Written by Joe Newlin

I have not made an entry into the Blog (what is a "blog" anyway?) for a while, so in an attempt to keep some new, fresh content....

Let me introduce to you Oak Ridge Stylish Molly.  Molly is a product of a "litter gone bad"....I bred Clover's Stylish Molly to Stylish Hit Man this past fall.  On the 10th day of August, she had a litter of nine pups, and when I went out to the kennel on the second day...all the pups had died, except one little female.

Ole Molly is the mother to my Cube dog...he is a Joker son, and all of the pups out of the first litter were "winners"....and the fact that I have Clover's Stylish Jill here, who is also a daughter of Molly and Clover's Stylish Oz....seems that ole Molly is a reproducer, so I decided that I would cross her over on Hit Man once.  I wanted a femal pup...and that is what I ended up with.

Over the course of the next five weeks, I hoped and prayed that this little female would survive...and that's about all she did...survive.

 At five weeks old, it was painfully obvious that this puppy was simply not "thriving" as it should.  I weaned her off momma early and set to raising her in the house.  Here I felt that I could monitor her eating habits, and maybe figure out why this little "only child" was so poor looking.

I'm not going to tell you that over the course of the next few weeks I didn't just "give up" on this pup.  She was eating, but not eating well, she was drinking, but always looked dehydrated.   We tried a couple of different things with her, and eventually she started to gain some weight, and even started to grow.

Growing is one thing that she's really good at right now.  She's nearly four months old, already weighs about 25 pounds...and thinks she's a lap dog.  She still spends a lot of time in the house, but I'm trying to shove her outside as much as possible.

She is a really pretty dog, with striking black and white features.  As is true with most of the Hit Man pups...she has her share of "ticks"....but I can live with that.  The funny thing about her is that since she is not relegated to the kennel, I get to spend more time with her as she's growing, and I notice things about her.

Like the fact that at just shy of four months old, her sense of smell is really starting to develop.  Even while sleeping, her nose is constantly twitching and sampling the air.  When I eat something....she is just now realizing how GOOD that smells.  She spends as much time with her nose on the ground now, as she does with it off the ground.

The weather has turned off kinda nasty and we have a covering of snow on the ground.  I'm not much of a squirrel hunter any more, but I've decided that she's not old enough to go coon hunting just yet, but that doesn't mean that I can't take her to the woods....and on a bright sunny day with snow on the ground...squirrel hunting is the ticket....

Stay tuned for the chronicles of "Molly 2"

 

Written by Joe Newlin

Between the weather and the moon, this has been a rough season opener in Indiana.  The coon movement has been well before dark, while I'm still working, and in the wee hours of the morning, when I'm sleeping.  

I had some time off work, and hunted hard for the first week, but it's back to the grind, and I'm now going into full time "puppy mode".  Tonight I have a window of opportunity to hunt for a couple of hours, there is a large snow system headed my way...I know with the dropping barometer, I'm not likely to tree many coon, but Rage is anxious to go..and I'm anxious to take her.

I have with me Thorn and Oak Ridge Road Rage.  I'm pretty proud of this pup, a cross between Hit Man and my Julie female.  Rage just turned six months old, and took to hunting like a duck takes to water.  The first time I took her out, just for some exercize, she headed for the hills with the big dogs, and even ran a little track.  She's been hunted less than 10 times total...and she shows improvement each time she's out.

I drive south, trying to give myself another hour before the impending snowstorm makes it my way.  I get Thorn and Rage out of the box, and collar them up before sending them under a guard rail and into the woods along a large creek.  

I settle back in the truck and am content to watch the Garmin.  A full 15 minutes go by before I hear either dog.  Thorn strikes first, and the Garmin tells me hes .33 miles away.  I can hear Rage strike just as clear as day, and she's running this track with Thorn.  22 minutes after I cut the dogs loose, I hear Thorn locate, and I wait.....and then I hear that long bawl from Rage...and she starts treeing.  A quick glance at the Garmin for direction and distance, they are .5 miles away, but they are down in a deep "holler" along the creek.

