The American Beagler Forum

I have a female patch that is 16 months old. She handles great, has lots of hunt...everything is perfect for me...except the line control. When I say she runs a loose line, I'm being generous. I'm not getting rid of her anyway, but I would like to know if any of you think that her line control will improve with age. She gets run at least twice a week, sometimes more, but always solo. They say you can't ever get enough solo time, but I'm starting to wonder if she would be better if she had another dog to run with. Or will this all come together with age. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks

its just like any other line of dogs. some run more line than others. i have patch dogs and runn in lp and pp trials ,.to much solo time ansd she wont pack with other dogs .ifyou get another dog make sure it will run a descent line you may ned something a with a little different dogs in it yet within the patch family.good luck!

Solo time divided with pack time is equally important in my opion. I've had patch hounds for 20+ years and this is 1 thing I've seen in them , some will run the line real lose ,espically 1's with big nose's & most have this , they tend to be hounds with heads up run'n style anyways . Most will out grow this( lose line control ) as they mature. But they are a strain of hounds that will always drive a rabbit so they will not always have the best line control , but most come into their own about 2 years old. I'll also say this , if your run'n several young patch hounds together that are from just started to 2 years old they will compete for the front with no regard for thier body or anything else , they will over run the track , swing some and most anything else to get the front , but when they hit that age of maturey they settle in and you want ever want anyother line of hound. In the early times of my 1st patch's I discarded several young dogs because of what your seeing ,seeing them a year or so later only to find that they were very fine hounds & that I had been to quick to give up on them and from that point on I learned to give them time and they will settle in. These are just some things I've seen and don't claim to know everything about the Patch , but I will also say I've been around beagles all my life & I'm 50 and will say for me the Patch is the only line of hounds I'll ever feed at my kennel , thier is good and bad in all lines including the patch but if you do your home work , breed the good 1's , cull the bad you will come out on top in the end. Some reading this may wonder why I'm on the computer instead of run'n the hounds I speak of , well it started like this , up at 4:30AM this morning , loaded the 5 hounds that I was taking today ,headed out around 4:45 AM got about 10 mile from the house when I hear a flopping sound from under the hood , lost power steering , lights dimmed , hardly had brakes , stopped and found the idler pully on the surpinten (sp) in 2 peices and the belt wrapped around the fan , needless to say I was disapointed , after $60 bucks for the tow , $18 for the pully , $30 for the belt 1 hour to repair , desided it wasn't my day to hunt , guess it could have been worse !! Luckly I'm off Monday so I'll try again .
Don't give up on your female she will come around just give her some time , but I would pack her some also.
Randy

Thanks alot, Randy. That makes me feel alot better.

My dog is a patch and is loose on the line as well. he is 2.5 yrs old and is run twice a week normally. he does drive the rabbit. Very very competitive (just finding this out during PKC hunts at pryor) but overall I like him. Maybe he will settle down with age maybe not. If he would work the point of loss closer then he would be an excellent dog.

Purepatchshiloh, being from OK, is your dog out of Dennis Goads dogs at SPK? I know what you mean about the point of loss. When scenting is good, it really isn't a problem. She gets back on it pretty quick, but only to overrun it again. When scenting is bad, its another story as she zig zags a little too much to put it all together and eventually, the point of loss becomes a loss altogether. She has slowed some and I hope she will continue to slow to accomodate conditions. I ask about SPK because mine is one generation removed from Allpatch Daego and Dixie. Thanks, Dave

Yeah my dog is from SPK. If he loses the line he'll eventually come back to the point of loss but it takes a while. He is out of JLT whitecat patch and jlt honeypatch run. He might be slow down when he turns 8! j/k I would own another one like him.

John,
Your being to rough on your dog, that is one of the nicest patch dogs I have ever ran with, lots of hunt, honest mouth and really good foot, you need to put a picture of him on here for the patch guys to drool over, really nice looking dog.

Shiloh
Thanks trent i appreciate that. That helps boost my opinion of him. I read on here a lot about "super" dogs so my expectations of what a dog should do are higher than ever. especially on line control. BUT i don't think his ears will ever be scab free

good luck. I don't think patch dogs are known for line control

I'm not looking for or expecting brace hound line control from her, but I need a little more than I'm getting. I'll just have to keep working with her.

I`m from Sikexton Mo, and I have to be showed.My Shantillie female hasn`t been out for 2 months,because of pups.
She has excellent line control,when she runs over or the rabbit turns she might run over 1o ft,comes back makes a check and goes on with the rabbit.I`ve ran with a lot of Patch dogs and they have good line and check control.
When I run Her with the rest of my dogs,there is so much competion,that some times it is not the greatest.My dogs would be perfect if they just didn`t cut, slash ,skirt ,pick it up in the next county. What I love about them is ,they don`t Pop Off
Cold trail half the day just trying to jump a rabbit.I was out with my neighbor, he has little man blood,they trailed n trialed n n n,he said that rabbit was there 2 hours ago. When my dogs open you better be ready as Tiffins says.

I thought that's why they called them patch hounds. Hit a patch here, hit a patch there. Just kiddn.

The patch i have owned were very rough and would not open very often in a race.I got rid of mine.

Hey Ricky do you have swampers there?