A dog to do his best should be used to running. He should have a few days' rest, and if his feet are sore, grease once each day with salty grease. At least three days before the race, drop all sloppy food and give rye or corn-bread with scraps from the butcher shop mixed in before baking. Feed liberally twice each day and if your race promises to be a hard one, feed extra before starting, some food that will give the greatest amount of strength, with the least possible bulk. Then arrange to give your dog a good heavy feed as soon as he returns home, and he will be ready for the next race sooner than if compelled to go to rest hungry.
Before closing, I will say something more with regard to breeding: — We often see where someone has pure bred Walker, Williams, Redbone or Buckfield Blues. Now to my understanding, these are strains of dogs, bred by southern fox hunters, 50 or 75 years ago, and to keep them pure, there must have been a lot of inbreeding, a thing I do not approve of. Now why would it not have been better for Mr. Walker to have selected one of his very best bitches and bred her to one of Mr. Williams' best dogs, then called the pups the "American Fox Hounds" — as grand a dog as ever put his nose to a trail?
Typical Coon Hounds.
CHAPTER IV.
TRAINING THE COON DOG.
In training, we have been told to drag a 'coon hide, lead a pet 'coon, etc., but your pup soon learns to associate your tracks with the trail of the drag, and when you carry the 'coon hide he simply follows your track to where you start the drag again. Should you have a 'coon so tame that it will follow you, start out and tramp through the woods, along streams and just such places as 'coons frequent. Your 'coon will run logs, go up on the side of trees, in and out of the water, in fact will do just about as a wild 'coon would. After you have been gone for some time, have someone turn your pup on the trail and if he runs it, keep him a little later each time, and you will soon have a trailer out of him anyway. Should you have neither 'coon nor old dog, you can train your pup without.
In nearly all places where there are 'coons, squirrels and woodchucks (groundhogs) may be found also. Teach your dog to lead and when he is about eight months old, attach a light cord to his collar; then some good morning for squirrels, take him to the woods. Keep him until he gets sight of a squirrel, then drop the cord and let him go; he will likely see it run up a tree, and perhaps he will bark, but if not, do not urge him, but give him plenty of time; then take him to find another and if he does not get to barking, get one in small timber, where you can make it jump from tree to tree; if he does not bark then, he will never be much of a 'coon dog.