How to Train Treeing Walker Coonhounds

Treeing walker coonhounds (TWCs) are descendants of the English foxhound and were bred to hunt raccoons. These dogs have exemplary hunting skills, and are active and athletic. A TWC is at its best when it has a job to do, so it makes an excellent hunting dog. Hunting dogs need to be extremely well disciplined, so training the puppy to heel, sit, stay, lay down and come on command should begin immediately. Advanced hunt dog training should be at the hands of a skilled professional. But there are tracking training techniques you should use to prepare the puppy.

Things You'll Need

  • Bottle of raccoon scent
  • Hunt dummy
  • Raccoon skin
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Instructions

    • 1

      Apply raccoon scent to a hunt dummy. Let the puppy smell the scent. You can also use a raccoon pelt for this exercise.

    • 2

      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.

    • 3

      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.

    • 4

      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.

    • 5

      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.