When raising raccoon dogs, it is difficult to make that “perfect” combination that will bring out a litter of all the superstars that start running and treeing their own raccoon at 6 months of age and splitting the trees at 9 months of age. In fact, that is usually quite uncommon, although I have hunted and had raccoon dogs that were like that, they are few and far between.
When different coon dog bloodlines are crossed, it can sometimes be like playing the lottery. My experience in breeding coon dogs is that “line breeding” works best. Line parenting is simply crossing similar bloodlines. For example, they may have the same grandfather. Or maybe her grandmothers were cousins or littermates. Or they could just have the same dog or their brother / sister somewhere in their seventh generation pedigree. These crosses can be as close as half brother and sister in breeding. In fact, he owed him a Treeing Walker Coon Hound whose parents were sired by Gr. Nt. Ch. Hicountry’s Nite Heat and he was a pretty solid dog. However, I do not recommend online parenting that close.
My experience in breeding coon dogs has shown that the best breeding cross online is breeding first cousins. This means that one of the parents of the breeding pair will be brothers and / or sisters. Most commonly, the parents of the breeding pair are siblings. However, I must point out that when doing this you must choose quality bloodlines. The reason this works so well is because it duplicates genetics. This means that puppies are more likely to have the same qualities as their ancestors. So this is also true for negative qualities. So if you are raising first cousins who have a lot of negative qualities, the chances of Coon Hound puppies having these same negative qualities is doubled.
Now how do I know this works? It is very easy for those who follow the coon dog bloodline. He used to be the co-owner of a Treeing Walker Coon Hound stallion named Gr. Nt. Ch. Abbot’s Bawling Rebel, who is now known to be a proven breeder. Bawling Rebel was raised with several daughters by Gr. Nt. Ch. Elegant Harry which was owned by Tim Ball. The most famous of these crosses produced quality coon dogs such as the Gr. Nt. Ch. Stylish Platinum (sold for $ 30,000), Dual Grand Ch. Stylish Gold (another tested player) and many others. Berwling Rebel’s father was Gr. Nt. Ch. Ole South’s Stylish Rebel and was the brother of Ball’s Stylish Harry. The list of dogs that come only from this cross and others like it may justify the benefits of online breeding first cousins. But this is just one particular bloodline out of thousands who have used it successfully. The Wipeout bloodline of coon dogs is another good example.
In conclusion, when you decide to breed your raccoon dogs, you should seriously consider finding a quality first cousin companion. This will increase your chances of producing a quality raccoon dog litter.