Mr. Bill Morris, of Morris Competition Kennels, has recently shared some of his methods on training consistent competition dogs and has graciously agreed to allow me to place them here on our Website. I think you'll find his ideas very interesting and hope, like me, you'll learn a little something from them. Thank you Mr. Morris for sharing your wisdom and experiences!!
Step 1: Choosing a Pup
In order for any dog to be considered to be competition material, the first and most key ingredient is what is bred into it or what is between its ears. A pup that is bred with a head full of sense will be the easiest dog you will ever train. The only way to properly determine it's true abilities is to either hunt with or gather as much information as you can on its sire and dam. Today a lot of individuals buy a pup because it is out of such and such a sire or dam, without looking at the attributes that will help them have a natural starting pup. Look for a pup that is bred to have natural ability, strike power, track power, tree power and above all a heart full of desire. A pup with a heart full of desire will still be trying to get something done when the rest have quit. This is where you see them get deep quick and find that raccoon to tree. As you get the pup out of the pen and start to break it to lead and do other things, watch for the level of intelligence it has as far as how quick it picks things up that you are teaching. This helps to identify what is between his ears and what you have to work with.
Step 2: The Proper Way to Start a Pup
Starting a pup properly will most likely determine the end result of the dog. Either have the pup in a large pen that you can walk around or put it on a tie out stake that it can make a large circle on as you work with it. Be watching for fresh killed coons on the road each morning. Make sure you are in a safe area to pull off the road and either take the whole coon or cut its tail off and take it with you. Start by going around the pen or tie stake just out of reach of the pup and tease it with the coon tail. Do this 2 to 3 times a day until the pup really starts to want it. Be patient, this may take a few times, but it will eventually get more aggressive as you spend more time in teasing it. Remember, we are in no hurry here; we have several months to prepare this pup to go to the woods and hunt with the big dogs or by itself. What you are accomplishing with this method are two things: 1) You are creating a desire for this pup to want to pursue and attack a coon because of the scent it is getting from repetition of training. 2) You are promoting this pup in one direction every time it smells coon. You are teaching it that this is what we are going to hunt for when you unsnap that leash from the first time on. Your anticipation level will be as great as the pups, but we won't turn it loose until we have it ready to look for a coon. You can further promote this step by dragging the tail or coon and hiding it and then lead the pup to its trail and see if it can follow the track. The better it gets at following the track, the more difficult you want to lay the track. Through trees, ditches, water etc.
Step 3: Creating a Pup’s Personality:
Creating a certain personality in a pup is one of the most crucial steps in preparing your pup to hunt the way it should. So many times a person is waiting for a pup to get big enough to hunt and all that is done with it is to open the gate, yell get back, feed, water and leave the pen. There is no time spent with the pup and believe it or not the pups personality is being formed from this activity. It is learning that when a human comes around, it needs to find a place to hide or get away from them. Take the time everyday to walk in the pen, ask the pup how it is doing and reach out and pet it. Rub its head a little and wrestle and play with it. Once you start shaping its personality to be friendly, you can then start teaching it commands without sending it backwards. Take the pup out and lead it and let it run loose in the yard and teach it to come to you and not be afraid to be around you. Be upbeat in all of your actions when handling your pup, as you want it to have what is known as a “Type A” personality. Type A personality is action packed, ready to go at anytime you give it a chance. It will be a very out going type dog that will handle around anybody. Have you ever noticed how dogs take on the personality of the person handling them? If the handler acts a little silly or if the handler is serious minded, you will see the same actions from their dog. You are basically laying the groundwork for your dog to learn that when you say go it goes or come and it comes. Most of all you are creating a relationship of good communication from the pup to the handler. Now some dogs are natured a certain way by breeding and unfortunately those with bad traits, shyness, ill, lack of desire, lazy, no hunt etc. need to be eliminated. However, some of the traits you see in a dog are man made, so we want to create good habits or traits.
