ukc

Smith has built his breeding program on a nine to ten-generation, female-centered Lone Pine line-breeding effort.  Using his females, he reaches out to tap a vast network of stud dogs that have been evaluated according to his standards.  Smith discusses the criteria he uses in making the all-important decisions that result in his obvious success.  Steve asks Smith why and how he comes to choose popular studs like Bone Collector, Coma’s Stylish Legend, All Grand Track Man and several others to augment his years of work with the Lone Pine females.

This episode will be most appealing to those that either want to breed coonhounds successfully or are simply intrigued by hearing how Smith has chosen the right pieces to create a masterful program that is producing results for pleasure and competition hunters alike throughout the coonhound word.  As Steve’s dad Homon Fielder, the houndsman, would have said, “This one is a good’un.” 

Randy Smith may be reached by phone at 724-525-1892.

Bruce Janssen of Otterbein, Indiana has devoted his life to training sporting dogs, both pointing dogs and hounds.  Having hunted dogs for the public and for himself for most of his seventy-three years, Bruce has made a habit of studying the things that do and do not work in the realm of coonhound training.

Steve and Bruce spend an hour and three-quarters talking about things like how dogs think differently than humans, how jealousy is a prime motivator in getting the switch flipped on a young project and how too much hunting can be as bad as too little.Sacred cows, pet training methods and popular ideas alike are fair game as the straight-talking Janssen, a standard-bearer among coon dog trainers, shares from his vast storehouse of coon dog experience and know-how.   This is coon dog training spoken in a language coon hunters, regardless of level of experience, will appreciate and understand.   

Josh and Steve visited this summer in Florida when Josh brought his family down to enjoy the beaches.He and his sons Bryson and Peyton joined Steve for lunch at a favorite watering hole and spent some time at the Tampa Bass Pro Shops complex. 

Josh and Steve talk coonhounds and coon hunting and cover the trauma of losing a good hound, discuss coon conservation in an age when coons seem to be worthless from a monetary standpoint, and paint a picture of coon hunting in one of the most challenging areas of the country, an area with which both are intimately familiar.  Josh talks about his current hounds and some pups in which he and boys are placing their future hopes and dreams. 

This one is vintage coon talk from a couple of guys with a West Virginia twang that is sure to tickle your fancy as you anticipate, as do they, the opening of coon season in the mountains and across the country. 

The episode includes an on-the-scene conversation in North Carolina with Mark Miller on the morning following a Saturday night pleasure coon hunt before Steve heads back to Florida to batten down the hatches before the storm hits.  The original plan for this episode was to interview coon hunters in North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania and bear hunters in Virginia.  Unfortunately, Mother Nature had different ideas.  Thanks to listeners for understanding the brevity in this episode.  It simply couldn’t be helped.   

Steve sits down with a young man whom he believes to be the hardest hunter, for his age, of all the coon hunters he has met over his seventy years of following hounds.  If it gets dark at close of day Kesten Jessee will be out there with his hounds.  The amazing thing about this 28-year-old hunter is he is largely self-taught and his hounds are too. His success story revolves around his current hound Clyde, obtained as a four-month-old pup and trained with no help from other dogs, nor from released coons nor other popular methods.  The dog has never had an e-collar on his neck and at fifteen months old, has treed more than one hundred coons in an area where coons are particularly scarce. 

Without letting the coon out of the crib, so to speak, let’s give a listen to an interesting interview with purist Kesten Jessee, coon hunter and dog trainer extraordinaire!   This one is for those of you that are attempting to do it yourself.

Chip Kohser, National Sales Manager for Joy Dog Food stops by the booth and the discussion turns to the glory days of the PKC Joy Youth Championship.  Chip’s dad was in charge in those days.  Chip and Steve remember beloved Joy employee Mike Harper with several stories from the days in Aurora, Kentucky with the Chip’s dad and Mike.  The discussion turns to Joy’s resurgence in the coonhound world and the plans for the future.

Best Pointing Dogs and Best Hound Dogs trainer Jared Moss made the trip all the way from Utah to attend his first Autumn Oaks.  Jared’s knowledge of hounds and sporting dogs and how to train them is well documented. 

Lane Denny, winner of the 2019 UKC World Coonhound Championship is always a great guest.Lane discusses the three litters of pups he has raised from well-known studs and his UKC World Champion Spavinaw Creek Insane Emmy.

The podcast wraps up with a visit with Fred Moran the Redbone man and the discussion turns to why he wasn’t at Autumn Oaks this year and why he thinks young hounds can be more successful than older dogs at times. 

This is an entertaining episode on several levels and concludes the coverage of this year’s Autumn Oaks, the Event Where History Is Made. 

From his vantage point in the new UKC Media Center adjacent to UKC’s headquarters, Steve conducted a series of ten interviews covering several aspects of the Autumn Oaks legacy.

In Part One, Fielder records with Ben Sheets of the Tree Talkin’ Time podcast, longtime Hoosier competition hunter Rex Robinson, cur dog fancier and old friend Marty Stanton, coonhound trainer supreme Bruce Janssen, YouTube producer Clayton Starke of Starke Outdoors and UKC’s Director of Field Ops Allen Gingerich. 

