In this episode, Dave Pelzer takes us back to the early days of his coonhunting career and what hunting looked like when a dog didn't have to carry a fancy pedigree to earn its keep.Dave's coonhunting story began in the spring of 1956 with a $3 coonhound and a lifetime of hunting ahead of him. Nearly seven decades later, Dave has seen just about every side of the sport—from the days of hide hunters and mixed-breed hounds to today's highly specialized dogs and modern electronic tracking systems.
We talk about the hide-hunting era and the dogs that made it possible, including mixed-up hounds that might have included bird dog crosses or just about anything else that could put a raccoon in a tree. For Dave, those dogs were judged by what they could do in the woods, not simply by what was written on paper.
Over the years, Dave has owned nearly every breed of coonhound, with one exception—he has never owned a Plott. But one breed has continued to pull him back. Dave owned Redbones early in his hunting career and returned to them in the mid-1980s. He has remained with the breed ever since.
Dave's connection to the Redbone breed extends beyond the dogs in his kennel. He currently writes the Redbone column in Full Cry Magazine for the American Redbone Coonhound Association, helping preserve the stories, people and traditions of a breed with a long history in the sport.
This is a conversation about much more than dogs. It's a look back at how coonhunting has changed, what has stayed the same, and what can be learned from someone who has been turning loose hounds for nearly 70 years.
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