I have a 9 month old walker male that has been running and treeing his own coon since he was 6 months old and doing it right. Everything about this pup so far has been outstanding!! Trees hard and stays put even if split, burns up a track,big mouth, and already as straight as they come. He has been a pleasure to train and I have not had anything I don't like about him until recently. He has recently started to get really tight with his mouth on track. The more I hunt him the worse it gets. He is almost to the point of being a silent trailer. I have trained alot of pups but have never encountered this problem. I would like to competition hunt him, and prefer a mouthy dog, so I was wondering if anybody has any suggestions on what I can do (if anything) to keep him from going silent on me. He was wide open on track when he started, but has gradually opened less as time passed.

Some dogs will go semi-silent when running trash. It makes it harder to trash break them also. You think their just hunting but their 3 ridges over running deer. Good times. Generally you'll find it on dogs who have been shocked on trash and its their way of sneaking away.


Did the dog quit treeing as well?

He still trees, and trees hard. I don't think he's trashing because he still opens some on track and usually falls treed within a reasonable distance. He just opens less on track the more I hunt him.

if he trees coon than he is smarter than anyone gives him credit for he has figured out how to get a lot closer to them ,has he caught many on the ground,i get this a lot on dogs that are real fast and start catching and like that better than treeing,but if they don't catch and it makes tree the dog usualy trees like they are mad,if i had this dog i would for get coon and start him on bobcats,a started cat dog is worth the same money as a grandntch,or tree yourself 5 or 6 $200 bobs and pay to hunt al year,good luck let me know if you want to sell him

Sorry he is not for sale.......Yet, and he has been shocked for running bobcat, so I don't think he would be much use for that now. You may be onto something though, because he has caught a few coon on the ground.

you sound like you have a semi sient dog and a dang good one to boot. that dog will win more hunts then most dogs cause they are almost always a first tree dog that shut out cast. i have several buddys with grandnight dogs that are semi silent dogs and i own a female that has first tree 95% of the time in any company. goodluck with your pup if you get tired of him send him my way cause he is just what im lookin for

just send the dog to indiana and we will take good care of him for you !! he sounds like a real nice dog ...

Burdette you are right he is semi-silent right now and has shut out my buddy's Grand Nite and other experienced dogs on several occassions. He has the makings of a top competition hound which is what I had in mind when I bought him. My concern though is that he didn't start out semi silent, and is getting more silent as time progresses. I would not be one to hunt a fully silent dog in the hunts and I am afraid that is the direction this pup is headed. I was just wondering if anybody has ever had any success changing this and how they done it. I have been through countless dogs since I lost my old Grand Nite to a car 11 years ago trying to find one that I thought was good enough to place in competition, and this pup is the first one to satisfy me, so I need to prevent him from going completely silent on me.

IMO but the dog is way to young to hunted very hard..If you let them mature more before hunting them hard.They turn out to be better dogs when they are finished out.Very few dogs are finished out before they are 2 1/2-3 years old.A dog needs 2 good kill seasons to do that.Most guys will ruin more young dogs then they ever finish out... A Semi silent dog should will win a lot more hunts than a wide open dog..(Winning in hunts (also) has a lot to do with the handler)...If you know what your doing you can win with a average coonhound also....

I agree with Chet about slick handlers winning hunts. That is why I have been so particular about which dogs I will competition hunt. I want a dog that wins or loses because of the way that it hunts, not because of my handling abilities. I don't really consider my style of competing "handling". I simply call the dog and give no thought to whether or not it is the best thing to do to win. I'm not into it to win as much as I am to prove to myself that I have as good a dog as I think I do. I don't raise any puppies to sell, or stud out my dogs out, so I have nothing to gain by winning because of my handling abilities. I realize that a semi silent (or silent) dog will win more hunts, but I am in it for myself, and I prefer a dog be a little more mouthy on track than this pup is turning out to be. I am primarily a pleasure hunter, so it is more important that this dog turn out the way I like them than winning hunts is.