This multifaceted program is sure to have something for everyone and will be followed by an equally entertaining Part Two featuring Chet McCreary, Chip Kohser, Jared Moss and Lane Denny. 

With the sounds of the Autumn Oaks faithful in the background, this episode is about as close as listeners will get without actually attending The Event Where History is Made. 

As they contemplate the trip and all it will entail in the coming days, they take time to recall the Autumn Oaks 25th anniversary event in Jasper, Indiana in 1984, 39 years ago!   Nubbin remembers well the years 1984, 1985 and 1986 when his Black and Tan Hank was declared National Grand Nite Champion of the Black and Tan breed in each of those years was overall winner in 1984. 

The boys talk about the upcoming trip to the White River National Wildlife Refuge in this episode and admit, with some remorse and no little trepidation that they are getting older and may be needing to seek younger hunters to join the trips going forward to assist in handling the dogs. They’re not there yet but that picture is obviously coming into view.

The Gone To The Dogs podcast is nothing if not a candid discussion whomever the guest may be and this one is no exception.  But true to form, the boys have a good time when they get together and that’s evident throughout the episode.  We’re betting you’ll enjoy the stories and the banter in this latest account of Fielder and Moore On The Road.   

It may have been a Walker dog world for many but deep in the cold-stream hollows and sandstone-faced cliff rows of southern West Virginia coal country, the Plott dog was king.  Among recognizable names like King, Moore, Walker, Bolen, Wickham and even Fielder from that region, none reached the level of acclaim in the Nite Hunt game to match that of our guest, John Sturgill. 

Sturgill gained his well-deserved reputation through the exploits of his Grand Nite Champion Timberline Tack dog, followed by the Tack II and Tack III from subsequent generations.With three National Grand Nite Champion of Breed titles with Tack II and Taxi, and an in-your-face win as high-scoring male win at Southeastern Treeing Walker Days with Tack, Sturgill’s fame spread throughout the coonhound world.

Now, at age 73, and with two knee and two hip replacements to his credit, Sturgill is still hunting and winning with his beloved brindles.  Sturgill’s insight into training and his unique perspective on hunting Plotts compared to other breeds make this an interesting and entertaining hour and twenty minute visit with a hunter that, despite the Walker dog’s popularity, simply chose to march to a different drum.

Bob and Steve spend the better part of two hours talking about the hounds and the hunters of the region of which there are many.  No doubt Bob honed his story-telling skills in the shop where he has had a captive audience for decades. 

Come on in, climb into the chair and prepare for your coon hunting itch to be scratched and your own experiences doused with Bob’s special blend of coon hunting memorabilia as only a life-long coon-hunting barber can.  When done, a glance into Bob’s mirror will reveal lots of familiar images of hunters and hounds that you will remember too.  

Steve catches Hawkins tending the fire as he hickory-smokes jalapeno and cheddar cheese-laced summer sausage, a six-hour process at 165 degrees.  The two old friends use a third of the time to catch up on memories of their days with PKC hunting, with mutual friends like Tam and Clay Young and publisher Terry Walker. 

This one is also for the straight-talking good ole boys among us as Hawkins talks straight about today’s dogs and hunters and the way things have gone in the hunts from his many experiences over the years. 

The boys talk on into the night as the smoker breaks down the fat and the back and forth renders some pretty solid content, proving that all coon hunting conversations are not just about good ole boys blowing smoke.  Get yourself a beverage and savor the coon talk, Arkansas-style.      

Steve joined the PKC staff in 1998, the same year his guest Rusty Jones made the final four and placed second overall in the PKC Youth World Championship at Aurora.  A recent phone conversation between the longtime friends prompted Steve to record this look back at one of the most enjoyable times for both he and Jones as well as thousands of other coon hunters, in all their years of experience with the sport.

Jones and Steve paint a mental picture of the Tennis Center, not only by describing the physical attributes of the legendary venue but also by sharing stories of the people that made each visit to Aurora so special each year when October rolled around. 

This is coon hunting conversation with a nostalgic twist that will make those that never experienced Aurora wish they had, and all that were fortunate to be there, to yearn passionately to go back again.  See if you don’t agree. 

The mission of this podcast, in part, is to entertain listeners each week with content that scratches that “scanlous coonhunt itch” affecting us all at set of sun or with the mere mention of hounds and hunting.  Three thousand listeners per episode, over the last twenty-six weeks, indicate that the effort is hitting the mark in that regard.

Secondary to the desire to entertain is the firm determination to record for posterity, the stories of as many of the coon hunting’s major influences and exceptional contributors as possible in the afforded time. 

In this episode the two longtime friends discuss Logan’s beginnings, his introduction to Treeing Walker hounds, the individual stand-out hounds that made “Logan’s Wild” a familiar by-word, and descriptions of the hounds that made the brand famous.  The show finishes with a then-and-now look at the sport from which neither veteran hunter is remotely considering retiring despite the fact each is nearing the four-score mark in age.  This one has something for coon hunters of all ages and levels of experience.  There’s history, humor, hyperbole and hope, all wrapped up in an hour and forty-minutes of vintage coon hunting conversation that we’re willing to bet you will thoroughly enjoy.   

