The American Beagler Forum

I'm wanting to start trialing and while reading UKC rules I came across an interesting one. They can scratch your dog for running off game and they DON'T HAVE TO SEE IT!!!!!!! How do they know the dog is running off game if they don't see it?????

Ryan J. Shaw

Warsaw, IL

Numerous ways to tell. One is no other dogs open or trail the line. Take for example a deer. A hound is running straight out no checks full bore and no other dogs open on it most likely it's a deer. It's not really a big issue unless your dog runs offgame alot. Don't let it scare you off!

In one of the registerys your hound only gets demerited for trash not scratched. 99% of the time its not hard to figure out if a hounds trashing.

how about this. lets say that your dog goes into the woods and at the end of trailing he starts to bark up a tree. well we all know that the rabbit did not climb up that tree. so the dog would get scratched, for off game and you did not need to see it. or another example, lets say a dog drives a trail across a large field through an oak woods and not letting up. in most cases you just need to use common sense.

I still think it's difficult. My Boldstroke hounds burn a rabbit so hard and fast that sometimes you think it is a deer. Last week they ran a rabbit down the edge of a half-mile field into a 80 acre timber before the rabbit began its loop. I went to make sure it was a rabbit and sure enough they ran it by me 4 times before it went to hole. How would a judge call that???

You are not going to get a DISQUALIFIED for running a rabbit!!!!!!!!!!!

Rshaw , go to a UKC trial with that Boldstroke you will do fine. It`s not as bad as it seems, remember just have FUN, thats what it`s all about. Me and my Boldstrokes run in UKC trials and have do what I consider very well, for young dogs. We always have a blast.

I have been to alot of UKC trials and I have only seen 1 dog scratched using this rule and there was no doubt the dog was running trash by anyone including the dog's owner. I was lucky and my dog checked her twice and didn't join in.

You'll know the difference 99% of the time. The judges are pretty good about making as sure as possible it is off-game before they call it. They give the dogs the benefit of the doubt.

As far as the dog barking up a tree, get this one! We were out saturday, had 3 dogs. The ran a rabbit and all the dogs lost it in a pretty open spot. We couldn't believe it, and couldn't find any holes, so we let them keep working it. They just couldn't find it. All of sudden my female walks by a standing dead tree, like a coon's den tree, and the rabbit flies out of a hole in the tree about 5 feet off the ground. It hit the ground right in front of my female and took off, shifting gears the whole way. I've never seen anything like it!! I wouldn't believe it, if I hadn't seen it w/ my own eyes.