Due to the terrain, and my advancing age, it takes me a while to climb the hills and ridges that would take me to the dogs.  I stop several times along the way to listen.  From time to time I hear Rage just treeing her heart out...and at times, all I hear is Thorn.

Along the way, I notice some snow flakes flashing in front of my light....an ominous sign.  I find Thorn and Rage on a large maple tree, and it's got a whole that you could slide a full grown deer in about half way up the trunk.  I can't see very far into the tree due to the fact that the tree is on the side of the hill, and it leans away from me...

I take a moment to praise Rage, refocus her, and even manage to get a short video clip....

 

 

 

As you might be able to tell, she had treed for almost a half hour before I got there, and she had lost a little interest.  Of course, she's made more den trees in her ten outings than she has seen coon...she's a little camera shy....but I'm not the least bit worried...she's got a long way to go and plenty of time to get there.

I lead the dogs off the den tree and re-cast them into the night.  Another ten minutes go by and I hear both dogs running down by the creek, they are about a quarter mile away and again, down in the "holler".

Thorn is treed and I hear Rage as well, but she's not treed.  She's running a track, and I do mean she is RUNNING a track.  I'm pretty sure that whatever she's running has no intention, nor is it equipped to climb a tree.  I get to Thorn, and stop to listen for Rage....and I can barely hear her.  Thorn is on another den tree, this time a large beech den that has some big thick vines in it.  No coon can be found on the outside.  I ask Thorn to "heel" and he fall in beside me....no lead strap needed.

Once I make my way out the edge of the timber and get up on a high spot, I hear Rage, and she's headed back my way....I stand and listen as she's honing whatever it was she was running.  At one point she's circled back to withing a hundred yards, and I'm able to call to her, and she stops and heads towards me and Thorn.  She is coaxed out of the timber and leashed up....I scratch her behind the ears....I'm happy she came to me.

Some folks would be worried about the deer chase.  I figure there is time for that in the future.  She's young, full of fire, and the coon simply are not moving tonight...she's gonna find something to run.  She did an outstanding job on the speed beef...running it clear out of hearing and then back...no losses that I could account for.  She'll be fine.... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Written by Joe Newlin

I'm not sure that I've ever seen a pup as "obsessed" with a coon as this six month old pup...

Written by Joe Newlin

As I made the rounds feeding the dogs in the afternoon, I looked at this big strapping young male pup out of my Hit Man dog, and my Powder female and decided that "it was time".  

I normally don't "push" a pup hard, and as is often the case, I'll take a young pup of six months old out for one night, and see what they do.  If they show some interest, I might continue taking them, if they show no interest in hunting, or if they don't care what the other dogs are doing, I take them home and let them "mature" a little.  That was the case with Gunny.  I took him about five weeks ago for one night.  He was not afraid to "go", but it was more just going than it was doing anything else.  He was not the least bit interested in coon hunting, or what the other dogs were doing....I was wise enough to put a tracking collar on him, and trust me, I had to use it.  He took off on his own and was nearly 3/4 mile away from the "action", all by himself.  That is "encouraging", but with the number of young dogs I have....makes training a loner like that very difficult.

I decided that I would take Gunny and see how he was "progressing".  I had both Thorn and Cube along as "mentors".  On the first drop I sent Thorn in by himself.  Six or seven minutes later, I had driven to Thorn who was treed, and I decided to walk Gunny in to the tree with me, to let him "see" what he was supposed to be doing.  Thorn had himself a coon, and the set up was "perfect".  I tied Gunny to a nearby tree and rolled the coon out to Thorn.  Gunny was "beside himself" wanting that coon.  I worked Gunny a little on the dead coon, and put him in the box.  I wanted to make sure that he enjoyed "the game"....and wanted more of it..