Dennis, Pug, the Bear, Airhead and I

Dennis, Pug, the Bear, Airhead and I
By Carl Moore coonhunterssupply.com
As a coon hunter and a competition hunter I was well known as a trainer of good coon hounds. Some times I would hunt and finish training a coon hound for other hunters. A few years ago I got a call from some gentlemen who had a fairly good bluetick hound. They wanted me to get their dog ready for some major hunts and if possible make him a champion. I drove over to their home to check the hound out.
When I got to the house and parked the truck. I saw some great looking Bluetick hounds chained here and there around the property. I knew the guys[ Pug and Dennis] from some of the hunts I had been to in the past. They were both wheel chair bound and had people to handle there every need. The handlers would hunt the hounds in the forest around the home place and the guys could follow on the near by roads, with the wheelchairs, The handlers would take care of the hounds.
I was asked to finish training and competition hunt their best hound. The dog was called “Airhead”. As a young pup he made some big mistakes and made for some great fun, with his dumb moves.
Our first competition hunt with the guys was in McKain County Pennsylvania. Airhead was the first to strike the coons trail. We hunt four dogs in each cast and the best dog wins the cast. The other hounds joined in to the chase. The coon went up the side of the mountain and down the other side. We could hear when the dogs treed. Airhead was first to bark tree. We had to drive around the mountain to get to the dogs. The guys, their handlers and I rode in their Van. The van was set up for the wheelchairs and had a very large roof that opened the front 2/3 of the van top. There were four other trucks in our small convoy.
The little convoy stopped a couple of times to hear the hounds and make sure of their location. They were treed right where I thought they should be. At the next stop I was sure they had moved about fifty yards to the left, but the hunt judge disagreed with me. When we got close to where the dogs were treed we parked the van, in a place so the guys could hear the hounds tree.
We parked under a very large Hemlock tree. The hounds were about fifty yards down by a stream, treeing like they should. The tree was checked, the coon seen, and the hounds were scored. When I got back to the van the guys were setting there laughing. They would not talk to me until the convoy started back to hunt headquarters.
Then they told me, when we went to the hounds. They heard a noise in the tree above the open van. When they looked up there was a black bear up the hemlock tree. The bear was racing down the tree and limbs were flying. Some falling into the van. they thought the bear would soon join them. I thought about the hounds moving from one tree to another and was sure Airhead had treed the bear first. Then smelled the coon in a near by tree. He was smart enough to go to the coon and win the hunt.
Airhead won his share of hunts and soon became a great champion. He was a great hound and a ball to hunt. We never knew what he might do in a hunt. He always was good for a few laughs, but he was still won enough hunts to become a great champion.