NorWester1 wrote:JCM wrote:NorWester1 wrote:
I mean look at what those brace guys are doing. It's a radically different approach from just about every hound breeder I've ever heard of.
Their single minded approach to achieve their goal is a template for all of us to examine and learn from.
Just think if someone could do that within the style of dogs you & I appreciate
This is such a valid point. Producing what I want with consistency is an amazingly difficult challenge. After 15 years basically crossing the same line, with a few selected outcrosses, I feel like I am just getting started. The consistency that brace beaglers accomplished in such a few years is astonishing. I hate their dogs and what they did to some beagles, but I am jealous of how successful they have been in attaining
their goal.
Unfortunately for hunters, we can't have such a single minded approach. They looked only at the trait of track-to-track trailing. We look for hunt, desire, brains, conformation, stamina, mouth, speed . . .
JCM, I appreciate that you understand the point I'm trying to make. Most breeds have taken life times to develope.... the brace guys have accomplished it inside that.
It really is astonishing isn't it?
I look at those brace dogs and where they started from and how they got to where they are and the finished product and it makes me think that maybe, just maybe I can develope a strain...... actually no, a few dogs even, just for myself that I can hunt with in winters worst.
Such an endeavor seems possible after seeing what can be done with proper selection and breeding techniques
I understand the concept that you are trying to relay. It would be nice if a method was developed to achieve exactly what we want in every area in one dog.
Where we differ is, I don’t believe these guys all got together and strategically planned and had a certain goal in mind at all. We are not talking about “wise” old breeders on a mission that knew exactly what they were doing. It was a few guys that said; “hey, this method works for the chickens, sheep and cattle… why not try it on the dogs?”… They wasted a lot of time, effort and money to achieve one big disaster of hunting beagles. Rather to throw the dogs, their work and money away… and get dogs to conform to the field trial standards, they chose to change the field trialing standards to conform to these worthless and useless dogs. It was all about the “money”. Instead of correcting their mistake, they capitalized on it.
It was evolution of both the dog and what the standard it was to win a trial. The problem really began when some of these breeders also had the authority to set the standard. They let Beagle Field Trialing as a whole down, and the “Hunting Beagle” in general down.
We have a great deal of beagle breeders that do not trial. There is a reason for that. They don’t let those that determine what it takes to win a field trial, dictate how they breed. Just because stupid people are willing to buy stupid dogs does not make it right to produce them. Brace guys didn't care.
It is a shame and a disgrace that every dog going for the title of being a field champion does not have a final test. Just 4 simple things!
1- A dog should hunt, no question about it and no excuses, better than most and well above average.
2- A dog should have the ability to jump more rabbits than most and well above average.
3- A dog should have the ability to smoothly and consistently circle his own rabbit better than most and well above average.
4- A dog should be shot over in hunting like circumstances and show no signs of shyness.
Then and only then should the dog be “eligible” to be honored with the title “Field Champion”.
I know many deserve their title, but it should be absolutely impossible for the ones that don’t to slip through the cracks. But that would cost the Field Trial circuits “money”, in many different areas. The credibility of a “Field Champion” is not what it used to be, and the Traditional Brace Beaglers started everything down hill. The only credit they deserve is recognition for almost destroying the “Hunting Beagle” and creating the biggest mistake in hound history.
As Laneline pointed out concerning breeding, there are methods and techniques to achieve what we want, but there are extremes that we need to stay away from and boundaries that we don’t cross.
