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janet kosnik

A few weeks ago, a friend, Chad Miller, was traveling through my neck of the woods from California back home to Saskatchewan Canada.  He made a stop at my house for a day or 2 along with 3 hounds.  I recently had some foot surgery, so coonhunting was out of the question.  But I had a live trap set at a friend’s place and it just so happened that there was a young boar coon in it when I checked on it.  What luck!

I have a 14 month old female, Double Trouble, out of my Jujube and Black.  I still call her a pup ‘cause she’s the last pup in the kennel.  She hasn’t been worked enough this year due to my surgery but the time she’s been in the woods, she’s shown plenty of desire.  There’s no doubt in my mind that I kept the right pup from that litter.  Up until this time, she hasn’t had any coon shot down to her.   She’s a hunting fool waiting for that first fur.

I had intended to transfer the live-trapped coon into a roll cage to work the young dogs.  But when I brought the coon home, my dogs caught wind of it and started baying, getting that coon all worked up before I could get him into a roll cage.  So we turned Trouble and Chad’s 6-mo. old bluetick pup, Cowboy, loose.  The pup had no interest but Trouble went wild.  Trouble was really working that cage, pushing it around while Cowboy snooped around, just being a pup.   Chad was disappointed since he had just picked the pup up and the breeder told him Cowboy had been on a few caged coon.  I’d bet NOT.

Anyway, both Chad and I were very impressed with Trouble.  There was no doubt in our minds about her knowing what to do with a coon.  She got so fired up that she was frothing at the mouth, just like her great grandsire, Black Juice.  That was a trait Juice was known for. 

I turned out my recently bred 2-yr. old female, Dynamo, on that riled up coon, just to give her something to do.   She got after him in no time flat.  It was a warm, sunny day and that coon was getting pretty hot.   We needed to rest him and let him cool down before dark when the hounds would run him.

At dusk, I drove Chad about a half-hour west of my place to an area where I hunt in the spring and fall.  Summer has too many rattlers but I thought we’d take a chance this time.  I brought Trouble along with backup tree power (if needed) from Maverick and Ladybug.  Chad brought his pup, Cowboy, to try to get him going on coon. With the hounds in the dogbox, we walked in a ways with the caged coon and a gallon of water.  I’ve found that when coon are threatened they walk on their toes while they run and don’t leave much scent.  So to make sure that the hounds could track and tree, I doused the coon with the water before turning it loose.  I opened the cage and the coon took off.  Boy, can coon cover ground!  He ran and it looked like he ran up a tree pretty darn quick.  Chad was disappointed that it wasn’t gonna be a longer track to the tree.  But, the way I felt, was that hounds don’t need the tracking training as much as the treeing reinforcement.  Work on the tree is what I feel is more important than the tracking.  If a hound can’t track on it’s own, then it shouldn’t be in the woods.  I don’t think laying drags will help.  That’s the part that hounds are bred for and that ability should come natural.  At least this way, with the coon up a tree, we knew the hounds would definitely get to tree and we could shoot it down to the young dogs.

Walking the hounds down the trail to where the coon was turned loose, my two older dogs, Maverick and Ladybug began winding that coon.  Trouble wasn’t far behind and soon all three had opened.  We turned all 4 dogs loose and watched them go.  I had all four fitted with Sunburst’s Saturn LED lighted collars.  If you’ve never heard of or seen these collars, you don’t know what you’re missing.  If you’re a serious coonhunter, these collars allow you to see what your hounds are doing on track and at the tree, if the brush isn’t too thick.  My friend, Judi Doran of Centerburg Ohio, turned me on to these collars a few years ago while hunting in her part of the country.  I had to get some.  They allow you to see what a young dog and even an older one is doing out in the woods and sees what progress they’re making.  Once Chad saw them on the dogs, he thought they were pretty cool, too.  You’ve got to coonhunt a lot before it’s worthwhile spending the cash on the collars.  But I love ‘em! 

All 3 of my hounds found the tree.  Mav and Bug immediately treed and Trouble winded the coon before she locked on to the tree.  Good dog!  Cowboy was being the big pup he is and was just having a good time in the woods at this point.   The lighted collars on Trouble and Bug started getting higher and higher in the tree.  The tree had a split trunk and the hounds could wedge themselves up.  I asked Chad if he could go get Trouble out of the tree before she fell out.  When he got to the tree, Trouble was up higher than Chad’s head and he had to reach up for her.   Chad said Trouble had her front feet/legs wrapped around the trunk and was ready to go higher.  Wow!  I leashed Bug on a coupler with Trouble and Mav by himself.  I have a .22 pistol that’s been fitted with a laser sight.  I let Chad put a bead on the coon and shoot it down with plenty of fight left in it.  Trouble and Bug got let go and that coon latched right on to Trouble.  What a way to go on her first coon!  That didn’t stop her.  Bug got after the coon and it let go of Trouble and Trouble went to work on that coon.  Bug got bit, too and then she wasn’t as aggressive and we thought that Trouble might get the worst of it being the only dog putting teeth to the coon.  Chad suggested I turn Mav loose to give Trouble a little help.  Mav’s a good coonkiller but this time he wasn’t interested in getting fur in his mouth, maybe because the life was going out of the coon due to Trouble’s relentless attack.  She pretty much killed that coon all by herself and that was the first time a coon had been shot down to her.  I was very pleased with what I was seeing in Trouble and her natural ability.  And so was Chad.

Bug and Mav got leashed and Trouble and Cowboy were allowed to bite on that coon.  Chad took the coon by the tail and something clicked in Cowboy and he started getting after the coon and latched on to it along with Trouble.  They started a pretty good tug of war with the dead coon.  Cowboy figured out what he was in the woods for and the 2 young dogs were not gonna let go of the coon now.

Because of my sore foot, we decided to let Chad walk out my 3 hounds.  I wanted to put a leash around the coon’s neck and drag it on our way out so Cowboy could tug on it all the way to the truck.  He really got going on that coon and I had a tough walk back to the truck trying to pull that coon along with me while he was pulling it his way.  Chad was happy that we could get Cowboy turned on to coon.  All it’s gonna take now is time in the woods for that pup.  It’s always a good feeling to help a friend get a dog going.   I’m glad I could help.  People had helped me years ago and to pass that on to others is something we as houndsmen and women must do.