Meet our coonie-crazy team:
Gerald (Jerry) Dunham, Engineer, project manager, IT manager, Founder of Tejas Coonhound Rescue
Active in companion animal rescue for over a decade, primarily with Great Danes and hounds, but also Malamutes, Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Lacys and other medium-to-large breeds. Founder of a coalition of scenthound rescuers covering the state of Texas and southern Oklahoma. Moderator of a nationwide American Foxhound rescue e-mail group. Former board member of the Alamo Great Dane Club.
Jerry and his wife, Linda, have trained Great Danes and scenthounds for AKC Obedience competition and APDT Rally-O competition. Two of their rescue Great Danes have been nationally ranked in AKC Obedience, one winning the top placement (called High in Trial) at the 2003 Great Dane National Specialty in Orlando with Linda handling. Linda has also been a substitute trainer for Austin Canine Central.
Jerry and Linda live with 3 cats, a Great Dane and 2 coonhounds in southern Williamson County, Texas.
Jerry and his wife, Linda, have trained Great Danes and scenthounds for AKC Obedience competition and APDT Rally-O competition. Two of their rescue Great Danes have been nationally ranked in AKC Obedience, one winning the top placement (called High in Trial) at the 2003 Great Dane National Specialty in Orlando with Linda handling. Linda has also been a substitute trainer for Austin Canine Central.
Jerry and Linda live with 3 cats, a Great Dane and 2 coonhounds in southern Williamson County, Texas.
Deb Benton – semi-retired business analyst, hound mom, volunteer rescue transporter
In May, 2008 I visited the local (Erie County, NY) SPCA’s mobile Adoption venue – the ‘Whisker Wagon’ – where it was stationed on a Friday afternoon at local shopping plaza. One of the dogs was a female Treeing Walker Coonhound. Faye had come up with 5 other dogs from the Knox County, OH shelter. I was so intrigued by this beautiful creature. A few days later, after a meet and greet with our lab Mr. Wilson, my husband and I adopted Faye and renamed her to Lucy Belle. Apparently, the hound gods decided that we needed lessons in humility, patience and commitment - Lucy Belle was not an easy dog. Over time we were able to work through/with most of her issues and grew to admire her incredible tenacity. We lost Mr. Wilson to cancer in 2010 and lost Lucy Belle in Feb 2014 after her 2nd bout with lymphoma. She left us with the greatest gift - we had become hound lovers.
So we started a new pack - Judd a Bluetick coonhound mix and Elvis an American English coonhound - both from the same local rescue. Then in October 2016, just a few months after I started to follow hound networking Facebook pages, I saw a video of a scared, shy, older American Foxhound. Glory was at risk of euthanasia in the Bradford County, FL shelter. I could not get her out of my mind, and we decided to adopt her. Not an easy task since I had no clue how to accomplish a long distance adoption; at the time having no rescue contacts. With the help of some incredible folks in FL – a rescue, foster and shelter volunteer – Glory Bea (she needed a middle name!) got her freedom. After her vetting and a 3 week stay in FL, we met her fosters in Richmond, VA to bring our new addition home to NY.
Since then I’ve found other ways to help hounds: donating, pledging, networking, doing home visits, and regularly driving volunteer transport (for all dogs). I started a “collar rehoming” project in July 2017 upon realizing the need when dogs would come on transport without a collar. I collect used and new collars, harnesses and leashes, ensure they are clean and in safe condition, and send to shelters. Through May 2020, I’ve sent over 3,900 pieces to 38 different shelters in FL, KY, MD, NC, OH, TN, VA, WV.
In May, 2008 I visited the local (Erie County, NY) SPCA’s mobile Adoption venue – the ‘Whisker Wagon’ – where it was stationed on a Friday afternoon at local shopping plaza. One of the dogs was a female Treeing Walker Coonhound. Faye had come up with 5 other dogs from the Knox County, OH shelter. I was so intrigued by this beautiful creature. A few days later, after a meet and greet with our lab Mr. Wilson, my husband and I adopted Faye and renamed her to Lucy Belle. Apparently, the hound gods decided that we needed lessons in humility, patience and commitment - Lucy Belle was not an easy dog. Over time we were able to work through/with most of her issues and grew to admire her incredible tenacity. We lost Mr. Wilson to cancer in 2010 and lost Lucy Belle in Feb 2014 after her 2nd bout with lymphoma. She left us with the greatest gift - we had become hound lovers.
