A good hard hunt line??

[mybeagles]

Jim,

The dog I have now has taught me that it's not necessary or even beneficial for a dog to ping pong all over the woods to be a good hunter. Dogs that look for thick cover and go through it with a purpose are more productive than a dog that gets 20 miles on the Garmin before noon.

As far as the hardest hunting line.....no idea. It really does matter what your definition of hunt is. I would rather have a "jump dog" than a hard hunter. Who cares how hard they hunt if they don't jump anything. Same as who cares how fast they go if they can't circle it.

One thing for sure, if I jump a rabbit a dog darn better Tally-ho on the run.

[a-dog]

Jim Hughes used to have two in his kennel at the same time littermates ,Buckwheat and Leo ,turn these two loose they would find a rabbit so fast it would make your head spin ,they covered ton of ground look for the thickest brush ,and seemed to always know where to look,judged both many times both dead now

[Chase Em' Down]

chase em down, Not bashing your hound but just consider this for a moment. have you considered breeding a hound that has the positive attributes you like to another just like him. Instead of trying to breed something that has attributes you don't like to something that does. Do you think that when mating hounds that if both have the qualities you like , your chances if ending up with what you like would be higher than if only one parent had what you were looking for. It is called breeding similar hounds as opposed to breeding dis-similar hounds, good luck!

I like the male dont get me wrong. Just wish he had little more hunt to him on his own. But other than that like everything about him. Just wanting to breed him to pretty much same thing maybe a little more color than white and something that has a little more hunt than him. Then maybe il get what im looking for. But every dog is going to have some fault

[Chase Em' Down]

Yes that is what i wish he'd do more of, "jump dog".

[likeemfast]

I personally don't think there are any one line of hounds that have "hard hunt" . There are more guys that breed dogs that "stay busy" . There is a difference and if you have witnessed it you know what I mean. Have you ever worked with a guy that everyone says is such a hard worker, but when someone who knows better watches they realize he's doing 10 unnecessary steps doing something that you could do much quicker. It looks good tho if your clueless on what actually needs done. That is "stay busy" and I'm not talking about a true "jump dog" either. There are more hounds out there that "stay busy" than that actually have "hard hunt". You need to feed a kennel full of "stay busy" hounds but only need to feed a couple with "hard hunt" that is as long as they can also run a rabbit correctly. As Casey usually states, "brains". The guy who does his work in 10 less steps than the guy who "stays busy" uses his brains, the other guy not so much. There is a major difference between "stay busy" and "hard hunt" in our beagle world as well as my real world example which if you have a bunch of "stay busy" employees it's not the end of the world, you can still get the job done, and if you don't know any better you think that's how it should be. This is just my opinion, but what do I know?

[Joseph J Murphy]

Nice post likem Fast !

[44magman]

to me a dog has to have brains to be a good jump dog .the best one I had was a dog that looked for the blow downed tree or low to the groud evergreen and check them out because he knew he might find a hare there wile the other dogs would blow right by and never check it out.mary times I would walk with him and say to myself that looks like a good hiding spot for a hare and you could watch him and as soon as he saw it he would go in and check it out .he also would slow it way down and walk a track when condotions were bad if he was solo but if he had company he wanted the front even if he could not handle it.

[dhoundman]

I raly like Green Bay Butkus but he was cross to some Branko's Crayon daughter man he was great. Also i have a daughter to Blue Thunder and a Big Male that are priceless.

[gwyoung]

likeem' I like your post especially the first line, for it tells the reality of the matter. Guys call a lot of different things hard hunt, which isn't. It is just what they are use to seeing. Brains in a hard hunter = looks for promising cover and goes In! Head up running all over the place = staying busy. If you can't get hard hunt than I guess staying busy is the next best thing, but as you have said there is a hell of a difference. I think I hear someone gearing up to start about dogs running all over the place , winding rabbits and not going in the cover, and this is how to jump 'em!!