Syracuse.com - UKC youth coonhound championships underway today at Redfield Fish and Game Club

[HuntingNY-News]

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More than 50 competitors, ages 3 to 17 from across the state, are competing in the day-long event with their dogs.

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<div id="asset-13188158" class="entry_widget_large entry_widget_right"><span class="adv-photo-large"><img src="/static/common/img/blank.gif" class="lazy" data-original="http://media.syracuse.com/outdoors/photo/13188158-large.jpg" class="adv-photo" alt="coongood.jpg" /><span class="photo-data"><span class="caption">Bella Hillman, 7, of Oswego, with her coonhound, PR Bella's Rockstar.</span><span class="byline">David Figura | [email protected]</span></span></span> </div>

<p>The sound of baying coonhounds filled the air this morning at the Redfield Fish and Game Club in Redfield.</p>

<p>It was the New York State United Kennel Club's Youth Championships. More than 50 competitors, ages 3 to 17 from across the state, are competing in the day-long event with their dogs.</p>

<p>"It's not like going to the Westminster Dog Show, which consists of just parading dogs around and making them look pretty," said Don Hillman, of Oswego, chairman of the event and board member at the club. "There's a saying the UKC has, 'Real dogs for real people."</p>

<p>The UKC recognizes 17 different breeds of coonhounds, Hillman said. Many were represented at Saturday's event. The competition today features field trials, a swim race, a bench show and a full-fledged night hunt.</p>

<p>The first event is the field trials, which consisted of dropping three to four competitors at a time and their dogs one third of a mile away. The hounds were released and timed as they followed a scent trial laid down by event staff dragging a raccoon urine-soaked shirt on a rope on the ground. At the end of the trail was a caged, scented fake raccoon in a tree. </p>

<p>The bench trials consisted of showing the dogs. The swim race provided a lot of action, pitting the dogs against each other on the fish and game club's small pond. The dogs were required to swim the length of the pond, pursuing a caged, fake and scented raccoon hanging from a rope.</p>

<p>The final scheduled event of the day is the night hunt, with dogs being judged by their ability get on the track and tree a real live raccoon at night. Miller said the young competitors would be taken to locations throughout Oswego and Jefferson counties beginning at 7 p.m.</p>

<p>Some of the entrants wouldn't be finished for the day until after midnight, Miller said. </p>

<p>Every competitor, he added, will get a door prize and a trophy "to make sure everyone gets something to take home with them." The top 10 finishers in points will qualify to the UKC's national coonhound competition next year.</p>

<p>Bella Hillman, 7, who is Don Hillman's granddaughter, has been competing in these types of competitions for four years. She came today with her plott hound, PR Bella's Rockstar.</p>

<p>"She named that dog before it was born," the grandfather said.</p>

<p>Tyler Coonrod, 6, of Rome, was at the championships with his English coonhound, Winchester's Macks.</p>

<p>"I like seeing my dog tree a coon," he said.</p>

<p>Hillman said once that happens, the sound a coonhound makes is unmistakable.</p>

<p>"Once a dog is on a tree, it will bark 120 to 130 times a minute," he said. "They get into a good chop and it sounds like a machine gun going off."<br /></p>

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog