line control

[mybeagles]

Nice video Mike, I've heard it can get windy in Kansas (Wizard of Oz). Do you notice your dogs running way off the line with head high "catching the scent"?

[Kansas Mike]

Thanks DH. I started off trialing in the Mid-West Assoc in the late 80's. I took the judging seminar in 1991 and judged quite a few trials in Ky and Oh. My dogs now fit best in the UBGF.

[Kansas Mike]

mybeagles,
We hardly ever have real nice still days here in Kansas. The wind is something you have to contend with here. As you can see in the video, it was fairly windy, but they were close to the actual line where the rabbit passed by me. I'm not going to say my dogs never "wind" a rabbit, but they are more head down style dogs.

[J.C. Blair]

I just like to run dogs and kill the hell out of them. Some formats don't even promote rabbit dogs anymore. Anymore I'd rather just cut loose and run all day than go to a trial.

We all are here because of one common thing. We love beagles and love to run em

Everyone have a great sunday

[Lee Cockman]

Plus 1 JC Blair. Some I no of can not even run for a couple of hours. They can not eat my feed. But glad some can feed them hate to see dogs be hungry!

[sbeagler]

run to catch, run to kill ,why else yawn or shiver in the cold. there are good hounds that can pick then put her in the wind. Congrats to Chris Orituhela & Ernie Weir yesterday they took 3rd out 54 bitches at the futurity out Ripper and one my Beavercreek bitches i sold them (blue maxs younger sister) the placing dogs picked it when needed but stroked when it was there. dont think a fast dog cant walk a track. a superior hound with brains can do it. if you are slow you either lack nose confidence brains or have poor conformation or poor cardio abilities from bad bloodlines. i learned from having beagles in my family almost 60 years from watching dogs run various rabbits hare etc. In the southeast if they can run a baby cottontail or run the runty pathetic darting twisting turning yellow tailed marsh rabbit weighing 1 pound maybe half added they can run anything. second if you can take that same dog place in the mwgda, southern large pack or northern hare circuits. you got a tough dog with nose brains stamina to be a dog hunted hard many times a week all season long. I like to see if dog can run 24 hours all day and night and still look reasonably fresh- sometimes i sleep in my car or truck wake up several times go to the gate to see is there a slacker around not still hunting and running ,if they dont show they are a hunting fool its wasting time to keepem. i have had a few run til the black off the nose was gone and bloody from running almost 2 days they would not look tired til i caught them they fall a sleep after getting feed and water. some be ready to go next day, some take 2-3 days to recover. the next dayers are always the hardest hunters it seems. any ways you really got test your dogs against other ones to see if they are lacking and swallow pride if you want the best . Steve Church -if you see the bloodlines that keep winning for 20-30 years and more it's a matter of getting some of that breeding culling running them hard and often to determine your next move. there's some fine hounds around call these guys up to see if you hang or get blitzed- be sure if your dog runs the front he's got brakes and isnt getting turned all the time from behind correcting is mistakes before the others do. they get rolling pretty hard at times ,so they will make a boo boo here and there, they all do unless their bred to push a peanut.

[fjg2]

its not "push" the peanut, Steve; that's cheating............you must ROLL the peanut!


just humor guys..nothing else I am not poking at anyone!

[Mapel Valley Kennels LLC.]

Shew after reading this i am going to shoot my dogs. , When you boys figure it out let me know.

[gwyoung]

