trained or inherited traits

[JAW]

That's a good point Gus about the humane society.You CAN'T TEACH a hound to hunt that is a INBORN INSTINCT that they aquire from generations of breeding.You can however show the hound were to look for the game your hunting that's training.Training only goes so far in our hounds then the natural inborn instinct(genes & traits)takes over and once you suppress the inborn instinct the hound is useless to the hunter.You can teach your hound to sit,heel,come,down,stay ect.... but you can't teach a rangy hound to hunt close to you they SOMETIMES lack brains because when turned loose they leave the country instead of looking for the best cover that contain their quarry.A hound that hunts the direction you want then checks back is ok if nothing is found,but we must allow them to hunt and not stay with in our sigth all the time but within hearing range of any command the hunter gives. You may be inclined to say the rangy hound didn't have good training,but before you do look into the hounds back ground and you'll find other hounds were rangy too. John

[windy hollow]

Where do you guys think the very first Field Champion came from???
Yes, genetics are a big part of breeding for a champion hound, but without some type of training, and attention to correcting unwanted behavior, you have a beagle that may or may not ever become a great hunter. I love the sport of beagling, and have seen so many excellent hounds that have never had champions in their pedigree. This dont make any difference to their ability. All I am saying is breeding champions to get champions is not a shortcut to all the hard work and time involved in the field to hone a good hound into a great hound.

[JAW]

Where do you guys think the very first Field Champion came from???
Yes, genetics are a big part of breeding for a champion hound, but without some type of training, and attention to correcting unwanted behavior, you have a beagle that may or may not ever become a great hunter. I love the sport of beagling, and have seen so many excellent hounds that have never had champions in their pedigree. This dont make any difference to their ability. All I am saying is breeding champions to get champions is not a shortcut to all the hard work and time involved in the field to hone a good hound into a great hound.

Thank you for explaining your thoughts from your above posts.You have a very good point on the above quote and it does take alot of hard work to hone the skills of our hounds to get the best out of them.The title FC well I'll just leave it at that___.I like genetics and try to study as much as possible on the subject in hopes of mastering the art of breeding.I know mastering the breeding of hounds sounds far fetched,but without a goal to reach for how would I ever make any accomplishments. John Watson

[wolfman]

I have had a liter of pups say 6 ,5 will hunt 1 won't get off the porch. You train the dog to hunt the way you want. If he or she don;t want to hunt you can't make them, no matter who there mommy and daddy were.