I had another caged coon to pick up tonight. I took Ruby again. I let the coon out in a corn field and only waited a few minutes before turing Ruby loose. The coon had taken off on a pretty good clip but could have turned and headed out towards a road. Instead of folloing after Ruby I veered off to a position where I could catch her if she took off for the road. I heard her treeing after a few minutes and headed back to her. As I looked across the field, it looked like there were no trees in the area of her barking, I figured she was baying it on the ground. She stopped before I could reach her. Soon she was back by me. I walked her back into the general area and worked on getting her to go back on the track. She was hesitant, but finally took off and shortly thereafter was treed back in the woods.
This reminded me of Mable when she was young. Not a fighter at all, if the coon wasn't running away she didn't know what to do. I thought it would be a problem the first time I saw her fumble like this on a caged coon. It turned out that it never mattered. Caged coons and wild coons are different & I've learned not to put to much thought into screwups with caged coons.
Still, it's time to start hunting my normal spots with Ruby.
She needs to move on to harder hunting and working out tougher tracks.
All these caged coons are starting to be a nuisance.
Anyway, I love my little dog.
I'm commited now, she'll be my main dog for a long time.
I can't explain why I like her so much, it's just the way it is.