Gun Dog Forum

I have a 8 month old Redbone Coonhound and plans are that he is going to be my pleasure coonhound. I have never owned a coon dog but I have hunted several times, and fell in love. He has seen a hide, tracked and treed it, seen a caged coon, wanted to tear the cage apart. I take him hunting alone and with "big" dogs too. He doesnt seem to have the grit like I would want. He will trail with the other dogs if they don't go far, he won't leave me far if we are alone. I am considering getting him another caged coon, letting him see it or something then taking it out of sight and letting it go. If everything goes like i plan, he would track and tree it and i would shoot it out and let him fight it a bit and we would be done. That that would work... well that is why I am here. I need advice!

(he loves to swim also, if we are hunting and he finds water it is over. this picture was during a bath haha)

8 months- give him time. Take him out by himself once in a while or often.


(20 years of beagles here. The young ones behaviour similar to your story when in a pack.)

Black and Tan for Me. I trained this dog without the aid of other dogs. I took him to the woods in the daytime, alot. He learned how to get around and started hunting and treeing squirrels which I shot out to him. This taught him to hunt, locate the correct tree and stay on it barking treed, (which made him prefer tree game vs fast game when I hunted him at night). Hunting him in the daylight gave him the confidence to range out at a young age which carried over well when we started going out at night. Then I worked him on a couple of hot track released coons which really fired him up on coons. Followed by many trips to the woods at night.

Great picture. I like red bones too.

my father in law was a coon hunter he would take a young dog if the dog didn't hunt wide enough he would say his prey drive will soon over take his range your dog will start to go more and more

Thanks guys, I have yet to catch another coon but he did tree on his own the other morning. he didn't stay on it long and it was just a drag but that gives me hope. As soon as this weather gets cooler I am going to take him by himself a lot since he will mostly hunt by himself in the future. I didn't realize there weren't many hound hunters on here and mostly bird hunters. Oh well, I have confidence in him now and I can't wait till he is treeing like a champ