why solo?

[Jwagner]

I like to solo a dog. I do agree with whoever said if a dog needs to be soloed a lot to gain hunt it probably will never be an amazing jump dog. From my experience the greatest jump dogs just had it. That be said solo time can enhance track and check work and make a dog a solid hunter. The reason I believe a lot of guys find soloing boring is that the dog often does not run with the same speed and urgency as it does in the pack. I don't know how many for sale ads I have read were the owner say the dog gears up to run with faster dogs. To me what they are saying is dog is competitve enough to speed up to run with it packmates but its natural speed is slower. To me soloing a slow dog is boring. But ones that can solo at run to catch pace. Or what I like to refer to as soloing at a packs pace is a blast to me. I think what bothers me most about big pack 10+ dogs it can hide faulty and average dogs. You run 3 to 4 dogs its a lot harder to hide faulty average dogs. U want to know what u are feeding take each dog out alone. U may be alarmed to find out just what u have in each dog.

[Panther Creek]

I don't think anyone really talked about soloing to keep pressure off a young dog or to make a poor dog into a great one. I solo a dog when it's a pup so that it will learn to hunt, Jump and circle a rabbit on it's own. Thats all! It learns to run sooner because it has to do it's own work. Then it joins the pack and runs with the other dogs. How many packs have you seen that has one good jump dog, one good check dog, one good track dog, ect. Soloing at a young dog allows the dog to get a chance to do it all and reach it's full potential. What a dog will become is breed into it, when they are born it either has the tools or not. Your not going to solo a dog that does not have the tools or can't take pressure and make it a great dog by soloing it. Soloing It will just make reach it's potential sooner and learn to pull it's own weight sooner in a pack instead of just trying to keep up with the pack at a young age. The quote about being afraid to breed cull later on that needed to be soloed to turn into a good dog is the most ridiculous thing I've ever read. Sorry, I mean no disrespect. If I was going to breed to a male I would want to see it run solo First, then in a pack. I wouldn't just want to see the dog running with ten other dogs........Safe hunting...Thats about all I am going to say on this thread.

I agree

[Tsa la gi]

Exsert from Wilserness Patchwork from a Legend that trained more hounds than most of us can even fathom haveing.
The hounds were always in running condition.

[Rowco Beagle Kennels]

The dog Crabby told me needed soloing was named Jim Mcguire. That's funny to me. JCM, I don't know what all Crabby did to my good friend Houndog but watch out how you talk about Crabby, you know I have been accused of being his Daddy - don't like my younguns being talked about. LOL Bobby (ROWCO)

[Elmer Puckett]

I think to make a complete dog there should be a balance of solo and pack hunting you should never solo a dog first it can be hard to get them to run with a another dog if you have always pack hunted you dont know how your dog would do by itself i have seen lots of hounds dominate in a pack but couldnt run a rabbit to save its life if your dog cant circle a rabbit alone i think thats a bigger fault than being a great pack dog because with dog food prices i might only be able to feed just one

[jddingess]

I don't solo but I have a problem its a 15 month old female. She has a ton of hunt jumps plenty of rabbits and fast foot. My problem is she is starting to hold her mouth in the check. Sometimes she may go 10 yards before she opens. I think its pack pressure. I'm torn should I solo her or just let her go ?

[JCM]

I don't solo but I have a problem its a 15 month old female. She has a ton of hunt jumps plenty of rabbits and fast foot. My problem is she is starting to hold her mouth in the check. Sometimes she may go 10 yards before she opens. I think its pack pressure. I'm torn should I solo her or just let her go ?

In my opinion, soloing her may help, but it will most likely be a temporary solution. When you start to pack her again, the fault will return. Also, when you breed her, the pups will have this trait. If she is a good dog in every other way, I would find someone that just wants to hunt with one or two dogs. Again, this is just my opinion.

[JCM]

Here is an example of why I don't like soloing.

Gray Valley Jasper only saw one other dog while being run 5 -6 days a week in the 8 months before he won the ARHA World Hunt. He was either soloed or braced with an older female he could easily beat. This was good training by an owner (Lloyd Gray) that clearly knew his dog. However, if someone went out and watched him run, what they saw wasn't his true style of running. I ran with Jasper a few years later, when he had been packed a lot. He was a good jump and check dog, but he would get as rough as the roughest dog. He would get a lot of work done, but didn't always care how he did it.

I have seen a lot of dogs out of Jasper that are good dogs. Most have good hunt and a lot of desire. Most (note, I said most) are a little rough and will cheat for some front. If someone watched Jasper when he won the World, they would think they were getting an extremely independent, smooth hound. As good as he was, these traits were only visible because of intense training. He may or may not have won the World Hunt without this intense training, but he definitely had a temporary change in style. Soloing definitely helped Jasper be successful at a hunt. It did not change his running style, once he didn't get this special training.

I would never be willing to spend this much time training one dog. For this reason, I know he would not work out for my breeding program. In no way am I being critical of Jasper, or his ability to reproduce. I am just saying that soloing sometimes presents a false picture of a dog and how it will reproduce. I am not smart enough, or patient enough to work through all of this. I would rather run young dogs the way I always run and let the strong survive.