Step 4: Performance Expectations
We have now gotten our pup through the first 3 steps and probably to the age of 4 to 6 months by now, depending on how much you have worked with it during this time. One of the main things to remember is that each individual is going to push their pup at different rates of training. This means that each pup is going to develop to the point of going to the next step of training at a different age. In reality, one person may have their pup at step 4 in 4 months and another may be 6 months. The main thing to remember is that it is up to you to determine the pace that you want to bring your pup along on and also some pups will move along faster than others when it comes to developing each step or phase in them. This does not necessarily mean that one pup is going to be better than the other. It only means that they are developing at a different pace. What we are after here is not the pop up and pop out type dog. We are creating a training program and developing a pup that when it does start to run and tree coons, it will never look back. It will only continue to get better. This is why it is crucial to have a step process and a lot of patience in training any young dog. Bringing them along too quickly in a lot of cases will cause them to blow up at a young age. Allowing them to mature through the training process will determine the long-term effect of the dog. Bottom line here, take them through all of the steps at a pace that works for the particular pup. Some will be ready to put in the woods at 6 months and some at 12 months. The thing we want to accomplish is the end result of creating a real coon dog.
Step 5: Putting a Pup in the Woods
One of the most important things is to not put a pup in the woods, especially with other dogs, until it is ready. So many times pups are pushed too early and as a result never are given the proper chance to develop into the type dog that they could have been. There are exceptions on very few pups. Some may start very early such as 6 months, but most are really not ready to put in the woods until they are 8 to 9 months old. The first thing that should be observed here is whether the pup has developed enough physically to really keep up with another dog when you turn them loose together. If they can't keep up, but have the desire to want to, you will find yourself creating a babbling dog and one that will become lost and do a lot of bugger barking. On the other hand if you have properly brought the pup along and have it treeing on drag and cage coons, it should be able to hold its own by the time it is 9 months old. If you insist on starting it earlier, start it with an older dog that hunts in close or hunts the entire woods out without blowing through the country. Another good approach is to hunt the pup by itself in patch woods and such where it has a good chance of striking a hot track fairly quick. The most important thing you gain in giving the pup a little time to develop is that they will usually start real fast at 9 to 12 months old without going backwards on you. I would do everything under the other steps first though to assure that the pup is capable of following a track and when it goes up a tree to settle and tree on it. This is best done by doing the drag and then hiding the coon from them and making them learn to tree by scent only. Never let them tree by sight. If they start to tree, especially in the woods when you start hunting them, spend a lot of time praising them and letting them know how good they did.
Step 6: Bringing Out the Maximum Performance
Bringing out the Maximum Performance in a pup can be a real tricky thing to do. As everyone on here that has trained dogs from a pup to a mature dog will probably tell you, there is no science to when the pup will start performing at its potential. We are assuming of course that we have a pup that is bred right to make a good coon dog. It is very possible to spend a lot of time on a pup and see that it just doesn't have what it takes to be the type dog we want. We have to be willing to let that pup go and start over or find a better prospect. Maximum performance may not be reached until the pup is 2 yrs. old on. This may sound funny, but what we are looking for is a steady progress of improvement. By the time the pup is 12 months old it should be showing you the kind of desire it has, as far as, wanting to go hunting, starting a track and doing everything it can to finish it. Some nights it may look like a million dollars and some nights you feel like you should just quit. If it is having good nights, we know it has it in it. Now is the time to be patient and start working on individual things. If it has started a track and done a decent job of finishing it, spend 10 to 15 minutes with it at the tree just praising and encouraging it for the job it just finished. It's amazing how quick they relate your positive reinforcement to them doing their job. Sometimes you can push and sometimes you need to let a particular level of performance come at its own pace. Different dogs, depending on their nature will accept pushing easier and some you need to let develop. This is something you just have to develop a feel for as you work with the pup. If it is under your feet when the other dogs strike and you know it has been taught to be out there, then get you a green switch and burn its hide until it decides it would rather be with the dogs running than with you.
Now we can start getting into some of the meat in this training program. I will cover some training and progress on four different dogs this past year. The first one I will cover is a pup called Rascal. I sold him to Jeff Rusher in Northern IL. a few months ago and he is already making a name for himself. Rascal was brought along very slowly as you will see. Until he was 10 and 1/2 months old all I did was the basic steps we have talked about. I would go into the pen and spend time with him. When he was very small he would always be the pup out of three from that litter that would continually aggravate me when I fed them. He would grab my pant legs, tug at shoestrings, just anything to be getting attention. I kept calling him a little rascal and one day it just stuck. He wasn't the pick of the litter if you were to look at his brothers. They were both red head saddle back and he was typical Lipper or Bozo looking. Black head with tan muzzle and black saddleback. He has turned out to be a really nice looking hound.
