Top Dog: Coon hound trainer has another grand champion

EDDYVILLE – Mike Seets may have trained several champion coon hounds over the years, but he says when he hears a dog bay, he still feels the excitement he first felt nearly 40 years ago.

"It was back in 1978 and we lived across over that way," Seets said, gesturing across a wooded hollow near the Lusk Creek Trailhead north of Eddyville. "I heard these dogs barking and when I went outside, I saw all these lights. I asked my dad, 'What's that?" and he said it was people coon hunting."

A young Seets was intrigued.

"I went down there, and they had a coon treed. There were two old men with two dogs, and I talked to them a little bit. When they got done, I asked if I could go with them some time, and one of the old men said they'd take me the next time they went out."

Seets said as he got more familiar with the sport, he learned all he could. Eventually, he was looking through an issue of American Cooner and spied a picture of a red tick coonhound.

"I said, that's the dog I want," he said. "Before you knew it, I was off to Decatur to buy my first puppy. I got hooked from there."

Today, Seets is a veteran of the coon hound circuit, having raised and trained multiple bench show grand champions.

His most recent winner is a male blue tick with a registered name of CCH GR CH NH CH "PR" Souther Flame Bad Moon Raising, but he is better known by his call name of Moon.

Moon is the 2016 Purina Outstanding Bench Show Coonhound, and with the 2016 win, Seets has a total of six Purina championship wins.

"My last champion, Rock, was the first Purina champion to win it three times," Seets said.

Seets' first Purina champion was Beau, a black and tan coonhound that won in 2008.

In 2011, Seets won again with Swirl, an American leopard hound. Rock, his treeing walker coonhound, won in 2012, 2013 and 2015.

Seets said in order to have a shot at an overall championship, he takes the dog he is showing to many different competitions in many different states. Placement at those competitions determine the overall winner.

He said he had been involved in a few coonhound competitions through the years, but when he saw someone win a Purina championship, he wanted to try.

"At the ceremony for the championship, they brought out this painting of the grand champion dog," Seets said. "I took one look at it, and I thought 'I really want to win one of those.'"

Now that he's done that very thing several times, Seets said he still loves the thrill of competition, but he also enjoys the work. Though appreciates the recognition of his dogs through the competitions, the experience is the important part, he said.

"Every dog is different, and the trick is, you just have to learn how he wants to learn," Seets said.