[barryc]

We all have our own opinions, surprise, surprise right!

One thing that keeps coming to mind, when I read the posts from u guys that say soloing is boring is this. If you don't have a dog in the kennel that can solo a rabbit and make it exciting to listen to, then ya just might need to re - think that whole thought process about why it's boring. You're dogs may not quite be at the level you think they are.

[mybeagles]

I think part of reason some NEVER solo and why they think its so boring is because many competition dogs CAN'T solo their own rabbit, or at least cant do it with any efficiency. More break down than run time. I agree a dog like that would be miserable to solo.

If you ever solo a dog that can scald a rabbit it can be pretty amazing. Im talking about a race that lasts 30+ minutes without a significant check, tonguing every breath.

Im amazed at the amount of dogs Ive run for guys who claimed them to be an 8+ speed. When I solo them for the first time at 3 y/o they run about a 5 speed and are very "out of place" without packmates to depend on. For anyone interested in knowing a dogs "true speed" take them on a solo run. All the extra pack speed is just competetiveness.

Mybeagles

[hounddog]

Something to think about. Beagles are bred to be pack animals, just as coyotes. Yotes do most of their damage when in a pack. Beagles should be no different. We aren't talking about a bird dog, greyhound, or any other breed that was bred to work alone, but beagles.
Everyone claims they are trying to better the breed, but are you actually trying to change it?


hounddog
Jim Umbarger

[mybeagles]

Jim,

Beagles are bred to be pack animals, just as coyotes. Yotes do most of their damage when in a pack.

The change came when the emphasis was put on SPEED. Solo time may not be as critical if everyone wasn't obsessed with speed. We (beaglers) managed to breed dogs faster than snot, but if you don't solo and manage these speed devils they cant run more than 30 yards without loosing it.

If coyotes pursued game with the lack of accuracy our "fast beagles" do today they would starve to death.

Mybeagles

[Buckeye Blues]

Soloing a dog is not a trait that will show up down the line. Traits are genetic. You can't breed until you gget a dog that NEEDS to be soloed.

I had just one dog for 2 years before I got my second dog. I couldn't get her to pack with more than a brace for those 2 years. I thought, oh great I ruined her by not having more than 1 dog for her to run with. But then I got a second dog. Once she started and I let her run with my older hound the older hound got more competitive, and wanted to make sure it was HER who was pleasing me. She became a more competitve hound and hunted with anything I put her down with. The young un is a faster hound. She'd be consistantly 5' to 5 yards in front of my Belle dog, but Belle, beinging more experienced would break it off in her yazoo in a check. So 2 years of soloing didn't ruin her! God rest her soul.

The young hound got to where she relied too much on Belle in the checks this last year. What did I do? I quit letting her run with Belle. I soloed her so she'd gain some confidence and learn to do it on her own. She's doing just fine now.

I would rather have 2 dogs that can do it on their own than a pack of 8 that has 1 dog that can find a rabbit. One dog that can keep the line, and 4 more that are me tooers.

And jcm. Congrats on all the champions and all the wins. But according to ARHA's own description the little pack format promotes a fast, head banging dog that swings. If that's not cheating than you and I will just have to agree to disagree. Because that too ME is not a hound worth breeding. No offense little pack houndsman. Its just about what we all like and dislike. Thankfully there are formats out their for all our tastes, and we only have to feed what we like.

[JCM]

And jcm. Congrats on all the champions and all the wins. But according to ARHA's own description the little pack format promotes a fast, head banging dog that swings. If that's not cheating than you and I will just have to agree to disagree. Because that too ME is not a hound worth breeding. No offense little pack houndsman. Its just about what we all like and dislike. Thankfully there are formats out their for all our tastes, and we only have to feed what we like.

In a lot of years of competing in Little Pack, one thing I have always found--to win you have to have the dog that runs the most rabbit. Yes, sometimes rough dogs win, but a lot of the time good solid rabbit dogs win. They will have the rough, swinging dogs hanging around on the outside while they keep the chase going. The thing I like the most about LP is that a dog of any style can win, if it gets the most work done. I don't want a dog that cheats, I want the dog that makes the others cheat just to compete.

One thing about LP, usually what you see is what you get. Very few LP guys solo their dogs to try to get them to jump and run rabbits. If you see a dog at a LP trial, you usually don't have to worry about if he needs special training. Most LP guys just won't mess with that kind of dog.

[Buckeye Blues]

Beagles are pack animals. No one is saying they arent. But alot of people have just one beagle. There are alot of coyotes that hunt and kill alone too. How many times have you ever heard predator callers say I called in a whole pack? At best its just 2. So, yes, coyotes can mange very well on their own. Most of the time you hear about a pack of coyotes in this neck of the woods its when the young haven't been kicked to the curb yet.

Soloing doesn't take the packing instinct out of beagles. If done too much, like I did my 1st hound, it can make them not desire to hunt with other dogs, but this can be corrected more often than not.

Again, don't confuse individual personalities with traits. You can't breed a personality.

Think of it this way. Your passion may be running beagles. It may be all you want your son or daughter to want to do. But you can't breed that passion into your kids. They'll either appreciate what you do and go along with you or they will stay at home with their play station.