Hound Dogs

[Ken Jones]

Every body thank John- John I will personally take you out on Elk Hunt. Okay, folks I hunted Hounds over 35 yrs. until a Mountain Lion killed my two good dogs. They treed Bear, Cougar, Bobcats and Raccoons. Also a few house cats. I killed several Bears with a Muzzle Loader. ( that was a business I was involved in building muzzle Loaders ) Cougar was taken with Muzzle Loaders and Deer and Elk. I will be willing to answer any question about how to train hounds to tree. I had Walkers, Blue Ticks, Red Bones, Black and Tans and Plotts. The Walkers were treeing walkers not running walkers. Running Walkers are the ones that people run fox, and coyotes with.

[Slipped Cork]

As a kid I used to coon hunt with most of the above breed dog's.We used to walk with our dog's and they never got very far from us while hunting.Later on in my early 20's it seemed like most dog's kept getting farther and farther away to hunt.In my early 30's it seemed every dog when cut loose went mile's to get treed.My question is do you think they were bred for that trait because people are getting lazy so they can drive around and find the closest point to get to their treed hound? The reason I quit hunting hound's was because I was continually having to trespass on land I did'nt have permission to hunt.The last time I coon hunted with a friend a few yrs back,by the way I had no dog,he said which way are we going.He then turned his hound loose in that direction and after 3 hrs we found him treed about 4 mile's away in the direction.That dog was a night champion but we had to cross 2 propertie's without permission to get to him.Here in ky 1000 acres is a big property to hunt on.

[TreednNC]

Notice my handle.....sold out...but use this handle on many other boards before I did, so it stuck

[Ken Jones]

My handle when I was running dogs was Coondog. Slipped Cork, I think it was the way the handlers trained there dogs. letting them run loose without controling them. I roaded my hounds at first. They would locate a track and run and tree. Then I started putting my dogs on the dog box using him or her as a strike dog. Exspecially Bear hunting. You could cover a lot more area driving around. They would strike off of dog box and I would stop and look for track. I would find track and new which way the Bear was going. Sometimes I didn't locate a track and would release my strike dog. When he or she got the track going pretty good then I would turn the rest of the dogs loose. They would catch up and the race was on. One summer I and friends treed over 50 Bears. Out her in Idaho your dogs had to be versatill and run different things. Coon, Bobcat, Couger,Raccoons. Once in awhile with a young dog they would run a deer. How I broke my dogs from running trash, I used a shock collar. During the winter was the best time to brake the dogs from running Deer or Elk. They were on there winter range down low. I would go Cat Hunting and come across some deer turn loose a dog and shock the hell out of them. It got to the point that when they seen a deer they would jump back into the dog box. There broke. I've had my dogs stayed treed all night and locate and go to them the next day. The dog breed tat I found was a natural at treeing was the Plott. Walkers, Blueticks, Black and Tans, Red Bones. I would take my Raccon and put up in a tree in my yard and turn the young dogs loose and let them tree. I would slap my hand on tree and make a lot of noise myself. They would tree there little hearts out. I started all my young dogs on raccoons. The hardest animal to tree is a Bobcat. They don.t leave much of a scent. If you can tree a Bobcat you can tree any thing. Cats I used two dogs on, Bear four dogs. I never hunted more than four dogs unless I was hunting with another hound runner. I hunted mostly on forest service land. We here in Idaho has serveral million acres to hunt on.

[Slipped Cork]

Thank's for the post ken.With that much land and different game I bet you have a ball.I alway's heard about a strike dog on the box but I never went with one.I am thinking about getting a pup and train it for squirrel's.I am considering a fiest,what is your opinion?

[Ken Jones]

It sounds like a great idea to me. Take him or her out every time you go hunting for squirrels he will get the idea what you want. I found out threw the years you never, I mean never kill anything in front of your dog that you don't want him to hunt. I know I killed a couple porcupines around my dogs. I had a hell of a time breaking them off of porcupines. I hope this helps. What kind of a hound are you getting? What is a fiest?

[DENNIS BOWERS]

Ken, I too was an avid coon hunter. Hunted "Red Eagle Dick & Houses Bred Walkers", "Boyds Little Joe" bred English Dogs! After 18 years my 1st divorce put an end to that. hunted in ACHA World Hunt Twice!!

[Slipped Cork]

Not a hound but a small fiest.I have had 2 mtn cur's and 1 was good and the other more interested in playing.I used to have a female walker that was great on squirrel and coon but when i took her squirrel hunting a few time's and then went coon hunting she would try to run a squirrel track after dark.I guess a hound would be ok as I dont plan on hunting at night.

[Ken Jones]

Ken, I too was an avid coon hunter. Hunted "Red Eagle Dick & Houses Bred Walkers", "Boyds Little Joe" bred English Dogs! After 18 years my 1st divorce put an end to that. hunted in ACHA World Hunt Twice!!

Dennis, I'm impressed with your Photos. I never would of exspected Pictures like that from a hound runner. Keep up the great job. In our country here in Idaho we haven't got that many coon to hunt. Every thing else we have lots of. Theres more cats and Bear to run than raccoons. I used to go to field trills with my dogs. I had a treeing Plott Bitch that was a chop mouth and at the trills in 30 seconds she would get around 70 barks. When the guys seen me they said might as well give jones the Trophy hes here again. The Dogs you mentioned I had never heard of. I have always heard that back in your country that there were a lot of coons. Is that so?

[got lift]

Are the wolves killing your dogs? I heard they are becoming quite the pests.