Instructions
Socialize your coonhound from an early age. Hunters often hunt with packs of coonhounds, so dogs must get along and work together. Even if your coonhound is just a family pet, being a good "canine citizen" is important. Take your puppy with you everywhere throughout puppyhood, introduce it to unfamiliar surroundings and events, get it used to being handled by other people and let it congregate with other well-behaved dogs.
Teach your coonhound basic obedience commands. Out in the field or at home, your coonhound needs to obey you. Teach it to sit, stay, lie down, heel and come. Use treats and praise, never threats or force. Set yourself up as pack leader, always walking through doors first, never letting your dog ahead of you on a walk. Make your dog work for everything (e.g., offering a paw before getting fed).
Familiarize your coonhound with traveling in a vehicle. If you will be hunting with your coonhound, chances are you will be traveling to a specific hunting spot. Teach your coonhound to ride in the back seat with a safety harness or in the bed of your truck in a special secured and ventilated "dog box." Never let your coonhound roam free in the automobile. This is dangerous for your dog as well as you and your passengers.
Practice scenting. Coonhounds have a natural ability and instinct to follow a scent trail. You can practice this by dragging a piece of leather sprayed with raccoon urine (found at sporting supply stores) behind you in a grassy area when your dog is not looking. Place a treat along the trail every so often to reward the dog for following the scent. Praise your dog when it finds the treat. Change the difficulty level of the scent trail as your dog improves in tracking a scent.
Teach your coonhound not to fear gunfire. Coonhounds were bred to ignore gunshots while hunting with their human companions. Occasionally, a dog will accidentally associate a negative event (e.g., injury or fright) with the firing of a gun. If this occurs, you will need to break the association. Expert coonhound trainer Bill Tarrant suggests three ways to do this: join a hunt club, apprentice with a professional coonhound trainer or find a coon-hunting friend who will let your dog work with his. According to Tarrant, a gun-shy dog can only unlearn the negative association by watching other coonhounds ignore the gunshots and focus on the prey.
How to Train Your Coonhound
Coonhounds were developed to hunt animals that climb trees when pursued, such as possums, bobcats and raccoons. Coonhounds are scent hounds that sniff out their prey, following the trail to the animal's hiding place. Coonhounds chase the prey up a tree, then cluster around, standing on their hind legs to bark until the hunter arrives. Since the hunter needs to be in control of the coonhound, basic obedience training is a must. Teaching a coonhound to get along with other dogs and people, travel safely to the hunt site and be insensitive to the sound of gunfire are also important.