So we started a new pack - Judd a Bluetick coonhound mix and Elvis an American English coonhound - both from the same local rescue. Then in October 2016, just a few months after I started to follow hound networking Facebook pages, I saw a video of a scared, shy, older American Foxhound. Glory was at risk of euthanasia in the Bradford County, FL shelter. I could not get her out of my mind, and we decided to adopt her. Not an easy task since I had no clue how to accomplish a long distance adoption; at the time having no rescue contacts. With the help of some incredible folks in FL – a rescue, foster and shelter volunteer – Glory Bea (she needed a middle name!) got her freedom. After her vetting and a 3 week stay in FL, we met her fosters in Richmond, VA to bring our new addition home to NY.
Since then I’ve found other ways to help hounds: donating, pledging, networking, doing home visits, and regularly driving volunteer transport (for all dogs). I started a “collar rehoming” project in July 2017 upon realizing the need when dogs would come on transport without a collar. I collect used and new collars, harnesses and leashes, ensure they are clean and in safe condition, and send to shelters. Through May 2020, I’ve sent over 3,900 pieces to 38 different shelters in FL, KY, MD, NC, OH, TN, VA, WV.
Mary Ann Emerson – graphic artist, calligrapher, and coonhound owner in Austin, TX
In 2013, after being without pets for more than 20 years, I impulsively adopted a high-strung and freaked out young Treeing Walker Coonhound. I named her Hattie, and my hound education began. After a great deal of research, a six-session obedience class, and hundreds of miles together on trails and sidewalks, we both started calming down. Almost two years later I adopted Cora, a young tricolor American English Coonhound, and started learning about multidog households.
Both hounds are sweet, smart, affectionate, and comical; but their temperaments are a challenging mismatch. Hattie is intense and independent; Cora is calm but anxious and wants to control Hattie. As Cora reached full maturity, her behavior toward Hattie shifted from adolescent brattiness to actual aggression. So my advanced study topics became resource guarding and managing inter-dog conflict. Addressing the relationship problems between them has been good training for all of us. I’m a more deliberate and exacting dog owner; and my hounds have grown in confidence, focus, and self-control.
Hattie and Cora enjoy nosework and rally obedience and do their very best to keep varmints out of the yard. Over the past few years they’ve also tolerated and sometimes actually mentored short-term fosters for Texas Cattle Dog Rescue.
Mary Beth Hall, Chief Dog Warden, Union County, Ohio
It doesn’t take long after getting involved in showing and training purebred dogs that you get “suckered” in to rescue. It takes even less time when you spend hours every year training in animal behavior. And even less time when you work professionally in an animal shelter and have an incredible love for four legged critters. I’ve owned Shelties, Labs, Weimaraners, and Coonhounds and shown them all in various venues including conformation, tracking, agility, obedience, field trials, hunt tests and more so I was ripe for a lot of suckering. I’ve fostered hundreds of dogs at my home and helped to transport and place them in to loving homes.
Finding the right home for a dog after fostering it and watching its personality blossom is one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. It puts a bandaid on my soul for all the sights I see at work that I can’t fix or help. My personal mission statement is:
To reduce the overpopulation and the dumping of animals at shelters and rescues by sharing the beauty of each animal's individual persona with the world. If people can be taught to treasure each animal for its personality, whether it’s wild, feral or domestic, whether couch potato or chained, mutt or champion; perhaps then people won't be so quick to abandon, abuse or neglect the lives of the animals around them.
My mission is to share my "tricks of the trade." To teach people ways to better the lives of their pets and to better the lives of the pet owners through behavior modification and training. Each pet I've owned has shared new lessons with me. I wish to share those gifts with as many people as I can. To prevent life's hard knocks through shared knowledge. I realized this after I noticed that the rescued animals that most upset me were the ones that were the easiest to train. These ones often came into the shelter with a bad habit, but it was incredibly easy to fix it. Instead of being relieved at the ease of the solution, I was doubly mad that the owners hadn't handled it themselves. It's easy to understand when a tough to train animal is turned over to the pros. It's hard to understand when the easy ones are dumped. Perhaps that's a message I need to understand. The ones that seem easy to me to fix must have seemed impossible to live with to the person who dumped their problem on to the shelter. May I find a way to intercede.
This phenomenal project helps me live my mission statement and it helps me to share my love for some of the greatest pets I’ve ever owned, fostered or handled---long eared, song filled galoots otherwise known as coonhounds!
Finding the right home for a dog after fostering it and watching its personality blossom is one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. It puts a bandaid on my soul for all the sights I see at work that I can’t fix or help. My personal mission statement is:
To reduce the overpopulation and the dumping of animals at shelters and rescues by sharing the beauty of each animal's individual persona with the world. If people can be taught to treasure each animal for its personality, whether it’s wild, feral or domestic, whether couch potato or chained, mutt or champion; perhaps then people won't be so quick to abandon, abuse or neglect the lives of the animals around them.
