Paul came up with Nitro. I had Belle and Josie again. We sent them along the river from the far west gate. We walked behind them for quite a ways & then heard Belle opening. It sounded to me like Belle was treeing on the river and Josie was jacking around on the bank by her. We saw Nitro runing in the woods towards them ( he had on a Sunburst Saturn)....
As we got closer Nitro was opening in the field, Sadie and Josie got quiet. Soon Josie was opening with Nitro in the field. The track was going just about the same as my suspicious trail from a few nights ago. AND Belle wasn't opening. We waited a while & then I told Paul that I thought it was trash. I shocked Josie a couple of times and I think he hit Nitro too. They stopped running that track, but now they were out in a swampy no mans land. I hardly ever tree coons out there, so I wanted to catch them and get into the corn again. We tracked Nitro west and drove down to the trees along the creek. Heard him bark a few times and then I heard Belle tree back east again. I left Paul with Nitro and headed for Belle. Josie was there when I arrived, she was jacking around putting pressure on Belle. This was very close to where I thought Belle had been treeing before & I wouldn't be surprised if she left this tree to "check" the pups and then just came back. Anyway, yet another big tree with exposed roots hanging out over the river. I tied Belle and Josie up, shot it out and headed back to get Paul and Nitro.
Nitro was still out, in one of the worst areas of the river so I wanted to catch him pretty bad. I sent Paul down the edge of the woods and I headed out to the highway and walked in parallel with him. Nitro was somewhere down in no mans land. It has river channels, backwater, swamp and highway to contend with. We decided to get mobile and get ahead of him. We drove around to a parking lot on the other side to where I thought we should be close to him. We turned on the tracker and no signal at all. We drove and tried tracking for about an hour without ever getting a single beep. We were both concerned and running out of ideas. We headed back to my truck and there Nitro was, he must have come into Belle and Josie barking in the box. Turns out his collar had goen bad. What a relief! Nitro is one of the best young prospects I've seen lately. He has the kind of personality that I like too. I'd hate to see anything happen to him.
We still had corn fields to clean out and it was Friday night. We put Nitro on a "hot" track and then sent the other dogs in. It went quite a ways west, then Nitro and Belle treed. Josie was there, but jacking around again. Another big tree with roots exposed and hanging out over the river. This was a leaner too and Nitro was up in the tree when we got there. Luckily, he could turn around and come down when we called to him. Tied up the dogs to keep them from climbing or dropping down on the bank. Found the coon after a brief search.
Moved a little further east and put Josie on another "hot" track. Sent Nitro and Belle in to her. I heard Belle locate after a few minutes and I could see from the road that she had the coon. Nitro and Josie were putting pressure on her so I got in there and backed her up a little. Nitro came right in and treed hard. Josie was jacking around so I leashed her and made her tree with the other dogs. This was a good old tree away from the river bank so it was nice to be able to work the young dogs up on the tree. That was enough for one night.
On the way home I was thinking of all the work that Josie needs. Compared to dogs I'm used to, she has been slow to mature. She is about 14 months old but reminds me more of a 6 month old dog. I've got her so she is hunting "OK" by herself but these last two nights I see she is acting like a pup around strange dogs. I'll have to make a point of hunting her with other dogs and making sure she adapts. Nothing to worry about yet, I won't be disapointed as long as she gets over this by November. I don't think she'll ever be a "power" dog, but I think she will do enough to "get by". She has some nice qualities so I'll keep training her. If she doesn't start ranging out a little more I might end up getting bored with her. If that's the case, she's still good enough to sell. In fact, as she is right now, I think she will make a dandy hound for a beginner or an old man who wants a "walking" hound.
Posted by bruceo at July 19, 2003 02:28 AM