Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 21, 1990 TAG: 9007200238
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MARIANNA FILLMORE SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Which sport can trace its beginnings back to the elite and elegant fox hunt of England?
Which sport can consume several nights a week in season and can provide year-round excitement?
Which sport can easily siphon thousands of dollars annually out of an enthusiast's pocket?
Give up? The answer to all the above is coon hunting - and the sport is anything but trivial to its devotees.
"Coon," of course, is "raccoon," and coon hunters use any of six breeds of hounds to track and tree the creatures. In the past 30 years, coon hunting has evolved from a good ol' country boy pastime to an elaborate, sophisticated and expensive sport.
The breeding, training, showing and hunting of coon dogs is now a year-round passion with an ever-growing number of animal lovers and outdoor enthusiasts.
"The idea of all this competition is to have good, solid tree dogs," said Kenny Davis of Sunnyside, a rural Montgomery County community. Davis is a coon hunter whose father was a leading authority on breeding, training and hunting for a quarter of a century.
"I usually hunt four to five nights a week in season," said Wendell Bond, secretary of the Blue Ridge Coonhunters and Sportsmen Club in Christiansburg.
Most weekends the rest of the year are devoted to competition hunts and, of course, there are the many hours spent training and caring for the dogs.
The dogs, said Davis, "that's really what makes hunting as much fun as anything else."
There are six breeds of coon hounds recognized by the United Kennel Club, the world's largest working-dog registry: the American black and tan, the bluetick, the English, the Plott, the redbone, and the treeing walker.
The serious enthusiasts register their dogs with UKC, belong to one or more of the 1,200 licensed clubs, and crisscross the country participating in scores of the more than 6,000 annual events.
They try to accumulate enough points to enter the world championship each fall and compete for the coveted Purina Nite Hunt Coonhound of the Year Award.
The UKC licenses four types of coon hound events, of which three are working events. In addition to the conformation or bench shows, there are night hunts, field trials, and water races.
"Each event is designed to test the hound's ability to perform under hunting conditions," according to the UKC. "No taking of game is allowed in any of these events."
With approximately 25,000 licensed coon hunters in the state - most of them not in the woods to kill a coon - what attracts so many from all walks of life?
All the New River Valley hunters interviewed agreed that they enjoy the sport for the chance to hear the dogs on the trail and to listen to them work, for the opportunity to be outside and enjoy the country, for the release from everyday tensions and worries, and for the good fellowship it provides.
Davis pointed out that coon hunting is "much more family oriented now. The shows, especially, are a good way for the young to start getting involved and for the old to stay involved."
He said many children, who might not otherwise get the opportunity, broaden their horizons through travel to various events. In addition to obtaining a better understanding of geography, they gain poise and confidence.
"My children have been so many places, they can mix with anybody anywhere," he said.
Wives who want to participate with their husbands, but who do not care to night hunt, enjoy training and showing dogs in the conformation classes.
Most coon dogs are characterized by a clear bawl on the trail that changes noticeably to a steady, sharp, chopping bark at a tree.
Walkers are the most numerous of the coon hound breeds. They are usually tricolored white, black and tan with a mahogany head.
Blueticks boast a fascinating deep blue, mottled coat and, along with the black and tans, are extremely cold-nosed - able to detect a trail several hours old.
Redbones are a dark, rich red, with the blood of the Irish hounds in their veins.
Plotts are beautifully brindled and noted for their stamina, grit and determination.
The English are so named because of their similarity to the English foxhound, to which all the breeds, except the Plott, can trace their ancestry.
During the 1700s, many prominent colonists imported hounds from England. George Washington, for example, was an avid breeder and fox hunter whose dogs formed the foundation stock of the Virginia hound.
The ancestors of today's Plott hound were used for boar hunting in Germany. When Jonathan Plott left that country for the mountains of western North Carolina in 1750, he brought some wild boar hounds with him. As there were no wild boar in America at that time, he used his dogs to hunt bear.
Cross breeding took place over the years, resulting in an intelligent, courageous dog of great endurance and beauty. It is still used today, more than other breeds, to hunt large game.
The UKC has more coon hounds in its registry than any other type of dog, and coon hound events make up the largest sporting-dog competition in the United States, according to Todd Kellam at UKC headquarters in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Night hunts test a dog's ability to track and tree raccoons, and the events take place at night in the coon's actual habitat - swamp, woods or flatlands, depending on which region the hunt is in.
Actual hunting time usually is two or three hours, but travel time means that it is often 3 or 4 a.m. before the dogs return to the clubhouse. The judges and hunters use lights to locate a treed raccoon. Guns are not allowed.
Field trials and water races both use a live, caged raccoon or substitute. In the field trials, the dogs run a course or track to a home tree from which the raccoon is suspended. They earn points according to how they run the trail, locate the tree and bark at the coon.
During the water races, the raccoon is suspended on a line over a pond and pulled the length of the water and up a tree or pole near the water's edge. The dogs must swim after it to the home tree and bark to the judges satisfaction.
According to Kellam, a good working dog can easily run $5,000.
"A dog that has won the Purina or world championship cannot be bought for $30,000," he said.
Breeding fees can run $200 to $300, and pedigreed pups go for at least $150. Lights range from $70 to $350 and tracking equipment can top $1,000.
Bond and Davis feel that, in training the dogs, it is not necessary to kill the raccoon and give it to them each time. Dogs learn through repetition and praise at the tree.
Some hunters do hunt and kill coons in season, usually for their pelts. The price for hides, however, is very low these days.
"The way I look at it," Bond said, "you go out there and kill a coon, you can't go back and run it again - a dead coon makes no more tracks.'
by CNB