At 10.5 months old I put him in the woods for the first time. As we were going hunting a coon crossed the road, so I stopped got him out and led him to the tree. He smelled the coon and got up on the tree and started treeing. I cut him with an old ten-year-old dog I was hunting at the time and he treed on two coons with him that night. He never pulled a bark on the ground, but hammered on those trees. The next time I hunted him, we saw a coon setting up across a small field and squalled it down. The other two dogs opened first and then he fell in and ran that track like he had been doing it for months. When we got to the tree he was milling a little, but I was more than pleased with what I saw. The main thing is, I feel like by exposing him to coons in the manner I did around the kennel and having the basic controls on him such as leading etc helped him to make a quick start. The key ingredient was probably his desire and ability. He always showed that he had a head full of sense in his learning basic steps. I believe you will enjoy hearing about his progress at different ages and where he is at today. He turned two April 2nd, 2002.
Rascal’s next few hunts were very interesting. On the third hunt, Elmer Jenkins was up from Tn and him, Jimmy Russell and I were hunting. I had Rascal and another pup called Style. We cut them and all dogs broke hard. In about 5 minutes Style comes back and Rascal followed. My attention was on Rascal, I pulled a switch and waited until the dogs struck and sent him in. He went a few feet and stopped. I cut a good green switch that wouldn't break or injure him. I walked to him in the woods and started switching; he literally rolled up in a little ball and just looked up at me as I was switching him. The other dogs are tracking pretty well by now and probably 150 yards away. I never raised my voice, I just calmly said "Rascal you might as well get up and go down there and run with those other dogs, because you are not going to be a light dog". Now I have never stopped switching him. I'm blistering his hide good. About ten more seconds after he received my instruction and the continued switching, he came up off that ground and shot out of there like a bullet to the other dogs. He has never and I mean never hesitated one time since then. I took Style and put him back in the box. Rascal fell in with the other dogs and drove that track. We drove up the road, as the dogs were getting deeper and I did the same thing with Style, he joined them also. Elmer Jenkins just watched the entire first ordeal and said he had never seen anything like that in his life. I don't want to get ahead on Rascals progress, but ever since then you can literally hold 3 dogs on a leash, cut him and he will throw dirt in your face, never looks back or needs company to hunt. In fact, if a coon isn’t in close, he will be setting in there a half or more struck and running a coon within 2 minutes.
OK, now we have this pup hunting hard every time he is cut loose. What is left now is to start fine-tuning the different things we are going to see in him over the next few weeks and months. At this point in the training, Rascal is really coming along well. He is striking quick and can run a track like the wind. He is hitting the trees real hard with the other dogs and treeing for about 2 to 4 minutes and then he wants to get down and track. This is typical of a lot of young dogs. The key here is being able to get him in a position to correct this problem. You don't want to over correct, but let him know what he is supposed to be doing. The next couple of times hunting he would do this, but come back into the tree when you get there. The best thing to do is tie him back and let him watch the other dogs receive the reward. This will soak in pretty quick, that he is supposed to be on the tree. On the second time of hunting I was able to get him in the position I wanted to. He stayed treed until we almost got in, I was able to get to him and catch him off the tree about 30 yards. I took a green switch and lightly switched him all the way to the tree and was speaking to him to get on the tree the whole time I was walking him in. He got on that tree and never got down again. He would stay treed on every tree after that. Now you need to realize that this particular pup was exceptionally smart and it never took more than once to twice for him to realize what you expected him to do.
