UGH!!!!! i'm about ready to give up on my redbone dixie and just use her for bench shows!!!!!!!!!!!!! bench shows are the only thing shes any good at, and i'm doing all the work when it comes to benching anyway!!

anyway, i know all her problems are my falt, she could have been something great, but i didnt know what i was doing and i got too eager! anyway, she doesnt follow drags, and she will go up to any tree and just start barking!!! its soooo frustrating!!! and my mom has a big part in this too! she wouldnt let me get a broke dog to run dixie w/ and she kept saying "everybody tells me you dont need another dog! you just dont want to listen!" but she just doesnt get it! dixie is pretty much ruined! if i dont get her in w/ another broke coondog, she just might end up being nothing but a bench show dog and thats it! but my mom still wont let me get another dog or pup that i can start over w/ and learn from my mistakes w/ dixie, so i might end up being out of the whole coonhunting sport for good! my mom keeps saying that i can have another dog when dixie has puppies, but i dont want dixie to have puppies if she's not doing any real hunting, thats in the "breeders code" "i will only breed a dog if its to improve the breed and the sport"

anyway, can someone please help me out! i'm gonna stop doing drags, but i havent been able to trap a coon because of the drought(they done packed thier bags and moved towards water) so i have no way of showing her whats she's supposed to be trailing! its all soooo headaching! i want to be a part of this sport soooooo bad, but what else can i do except for benching dixie?

ps, dixie is 10 months, and already has two best of breeds and one best in show under her belt so far, so i guess thats something to be proud of right?

You must have patience..Even if a dogs slick treeing at 10 months old you have something to work with..Many YOUNG guys dont even have that...I get e-mails all the time from young guys wanting a dog.But they are not allowed to have one....Could your female be treeing squirrels????..Also in the summertime coon can be really hard to find..Even in the winter Ive found many coon with my gun scope. You couldnt see without it...I agree with you 100% about breeding her .NOBODY should ever breed a dog just to get pups to work with...You end up with pups you cant give away.With the price of dog feed .It wouldnt take long to ad up as much as buying another dog..Many redbones dont turn on until they are a lot older as a typical redbone..But many make really nice dogs .Just like the other breeds..Have patience with her.If she slick trees just walk her off and recast her.Many times they pick the trail right back up.Most DOGS today are bred to tree quick .Then they come up short...I wouldnt mess with cage coon or drags anymore with her..The more you do things like that can really mess up a dog...A little of that goes a long ways when training a dog...Id give her until she about 2 years old before giving up on her.Thats because shes a redbone...LOL...Just kidding

i agree with chet..i have trained red dogs be4..they start late as he said...but just be happy shes treeing on her own...also..shes kind of young..so don't push her hard..in my opinon i would only hunt her once a week, and you don't need another dog to train a dog..thats a good way to get a me2 dog..but it does help them to learn to tree and track better..but you dont' have to have one......good luck god bless and safe hunting.

well, she has never seen a caged coon before in her life, only a dead one, and my drag is a (nicely) tanned coon pelt($46.00 at gander mountain) drenched in coon musk training scent, its just that i'm too scared to do anything more with her because i dont want to ruin her any furhter, but the guy that said he would let her run w/ his dogs hasnt talked back to me in 2 months!, but my mom is thinking about getting me another pup, that WILL stay outside (so i dont get too attached like i did w/ dixie) and that pup will be sent off to the local coonhound training facility as soon as he's old enough,(plank road, in VA)

you say that redbones start later, hope i'm not asking too many questions, but what makes them start later? is it all the bloodhound(wait all coonhounds have alot blood hound in them right? or is it foxhound that plotts dont have alot of?) or is it just in your past experinces that redbones have started later
and the next dog i get will be a heavy set walker male pup, how are they when it comes to training?

Slow down, slow down, slow down. Take a deep breath and relax. It is not the end of the world LOL. Instant gratification comes at the drive up window at Mcdonalds, not with coonhounds. Have you read any books or articles on coondog training? How much time do you spend just walking in the woods with this pup? Do the parents hunt? I mean really hunt. You have a good long time to go before thinking all is lost with this pup.