Marshall is also a renown coon hunter and promoter of Treeing Walker coonhounds.  His GRNITECH GRCH McCall’s Silverado Dan, is number four on the UKC Treeing Walker current reproducer’s list and his GRCH GRNITECH Midnight Rider is number nine on the list as well. 

Steve and Whitey enjoy a conversation about coon hunting, military service, breeding Treeing Walker coonhounds and Whitey’s success in major events such as Autumn Oaks and Treeing Walker Days.  It’s a coon hunting conversation for those that take their hounds and the hunts they provide, nice and easy with lots of references to how things were and are and how they ought to be. 

Known for his stories and an uncanny ability to tell them, Moran’s visit this week is a veritable animal house of tales involving snakes, fighting chickens, cottontail rabbits, diving ducks, armadillos, horses, flop-house bed bugs and elephants.  Even the odd raccoon or two makes at least a cameo appearance.

This is vintage Moran and boils down to the two veterans discussing the fun factor of coon hunting and how it seems to be lost on many of today’s hunters.

Come on in for a trip back in time in Moran’s coon hunting camper for some entertaining conversation that will leave you with a smile.  

Bear and author, houndsman, pastor and all around good egg Robert “The Beagle Bard” Ford sit down and talk hounds, the wonderful books that Bob has written, and we discuss the plusses and minuses of air conditioning.

Bob is an funny guy with a sharp wit, who hides lessons on life, God, and love in stories about beagles.

For more information about Bob, his beagles, and their books go to www.beaglebard.com

Risk was injured in a HALO (High Altitude, Low Opening) jump that ended his SERE active-duty career, but he continues to teach military skills to soldiers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.   Steve and Courtney hunted together throughout Steve’s tenure with the American Kennel Club in Raleigh, North Carolina from 2006 to about 2013. 

Born in Nebraska and growing up in southern California, Courtney’s mother took her family back home to Iowa where he hooked up with a coon hunting uncle and started a lifelong journey with the hounds of the night.

This is a multifaceted conversation about hunting in Washington State, New Mexico, Missouri and North Carolina.  The boys discuss favorite hounds and a myriad of coon hunting’s most recognizable personalities, including Jess Dickerson and the late Timothy Ball, both of which Risk was and is well-acquainted.

Risk reveals his affinity for Iowa-Style Walker dogs and how he includes the slogan of the 19-time National Championship-winning University of Iowa wrestling program in the names of his hounds having Hawkeye roots.   

This a good conversation for coon hunters that appreciate the wide scope of the sport whether geographically or from the standpoint of interesting personalities one meets along the way.You’ll count this one as time well spent.    

In this episode, Steve’s partner Mark Miller is in the studio to discuss pup training, how he has successfully trained his Grand Nite Champion (2) Treeing Walker and how he is applying his training principles to a project he and Steve own together, an eight-month-old Plott Hound pup named Fever. Fever is a bright pup and is responding well to Mark’s training regimen. Miller goes over the steps he’s applied to bring Fever from a green four-month-old to a pup that has treed his own coon and split treed from the dogs at less than eight months of age.

This podcast is designed to help coonhound trainers realize success when starting a well-bred pup, from weaning age to the competition stage. Newcomers as well as old hands to the game will benefit from the conversation.

Enjoy.

www.stevefielderbooks.com

GONE TO THE DOGS PODCAST with Steve Fielder

https://www.dusupply.com/gone-to-the-dogs-coonhunting-book.html

This episode travels back to the heyday of competition hunting when UKC events were experiencing their highest levels of participation, when the Purina Outstanding Nite Hunt Coonhound Award was competition-hunting’s most difficult most-sought-after prize and when hunters crisscrossed the countryside in search of coveted points to be counted at year’s end.  It was the greatest of times in terms of national recognition for one’s achievements in the game and a time when the name Duke Proulx was legend among all others.  With two UKC World Championships and two Purina Award championships to his credit, Proulx (pronounced Prue) was one of the most successful competitors of the day and in fact, of all time.

This episode contains a lengthy conversation between two individuals who remember the era well, one from the field and one from behind the administrative desk.  If you have heard of the guy with the unusual name and wondered what makes him tick, now’s your chance to meet The Duke.  You will enjoy the experience. 

In this episode, host Steve Fielder interviews Randy Smith of Pennsylvania. Smith is known for perpetuating the successful Lone Pine strain of Treeing Walker coonhounds. Fielder digs down into the foundations of the famous strain, reviews with Smith the standout hounds in Lone Pine history and explores the changes in the strain over the years. This is a must listen for hunters possessed of the desire to breed better hounds over time. Smith reveals the secrets to his success and pauses to thank those that have made that success possible. This is a comfortable, yet power-packed conversation filled with history and revelation for breeders of coonhounds for pleasure or competition. The episode also shines the spotlight on recent PKC Super Stakes champions and finishes with a listener question, the answer to which is filled with cautionary advice for anyone that follows hounds.