My mission is to share my "tricks of the trade." To teach people ways to better the lives of their pets and to better the lives of the pet owners through behavior modification and training. Each pet I've owned has shared new lessons with me. I wish to share those gifts with as many people as I can. To prevent life's hard knocks through shared knowledge. I realized this after I noticed that the rescued animals that most upset me were the ones that were the easiest to train. These ones often came into the shelter with a bad habit, but it was incredibly easy to fix it. Instead of being relieved at the ease of the solution, I was doubly mad that the owners hadn't handled it themselves. It's easy to understand when a tough to train animal is turned over to the pros. It's hard to understand when the easy ones are dumped. Perhaps that's a message I need to understand. The ones that seem easy to me to fix must have seemed impossible to live with to the person who dumped their problem on to the shelter. May I find a way to intercede.
This phenomenal project helps me live my mission statement and it helps me to share my love for some of the greatest pets I’ve ever owned, fostered or handled---long eared, song filled galoots otherwise known as coonhounds!
Anna Nirva, founder, Sunbear Squad, Inc., SW Wisconsin
One spring evening in 2004 while researching something for the shelter where I have long volunteered, I stumbled upon a news release about Sunbear and the sentencing of his owner on the website of the Humane Society of the United States. His haunting eyes in the photo taken while he lay in the shallow creek bed immediately and permanently lodged into my heart and mind. My life has never been the same. I resolved to learn more about Sunbear and Gene Fields, the Animal Control Officer who worked so long to bring Sunbear's owner to justice, so I tracked Gene down and contacted him. We talked many times over the phone.
Gene told me that the saddest part of his job was finding that neighbors frequently did not call law enforcement when they observed an animal being neglected or abused. He told me many tragic stories that could have had very different outcomes if only neighbors would have taken some action. Those conversations planted the idea for a web site to educate and encourage people everywhere to do the right thing when finding an animal in distress. The web site launched in January of 2005.
In the past half dozen years, I've become fairly obsessed with coonhounds and foxhounds. Austin, our adopted Treeing Walker Coonhound, now passed over, inspired me and my husband to support this new Coonhound Companion effort. Austin is a soulful and sweet companion. When I'm feeling down, he always notices and wants to comfort me. He has a funny side too; we call him our "spazzy boy" when he stomps excitedly in little circles to earn a treat. I took him to Bark in the Park last summer and he sang SOOOOO EAGERLY and LOUDLY that the microphone stayed right over his head! When I asked him to stop, he did. We were surrounded by amazed laughter; it was so much fun. Everyone had to pet him and admire him. We love him so much and want to share our appreciation for that great American dog, the coonhound.
Gene told me that the saddest part of his job was finding that neighbors frequently did not call law enforcement when they observed an animal being neglected or abused. He told me many tragic stories that could have had very different outcomes if only neighbors would have taken some action. Those conversations planted the idea for a web site to educate and encourage people everywhere to do the right thing when finding an animal in distress. The web site launched in January of 2005.
In the past half dozen years, I've become fairly obsessed with coonhounds and foxhounds. Austin, our adopted Treeing Walker Coonhound, now passed over, inspired me and my husband to support this new Coonhound Companion effort. Austin is a soulful and sweet companion. When I'm feeling down, he always notices and wants to comfort me. He has a funny side too; we call him our "spazzy boy" when he stomps excitedly in little circles to earn a treat. I took him to Bark in the Park last summer and he sang SOOOOO EAGERLY and LOUDLY that the microphone stayed right over his head! When I asked him to stop, he did. We were surrounded by amazed laughter; it was so much fun. Everyone had to pet him and admire him. We love him so much and want to share our appreciation for that great American dog, the coonhound.
Jill Sicheneder, Coordinator, Long Ears Alive! program
I have volunteered with St. Francis Animal Rescue, CARES and Take the Lead Rescue in Minnesota. I've worked at adoption days, done transporting, fostering and fundraising.
Boone, a bluetick coonhound, my family fostered was my first experience with coonhounds. Boone had been abused and was quite skittish, but I loved his gentle nature and spirit. He was adopted after 9 months in our home but I never lost my desire for having another coonhound. Enter Wanda, a Treeing Walker Coonhound. I found her on Petfinder and she was a special needs dog because of her skin and ear problems. She had been at the shelter for 9 months and at one time had scratched almost all her fur away. Wanda had an advocate, Anna Nirva, a volunteer at the Vernon County Humane Society in Viroqua, Wisconsin, Anna even made Wanda food in her home and brought it to the shelter. We adopted Wanda in August of 2008 and Anna became my friend. She asked me if I would like to be a board member of Sunbear Squad. Then in early 2012 I became the coordinator of Coonhound Companion's Long Ears Alive! Program to help coonhounds in shelters of pounds with medical issues that would deter their rescue or adoption. Many coonhounds have received donations for heartworm treatment, surgery (eye removal, cherry eye), tumor/growth removal, medical visits to determine illness or injury, etc. It is very rewarding to be involved in this program to help Coonhound Companions make a difference in a coonhound's chances of getting out of a shelter or pound alive.
