How did you get into beagleing?

[WSRandy]

I owned beagles as a kid just to go along with dads coonhounds, but I never had any real rabbit dogs until the last few years. Shannon wanted to get the girls ONE Dalmatian for XMas in Dec. 2000, I said no way lets get a beagle. We got us a pup at the Danville hunt that weekend at the conservation club and I got to see my first competition rabbit hunt, boy was I hooked!!! I convinced Shannon a few weeks later that the little pup needed and older teacher, then the older teacher needed a back-up, and so on until we ended up with more beagles than sense

Needless to say, the girls have pets galore now LOL

Randy

[WELLS WOODS]

My first experience with beagles was around 1980 at age 7 when my dad came home with 5 or 6 beagles that he traded a coonhound for. He used to have some good Treeing Walkers and I enjoyed coon hunting, but not as much as rabbit hunting and watching beagles work. I kept grade beagles off and on until around '92 when I was introduced to field trials by some locals that started the South Ky Beagle Club. I've been hooked ever since.

[B.Trull]

I cut my teeth on bird hunting back in the 70's, then my good friend Paz's mom brought home a pound puppy beagle. In high school we started hunting behind George and had a blast. I went to college and served in the Navy and moved away then both Paz and I moved back around our home town and got a AKC female beagle in 95'. Sorry hound , we didnt know anything about hounds and well , its been an oddesy ever since. Its an addiction that must be carefully controlled but beats sitting on your tukus in front of the tele. Peace

Brad

[DG TX]

We got our first Beagle from the only houndman in the family in 1959. I was 5 years old. A few years later we got some more and ran them a few times while at home. Did not get serious until my wife and I were married and purchased a AKC male from Warren Faulk while he was stationed in Texas. That was in the mid 70's. We started going to field trials and gunning with Warren and got hooked big time! Our whole family loves the breed. Hunting, field trials and judging have just been added enjoyments to owning them for over 40 years.
I agree that houndmen are BORN. With 1 exception, I am the only one in either side of my family that has ever been drawn to the sound of a trailing hound.

[1st timer]

30 years ago I went rabbit hunting in a rusty old plymouth car. The dog could look out the finders.I had a new 12gauge gun.I still ues the old pump gun.the Then my dad went to trade day .The race has been going ever since.

[DLBERRY]

Got a tri-color male IKE when I was 10 or 12 he was a good dog but as a dumb kid I wasn`t a great hunter. Kept him too close. He was killed in a fight with a UPS truck, he lost. Around 21 or 22 I had a neighbor give me a Black and Tan Male SKIPPER he started it all and we have had beagles, fox hounds, bird dogs, and even a Red tick Coon hound. I still love the small hounds most, have five now and hope to hunt for years to come.

[windy hollow]

my father had beagles when I was a yonker and he wouldnt let anyone play with his dogs, or hunt with them.
when I got old enough to go along hunting, I fell in love with the music those hounds made.

[PLATEAUBEAGLER]

I guess we all or should say most was just raised around it. My father started out trianing bird dogs and this is where i got my feet wet you might say.

plateaubeagler

[KentuckyHunterGirl]

Well, my dad got me into hunting, when he was younger he would hunt a lil bit and then he quit, then my sister got married and her husband Josh Long got into it and got my dad back into it, and then i started going to the hunts a couple years ago

[Jack]

I grew up as a dog traders son. Never knowing what kind of hound you would have to hunt. Hounds were just a dollar thing with my Dad. At a very young age I had my own pack of Beagles and never traded dogs. Today as a retired old feller and hearing the rabbit dogs run is my main objective in life. Have had hounds all my life except the time I spent in the Army and during the time I went thru the rut.