Step 7: Knowing When to Push
Knowing when to push a pup or when to slow down is probably one of the most crucial factors in its training. Some of this has been touched on a little already through discussing other issues. The track, the tree and the over all handling or nature of the particular pup has a lot to do with the actual things to be watching for. A pup that breaks hard and throws dirt in your face is illustrating its desire to get in there and hunt. Is it striking quick when it finds a track and does it handle that track well? If this part seems to be working on a consistent basis, then you have a good prospect. I believe a pup that shows this type desire will as a general rule make a good dog. If it isn't showing this strong desire, then you need to spend some more time on getting it out either in the daytime just roaming or night time with the other dogs, preferably one that will stay in pocket so as to actually pull the pup with it. Next, when it puts a track up a tree is it quick to settle and start treeing? If not, this may be a sign of a couple of things. It could be that it needs to build its confidence and understand when the coon climbs to end the track. It could also be an example of the pup wanting to make sure it has the coon. Some are checkers and some just seem to be natural at understanding the tree thing. Either way it should start demonstrating a growth in this area. I'll give you a for instance here, the Rascal pup I have been concentrating on loves to run a track and today is as hard and quick a tree dog as you could want. As I have already explained, it took just a little work to get him to stay hooked once the coon was up. However, the more I hunted him and watched him develop, some things became evident. In most cases if he didn't settle on the tree quick or went on with the other dogs treed, they were either slick or had off game. Of course when I saw him start doing this, it concerned me at first, until I realized that he wasn't going to be on a tree unless he knew that coon scent was on the tree. It is amazing at how many times he took a track on and was correct in his decision. So one of his strong points is his accuracy, when he trees, you better look real hard. Naturally, these are the things we would like to see in all pups, but each one is going to be different. Let me hit on a couple of other points. First, what type pup are you working with? Can it take pushing it hard or do you need to use more of a nudge it along approach? Only you can determine how much pressure you can apply and keep it going forward. If the pup is goofing around and just not breaking, then try the green switch method, once the other dogs strike. If you feel the switch is a little too harsh right now, walk away from it every time it gets close and even keep a few stones in your pocket and toss them at him occasionally in order to make him choose to be hunting instead of around you. Second, if he is treeing and overall showing good growth, then just encourage it and give it a lot of praise for doing the right things. I have several other points here, but lets get you involved with individual examples.
Push and Hold would be a good motto to have in working with your pups. Never over train when trying to advance a pup in a particular direction. This means to only work on one thing at a time with the pup and not try to correct 2 or 3 problems in one night. A slow growth in the right direction will help you to get a much better end result with your pup and probably quicker also. For instance, you have a pup that is hunting great, getting struck and working the track. When it gets to the tree it is milling. Now milling in the sense that I view it is a pup close to the tree, but still smelling around on the ground or standing off the tree looking at what is going on. The first approach would be to tie the other dogs back and put the pup on a leash and see if it will tree by encouraging it. If it does, then it is showing that it doesn't like pressure from the other dogs. In this case it would be important to hunt the pup with one dog that is exceptionally calm and see if it will start joining it on the trees. Once it gets involved with a few coons out on it, the desire should be there for it to tree with other dogs and pressure. If it were milling, not trying to go on with a track, this would be the time to tie it back and let it watch the other dogs get a coon. However, I am not much on not letting the pup chew on the reward. Never try switching a dog to get it to tree. The only time that technique should be used is when you can catch it away from the tree and slowly switch it back, instructing it to get on the tree and stop switching about ten feet before you get it back to the tree.
Step 8: Building Strong Points and Eliminating the Negative
Building the Strong Points and eliminating the negative is where we start separating the pleasure dog from the competition dog or the winning dog. At this point we are several months into our training program and we should be seeing some very good results out of our pup. Our goal is to have a pup by now that is basically doing a consistent job every time we turn it loose. Break hard, strike quick, drive a track and tree like they are supposed to. If we have accomplished this, then what is left is to start fine-tuning or taking any kinks out that are in the pup. No dog and especially a young dog is going to be perfect every time we hunt them, but they should be consistent in trying to get the job done. This means every time you hunt them, they don't stop trying to tree coons until you are ready to quit. Rarely are you going to have a young dog that just goes and trees coons without making mistakes. Some examples would be occasionally running off game, treeing a possum, treeing in the ground and coming up short.
#1 ~ If the pup is running junk, it should only be on occasion, when it does it should be a short lived track and fall under a coon. If it makes this a habit, that is literally killing your hunt, and then it is time to eliminate it. If the pup can be cut off and caught, I will catch it and you can bet there will be one of the best hickory switches available in my hand. This is the time it will get a whipping, not a switching, that it will not forget for a long time. Emphasize on switch, not a club. Our goal here is to get a strong message across to it without injury.
