I have two dogs - a Redtick and a Half Walker / half Mountain Cur. Both young.
If you have never run or trained / handled coon dogs yourself, I'd suggest looking into a mountain cur to start with, because they are easier to deal with. They won't run track like a hound will - they will be best on hot, fresh tracks, and coons that go up quickly.
The advantage is that curs are a little bit more like working dogs and they hunt for you and mind better. Hounds are more aloof, less handle, and act on instinct. They have an overriding instinct to run track. If I turn mine loose and she strikes, she is going the distance, either to a tree or till she loses the track. This is desirable in a coon dog, but it is also taxing when training a young dog. She will not come off the track or a tree until I come get her, and sometimes that means humping it a mile through a swamp. When she was 8-10 months old, this meant if she ran some trash, such as hogs, I spent the night in the woods a few times. Curs are less likely to go on a bender without checking in with you.
If you get a cur trained pretty well on coons, you can use it to train another dog - a hound, and it will help keep a wilder dog reined in a little. Starting out with two young walkers will make think twice before you turn them loose the second time. My redtick dog can run at a trot for 5 miles and never even breath hard. Hounds have way more stamina than your average hunter.