[Big Dog]

My great uncle and my father were both avid hunters that kept dogs. My uncle had the best dogs in our area. As a young kid I can remember people coming all the way from NJ to VA to pick up pups from him, $25 a piece. They were all grade dogs and upper medium speed, but they could flat out run a rabbit. I used to go run dogs with him in the summer on cooler mornings when it had rained. When I got to be about 10 I would go over and turn the dogs loose myself and run them. I was hooked from day 1, I got my first set of worthless beagles when I was about 15, they were sorry as the days come, but they were mine. (LOL) My great uncle is almost 80 now, but he still likes to listen to the dogs run and will even go out and carry a gun from time to time. He says I have too many dogs and they are too fast.(LOL)

Big Dog

[tnbeagleman]

GOOD THREAD! I have always been around beagles my Great uncle lived across the road and had beagles all my life and they just ran loose and went off and ran a rabbit anytime they want too or if they got hunger and needed one to eat I guess> my first beagle was named Andy I was about 7 or 8 when I got him he would sometimes go run with the other dogs across the raod but was mostly a pet . Never hunted as a kid I just got to tag along and stay out of the way Thanksgiving evening after lunch several people came and went rabbit hunting it was sort of like tradition. I have not been without a beagle since the mid 80's only started going to trials about five years ago but my first love is still hunting even if I only kill one ocassionally. I think it's good therapy for the mind!!

[houndsound]

My intro. to beagles is like an earlier poster. I used to run coon dogs in High School. I just loved to hear the hounds run. They kept me out of lots of trouble, although I was usually very tired in school! But as age does, at 30 and with a couple of little kids in the house now, beagles and rabbit hunting just seemed to be a better fit. The hours are easier to fit into the life of a family man and it's going to be easier to take my little boys, 4yrs and 19 months, out hunting with me.

[Dogdreamer]

My earliest memory of beagles was chasing old Hammer through an Indiana subdivision at about four years old. When I caught him (or caught up with him) I realized I was lost. I never hunted Hammer because my dad had to leave Kentucky for work before I was old enough, but a few years later I started with a coonhound that would tree the jeebers out of a milk jug, and would slay the skunks...
Not long after that my dad took in an abused beagle that wouldn't let anyone touch her but me, and I would run around in the woods next to my house with her while she lit up the air with her big bawl. After she died, I decided that my kids had to hear that music, so I started searching. My first three hounds came from great bloodlines as I wanted to start off right, but they didn't turn out because I had no clue how to train them. Once again, I found myself chasing beagles...and lost. Now I have a couple of young dogs and a great support group to help me train them. They are doing awesome!! This board and the beaglers I have met are great for us beginners. When I get back from my "vacation" in a few months, I will see you all at the trials.

[dosgris]

i am very lucky to come from a long line of hunter/trappers/fishermen down here southeast of new orleans, my people are islenos, which is spanish by heritage,,, in 1787 when spain owned louisiana they brought some colonists over from the canary islands and the community where i come from dates back to that time. it was geographically isolated so it retained it's cultural identity. until the last 50 years just about everyone spoke spanish as well as english,,, lots of folk and herbal medicine,,, old recipes,, that sort of thing. anyway,,, they were all hunters/trappers and fishermen and farmers.
my earliest memories,,, truly my first memories are of sitting on my grandfathers knee listening to stories of old prince and queenie and blue running rabbits and deer through the woods,,, complete with sound effects from my "paw-paw", aaooooo, aaoooo. as soon as i could lift a small 4-10 i was allowed to dispatch a rabbit which had been wounded by the men. went hunting with them as soon as i could keep up.
hunting came to me as naturally as walking and talking. just lucky i guess. i wish everyone could be as lucky as i was. the old people,,, grandfather and his brothers,,, always had dogs around. my dad tells me that uncle pierre used to shoot from the hip,,,just to let the dogs hear the gun,,, that he couldn't hit anything as he got older,,,, i must have gotten my rabbit marksmenship from him.
although i can hit ducks,,, which i hear my uncle bart could do,,, i never knew uncle bart,,, but he was a market hunter who supplied the resteraunts in new orleans with ducks/geese.
yes,,, i am lucky to be from an isleno from st. bernard parish. i don't know how i would have made it if i had been born a city boy.