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[St Helena hunter]

Hello I am a new hound hunter. I've got a 16 month old plott hound I would like some advice on. I don't have othere dogs to run him with so I'm training him by his self. I've started him on coons he has trees one and four possum s. He will run a coon a ways then it seems like he loses the trail. Is 16 months to soon to know if he is no good at trailing coons? If he is no good at trailing coons could he still be good on big game? He will run a deer a long ways. I got him from a bear hunter.

[pegleg]

How often do you hunt him? Age isn't as much a factor as experience sometimes. He might also be a little to amped up to accurrately trail. There are alot of possibilities. The best suggestion I can give is to hunt with a experienced houndsmen or talk with the breeder who should have more insight then those of is who don't really know anything about the hound. I've found its difficult enough to second guess someone else's discription of hounds from your own line much less those that aren't. Hunting Dog is the only real way to accurately gauge it. That said one of the most common problems is showing a dog to many short training scenarios. This leads to alot of issues on live game. Poor trailing and premature expectation of a tree being two. Hope you get it worked out

[St Helena hunter]

Thanks for the advice. I hunt him a few nights a week. One problem might be I hunt him on a small island were coon s are close to the marsh and can get to big water quick

[pegleg]

It might be helpful to run him once or twice with a finished dog. They like us often run into things they could use help figuring out.

[LaurelBustinPlotts]

I was in the same boat as you not too long ago. Like pegleg said its best to take them with a more experienced dog and that should help the dog out tremendously. Since we got the dog we have I only ran him with older dogs until recently when he split treed by himself. Since then I've been taking him by himself and he has treed 3 coons. It's best to help them get confident in what they're running. But of course only you know your dog and thats what will help you determine when he's ready to go on his own.

On a side note, how is your plott bred?

[St Helena hunter]

Thanks for y'all s advice I'll try posting on a few sites. See if some one would be willing to let me hunt with them a few times. My plott is walker bred out of wv

[LaurelBustinPlotts]

Most our plotts are weems and gantte bred, but my plott is pocahontas (Walker) and crockett bred.