Run to catch

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Had a great time running the dogs today. It was raining all morning but the temp. was cool and when I get the urge for going I just got to go.
Went to some public land hoping to find that the bow hunters weren't in there already.
When I arrived there were already 3 trucks there with a pack running. I didn't know any of the guys and figured I'd go look for another spot to turn out.
Stopped to chat for a minute and the guys all came over and said " hey, if you want to turn out with us no problem. We've got a good one going.
This kind of surprised me cause there's some guys around that get an attitude if they even think you are going to run while they are there even though it's public land open to anybody.
I asked how many they had down and they said 10. Well I figured, we're about to have a large pack. Turned my 4 out and for the next 5 hours we were treated to some super running and oh the music was sweet !
Sometimes when you run that many dogs from several different kennels it can be ugly but they all packed up and did some real good work on multiple rabbits.
I run by myself about 95% of the time and I really enjoyed the fellowship and LOTS of dog talk and story telling. Always enjoy seeing other hounds run.
Thanks guys ! I'd run with you anytime.

[Beagle Huntsman]

Shady: You ought to keep enough hounds to run like that all the time.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

I've never kept more than 5 grown dogs at a time in my life. These 4 females I have are plenty for me to feed, keep up with their shots and worming, give heartworm preventive, keep their kennel runs clean, water buckets full, deal with 8 heat cycles a year and more than enough to handle by myself in the woods while running. Plus there aren't that many places where I'd feel comfortable turning out 14 dogs.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Had a scary time this morning running the dogs.
All I keep are females and right now I've got one just a couple days out of heat, one that came in two days ago, one that I plan on breeding next week and one that started spotting this morning.
I'm headed north next week for some hare hunting and have been running hard to get them in "hare running shape" which is a lot different then cottontail running shape.
Unlike a lot of people I'll run my girls around their heats except for that five day window when they are most likely ovulating and would stand. With that being said I only run where I KNOW that I'm the only one around and no houses or dogs in the vicinity. I stay on top of them all the time and they're wearing a shock collar if I HAVE to stop them.
I'd taken Josie and Fly and they had one up and running good for about an hour. I'd seen the rabbit cross half a dozen times and was enjoying the race.
They ended up putting the rabbit in a bunch of rip rap along the water's edge. When I got over to them both dogs were trying to find a way in the rocks to get at the rabbit.
I told them "he's in a hole leave him. Let's go" ! I started walking off with Josie following me. Got about fifty feet away and Fly hadn't come along so I yelled for her and hit the tone on her collar.Still wasn't coming.Toned her a couple times and still no Fly.
Went back to the rocks and couldn't see her but could hear here inside the rock pile.Got down on my knees and looked in and she was stuck fast and was thrashing around trying to get loose.
Long story short -- It took me the next half hour moving rocks. Had to go find a tree limb to pry on the bigger ones.Finally got her by the hind legs and could drag her out.
When I pulled her out of the rocks she had a dead cottontail clamped in her teeth !!. Guess if you do this stuff long enough you'll see it all.

[Rabbithoundjb]

You got to love that much determination Dana. I've caught 3 since I went back to running.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Look at that good looking bluetick beagle D.R. & D.R.'s Spitfire. ! And look at that old rabbit hunter holding him !
Had a 325 mile road trip down to Daddy Rabbit's place in north Georgia. Went with the intention of breeding my Fly female to Spit but didn't get it done.
Not Spit's fault as he was willing and able. Fly would have nothing to do with him and wanted to eat him up when he tried. We tried holding her while Spit mounted but she thrashed,twisted,and fought him and us and a tie was just not possible.
I had a feeling yesterday that something wasn't right about getting her bred today. I had been watching her for heat closely and this was her 12'th day after first spotting. Should have been prime time.
Not keeping a male dog you have to go with what you see and what you know. Ordinarily my other females will give you a pretty good idea by riding each other,involved sniffing,licking,peeing every where. Obviously I either missed her onset of heat date by a couple of days or she "short heated". She definitely was past. The past couple of days the other dogs weren't paying her any attention and I had the feeling i might be in for a long drive and that's the way it turned out.
Not the first time. Probably 20 years ago I had a female that I wanted to breed. She came in to heat and then seemed to go out within 6-7 days. I wanted to breed her to F.C. Branko's Huck Finn [ a Heli - Prop ] son owned by Tim Griffen down in Tupelo, Mississippi . It was a six hour ride and I felt something had been weird in her heat so I took her to the vet. and had him do a vaginal swab.This is supposed to be very accurate indicating when the female is ovulating. He looked at the swab under a microscope and said "her cells are cornified which means she's ovulating. I'd make the trip".
Got there and spent several frustrating hours trying. No go. Tim had another F.C. named Branko's ZZ Top. We tried him and that female was having none of it. Bit me in the process. So don't know what the deal was but another long ride without the desired result.
Drove to Kentucky one time to get a Reggie daughter bred. Got there and my female was hot and ready giving the male all the chances he wanted. Problem was he was nine years old, fat and out of shape, hadn't been run in a couple of years and was smaller than advertised. Tried for a couple of hours and then he just quit and wouldn't attempt. Couldn't get it done on his own and wouldn't perform if you tried to help him. Some males don't care and I've seen others get too intimidated and give up.
Anyways.................. Had a great time visiting with Daddy Rabbit and a rabbit hunting friend of his. We even ended up turning Fly and three little pups 5-6 months old in his running pen and listened them run rabbits.
You'd be some impressed with those pups.They can run and circle wild cottontails in thick cover and spitting them out. If Daddy Rabbit tells you he's got 5 month old pups that will run solo you better believe him !
Sure enjoyed the visit Daddy Rabbit. We'll try again in 6 months.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Don't know what happened when I tried to post this pic with my above post. Got the guy from the pixrezizer site ??????
Daddy Rabbit with D.R. & D.R.'s Spitfire

