That might be good!

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Yea I have coon hunted when I was real young but my family got away from it and now I'm trying to get back in it so I'm learning all over again a teaching him as we'll. I have also learned that it a lot like training any other type of dog( I have trained many duck dogs)


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Yeah I have never hunted coon. Just something I have always wanted to do. I trained a beagle when I was about 13-14 but I had to put him down because he got sick. So other than trainging a house pet that's it. LoL
Loving it so far though and I can't wait to actually hunt him.
It's all about seeing my hard work pay off to me

It is a blast and there is nothing like hearing your hound open up on his first coon


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Yeah I can't wait!

I never mess with old coon hide drags. Nothing smells more like a coon than ... A LIVE COON!
I always start dogs with a live cage coon- soak the coon with water to put off more scent, then drag the coon in trap(start off with short drags then do some longer ones). I use a 50 ft cord tied to trap and throw one end up a tree branch overhead. Walk the pup near where you started the drag, and let the dog find the trap and bark on it. Then lift the trap up the tree with the rope and let the pup tree it... lower and raise it again if pup loses interest. after a few drags with the coon, turn it loose and let the pup go after a minute or 2. Shoot it out if pup trees it.
Don't overdo it with too many cage coons. Only a couple.
If you can hunt it with trained dogs that works the best to get a young pup off to a good start.

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Dave Miller... and Rock River Redbones! 563.499.4055

I was told not to let him tree a until he is about 8-10months old as if the coon fights back at all it could hurt/kill or scare him from hunting.
Should I wait on doing that or is it ok to let him tree it?
Thank you for your help

I would wait until at least 8 months old to show him a live coon exactly for the reasons u stated. People want there dogs to b running and treeing at 6 months old and its just not good thinking if u want to own a dog u can hunt til its 10-12 yrs old. A lot of these dogs that are pushed hard to young burn out young. There are definitely exceptions to this but those exceptions are not the norm. I wouldn't show a dog u think still has a lot of puppy left in it a coon. U should start showing em coons when u think they are mature enough to b taken out hunting. To me that's between 10-12 months old. When u do show em a coon that should b the main gauge on if they are ready or not. Of course this is all just my opinion. Gd luck and keep it fun!

Ok, I got ya!
Well thanks againg for all the help even if it is just your opinion.
It has been fun thus far and I can't wait to see the results of both mine and the pups work pay off.

some dogs can be started at 6 months old, but most of the time it is best to start them at 8- 12 months old I think. 4 months is too early. At this point I would just focus on basic obedience, getting your dog to come when called, socialize around other dogs, leash training, etc.

I am working with a couple redbones that just turned a year. The male was ready at 11 months and is tracking treeing already one month later. The female littermate is starting slower(will tree a cage coon but not showing much in the timber), but every dog matures different.

I got ya, makes sense too.
I will keep work on all the other stuff and start back up with a coon in a couple months.
Thanks

Going back to drags. Should I start by getting a tanned coon hide and put some training scent on it to start my new pup with scent trailing?She's only 3 months and the snow will be on the ground soon and there will be no coons out until spring to use a roadkill.
Or do I wait until spring to start her with scent trailing? And use roadkills in the spring. And summer.

Should I just concentrate on obedience over the winter and trash breaking? But wouldn't trashbreaking be pointless unless she knows she is supposed to go after coon instead of other animals?

Trashbreaking is harder if you've never shown them what they are supposed to be going after but not pointless. I mean you don't want to ever encourage them to run trash. I'd use scents if I had nothing else. To me something is better than nothing. The problem I've had with scents is that if they're not good ones they spend their time in the woods looking for that smell which might not be right. Being in the woods is better than not being in the woods regardless of what they're running they're learning.

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I see on here that rickards are good. Scents would only be used until a live or dead coon can be used.

I was told to just cut off a tail off a roadkill and drag it around the house and outside. But in a couple days it will start to rot and that's a totally different smell.

This is all new to me. I've only trained a beagle and I used fresh snowshoe hare kills as drags. And took the pup to the woods when still small and scolded him when ever he smelled a deer track in the snow. He never ran a deer in the 14 years he was alive. And never ran any other game.

From my learnings right now your pup isn't going to go to far from you. The best thing you can do is take that pup for walks in the woods as often as you can. I too used a Coon tail off a road kill or a buddy's fresh kill. If you put the end in salt for a couple days it will last a couple days more. After I throw it out I would let my pup have no time with Coon while I search for a new tail. In the mean time I'd work on obedience.