its pretty funny i used to coon hunt with a guy name badger , and a guy named hicks , both of them were into high dollar dogs , they would get a dog if it didnt do what they wanted in a few nights they would either shoot it or pound it , when i found out they were shooting them i told em to bring em to me , i trained coon dogs and rabbit dogs since i was 8 , anyway some of my best dogs came from them , it may have took a few months to a year , but i got em on the right track so to speak , won alot of night trials with em , dont give up on em joe the hunt is in em ya just gotta find a way to get the hunt out of em, my best memory of training dogs was a young blue tick pup named bluebell , she would not tree , she would trail with the best of them but once she got to the tree she would just sit there and wimper , well after a few times of that i was ready to smack her in the back of the head , but instead i got down on all fours and bawled tree wit hthe rest of the hounds we had , she kinda looked at me like what the hell ya doing , i pulled her over to the tree and talked to her like she was my kid , ya gotta do it like this and i would bawl tree beside her , over the next 20 mintues after her watching me bawl tree and the others bawl tree she finnally opened up on the tree , few more drops and i had her bawling tree by herself , i always gave them jerky treats for treeing , kinda like a little incentive for doing good . god i miss training dogs , youll have to let me tag along sometime this year joe
I tell ya what.... I talked it over with George today. We are going to give JR some 1 on 1 time over the next month.
This dog has it i can tell. He is just being a bonehead.
As a pup he would run and tree coon by himself at 6 months.
George had back surgery and gave the pup to a dog jockey to sell.
The dog jockey either didn't hunt him or hunted him with an aggressive dog once or twice that beat his ass off a tree.
The dog jockey had him for almost a year..
Today... The dog will kill a dropped coon in a heartbeat. No nip and tug dance around. .. I mean full face in there, latch on and not let go till it's dead. He isn't scared to get bit by a coon and doesn't even whimper when one get a hold of him.
He will tree coon and jack the tree like a crazy mofo if he can see the coon. (like i put a dead one on a limb 6 foot up)
If he can't see the coon he will not tree. Even if another dog is treeing. he will jump around and chop hard at everything but the tree.
The other night he did follow a coon i drug and he treed when he found it. That's not hunting though. That's being dropped on a hot trail.
His problem is he will not hunt. He'll run around, stop and watch us, but never go more than 100 yards if another dog isn't with him.. Even when another dog is with him he will go off with that dog. But will not strike or tree.
Both of his parents are finished out Grand Nite Champs. And one each of his grandparents I think. His mom sold for 2,500 and his dad over 3,000.
So here is the deal Uglycat. We're going to mess with this dog for about another month with a bunch of 1 on 1.. To be honest George would just as soon shoot him now. But i can see it in this dog. He has a hell of a mouth and a great nose when he wants to. I think all he needs is someone to work with him and just him..
So here is the deal.. If he doesn't turn on for us in the next month, and you say you can turn a bonehead dog. I'll let you try. If you turn him, then here's what we'll do. Get him hunting like his papers say he can and we'll sell him, what he fetches half is yours for the training. Not a bad deal IMO considering that dude could fetch between 1000-2500 if he hunts like his papers says he should. Or we shuck him for less if he is still half assed. If not and he doesn't turn, send him back sometime next year and he'll get a red fern... What do you think?