I carried Rooster on his first trip to the woods about 3 weeks ago. First truck ride (three hours), first boat ride (30 minutes), and then dumped him in the woods with Drum. Drum got struck, gommed around, and came treed. We got in the boat to get closer, and Rooster finally went to him. Rooster was smelling around when I got there, and then just loaded up and treed with his daddy on the Persimmon. They were sitting under a coon. I hunted him alone the next night. He got out some, trailed something, but never opened. He's never seen a live coon. Here's a video of Rooster and Drum. You can't see much, but at least you can hear them.

Video of Rooster's first trip to the woods

Friday I went to check my trailcam, and carried Rooster along. The woods were flooded, and he's never been in water. I dumped him on a coon, and he trailed it, even opened a few time, but didn't know what he was doing, or why for that matter. Would have been a lot better in dry, open woods I think. He is persistent though. I finally caught him and went to the camera. On the way out, he opened behind me. I went to see what was up, and he came to me, but picked the track up and worked it in the flood waters on the bank of a river. Well, the river was out, so there was really no bank. He worked the track for about 5 minutes, and opened quite a bit before I got him to come out. He's progressing nicely for his 3rd time out, two of which were alone. He's never seen a live coon, and he's not 6 months old yet.

I sold Betty. The guy called me very pleased. Said the treed coon, split treed, looked good. Only regret I have is these pups out of Betty and Drum are really showing promise. Two are running tracks, one is treeing alone on squirrels, and all but one are treeing on hangups, at 4 months old. Two of them are gonna be for sure treedogs if nothing else, and the one that is treeing squirrels reportedly gets through the country. I can't let mine out together any more, they are getting out of pocket.

Hunted Drum in a PKC hunt last weekend. He didn't look good, still rusty. I had first strike, and after scoring another dogs circle tree, Drum split, and another female treed about 100 yards away. Circled Drum's tree, recast him, and left the female to score another dog deep. They were across a highway with a coon. I heard Drum open, and he was getting close to the highway, but he was treed. Fortunately, he didn't make it to the highway, but unfortunately, it was a possum...LOL! Oh well...

I hunted him alone this past weekend. Friday, he's struck and treed in about two minutes with a coon in a Persimmon. Next dump, he's made a huge circle, comes back fairly close and just falls treed. Slick Persimmon.

Saturday he gets struck, comes by me, crosses the river, and hushes for a long while. Now I've been watching him on the Garmin, and it was the same thing as Friday. Seems like he's finding a cold track, opening a time or two, and dropping it to try and find a hot one. When he can't, he comes back to the old track. I don't know that's what's happening, but twice he treed or struck in country he had just been through. Anyway, he struck a rough track in rough terrain, and came treed with a coon. I recast, and he struck along the river, and after working a rough track, and bumping trees in all the treetops, he finally trees on the bank of the river on a small Persimmon with another coon. I call it a weekend...