never ceases to amaze us...

Ain't that the truth? I actually started Marlowe on his first tracking lesson this weekend (not terribly challenging and mostly by sight, but I did notice that on his last exercise he was starting to use his nose a little). I have very high hopes for that little bugger and I would absolutely love to be able to find lost pets with him some day.

The Coonies are sorely under-rated and under-estimated!
well I do not know where Ranger learned it...
he was a farm dog for god's sake...not even a hunting dog...but we are now looking into officially training him.
I think Marlowe can do it...I have spoken with several people about training him and some of the SAR groups say...
"Oh you cannot train the Coonhounds for this kind of thing. They are too distracted by their hunt drive and get distracted in the field."
I am now on a quest to prove them wrong!
 

I don't have a coon hound, but when Gracie took off about a month ago in the dark after whatever caught her fancy, possum, cat, coon?, (she's a pointer and that means that she's really about 3/4 hound of one kind or another), I put my setter on a long line and she quartered the field in back of our house and finally lead me to her. 

Bird dogs general air scent instead of ground scent like a hound, it was really amazing being lead by her in the dark.  My biggest fear was falling into a hole and breaking an ankle because I couldn't see where the heck we were going! [8D]

There's a whole slew of redbone owners who do SAR somewhere out west. They're on the Redbones yahoo list I'm on (I don't have a redbone, but there are so few resources for coonhound owners of any kind who primarily have their dogs as pets and not working dogs that I joined anyway). I really think coonhounds are one of the most underrated dog breeds out there. But I've seen coonhounds excel at agility, competitive obedience (!) and SAR.

Shhhhh, don't tell everyone how great hounds are.  We don't need them overbred.  Keep the secret and just be amazed at how wonderful and special these dogs are.

Good job, Ranger!!!  I hope you gave him some extra special treats when you got home.

For hound love...
we had a PKC Field and Bench Champion English Coonhound come through the rescue a few years back. ( She had to be spayed to save her life after her uterus ruptured...so she could no longer hunt competitively or be benched) In trying to work her through her somewhat extraordinary amount of energy...we took her to an agility place. The trainer said..."well do not expect  her to do anything the first time out. The dogs take several trips to get comfortable with the equipment and not be nervous to try things"
my response was..." I really do not think that will be an issue here."
she was up and all over every piece of equipment in the place...running through the tunnels...running over the see-saws...
We had the jump bars at 48" when the next class came in and we had to leave.
Agility is great for the Coonies!
 
For Xerxes...
( pharoh hound with a egyptian name...I love it!)
OH YES!!! tell everyone how great these hounds are!!! We need to find homes for these dogs!!!
 
for gradyupmybutt
( got one of them nosey dogs do ya??? LOL!)
Oh yes Ranger got a treat! He got several! ...and Rangers favorite game is called "crazy dog"..you just throw up your arms and say "crazy dog" and he runs around like a fool and has you chase him...so we kept the other dogs away and played "crazy dog" for a good long while!

Well, Maska doesn't find lost dogs, but I never have to worry about a coyote sneaking up on us)

ORIGINAL: diane303

Bird dogs general air scent instead of ground scent like a hound, it was really amazing being lead by her in the dark.  My biggest fear was falling into a hole and breaking an ankle because I couldn't see where the heck we were going! [8D]

 
The Coonhounds, while relying mostly on ground scenting, will air scent as well ( as a primary direction finder) and then go to ground scenting ( once general direction is found and a trail is found) and finally will many times stop scenting all together and use their eyes once the quarry is tree'd ( unlike the Beagles who will get confused and not actually LOOK at a rabbit sitting completely still right near them...which is so hilarious when it happens).
 
I know that feeling of wandering around in the dark. When we were out looking for that Beagle we were walking along side a frozen pond/lake. It was freaking scary!

ORIGINAL: spiritdogs

Well, Maska doesn't find lost dogs, but I never have to worry about a coyote sneaking up on us)

 
becareful with the coyotes if you have them in abundance around you. There are many areas of the country witnessing an dramtic increase in Coyotes running together in packs, like Wolves. A decrease in available small game has led to them banding together to be able to take down larger game like deer. Just north of us there are a few small packs of coyotes taking over in Forest Preserves and they are geting bold...aproaching people while walking their dogs...etc etc...
 

We havd a hound mix at our shelter a couple of months back.  I adopted him out ot a friend of mine. They are starting tracking now and are having a BLAST.  He's a mix, but boy, those hound genes are very dominant!

RobDar,  what a great story.  I don't think this Treeing Hound Marvin (in my sig) has a lick of hunting instinct in him.  He is not ready for it yet, but I do look forward to when he realizes he's a HOUND.
 
Welcome to the forum fellow Hoosier and fellow Hammond citizen.  You probably don't remember me but your wife helped me with a couple of Beagles I was fostering.  I am very impressed with your breed knowledge.

RobDar, yea, Grady is a nosey boy.  How astute of you to figure that out.  [sm=biggrin.gif]  Actually I think it's because he's part hound of some sort.

for DPU...
some of the Coonies never figure it out...Moose ( the english coonhound) could not find his way through an empty field to 60 lbs bag of dog food if it were painted bright orange and had a flag sticking out the top...and others can find a 6 month old morsel of food no bigger than a pencil head 3 feet under the dryer.
 
from the stance in the picture Marvin looks young...the silly paw slap is such a puppy manuver...
Who are you fostering for?