#2 & 3 ~ Treeing an occasional possum or in the ground, should be handled close to the same way. Sometimes it will be as easy as leashing the pup and immediately getting it away from them and correcting in a strong command and sending it on. If it repeats this again than it is time to fire it up with a switch. The quicker you recognize the mistake it has made and get the dog away from it the better. Each time you have to correct this problem, it should be done with more severity so as to establish in its mind that this punishment is only going to get worse if it continues this problem.
#4 ~ Coming up short is the one thing that I cannot stand in any dog. Make sure that you are correct in your decision here and then choose the best method to correct the problem. Assuming the pup is running a good track and just missed it, then lead it a very short distance from the slick tree and pop it with the strap on the leash and command it to find the coon. It should pick the track back up and go on. If it continues, again increase the level of punishment.
Most of the results of correcting these problems will be seen relatively shortly if you are training a pup with some brains. This is the key. A smart pup picks things up quick and as a general rule will strive to please you and do the right things. Remember, we are fine-tuning the good points now and trying to do this in a manner that does not send the pup backwards. Over correcting can send it the wrong way, so use some common sense. Most of all PRAISE IT WHEN YOU CATCH IT DOING SOMETHING RIGHT. Believe it or not, praising for the good things will eliminate the negative a lot of times.
Step 9: How to Correct Without Destroying
Knowing how to correct your dog without destroying what you have already built is a fine line. Some young dogs can take a lot more pressure or correcting than others. In other words, some pups will take a switching and just shake it off and go on. Others, when corrected too much may quit or just hide instead of hunting. This is where the common sense comes in and especially being able to read a dog and knowing exactly what to do to forward its growth. Example: I had a nice male pup here last year that was about 15 months old and doing a good job. Someone I knew liked him so much that he asked to take him and hunt him. I agreed as I had several dogs I was working on. He kept the pup about 1 month and put him in a hunt. It took him 2 hours to catch him, as he just kept hiding in a cornfield. I was at the hunt and he was so frustrated that he asked me to take him home. I did and started hunting him. He was not the same pup I sent with this fellow. It took me a bout a month just to get his confidence back up and trust in me that he wasn't going to get whipped every time he came around me. When I sold him a few months later he was doing his job right and split treeing etc. This pup could take correcting, but it had to be done properly, this is the balance that you must be able to apply. If you don't have it, get some help from someone with a lot of experience. Sometimes, it is better to put a leash on a pup and lead it away from its mistake and get it involved in a good track. Then let it know that you are well pleased with the good job it did.
Step 10: Getting 110% From Your Dog
Getting 110% out of your dog every time you turn it loose is the ultimate goal. This can only be accomplished by following a rigid routine and repetition of your training procedures. Your dog was born with certain abilities and it is up to you to build upon these traits and create a dog that meets your expectations. The first step in reaching this goal is to outline the procedure you intend to follow and stick to it, making only small adjustments as needed. The months of hard work and many hours you have spent with your dog will give you these results. If you are not getting the performance from your dog that you are wanting, then analyze the problems you see and correct them. First, make sure the dog’s health is 100%. Look at each phase of its performance and decide if there is something that is lacking in its ability or does it need special attention in a particular area. If you recognize a weak area, then concentrate on this one problem until it is eliminated. When I cut my dog, I expect it to give me everything it has got; I want 110% from it every time I release it for as many hours as I want to hunt. This is where you have to have as much or more desire to succeed than your dog. This separates the average dogs and hunters from the rest. Push and I mean push the dog hard every 3rd to 4th time you hunt it. This will establish stamina and create a strong desire to succeed and never quit performing until you put it in the dog box.
