How many of you have switched styles of dogs?

[bluegrass]

Hey Rob, the pm didn't go through, my computer was down for about a week and I just got that message forewarded to me by my wife who is in the doghouse for the weekend for not giving it to me sooner!!! I'll call you soon, good to hear Duce won't be too far away. Tony

[MIKE BELLAMY BEAGLES.NET]

robert my daughter has a track meet most of the day Saturday !! i would rather run dogs with you but she might dis own me if i dont watch her run in the track meet !!

[Robert W. Mccoy Jr]

Sounds good Tony.

Hey Mike,
We will get togeather next time I'm down there.
Duce will be down there for a while so at least you get to see him go now.

[Buckeye Bob]

Robert,you mention that around here and guys look at you like you just said "I think I'll start wearing a skirt",But I am leaning that way,I love speed but double hate losses.Thing is ,all I know are fast dogs and the guys who breed onlyfast dogs so I will be starting all over if I switch.

[Steve C.]

Rob, don't give up on the hare dogs- there are too many out there that don't lose rabbits, don't run trash, handle great, yet still have the desire that we love in these hare hounds. I never really changed what I wanted in hounds but DID decide several years ago that I'd be happy to give up a big chunk of that front end speed for endurance, nose and steady running. The hounds you want are out there, you just aren't likely to find them advertised at stud because in my opinion many judges today in fact judge ONLY speed without even realizing it. When you have a genuine great hound that doesn't bang heads with the frontrunners you're going to place often but seldom win, and you're going to hear judges say over and over that your dog was the cleanest one in the class but the winner accumulated more score even after all the demerits. I recently re-read an old beagle book with chapters written by Lew Madden and others and we are warned repeatedly about this happening when faulty hounds are left down too long in a trial. The best hounds are overlooked in favor of the frontrunner even though he is the one repeatedly causing the checks and losses. My best hunting dogs will generally place in trials but almost never win because they're too "clean". That's OK, we don't leave many hare unaccounted for all hunting season. I've learned to be content with that and not take the trials too seriously. If I'm not mistaken you had a kennel of Striker bloodlines. My experience with them was mostly good. They were generally quite clean running, honest hounds but didn't have the nose I needed for our winter conditions. There ARE very fast and clean hounds out there but the odds of ever having more than one of them in your kennel at any given time are pretty slim in my opinion. Building a pack of top hunting hounds is about 10 times harder than finding one great hound.

[Robert W. Mccoy Jr]

Thanks Steve C,

Though I really do like watching a faster dog run they were never my first pick.

I have owned slower more steady hounds in the past.

I think your right there are some very good hare breed dogs out there.

I have killed 349 rabbits in the last two year with mine. They looose very few rabbits.

But they are still not quite as steady as a true medium speed dog.

This past weekend I went down to Ohio and ran my duce dog with his litter mate JohL's doc. I think you would be bard pressed to find two better running hare breed dogs.

[Steve C.]

Rob, what's the breeding on those two?

[Robert W. Mccoy Jr]

Doc and Duce are litter mates out of IFC Wookie who is a son of IFC Argintinuel Striker. There bottom side is F.C. Larsens Sadie.

You probably know about Strikers pedigree.

Sadie is out of IFC Tall grass flash boy and IFC Sand County Pennie.

Hope that helps