A general forum for the discussion of hunting with beagles, guns, clothing and other equipment and just talking dawgs! (Tall tales on hunting allowed, but remember, first liar doesn't stand a chance)
BCBeagles wrote:
Our hounds or yesteryear were average hounds, on good days they did fine. On bad days we made excuses for them.... excuses bother me alot.
I KNOW all hounds have holes, some just have smaller holes... Good running to all!
I agree. There are a lot of good points made on this thread. I can remember when hunting with friends, we may have eight or ten dogs down. Some could jump and run a rabbit, but not all. It was obvious that if particular dogs jumped a rabbit, there was no guarantee you would get a shot, unless one of the better dogs got into the race quickly. Otherwise there would be a quick loss.
As was mentioned in an above post about interstate travel, internet, and other communications, if a person doesn't have dogs that can jump and circle a rabbit in their local conditions, he probably is hung up on a fad or doesn't understand the type dog required run rabbits in his area.
Everything was better 20 yrs ago, jobs, cars, and me. I compare every dog I have now to my first one when I was 15, 30 years ago. Hunt, brains, ability and behavior was a 10 out of 10. Speed 3-5. I remember going hunting with buddy who had a smoking hot akc beagle, all kinds of trophys and ribbons. Mine handed him his ass that day and he loved it, he wanted her. She was just a grade dog my dad picked out of a litter of no name dogs. I also think 20 yrs ago people had to spend a lot more time with their dogs. Now we all have shock collars to force them to listen. GPS collars so we know where they are all the time. I for one want my dogs to hunt with me not a mile from me.
As far as trial dogs, I don't believe they are done to judge hunting ability at all. If you have a dog that packs, runs the line and can grab a couple of checks you might do alright.
I do not know in general but I will say when I first started judging in the early 90's their was one or two good dogs per cast. Now most cast all the dogs are good. As for hunting and not trialing I believe my dogs are better now than when i was a kid. I do believe the dogs I had as a kid had to be better jump dogs due to as soon as they jumped them we shot the rabbit so a dog may have to jump 10 or more rabbits a day. Last night I ran till morning and i bet the dogs ran some rabbit for an hour. I never had a dog as kid run a rabbit for an hour we were throwing lead. Shock collars now days misused also has hurt hunt.
not sayen there is not great trial dogs, but the ones iv seen cherry pick their rabbits, are fast and aggressive,banging and bumping the other dogs, swing out to cut the other dogs off, and have almost no hunt, o and are erratic as all get out! i think to many times judges build these certain hounds up to be more than they are, and they get the benefit of races where ever they go, then the next thing their worh 10 thousand dollars with stud fees of hundreds of dollars. me personally i want rabbit hounds not trophy hounds with egos!!
When people relied on their hunting beagles to ACTUALLY PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE, not just to have a rabbit dinner, but to actually feed the family out of necessity a lot less garbage was bred and a lot less garbage litters were produced. Culls were shot and thrown in a old pit , not sold by a slick ad, as a actual worthy hound. Sure there are some good hounds around now, but i can think of a lot of old hounds, from years ago, that did it ALL with great HUNT that i would rather have in my kennel.
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likeemfast wrote:When people relied on their hunting beagles to ACTUALLY PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE, not just to have a rabbit dinner, but to actually feed the family out of necessity a lot less garbage was bred and a lot less garbage litters were produced. Culls were shot and thrown in a old pit , not sold by a slick ad, as a actual worthy hound. Sure there are some good hounds around now, but i can think of a lot of old hounds, from years ago, that did it ALL with great HUNT that i would rather have in my kennel.
I don't chime in much on the board but I will throw in my two cents worth. I see people these days breeding flat average or below average females to stud dogs and expecting to get an exceptional pups for the most part it just don't work like that!!! Just because a female can win a few hunts and circle her own rabbit does not mean she is good enough to breed!! When the pups turned out to be average or duds guess who gets the blame THE STUD DOG! But as long as people breed average makes it easier from me....lol. If I had a good stud I would be very selective on what I breed...JMO on this matter
I feel I have some of the best dogs I have ever had. They hunt hard, jump their own rabbits, run under all conditions, etc. I don't take credit for I didn't breed them. I either bought them or they were given to me. Yes given to me. Thank you Lewis for dark holler Rufus. Thank you john for fulcouny black betty and fancy. The dogs I have, I doubt the average joe could even buy. They are not for sale, they are not at stud. They are line bred and will stay that away. I have 3 and they all look like clones of each other. None are far sale. I think the breed is advancing. Hunt is getting even stronger. Noses better. Again I am lucky to be able to reap the rewards of over a hundred years of combined experience between two beagle experts with high standards. To get this line where it is at today they worked hard and smart. (I know John and Lewis aren't a 100 years old yet, but combined they have well over 100 years experience).
Also judges work hard to keep the breed advancing. I thank them. I definitely feel today you can find lines which have maintained and improved.
What I am saying is across the board on average they are worse than years past...jmo....it ain't much but a spade is a spade and I'm not going to get kennel blind and act like we are better off
I know when I was growing up we had far more rabbits, as well as other small game quail, pheasant etc...
and far less deer.
Now we have more deer than we have small game.
Dogs look a whole lot better when there is an abundance of game to run.
Growing up you could go out and shoot 4 or 5 rabbits in a couple hours without dogs, hard to do these days with out the aide of a good running dog.
In 38 years of having beagles this last pack was my best.I don t think its much in the dogs now than 20 years ago.I just got better and some luck that I got better in looking at a dog and putting a pack together.Most guys will not have a good rabbit dog now if its not reg.A lot thanks the dog in frount is the best dog.In trials they mostly look at the running part.I know when I went hunting I made sure I did not leave my jump dog at the house.
You know in rabbit hunting its a pack team.I wish I had 5 dogs now don t matter if there reg to me,but 4 dogs the only than they can do is run him and nothing but a rabbit.(no shock collors) and one that true jump dog that can only jump a rabbit.Now I can go rabbit hunting.
That's the reason I like two couple pack trials.Its a pack team.
