The Coon Den

Written by Joe Newlin

As I made the rounds feeding the dogs in the afternoon, I looked at this big strapping young male pup out of my Hit Man dog, and my Powder female and decided that "it was time".  

I normally don't "push" a pup hard, and as is often the case, I'll take a young pup of six months old out for one night, and see what they do.  If they show some interest, I might continue taking them, if they show no interest in hunting, or if they don't care what the other dogs are doing, I take them home and let them "mature" a little.  That was the case with Gunny.  I took him about five weeks ago for one night.  He was not afraid to "go", but it was more just going than it was doing anything else.  He was not the least bit interested in coon hunting, or what the other dogs were doing....I was wise enough to put a tracking collar on him, and trust me, I had to use it.  He took off on his own and was nearly 3/4 mile away from the "action", all by himself.  That is "encouraging", but with the number of young dogs I have....makes training a loner like that very difficult.

I decided that I would take Gunny and see how he was "progressing".  I had both Thorn and Cube along as "mentors".  On the first drop I sent Thorn in by himself.  Six or seven minutes later, I had driven to Thorn who was treed, and I decided to walk Gunny in to the tree with me, to let him "see" what he was supposed to be doing.  Thorn had himself a coon, and the set up was "perfect".  I tied Gunny to a nearby tree and rolled the coon out to Thorn.  Gunny was "beside himself" wanting that coon.  I worked Gunny a little on the dead coon, and put him in the box.  I wanted to make sure that he enjoyed "the game"....and wanted more of it..

On the second drop, I pull Cube from the box, and line him up with Gunny.  They both take off and it looks like Gunny is going to go with Cube.  I set back to listen as a light rain is starting to fall.

Long story short, there are very few times when the second time a pup is turned loose to go hunting for "real" that you have a "defining moment" in a dogs life that flips that switch...and makes a pup do exactly what you want them to do.  I would like to think that breeding and genetics are at work, but it takes that other ingredient called opportunity.  Tonight this happened on Gunny's first drop.

I hear Cube strike off in the distance and it's not long before I hear him locate and tree.  He sounds like he is a LONG way off, but the Garmin tells me he is just 1/4 mile away.  With the crops gone, I can drive in the corn stubble nearly on top of him, so I set to driving.

When I emerge from the truck, I hear Cube, and I hear Gunny....blowing the top out of the tree...I mean he is getting it...I grab the rifle and quicken my pace to get to the dogs before my young dog loses interest. 

As I grew closer, I was concerned because I could tell the Cube was "in" something.  He sounded very distant, but the pup did not sound that far away.  I thought maybe Cube was in a hole, or a hollow log but I was still "hurrying".  It did not take long, and I arrived to find Cube inside a sycamore tree.  Now almost every sycamore tree in this area is hollow in once place or antoher...and they are frequent den sites...My heart sinks, I want to give Gunny another coon...he's blowing the top out of the tree still.  As I get closer, I see this...

 I quickly tie Gunny back a little after telling him how proud I was of his effort.  I was dissapointed because I wanted to make sure that he was rewarded for his effort.  

As I get closer to Cube, I hear the snarling and growling of a coon.  Things start to get clearer to me as to why Gunny was worked up.  Cube was up in this den tree, and had a coon close enough to snarl at him from time to time...and Gunny could hear all of this going on...and did what came natural to him...

 As I get a little different angle on the situation I am surprised by what I'm seeing.  

 If you look very closely, you can see an extra eye in this hollow just above Cube's nose.  I know that Cube has a coon already, I've heard it snarling and growling at him.  Interestingly enough, his attention is not on the coon that I can see from the vantage point I have...so I investigate further.

 Upon further investigation....there were LOTS of coon in this tree.  Cube had his eye on one, and from time to time he would reach up and try to grab it....of course, when he did, another one would grab at Cube.  

I took the opportunity to tie Cube back, and allowed Gunny to get up close and personal to the coon in the tree.  I would not allow him to get in the hollow, I did not want anything bad to happen to him, I wanted it to be fun...to be a game....a game of "keep away"....  By the time we were done...he was worked up, slinging slobber and ready to take on the world!

 This is a picture that I took by sticking my hand inside the den with my camera and snapping pictures blind.  I wanted to be able to see up in the tree, as I could count five coon from where I was standing on the outside looking in.  Sure enough, there was at lease one more up in the tree, looking straight down.

In the end, Gunny had one of those defining moments in a dogs life, very early on in his hunting career.  He made one more drop with Thorn, and they too treed on a den tree...but Gunny was right there with him...every breath, stand on the tree treeing.

Now that will make you smile!