Much time and effort goes into training treeing walker coonhounds to hunt. Despite what the name "coonhound" may imply, treeing walker coonhounds are used to hunt more than just raccoons. They excel at hunting coyote, bobcat, wild boar, cougar and bear. They are also trained to hunt people, not as prey, but for search and rescue. Regardless of what they are being trained to hunt, similar methods apply.
Choosing a Puppy
Start with a puppy that comes from proven hunting lines. Look for the bold puppy that is neither bully nor pushover with its littermates. Make a loud, unexpected noise. The puppy who thinks before approaching but shows no nervous hesitation should gain your favor. Observe the litter for the puppies that are actively scenting. Toss in a couple tasty treats for them to discover or pull a hot dog, hide or scent drag on a string in front of them.
Leash Training
Leash training is an important aspect of training a hunting dog. Coonhounds are normally leashed on the way to the designated hunting area, while taking them back to the truck or home after hunting, and occasionally when moving them away from a tree, den or animal the hunter does not wish to shoot.
Scent Drags
Scents are sold for nearly all potential game animals that hunters may want their treeing walker coonhound to hunt. These scents are applied to either commercially available drags or homemade drags, such as rags, canvas toys or paint roller covers. This allows an inexperienced puppy/dog to learn to find a particular scent and be rewarded without the threat of a live animal bite. Hides are often used for this purpose as well.
Roll Cages
Roll cages are like large hamster balls with an elongated shape. When a live prey animal is placed in the roll cage, they are able to move the cage around on the ground, enabling the treeing walker coonhound to experience the live animal up close without risk of injury to either animal.
These are often used to make faux trails and hung safely in a tree or otherwise hidden from sight. The coonhound is turned out to try to track the animal under a supervised training session with a guarantee of success. The animal is rewarded when progress is made.
Puppy Trainers
Puppy trainers are among the most valued coonhounds. These are normally older dogs that can be trusted to hunt without any bad habits and hold their focus and enthusiasm with an inexperienced coonhound puppy at their heels. A good puppy trainer remains gentle under all circumstances and ignores the puppy behaviors that inevitably come from early trips to the woods.
Independence
Once confidence is built up by hunting with other experienced coonhounds, hunters will hunt the dog independently to further build its abilities. This is only done with animals that do not require the treeing walker coonhound to be hunted in a pack, such as raccoons, which are the most common animal these dogs are trained to hunt. Raccoons also are best for beginning treeing walker coonhound hunters.
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