Every dog behavior person will say you have to catch the behavior before it escalates. The issue is the average time that it takes for my coonhound to go from Defcon 3 to Defcon 1 is not enough time for me to anticipate the shift, get to where my dog is (or is headed)... dig out the liver treat crumbs from my pocket.. and compete for the dog's attention. If I am lucky, maybe I will have anywhere between a fraction of a second and 2 seconds.

So, here is the real challenge... there has to be a solution that is available to use that is fast and reliable. I consulted with a number of people, forums, and books... and the only practical answer is the answer hunters give without hesitation (mentioned here a couple of times).

In fact, I never thought I would say this,... but I find many of the tools and equipment the hunting community uses very useful. Even small things like the safety collars with the rings in them... at first I thought, I don't need the same things a hunting dog needs. After all, what kind of idiot pet-dog gets caught up in something so badly that they need to back out of their collar to free themselves.. and of course, the very next day, here goes my dog's tag getting somehow threaded and stuck in another dog's D-ring on their collar. How does that even happen? I don't know.... but both dogs were trying to free themselves and I cut my finger while trying to unthread the tag... And now I am the proud owner of a safety collar that has a "safety ring"... and I like the website "Gun Dog Supply Company"... because they have solutions to everyday Defcon 1-5 coonhound problems.