Step 11: Hunting Out of Respect vs. Hunting Out of Fear
Does your dog hunt and perform for you out of Respect or Fear? This poses an interesting question for several reasons. If you have developed a young male dog from beginning to end and it has really made an outstanding hound, what do you have in the end? If it has reached this level of competition primarily because of Natural ability, then you may very well have a dog worth a great deal of money for stud purposes etc. On the other hand, if your dog has reached this level from being trained or man made, you have a dog that is good for one thing, Hunting! This brings us back to the original intent and prospect that we chose as a puppy. What was our goal when we started out? It takes a long time to get any dog to top performance and there isn't any hunter out there that doesn't have in the back of their mind what the value of that dog will be when it gets to the top of it's game. The Natural pup is usually one that has come from a good line of well-bred dogs created from a game plan that someone started years earlier. The Natural pup will be ten times easier to train than the man made dog. When you have finished this Natural pup with proper breeding behind it, you now own something that has a much higher value and the odds of it continuing to produce pups like itself or better are also much better. The man made dog can come from almost any line of coondogs. Granted some won't make it under any circumstances, but most dogs with enough work punishment and beating etc., will become a competition dog. What do you have when you are finished? A dog that is getting older every year and if used to further your breeding program will give you a bad reputation. I point all of this out so as to keep us focused on bettering our breeds and hunting prospects and allowing our training process to be one that is enjoyable. There is an old saying, you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear. Start from the beginning creating a program that will work successfully to accomplish the end goals that you have in mind.
Respect or Fear: As you hunt with several dogs, watch their performance from the time they are cut until they are led away from a tree. This means to analyze every move that they make, how they handle, their demeanor and their overall anticipation of being turned loose again. The dog that has Natural ability and has been nurtured and cared for while reaching it's maximum potential, will be one that hunts with enthusiasm and excitement and ready to charge every time you cut it until you are ready to quit. The dog that has been beat, yelled at, stomped and just about anything you can imagine to get it to perform will sooner or later just quit. The Natural dog hunts out of desire and will hunt for you out of respect for the way you have trained and handle it and will hunt until it has reached a point that it is not physically capable of it any longer. This dog has more than likely also produced some pups for you that are better than itself.
So the next time you pick your pup out, look at the gene pool for Natural ability and most of all brains. Bring this pup along properly and allow it to hunt for you because it respects how you have polished and brought it to the peak of its ability. This dog may not like it's switching when corrected, but it's desire will make it continue to try and please you. A dog that hunts out of Respect does everything in its power to perform in a manner that causes you to show it appreciation for a job well done.
Step 12: Winning with Your Dog
Winning with your pup has been the ultimate goal in following a rigid well thought out training program. By now your pup is probably between 12 and 18 months old. The most important thing is to NOT put your pup in a hunt until it is ready to compete. Too many times pups are thrown in the hunts and they can easily be sent backward instead of forward. By now you have spent enough time with your dog and hopefully it is performing the way you had hoped it would. This pup is not a finished dog by any means, but is probably ready to hold its own in it's own class. In some cases, you will have a pup that is so competitive that it can hunt against any class of dog you put it in the woods with. If it is at that level, then I would recommend hunting the pup in open events only, as more mature experienced dogs will actually make it look better. This has to be your judgment call.
The key to winning with any dog is to know that dog like the back of your hand. I mean, you should literally know every squeak your dog makes and what it means. You should know when it strikes right, when it is about to finish a track, is it in ruff stuff or running a moving track, comes on a tree right, and has committed to stay. Having the best dog, although it sure is nice, is not always what it takes to win. Hunting with one dog and learning it well enough is just as important when it comes to winning. Remember, you are still hunting a pup; it will get better with time. The next key to winning is to read your rules and know them like the back of your hand. This will not only keep you abreast of what call you need to make at any given time, it may also keep someone else from taking points away from you or gaining when they shouldn't. Example: I read the blue book 2 or 3 times when I started competition hunting and for the first three months, I would read the rules once a week. Repetition in training ourselves to be good handlers is just as key as repetition in training our dog. The purpose of you and your dog competing at this level is to be the best you can be. Sometimes you will help your dog and sometimes your dog will help you. Expect for it to take 6 to 12 months of competing in the hunts for you to start getting good at your game. Most of all always compete fairly and vote on every question and treat every situation as though it is you and your dog in that position. You may loose a few and actually help someone else win sometimes, but in the end it will come out in your favor if you have done the right things in your preparation to be ready to compete. Never give up and never let anyone get to you. Be like a bull, charge on and like an oyster when it comes to patience. Know where you are at every time a call is made on a dog and know what it is going to take for you to stay in a position to win the cast.
