How to Train a Coonhound Puppy
- 1). Place a flat buckle collar around your coonhound's neck, and attach a leash to the collar. Hold the end of the leash and follow the puppy, so it learns to walk quietly while on leash. Once the puppy no longer reacts to you, take a few steps back and call the puppy towards you. Offer the puppy a treat when it walks calmly in the direction you ask without pulling or struggling.
- 2). Enroll your coonhound in puppy obedience class. This will not only teach your coonhound puppy basic obedience skills, but will socialize it with other dogs. Coonhounds normally run in packs, so familiarize your puppy with other dogs for proper pack development.
- 3). Add four or five drops of raccoon scent to a raccoon pelt. Hold the pelt near the puppy's muzzle, telling him to "find it." Let the puppy sniff the pelt, and hold the pelt just out of the puppy's reach. Shake the pelt and repeat the "find it" command in a happy, high-pitched voice to encourage the puppy to bark and howl. As soon as the puppy vocalizes, give him the pelt and a treat. A well-trained coonhound will howl and bark when it locates a raccoon, and teaching the puppy to vocalize at a young age reinforces this behavior.
- 4). Move your training sessions outdoors, and tie a 10-foot long piece of string to the tail of the pelt. Ask an assistant to hold the puppy, and pull the pelt along the ground in a straight line. Tie the pelt out of reach in a tree, and walk back to the puppy. Point to the scent trail and tell the puppy to "find it," walking him along the trail and to the pelt. Reward the puppy with a few treats as soon as he reaches the tree and howls at the pelt. Extend the scent trail by 20 feet with each training session until the puppy follows the track and trees the pelt without assistance.
- 5). Start the puppy on live quarry when it is consistently treeing the pelt. Take the dog to a wooded area at dusk, and let the puppy walk out to the end of the leash as it sniffs for raccoons. Command the puppy to "find it," and run along behind when he finds a live scent trail. Allow the puppy to howl and bark when it finds the raccoon, then call him back to you and praise him. Repeat the live quarry exercises each evening until the puppy consistently finds raccoons on it's own.
- 6). Contact your local coonhound hunting club and ask if your dog can attend a live hunt. When you reach the hunting grounds, leash your dog and let your dog investigate other members of the hunt pack before turning him loose. Your puppy will follow more experienced members of the pack and hone his treeing skills with each successful hunt.
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