I am not sure anyone has answered the man's question! He asked why line control was so important ? Why if a dog over- ran or skirted a pile it was so important. His thought process is geared toward killing rabbits, ( accomplishment) as he has stated. In an attempt to answer his question I will say this it is not that important under most conditions. you will kill just as many, if you run dogs just to kill rabbits as most do with the fast rough hounds ( of course most say they are not interested in killing them though) you won't notice a lot of difference in the game bag on most occasions, the dogs will make a fifty yard circle and find him again. Now I believe most of us run hounds for the enjoyment of seeing good hound work , to see a hound with high ability, as Ron Conroe stated earlier if you are not on the rabbit trail you are not running the rabbit. All dogs are going to be off the trail somewhat and for those that think that a rabbit covering a quarter mile in a circle and the dogs pursuing and covering 1/2 mile to make the same circle is good hound work than you probably think my wife is a good driver. She leaves the house here and goes to Wal-Mart every Sunday morning to get fresh bacon, she runs over the garbage bin at the end of our drive, goes off the road into the neighbors hayfield, hits the guardrails at least once , is always getting pulled out of the ditch, but by- darn she brings home the bacon. this is all that matters and I am sure you guys with the rough, swinging , skirting over-run the check by 50 yard dogs think she is a good driver after all she accomplishes the job. there is no difference between what she does in pursuit of the bacon than what your hounds do in pursuit of the rabbit! She is a good driver and you have good hounds!

[RAD]

Jimmy a thought u would figure it out a let me know.I just figured most dogs were so fast if they didn't keep the race jacked up from cutting and swing the races would b to long and steady lol.

[billy boy]

boys you can talk about line control and the lack of it till the cows come home, you know what they say , that's the reason they make chocolate and vanilla and one's man's trash is another man's treasure. bottom line is if you like what you got keep it.i personally think there is special hounds in all types spo pp lp that can do it right but most are few and far in between.

[Mapel Valley Kennels LLC.]

If it Hits Hards, Hunts Like Hell ,and Is Half Azz Clean. I am kinda digging it. Just saying and yes fast dogs can slow down Imo. That is if they got anything between there ears.

[warddog]

Well hounddog your post and description could have about described me to a "T" if the 40 years would have been 50 years and left out the fox and bear as those were things we never pursued with hounds. When I was a kid and being taught to hunt game following hounds we judged them by how they put game at the end of a pursuit. Of course that was either meat on the table and or pelts on the stretcher! We also judged there speed by whether we froze our back sides off waiting on them the put an end to the track they stared. NEVER did we EVER run behind the hounds to watch what they were doing but rather were basically standing in the area of where they started the track in hopes that they were good enough to bring it back to the gun. In fact if you hunted with my dad and or granddads and you run flowing the beagles they would have all got the biggest laugh at your expense and would probably have stated "what is that idiot doing?" I'll also say that when coon hunting it was NEVER of concern how or in what style a hound got it done only that they put an end to a track they started. I also never ran behind one to see if they were running fast, slow in brush piles, around them, in water or around it BUT I have seen them get treed in the middle of waste deep water. After I started competition coon hunted and made a few nite champions I realized that most were no better or no worse than the others as to their ability to put game up a tree or even find it in a tree as I have seen many a time they would get treed without a single bark on track. I've also witnessed a very nice female I had that could throw her head up on a windy nite, go 1/4 mile into a little tree row in the middle of a mile square of corn fields without opening her mouth until see gave off that long bawl locate and went to treeing. I couldn't say if she was running a TRACK or not because I've never smelled one but fellas she had the coon every time when she did this so I suppose she was running an air track! I'll also make one last comment in that I had a mountain cur that NEVER opened his mouth on a track but boys he would get treed most generally when others couldn't and I never know where or what he was doing until he came on a tree somewhere. Was he good, well about the best at putting hides on the stretcher I EVER SAW, period!

[rabbitearl]

I like that ending Warddog.i posted one time about a mix up bird dog that I hunting over.you talk about finding a rabbit and holding it till you got there.that dog was just unreal about finding a rabbit.But only could run one as long as it could see it.I could not believe the rabbit hunters that said they would not have a dog like that.Some said they would not have a dog like that cause it want reg.They must have lots of rabbits were they hunt.If I had a dog like that.Not only will I start back rabbit hunting.That dog would stay in the house,and go to the vet once a week.There hard to come by.Jump Dog That is.To me I think this is more imported than any kind of speed, line control ,or anything eles in rabbit hunting.i know there out there but I have not seen one in 20 years.i know some would say.I have jump dogs in my pack.you might have lots of rabbits and dogs that hunt hard.But in real.You don t have any jump dogs.I love to see a bed jump rabbit than one of the best dogs out there running one.I know I m strange.