Tips on How to Train a Coon Dog

If you've read the novel "Where the Red Fern Grows" and have been struck with a desire to own your very own coon hound, read on for some tips on how to train these lovable creatures.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Choosing a Puppy

1. Pick a breed. Not every breed of dog is destined to track and hunt raccoons. Breeders have spent generations improving certain breeds to have the instincts needed to be a successful coon hound. The breeds you should consider are Red Bone Hounds (this was the breed of dog represented in "Where The Red Fern Grows"), English Coonhound, Black and Tan coonhound, Bluetick Coonhound (featured in "Sounder"), English Setter and some Labradors.

2. Select a puppy that seems to be a natural hunter, is healthy and friendly. A future coon hound hunter should spend a lot of time with its nose to the ground picking up scents and showing signs of being a tracker. When choosing a puppy, make some loud noises, such as stomping your foot, and look for a puppy that doesn't jump and flinch at the noise.

3. Take your puppy to the veterinarian for a checkup within a few days of purchasing it. Make sure that it is in good health and up to date with its vaccinations.

Teach Your Puppy to Hunt Raccoons

1. Enroll your puppy in dog obedience classes. A good coon hound is also a well-educated dog that minds its owner. Before you can teach your dog how to track and tree raccoons, it will have to know how to sit, come, lay down, heel and stay. Once your puppy has learned these commands while attached to you via a lead rope, teach it to perform the same cues while off the leash. It is never too early to start teaching your puppy obedience.

2. Take your puppy on long walks. The walks will teach your puppy to be comfortable outdoors, strengthen the bond between you and your puppy, provide a fun and interesting environment to practice the skills learned in your dog obedience classes and provide your puppy with some much needed exercise.

3. Set up your puppy's crate somewhere outside. Once your puppy is safely locked into the crate, start firing your gun, making sure to fire in the opposite direction of your puppy's crate. This is the best way to get your puppy accustomed to gunfire.

4. Teach the puppy to follow a scent when it is 3 months old. The best way to do this is with a fresh--and stinky--raccoon carcass. Drag the carcass in a winding path around your yard. Tie the carcass to a tree--it is extremely important that your coon hound learns to look for the carcass in a tree. Make the course longer and more challenging on every successive day. After your puppy has successfully found the raccoon, spend time praising it. Your dog should always think that hunting is fun.

5. Trap a raccoon. Allow your dog to investigate the trap and the raccoon inside it. If your dog is mentally ready to progress to the next phase of its training, it will bark and get very excited about the trapped coon. If your dog isn't interested in the coon, go back to scent training until your dog has matured a little more.

6. Find an open field with just a couple of trees and set the raccoon free. Give the raccoon a head start before releasing your dog. Trail your dog as it follows the scent and leads you to the tree the raccoon has climbed.

7. Go on the first hunt when the puppy is around 8 months old. It's best to bring a more experienced dog along the first few times you take your puppy out at night into the woods--the puppy will gather confidence from the other dog.