A good mink dog will often locate a mink in the den during the day. If the den has more than one entrance, is not very deep in the ground, the animal will often run out by stamping or striking a few licks with a mattock. The mink generally comes out at the entrance nearest the water (quite often under water) when it can be shot, if you are quick enough, or if the dog is an active one, caught.
When hunting at night along streams, or places frequented by both mink and 'coon, it is sometimes difficult to tell, at first, which your dog is after. These two animals travel about the same along streams. Some dogs will not run mink unless especially trained while others take naturally to mink hunting. Unless a dog is not afraid of water, he will never make a good mink dog (or 'coon dog either for that matter), as mink go into a great many dens both on the bank and in the water.
Where the hunting is done in woods, considerable distance from streams or ponds and mink seldom travel, your dog may "pass them by" but if you should catch one in a trap and let him kill it, the chances are that you will have a mink dog.
Again by hunting certain stretches of creek where mink frequent, your dog will soon learn that you wish him to hunt these animals. A mink holed is far from caught, especially after night. If holed in the creek bank, the chances are that the animal will dart out into the water and escape to another den.
The most successful mink hunting is done during the day by having your dog along and following the banks of creeks, lakes, ponds, etc. The dog locates the game and the animal is gotten out by methods already described.