The American Beagler Forum

What format promotes the best hunting hound & why? I would like to look at all aspects, Handling, Hunt, line running, Check work, Off game, Time of year (snow). Lets be respectful of other opinions.

for hunting cottontails i belive arha pp great line and some speed to keep the rabbit moving to your gun but if i was running hare i want a faster dog

I think the best trial format is any type that tests: Hunt / search, nose, use of mouth, check work, gun shyness, and off-game.

I have only run ARHA Lp and Pp, UKC, and AKC LP.

Out of those listed i think ARHA PP is looking for a complete rabbit dog, however the new UKC Performance format might give it a run for its money.

later,

Lone Pine Beagles

ukc i have hunted all i like this the best also it scores on search check work and line control it easy to miss a line i believe a dog should get credit for jumping rabbits i do not like formats that beat the brush to jump rabbits and you score as a group if you have a good dog you will win you should not have to match dogs to clubs.

This is just my opinion and may not have any value to you but for me personally, any format that rewards a dog with plus points before the rabbit is circled and seen would be worthless in my humble opinion. I believe beagles have been bred for centuries to bring a rabbit around to be harvested. That is their function. In my humble opinion, there may be some formats that put more emphasis on the style or form a beagle uses to bring a rabbit around that the actual accomplishment of bringing the rabbit around to a possible harvesting position. That would be putting form before function, something that is usually not a good idea whatever you do in life.
You need to read some of the field trial threads in that section of this board.
I personally don't think there is any format that can relied upon to be a true test of a beagle's ability. Some may be closer than others but that may be be a matter of opinion.

This is just my opinion and may not have any value to you but for me personally, any format that rewards a dog with plus points before the rabbit is circled and seen would be worthless in my humble opinion.

I wonder if you would have won that cast insted of having you @$$ handed to you on a platter, if your humble opinion would still be the same?

My guess would be according to you this would be the best format in the country, but this is just my humble opinion

from what i have heard ,what they look for in mid-west promotes a good gun dog.I have seen good gundogs in every trial format I have went to.

Redtick , I have never felt compelled to question you on any of your posts as they are usually your oppinions, which are just that. And you are welcome to them. But, I do have a question on this one. Do you think the hounds actually herd, or force the rabbit to run around in the circle or is the rabbit just naturally usually going to run in a circle.Not trying to be smart a$$ed , but I always figured the rabbit is gonna run the circle , the hounds just put the pressure on it and follow it. Do my hounds really know where I am standing and are running that rabbit to me within a harvestable position ? Thanks , CHH

Oh, as far as the topic.. I have only had very limited trialing experience and it has been in UKC. Didn't place or anything,but had a dern good time there.

No I don't think the dogs force a rabbit to circle, I am sure a rabbit does this naturally. And, the dog just follow the rabbit, they do not try to herd a rabbit. But, a fast rabbit dog can pressure a rabbit and force it to go in places it may not normally go if it has time to choose where it wants to go. An example may be the dogs running a rabbit in a standing corn field. If the rabbit is not pressured, it may stay in the corn field all day knowing it can easily stay ahead of the slow beagles chasing it. But, if fast beagles are chasing it, they may possibly cause the rabbit to come to the outside to a possible shooting position because it was pressured into making a wrong decission. I hope this answers your question.

I am going to say AKC promotes this best dog- Mid-west.
I have only been to one AKC trial but out of all the trials I have been to they have the best way to get to the best dogs and that is to let them run and weed the weak out.
I'd say I may have had one of the better judges AKC use's that day but I am sure there is more out there like him, and I am sure there is some not as good either, but I would prefer that format over the rest, unless this new UKC format takes ahold and after the rules get tweaked a little bit I think it may be the best.

I think there are very few that truly promote the total package because 90% are ran on sod in optimal conditions or on snow with to many dogs down to see what is actually happening... The only way and it would be impossible to do is run strictly in snow season when most are gunning, and run 2-3 dog packs. This way you can tell what dogs are doing what. I have been to several different formats and if we are talking steady running hounds ARHA PP is the format that I think runs the steadiest dog....

i have only run AKC SPO, Large Pack, Gundog Brace to SPO and ARHA Progressive Pack

I like the SPO format running in the Deep South and Lone Star federations i think they like a real hunting dog i would like to see the winners packs run atleast one or 2 hours and down to a brace before calling field trial time permitting

The AKC large pack dogs i ran with were horible they lost the line about every 20 feet when they would run all over my dog and cause a check the checks were long a good slow conservative dog has more speed than 40 ruff dogs srewing the day up

I have run AHRA Progresive Pack one time and may try it again it was ok the only part i did not like was only one judge per pack and judges changed with every pack the dogs seemed a bit faster and ruffer than spo but not too bad still a good hunting dog with some line control if i finish my spo dog i may take her to more PP trials and run a few of my ruffer dogs to