Mike Scallon is a science teacher with a unique pastime. He enjoys raising, training, competing and hunting with raccoon dogs. The biggest obstacle for dog owners and hunters is the same, though — a lack of access.
Scallon’s aim is to change that.
“I have been breeding and training dogs for more than 40 years,” he said. “I started working with bloodhounds for police agencies, and then got into coonhounds.”
His dogs, all Walkers (treeing Walker coonhounds), are named the Scallon Hounds, from top breeding lines at his Hunting S Kennel.
“I focus on starting well-bred young dogs from seven weeks of age to the time they are treeing their own coon with consistency and style,” Scallon said. “I only start a few a year.”
Finding places to train and hunt has been more difficult.
“It’s becoming a fading pastime,” Scallon said. “It has never been for everyone — the objective isn’t bagging as many coons as you can, it’s to go out and listen to the dogs.”
Landowners aren’t always receptive to the idea, though.
“Everyone I have come across says the same thing — they all had relatives that had coon dogs,” Scallon said. “But some think the dogs will chase the deer and are surprised when they don’t. Back in the day, people understood better that that doesn’t happen. Some ranchers had negative experiences with hog dogs. Other landowners think raccoons are cute and may not understand how destructive they are.”
When he was a young man, Scallon said there was a market for coon hunters.
“We used to be able to sell the hides. We could get $30 each and landowners paid me $5 on top of that,” he said.
Scallon hunts on several ranches near his Dripping Springs home. Six of the ranches he hunts on feed deer and exotics year-round, and all of them are tired of seeing feed losses.
Despite fewer raccoon hunters with dogs, interest is still there, and Scallon is trying to get both more and younger people involved.
“There are other dog guys getting into coon hunting,” he said.
Texas is unique. You can hunt year-round and find raccoons everywhere. But it’s hard for a new person to get started; I’m able to get in after years of developing relationships.”
Getting started can be a costly venture. Well-trained and bred dogs are expensive, and hunters now use GPS, expensive headlamps and even thermal imaging.
“It’s not a cheap sport anymore,” Scallon said.
Scallon is a member of a coon-hunting club for people with UKC-registered dogs, called the Tink Taylor Family Hill Country Coon Hunters Association.
Here, discussions regarding training techniques and educational events for youth or novice hunters create an inviting, inclusive atmosphere.
“There are ranchers looking for people like us,” he said. “Some people try poison for the raccoons, but it’s often not legal. We don’t charge anyone to hunt, it’s just an open training field for the dogs. It’s free pest control for the landowner — it’s a win-win.”
Scallon’s daughter is a dog lover who used to hunt with her father regularly. Now, she has turned her attention to bird dogs and runs a nearby kennel.
“Her first two words were ‘Dada’ and ‘whoa,’” he said.
