What breed of coondog should I get?
 

I am going to start hunting coons, but I have no idea what type of breed of dog I should get. I will be hunting mainly coons, I've had people tell me some coondogs hunt squirrels too so that would be good too. Just tell me what yall have had the best luck with or what breed you would think work the best, Thank ya.

Get a redbone! They look like Vizslas!

I own redbones but bluetick is the way to go!!!Utchman bloodlines in caufield missouri is the bomb best of the breed IMO!!

dog
 

Vizsla Vince, you have made some very intelligent and informative suggestions on this post since I have been a memeber, but this is not this one.

Backwoodsboy, do not let color of a dog infuence you. Color means nothing, pick a breed and color that fits your type of hunting that you do.

Go to Ukcdogs.com and read the forums there. Lots of good info. I coon hunted all my life till this summer. My old dog died and I decided to take a break for awhile. If your looking for a competition style dog that gets gone and gets treed no matter how far they have to go you might want to look at the Walker dogs. I am not saying all of them are like that but you will have the best chance of getting that style dog in the Walker breed. If you want something that will hunt closer and return to the truck if it can't find anything close I would look at the Blueticks or Black-n-Tans. The English dogs are luck of the draw on them it just depends on what bloodline your looking at as to what your most likely to end up with. There kind of all over the board. Plotts and Redbones I can't say alot about except I have never seen one I would feed in the woods. They win on the bench some but not very often in the woods.

Go to the coondawgs forum also. There are lots of pros/cons with every breed.

http://www.coondawgs.com/forum/

i am on that site vey helpful

I am ARKukRedbones on their whats your screen name on it?

I have had Walkers and English(redticks) and have enjoyed them both, like one of the posters said, its good to do some research and figure out what type/style of hunting you are going to be doing. I have had Walkers that needed MILES of woods to hunt because they would never come back to the truck, I would either catch them on a tree or crossing a road. I used the English dogs to hunt smaller woods. A few of the Walkers would "road hunt" also, I could put them out on a dirt road and follow them in my truck till they hit a track, then they would go off in the woods and hunt it down.

I wouldn't go with a hound at all. I'd get a Mountain Cur.

Some good suggestions here. It sounds as if this will be your first coon dog. I don't raise dogs and don't really have any biases one way or another. I've owned all of the hound breeds and have hunted with Curs. All have their pluses and minuses.

I wouldn't recommend a Walker unless it is already trained and it hunts close. Hunt with it before you buy, don't take someone's word on that. Night hunting is very popular and there is a reason Walker's win 90% of the hunts. They are fast, driven and good at what they do. That only becomes a problem if you don't have large areas to hunt and don't mind a dog that hunts until it finds a coon. Plan on spending a few all nighters looking for your dog. If you have a lot of coons they won't have a chance to get away on you but the potential is definately there. Most of the present Walker dogs are line bred to hunt this way.

I hunt with my brother and we don't night hunt anymore so got rid of the Walkers. He has a Bluetick and I a Black and Tan. Both good dogs that tree a lot of coons. They cast out and if they haven't hit a track within 15-20 minutes they come back to the truck. Some people don't like this type of dog either, they want them gone until they find something. Most of your English, Red Bone and Plotts would be this type of dog as well.

Both or our dogs have cold noses. They will hit an old track and sometimes they sort it out and will be on track for an hour and finally tree it. Other times the track is too old and we finally have to go get them off of the track. It is a trade off, they aren't fast but I always know where my dog is.

Have owned a really good Plott and have hunted with some good ones as well. One thing about the Plotts is they are gamey. If you are training the dog they are a little harder to keep on intended game than the other breeds. Cur dogs are this way as well.

Would recommend you buy the book "Walk With Wick" and also subscribe to Coonhound Bloodlines, Full Cry or one of the other hound magazines. There is a lot of good information for not a lot of money. I would also recommend you get a started or finished dog to start. It would be a tall order to just get a puppy and get it trained and make a good hound out of it by yourself. If you have someone you know with dogs that could help you then a puppy would be fine. It is much easier to train a puppy if you have an old dog to send them with.