Things You'll Need
- Bottle of raccoon scent
- Hunt dummy
- Raccoon skin
Instructions
Apply raccoon scent to a hunt dummy. Let the puppy smell the scent. You can also use a raccoon pelt for this exercise.
Tie the dummy or coonskin to a rope and drag it so the puppy will follow. Encourage the dog to play with the "prey." Play tug-of-war and praise the pup if it attacks the dummy.
Create a scent path with the dummy out of view of the dog. Drag the dummy or coonskin over a short area of ground then hide it. Take your puppy to the spot where the trail begins and let it sniff the scent. Let the puppy use its nose to follow the trail and track the dummy. Praise the puppy enthusiastically when it finds its prey.
Move the dummy prey longer distances. Continue the tracking exercise by making scent trails longer and increasingly more difficult to follow. Move the trail over and around obstacles, replicating what the pup will encounter when chasing a real raccoon in the woods.
Hide the dummy or skin in a tree. Eventually, after the puppy has accomplished tracking the scent for long distances, wipe the dummy up the trunk of a tree and hide it high in the branches. This will introduce the pup to treeing a coon.