[warddog]

https://youtu.be/5_XHTKT01nE

[Rabbithoundjb]

Picture of Dan and Diva. Best I could do, they don't stand very well likely because I don't do it much

[Rabbithoundjb]

Dana it appears that Spit hunkers down a little when he is posed also. I normally take pictures of mine in the pen or in the field I don't pose them much so they're just not use to it. Dan is 15" and Diva is 14.5". I like both a lot.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Just got back from 10 days of hunting snowshoe hare up along the Canadian border in northern New Hampshire.
Here's a pick of my hunting buds -- Bob Ferranti, his son Ryan and Paul Rozinski along with the 8 beagles we had with us and a couple of LONG running northern hare. Hare population was outstanding as we had no problems getting one up where ever we turned out.
First two days we hunted on snow as they had gotten 10 inches the day before we arrived.
Been hunting that country for the past 25 years and unlike so many other spots it doesn't change much. Love it, but it can be a tough hunt. Tougher now than it was 25 years ago.LOL !!
If you want to know if your beagles have a lot of "bottom" take em north and run hare every day for a week or more. We had many runs of 2 hours or more and they weren't checking much. Burners!
I know about line control and close check work,etc. but then there's those times when they are just flat out driving hard that are just a pleasure to listen to.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Here's a pic. of the view of Lake Francis from our cabin.
God's country.

[S.R.Patch]

Don't know what happened when I tried to post this pic with my above post. Got the guy from the pixrezizer site ??????
Daddy Rabbit with D.R. & D.R.'s Spitfire

That Spit shows good angle in the front shoulders.(4). Should cover ground easily. Most show dogs have steep shoulder, not good shock absorbers.
Daddy rabbit looks well... Willet Randall said hounds kept him young.

[Aubrey Holcombe]

Dana:
Good looking pack of North Country, Hair Hounds Glad you all had some good running up there. was 84 degrees down here back when you was up there.

Sure did enjoy the report been going to give you a Land Line, but been petty busy here at the kennels getting their bedding new for the up coming cold weather' as down to 40 this morning and I am catching a few rabbits for my starting pens.

The photo of Me and Spit turned out good, thanks for posting, Spit was kind if squatting down, first time he ever had his picture taken? Say i been showing my cotton tail buddies that Big Ol Snow Show Foot that you gave me, these old Red necks can't seem to comprehend a foot that big off a rabbit, that is why they call them Snow Shoe's I suppose ?

Glad you all had some good running, up North.

D.R.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>>

[Aubrey Holcombe]

Dana:
Good looking pack of North Country, Hair Hounds Glad you all had some good running up there. was 84 degrees down here back when you was up there.

Sure did enjoy the report been going to give you a Land Line, but been petty busy here at the kennels getting their bedding new for the up coming cold weather' as down to 40 this morning and I am catching a few rabbits for my starting pens.

The photo of Me and Spit turned out good, thanks for posting, Spit was kind if squatting down, first time he ever had his picture taken? Say i been showing my cotton tail buddies that Big Ol Snow Show Foot that you gave me, these old Red necks can't seem to comprehend a foot that big off a rabbit, that is why they call them Snow Shoe's I suppose ?

Glad you all had some good running, up North.

D.R.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>>