they are interested and other days they just don’t care. If you see this attitude in your pup, lay off the training for awhile until her desire returns. This lack of interest doesn’t mean that your pup won’t be a coondog. It’s just that puppys have little brains and short attention spans at this time.

If you do have older, experienced hounds, it’s really helpful to take 6-8-10 month old pup out when your other hounds are turned out to hunt. At first, I keep my pup leashed until she wants to follow the other dogs. Turn her loose after you know the hounds are on a coon track. Or keep her leashed until the dogs tree and then let her go. Having trained coonhounds around really helps in the training process for a pup. It can be done without an older dog; it just takes longer and requires more patience on the owner’s part. But once your young dog is running with the older hounds and treeing along with them, you have the beginnings of a coondog. As that young hound gains confidence in herself, her nose and her ability, she will begin to hunt on her own and not just follow the other dogs, going further and staying out longer.

All these steps take time, so be patient and have some faith in your hound. You may get lucky and turn that pup into a really outstanding coonhound or maybe just a really good one. Either way, enjoy that big ol’ bawl mouth at night in the cool, crisp air! Good Hunting!