Hound Hunting
By Jason Mitsin
There is a lot of controversy in the hound world about the level of development you should see in a hound by the time they are two years old. Some people like to see puppies at six to eight months old running, treeing, and baying bears. It doesn’t happen very often and certainly isn’t the standard for pup development. I’ve gotten excited when I’ve seen pups at five months old bay caged coons. It’s easy to think, “Man, this pup is gunna make a bear dog.” Then they go right the other way. I have also seen puppies that show no interest in caged coons, and they turn out to be super bear dogs. No matter the case, training season is the time to introduce puppies to the hunting world.By Jason Mitsin
Hound hunting is a sport that requires a lot of time, effort, and most of all, great hounds to pursue big game. There is a great amount of time that is required to develop a top dog and endless effort from the houndsmen. There will be many hours of work that goes into training your pup, and there will be countless mistakes, too. It’s a sport that requires a lot of patience and time, but the end result is very satisfying.
On a year when there is a good crop of nuts (hard mast), you can find bears wherever the nuts grow. This past year in Maine there were some areas that had them and other areas that didn’t. If there is any kind of natural food source in the woods, you can be guaranteed one thing--the bears will find it. If there is a limited amount of that food, they will go nuts over it.