Slick Treein' Idiot---A real coon dog, that is what we were getting. We drove down below the GA border into North FL for a walker (Treeing Walker---type of coon dog) male named Gus. Now Gus had a 1st place win in a UKC hunt and a winning pedigree. And at the time we thought that really meant something. We were both impressed and excited about the looks of Gus and his potential to chase and tree a coon. Oh, can you believe this, the owner also gave us $100 off the original sale price.

We couldn't wait for Gus to tree a raccoon. So we led him below the house to our creek the following night after we brought him home. What a mouth Gus had on him. He opened immediately on what appeared to be a hot track (recent coon track). Oh the excitement, Gus immediately was treeing a coon too! The kids and I hurriedly took off to where he was barking up the tree. I began to be a little concerned however when his barking led us to the top of a hill of planted pines. Most coons stay in the bottom you might know. I was even more concerned when I saw the tree Gus had his front paws on and his head was looking up at; a tree about ten feet high. Obviously there was no raccoon, but we shined our lights up to make sure. We were correct on our initial assessment, no raccoon. Gus probably was a little out of shape and still had to get accustomed to us was our logical conclusion for the mistake Gus made on this night.

A month later and many, many trees without a coon brought us to another conclusion. Gus was not out of shape, neither was it a problem with being accustomed to us, Gus was nothing but a Slick Treein' Idiot. Don't misunderstand, we liked Gus as a dog. Very loyal, very friendly. But loyalty and friendliness was not what we were pursuing. We wanted a coon dog! A Slick Treein' Idiot is what we had. Slick Treeing, you understand, is when a coon dog acts or even believes a coon is up the tree. The dog barks as if this is the case. However, as my boys relate, "the dog is lying." No coon could be found on Gus' trees.

Eventually a man from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina bought Gus. He understood what Gus was, but he really liked his pedigree. We told him, "Gus is a Slick Treein' Idiot." That was the last we saw or heard of Gus. We wish him well.