well my mom hunts deer w/ dogs, but doesnt know a lick about training them, and my daddy is BIG on rabbit hunting, and he and his daddy had a redbone coonhound once that they hunted coons w/ when my dad was a teen but my dad isnt easy to talk to about training dogs, i dont know much about coonhunting, but i do know ALOT about how the general dog's brain works, but i did read walk w/ wick cover to cover, and i get the coonhound bloodlines, but my "ye of little faith" trip is coming from A TON of different ppl telling me ALL this different stuff, ppl some have told me dixie IS ruined, and some have told me "all she needs is a pack to run with" and a few others told me that all she needs to be set out where the coons are, then get her a shock collar when she goes off game, and then some other ppl told me that i WILL ruin her with a shock collar,
AND ALL THESE PEOPLE THAT HAVE TOLD ME THESE DIFFERENT THINGS HAVE CHAMPION COON DOGS!!
and we used to spend everyday out in the woods since the time she was 4 months old, from the time i come home til its too dark to see our way out of the woods, but i decided to put her up for a while because i wanted to put some wieght on her (for bench shows) and she hasnt been in the woods for a month, except for the other day when she snuck out with my beagle and the ran deer, coyotes, rabbits, COONS, and skunks for 2 days straight! i know they ran all this cause they stayed with in 2 miles of the house and you could see all the little critters running like crazy, but my beagle ended up killing the coon so dixie never got a chance to tree it

Hey kiddo (and I mean that in a nice way), I think LCK was trying to ask do Dixie's parents hunt? Where did you get her from? That kind of background info on her

..I would not get another young dog.They just take too long to find out what you have..It can take 1-2 years and still not have a dog you want to keep..Id ask your mom and dad to get YOU a BROKE dog for x-mas .5-6 years old or so.That you could hunt 4-5 years or even longer...If I was just starting out..Thats what Id want..Id never mess with pups..Until I had a nice dog to hunt them with.Its also a lot cheaper in then long run.Buying broke dogs over pups.In most areas you can buy a older broke dog. For about the price of 2 top bred pups..BUT you must hunt them before buying.....Many guys will say and do anything to get rid of a dog...Even high priced dogs dont mean crap...Ive tryed out dogs for a lot of money.I wouldnt feed....

oh ya!(DUH! smack self in the head) of course they do! her daddy is like a grand nite champ, and her mom is an exellent bear dog, dixies mom came out of timber chopper appache!

ya, but we've been shopping around for one for a while, i almost got this GORGEOUS redtick male, he was A GREAT coon dog(saw him in the woods), and he was $800, i saved up alot of money over the summer and got around $750, and my mom said she would pay the rest, but then she yelled at me because my room was dirty(and btw she never asked me to clean my room, so it wasnt like i was disobeying her, i didnt have time to clean it) and she wouldnt let me get the dog!!!! all that money and all that work i did babysitting, yard work, filing papers, and she wouldnt let me get the dog because my room was dirty!!! i didnt clean my room because 4 days a week i was staying the night at my sister's house watching her 9 month old baby!!!!
anyway im getting off topic here, but after that bs i just gave up on saving my money to buy a broke dog, theres no point in me loosing countless hours of sleep several times a week(the baby wakes up at 5:30 am, and her parents get home at 8:30, and everytime she woke up in the night i woke up too!) working sooooo hard for something i so despretly wanted and not get it because i dont keep my room nice and neat!! anyway, my mom cant afford a broke dog, shes going through a divorice and i might not even get a b-day(november 8th) or christmas this year, i hope you dont think i'm being selfish, i have done everything i can to help her with moving and painting our new house, cleaning and everything, but i have my life and my hobbies too, hounds(including beagles)and wild animals are the reason why i get up in the morning,
and all that money i saved up is half in the bank, some went to microchiping dixie, and i bought a few things

Well, that's the thing with opinions, if you ask for em your sure enough going to get them. My opinion is no different than anyone elses LOL. The thing with hounds is this in a nut shell. The real good ones do not require much training at all. All they really need is some patience and controlled time in the woods. All of the people who have these champion dogs and other dogs have, more than likely a wide difference in experience with actually training a dog. Just because a person has had or does have a titled dog really does not qualify them as an expert all of the time. There's a good chance they are just fortunate enough to have had or do have a real decent dog at the time. I sincerely think, if you just took a little more time with this young hound in the daytime woods and worked on a little obediance and handling the dog would mature some and settle down. I wouldn't even mess around with drags and cages and the like for a good while until the dog has matured some. Then, once the dog has learned the meaning of the word NO through good solid obediance and has had a chance to grow and gain some manners in the woods, then and only then would I worry about hunt exposure. I would not run this dog with other dogs yet even. The dog needs to learn a few things from you first. 10 months is awfull young yet. Good luck with this challenge. Just keep in mind, once you have gone through a good 25 to 30 hounds you will still run into a new challenge every day with dogs . Good luck.

thanks LCK, you always put things into terms that my teenaged mind can understand, i have been doing alot of obedience work( go to the story forum and read my post "my dog listens to curse words,(but doesn't know the meaning)") but i think your right, she still has alot of maturing to do now that i think about it, she isnt even physically mature let alone mentally,but thanks algain