Boone, a bluetick coonhound, my family fostered was my first experience with coonhounds. Boone had been abused and was quite skittish, but I loved his gentle nature and spirit. He was adopted after 9 months in our home but I never lost my desire for having another coonhound. Enter Wanda, a Treeing Walker Coonhound. I found her on Petfinder and she was a special needs dog because of her skin and ear problems. She had been at the shelter for 9 months and at one time had scratched almost all her fur away. Wanda had an advocate, Anna Nirva, a volunteer at the Vernon County Humane Society in Viroqua, Wisconsin, Anna even made Wanda food in her home and brought it to the shelter. We adopted Wanda in August of 2008 and Anna became my friend. She asked me if I would like to be a board member of Sunbear Squad. Then in early 2012 I became the coordinator of Coonhound Companion's Long Ears Alive! Program to help coonhounds in shelters of pounds with medical issues that would deter their rescue or adoption. Many coonhounds have received donations for heartworm treatment, surgery (eye removal, cherry eye), tumor/growth removal, medical visits to determine illness or injury, etc. It is very rewarding to be involved in this program to help Coonhound Companions make a difference in a coonhound's chances of getting out of a shelter or pound alive.
Jean Stone, Founder, Gentle Jake's Coonhound Rescue, Ontario, Canada
I remember the first time I saw a picture of a Bluetick Coonhound, I thought that this was the most beautiful dog I had ever seen. I vowed one day that I was going to have one of my own.
After our first dog Max, passed away at almost 15 years of age (he was a pointer/lab mix), I set out to try and find a new companion, and it was going to be a Bluetick Coonhound. After searching and contacting various people through the internet, I found my boy Jake from a breeder who also hunted his dogs. Well Jake just wouldn’t have any part of hunting. He wanted to be with his people and none of that nonsense of running in the bush at night chasing raccoons. In fact, he didn't like the rain or getting his feet wet. So long as he was with us and near a food bowl, he was the happiest hound alive!
I remember bringing home this huge 1 ½ year old, lanky, big dog and thought “oh my god, what have I done!” But after a couple of days with our new boy I knew he was exactly what I was looking for and he was here to stay. He was an amazing, kind-hearted, lovable, goofy boy who gave me almost 14 years of companionship and love. He was such a special boy he inspired me to want to help more wonderful coonhounds find forever homes.
The rescue was started in 2003 and we have saved over 150 coonhounds and bloodhounds. We have two dedicated volunteers, and we spend many tireless hours trying to find foster homes for a homeless hound. We could not do this without our very special foster homes and volunteers. We are the only Coonhound Rescue in Ontario, Canada.
My husband and I have three other very special Bluetick Coonhounds, Kink, Nemo & Speckles (pictured), and we usually have a foster hound or two. I could not imagine life without my coonhounds. If you are looking for that perfect companion, then a coonhound may just be the dog for you.
After our first dog Max, passed away at almost 15 years of age (he was a pointer/lab mix), I set out to try and find a new companion, and it was going to be a Bluetick Coonhound. After searching and contacting various people through the internet, I found my boy Jake from a breeder who also hunted his dogs. Well Jake just wouldn’t have any part of hunting. He wanted to be with his people and none of that nonsense of running in the bush at night chasing raccoons. In fact, he didn't like the rain or getting his feet wet. So long as he was with us and near a food bowl, he was the happiest hound alive!
I remember bringing home this huge 1 ½ year old, lanky, big dog and thought “oh my god, what have I done!” But after a couple of days with our new boy I knew he was exactly what I was looking for and he was here to stay. He was an amazing, kind-hearted, lovable, goofy boy who gave me almost 14 years of companionship and love. He was such a special boy he inspired me to want to help more wonderful coonhounds find forever homes.
The rescue was started in 2003 and we have saved over 150 coonhounds and bloodhounds. We have two dedicated volunteers, and we spend many tireless hours trying to find foster homes for a homeless hound. We could not do this without our very special foster homes and volunteers. We are the only Coonhound Rescue in Ontario, Canada.
My husband and I have three other very special Bluetick Coonhounds, Kink, Nemo & Speckles (pictured), and we usually have a foster hound or two. I could not imagine life without my coonhounds. If you are looking for that perfect companion, then a coonhound may just be the dog for you.