Questions about my new friend Stanley
Hi! I adopted Stanley here about 3.5wks ago. He is 7 and was brought in as a stray to the shelter, where he stayed with no interest for over two months. I am assuming he was a hunting dog that lived in an outdoor enclosure and then was dumped when he was no longer useful (I live in NC and that seems to be a thing here).
He’s my first dog. I’ve only ever had cats. So I know absolutely nothing and just had some questions.
He has typically done very well on walks with me, he likes a brisk pace but doesn’t pull. Generally I can encourage him to walk in a straight line. We have walked by bunnies, squirrels, other dogs, lawnmowers, people, etc and he has shown zero interest. Just nose to the ground, all business!
Except last night, we were walking and I let him run with me. When I stopped to catch my breath he was very determined to follow whatever scent he caught, zig zagging all over the street. Then we got to the end of the street and he just started barking. He isn’t really very vocal (yet, lol). But he was pointing his body toward the trees and just barked and barked and barked and it was like pulling teeth to get him back home. He walked backwards, even, always pointed toward whatever it was.
My question is, is he perhaps not interested in whatever wildlife we see on our walks because he hasn’t caught their scent? He’s got bad cataracts so he can’t see well and I’m assuming that played a part. But if their noses are so good wouldn’t he be able to smell the bunny that’s like 15ft away, and thus be interested? Or was whatever he caught the scent of last night some sort of Mega Critter that was especially interesting? I’m assuming the barking was him either alerting me or just being pissed I wasn’t letting him run amok in the woods to get whatever it was.
Also for hunting dogs like coonhounds, what is it like when they’re hunting? Are they on a leash, are they given some sort of scent, are they expected to walk slowly, etc? Trying to understand what his previous life may have been like.
I’d like to encourage his scent drive in my backyard. What sort of things can I do? Drag a piece of bacon around the grass and hide it somewhere? Sorry if that’s a dumb question lol like I said I have no idea what to do.
Annnnnnd finally is there any hope of me house training him? He’s crate trained but wants to mark allllll over my house. Well, everywhere we go really. Doesn’t matter, he’s gonna mark there. He was neutered about five weeks ago. Will that help? I read that they are very stubborn and hard to train and I’m assuming that since he’s 7 it’ll be even harder. He learned “house” and will go in his crate with no issue now but that’s all I have managed to do with him thus far. It came about organically because I’d say “house” over and over when I’d put him in there, then good boy, etc. So whenever he sits or lays down I’m saying that just so maybe he starts to associate the action with the word but for now the only thing I care about training him on is not peeing all over my house 😭 help lol is there any hope or will I be buying belly bands for the next 5 years?
Also how long did yalls coonhounds live for? I read 12-13yrs on google and then read some posts on here where it seemed the dog passed away much younger. Stanley has heartworms and a bunch of hopefully benign tumors on his mammary glands. I’m hoping once those are taken care of he will have many years left.
Thank you :) please be nice, I’m just a cat person who was picked by a dog to be his person and now I’m trying to learn lol