i feel sorry for some of you.

[warddog]

I guess each there own. My working hounds are also my family pets. My kids help out with feeding water and come with me sometimes on the early Sunday runs. If they where good enough in there prime to give 100 % on every hunt they will also retire in my kennel. It the least I can do for them. For me this is just a fun hobby that brings a smile to me when I'm hunting over them. Or when taking out some young kids on there 1 st rabbit hunt. Nothing more nothing less. Just having fun for over 25 yrs with the beagle.
Again each there own. Have fun

X1 I will also add that about every breed of dog is or was a working dog at one time, including collies, cocker spaniels, and wiener dogs. I highly doubt they are used to feed families these days although they were used to augment the table back when I was a kid. I've been just having fun behind these little companions for over 50 years and NEVER thought of one as a piece of inanimate equipment but also NEVER felt they were family members either. I treat them respect for what they do and if I have one to the old age of not being able to keep up or hurt themselves trying then they will live out their life right here in my kennel. If for some reason they do not make my grade up until they are used up by me then I will find them a nice home as a pet or companion for a youngster. I certainly will NOT hunt the life out of them and then try to shed myself of them when they are too old to do it anymore in the fashion I desire. I'm certainly no tree hugger or religious man but am thankful that I have had the privilege to be able to enjoy and respect these little creatures that do what I myself am not able to do. I am also thankful that my parents didn't wait until I was nearly used up or before I acted as they desired before they decided to kick me out from under their care. It has been simple for me to have dogs staggered in age in my 4 kennels so as to have fun when I know all it takes for me is to have one.

[S.R.Patch]

This may be hard for some to understand never having seen or spent time with a true group of pack hounds. One time I had the honor of visiting with Buck Wiesman and his Clear Creek hounds. Total, there were about 50 strong in the pack, there were only two kennel lots, one for the dogs and one for the bitches. These groups lived, ate, slept, exercised and hunted together, never was one treated special, always recognized and addressed in the pecking order the pack had established for themselves. They were never bred or raised to be pets, their whole life and existence revolved around the pack and hunting. At the time he had Woodfield Major from the Woodfield Pack of Mrs. Humfrey in his kennel as a stud hound for the next season's puppies. I was looking at Major to breed North Bucks Diva, but the matting never was accomplished. Anyway, my point is, hounds bred and raised this way are never happy away from their pack and hunting. It is not in them to love a man more than their own kind and living away from their brethren is misery to them. They suffer and only want to return to what they know and nature has tuned them to be.
I'm not saying anyone is wrong, not all hounds are cut from the same model car. I'm only trying to say some hounds are not happy being what we as human think they should enjoy, just because we would if it were us. They are dogs.

[warddog]

What I find hard to believe is that anyone truly knows what a dog thinks or feels. I personally have absolutely no idea of what a dog's brain does and can only assume. I will say that over the years of having hounds out in the kennel they sure are happy to see me when I come out there. Then observing house dogs they seem to fit into a pack with their owners household being part of it and they appear to be equally happy when they are joined by one of the family pack members after being alone all day. This even appears to be true when there are more than one house dog together. Funny how differing groups of pack animals will not just mingle among whatever pack they so desire at the time but rather fight to the death to protect their personal pack. The thing that does cause roaming is the male instinct to sow his own seeds which they cannot do within their own pack so they are run off to TRY to be accepted in another by being the fittest so as to take what they want. I've seen a lot of nature shows showing how pack animals in the wild of mother nature seem to great their pack members after being gone for awhile and know them by their keen senses. I understand that folks have differing opinions and that is all good because until we can actually spend a day in the shoes of beagles we are all merely talking our theory and or opinions with their being no right or wrong because the definite is not proven science but snippets of differing experiences over time. Until the same outcome is produced under the same circumstances consistently and repetitively it is merely theory or opinion. Seems all these debates about hounds are theory as man has tried to produce the perfect hound since domestication and to this day it seems without much success as he is still trying to improve the breed. It appears to me that dogs also have differing personalities and they show the signs of different strokes for different folks, so to speak. No offense to anyone and none taken from differing perspectives.

[gunslinger]

I bet your beagles would rather be outside instead of cooped up in the house.

[S.R.Patch]

Ken, this is not theory it is fact, i have seen it a number of times and anyone who's been involved with large formal packs has seen and knows the same fact.
The Clear Creeks are north of Louisville, not that far if you'd like to go see them, I can call Buck and see if a visit would be ok.
Buck got Major out so we could look at him. All he wanted to do was get back in with the pack. After taking a couple of pictures he got loose and jumped up on the 4' privacy fence and scurried over. Now this little hound was under 14" tall and he jumped like nothing i ever seen before. When Buck put him back in the kennel lot, all the dog hounds surrounded him and were growling, I ask Buck if he would be ok and he said, "they all know Major is boss", they're just upset because Major got out and they didn't.
These are pack hounds not personal type pets. One quirky thing I also noticed was, they don't want to look you directly in the eyes, I've ask both Ken and Buck about that and they both said the same thing, " When a pack hound looks you or another hound directly in the eye, it is challenging you for dominance when up close", so they try to lower their head or look away when your up close with them. I tried to look in Major's eyes and check his teeth and bite and he wanted nothing to do with it, he only want back in with the other dogs. After what I seen I honestly believe if we had taken a low ranking hound out of the group and then put him back in there would have been a dog fight and he would have paid dearly and it would have been caused by us not respecting the pack order and putting the hound in that predicament.
These hounds are nothing like your typical lap beagles, so to try to explain it away as theory or personal interpretation is incorrect, this is fact, I can show it to you. The pack is all they know, your not going to take one to the house when he get too slow or old and keep him and make him happy. He will get back to the pack or die of grief and most likely the pack will kill him. Hard to understand isn't it? but that's the fact of the matter. This is not Disney.