We are considering buying (for cheap $25) a almost full blooded redbone coonhound puppy. These are beautiful dogs, and we are wondering if anyone out there has one, and can tell me about their temperment, if they have bad habits, or are unfriendly in any way (I do know that each dog is different, but I'm asking for breed characteristics). We have chickens, cows and pigs, and the man who breeds these dogs tells us they won't chase them (he has ducks and chickens all over the place), that redtick hounds chase chickens, but not redbone. They will hunt racoons, which we want (we have many coons around here and they attack our chickens/turkeys). Thanks for any information you can give! Mary

-- Mary Fraley (kmfraley@orwell.net), March 30, 2002

Answers

My husband and I had a Redbone-Sadie. We got her when we lived in Texas. She was a wonderful dog-full of personality and especially suited to family life. She loved kids and tried several times to get on the school bus with them. She did however have a mind of her own and when it was time to go on a "run" she would leap the tallest fence and be gone just as long as her little heart desired. Usually she would return with anything from a sprained leg to snakebite. By the way, Sadie would chase anything that ran--it was all "just playin'" to her.

-- Jane Brockway (jake@2ki.net), March 30, 2002.

Mary, a hound is a hound. I guess that's a way of saying that they are bred for either of two things: Following a scent(all "Scent Hounds) or following the sight of something running away(all "Gaze Hounds or Sight Hounds")Your Redbone is of course a Scent Hound and they perceive the world through their nose, all of it! That's not to say that they don't "look", and "hear". They do, but all the other senses come in far back from a good trail. Your order of importance in this dogs view comes in a poor second to what it is reading through the nose. If you want a dog that focuses in on YOU don't get a hound, of either persuasion. If you want a good coon dog, go to a breeder that raises and HUNTS his dogs and get a good hound from that person. 25 bucks is not germain to getting a good dog. Price means nothing. No matter how you come by it, get one that comes from stock that you know are good at what you want your dog to do. And have fun! LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), March 31, 2002.

When he told you they "hunt" racoons what he meant was they track racoons when trained properly. You're the one that has to do the hunting when the dog trees the coon and coon hinting is done at night.

-- Emil in TN (eprisco@usit.net), March 31, 2002.

Listen to Jane! Her answer is perfectly on Target!

Our redbone hound Cleo crossed the Rainbow Bridge at the ripe old age of 14.

She gave us many years of wonderful companionship - but when she got a "snootful" of something wonderful she was NASCAR fast and determined!!

Great family dog, stubborn, slept on the sofa, guarded our home like a rottweiler with a halo, and NO FENCE was high enough to keep her when the air stirred with scent.

Oh wow, I'm tearing up, loved that dog....

-- Michaela (flhomestead@hotmail.com), March 31, 2002.

I guess we need to be careful of her running off! We have an electric dog fence (the kind with the collar that zaps them when they get close to the boundary) and I'm hoping that will work to hold her in. Thanks for all the comments! Mary

-- Mary (kmfraley@orwell.net), March 31, 2002.

Mary, in answer to your e-mail, we've not used the electric COLLAR on our dogs because most of them have thick hair around their necks and the manufacturer instructions we saw suggest SHAVING the neck hair if the collar doesn't work on HIGH (!!!!!)))

If you already have one, and know how to use it properly, well that's your deal. Please remember to introduce the puppy to it properly though, please.

We do use electric FENCING around our perimeter - we used to have a second strand inboard of the perimeter, but since they now know "they can't go there" we have no problems.

Good luck, and let us know if you get it and what you name it, ok?

-- Michaela (flhomestead@hotmail.com), March 31, 2002.

I forgot to say that Cleo passed over before we had the electric fence up. We had only been here on our homestead three weeks when she left us. She also dug UNDER the fence.

-- Michaela (flhomestead@hotmail.com), March 31, 2002.

The price of 25 dollars doesn't necessarily mean it isn't going to be a bad dog or a good dog. Some of that will come from how well the owner is going to train the dog. But yes it should be worth the money if you just want to keep the dog around the house to scare off varmits. I have learned recently to build my dog pen right up against the chicken house. No critter will be quiet enough to not wake the dog. The critter wakes the chickens up, the chickens wake the dog(s) up, and the dog(s) scare the critter away. Be careful about letting the redbone run loose. If the redbone has been raised up around chickens it probably will not chase them. But if your neck of the woods is like my neck of the woods, you will not be able to let it run loose because theives will make off with it just cause it looks like a hound dog.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), March 31, 2002.

Scent hounds are generally gentle loving dogs that live to hunt. The problem is that they are noisy and you can't trust them not to run off chasing something. If you take them for a walk and they find a scent, (and if you live in the country they will find one every time), they will run off following it and unless they are very well trained they won't pay any attention to you when you call them, so you have to keep them on the leash. If you really like to hunt get a hound. It's a lot of fun to watch hounds work a trail or try to keep up with them in the woods at night, but I wouldn't recommend them if you just want a watch dog and a family pet. A good Lab will stick around the house and obey better than a redbone and will still chase the raccoons off. I'd also have my doubts about an "almost full blooded" dog for $25. It's a fair price, but it's not the deal of the century. An almost full blooded dog is basically a mutt and they don't cost much compared to purebreds. They also won't necessarily look or behave like a purebred, which is why they cost less. Unless it's a mix of redbone and another hound I wouldn't count on it being a hunter, but that might not be a bad thing.

-- curt (curtislarson177@hotmail.com), April 01, 2002.

Forgot to add that hounds won't hunt in the way that you probably are accustomed to. They hunt like bloodhounds with their noses to the ground and they follow trails for miles. Hounds almost never actually catch their prey. They're too slow and too noisy. They either run it in circles or up a tree and it's up to the hunter to keep track of the dogs and to do the actual killing.

-- curt (curtislarson177@hotmail.com), April 01, 2002.

Many pleasant memories from years ago, listening to the baying of coon hounds echoing off the bluffs and trecking through the dark woods when tree was sounded. Very exciting to a youngster! These were Redbone and Bluetick hounds, not crossed. Ozzie bred and raised hounds for years. They were kept on his property outside of town because of the noise they made. They were kept chained because they would chase all the other animals on the place. Even though they were well trained hunters we would occasionally "loose" one. When that happened we would lay a blanket by the road and come back the next day. Sometimes the dog would never make it back, but that happened when hunting. When I was at school training to be a Vet. Med. Tech., we had two coon hounds that were used for lab work. When it came time to euthanize them I asked Ozzie to take them and try to train them. They must have been through too much. They liked people but were totally uncontrollable. One was put down and the other followed her nose to who knows where. Guess I'm saying that the breed has a place but from my experience it is not as a farm dog. Use them for what they were bred to do, hunt.

-- Scotsirish (notreal@anywhere.net), April 01, 2002.

Embarassingly enough our 3 year old Morgan is 1/2 Redbone and 1/2 Rhodesian Ridgeback, thank goodness 99% of the time her Ridgeback...ness is what comes out. She is an excellent guardian dog of both the goats and the farm. But just let a racoon or squirel near, and you have that two feet planted on the tree, baying at the moon hound coming out, and she is NOT going to stop until the squirel jumps trees or you shoot the racoon! Living in the National Forest this happens alot :) But her nose is also what helps her patrol the acreage. We have not seen the problem of her roaming, something we do not allow. She is wonderful at finding people, even as a youngster she could find my son, be it in the back of the woods or up in his tree fort. Now she uses her nose to keep her new baby goats rounded up :) Honestly other than the baying we don't see much difference in personality between our other Ridgebacks we have had and Morgan. Big loving dogs. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (Nubians) (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), April 01, 2002.