Most important in your kennel???

[fulcount]

Hunt ,heart speed with control

[fastone]

Atta Boy Snowdogs

[outrider66]

I will go along with the nose ! if your dogs cant run year round in your area than you aint got much ! handling is very important to me , I don't like a dog that will not
let me control the direction of the hunt or come when called in. But overall balance is what I look for !!!

[hard on a check]

Nose

[Shady Grove Beagles]

I believe I'd have to agree with Salzer mtn on this one.
As a long time hunting buddy of mine says"The one thing I CAN do is help the dog jump rabbits.I can't smell the rabbit for him,can't chase it through the cover,can't announce his progress/direction with my voice,etc".
The hardest hunting beagle and best jump dog I've ever seen in my life could not run a rabbit and put a circle on it.EVER !! If you were a jump shooter he'd fill your game bag but if you waited for him to bring the rabbit around...........??
One fellow early on in this post made the statement that he" wouldn't get his sorry butt in the briars to find a rabbit"
When I go to the woods with a hound I consider us to be a "team".We're on this hunt together.If I kick up a rabbit, of course I call him over and put him on it.Why wouldn't I?
Too many guys won't get off the tailgate,off the road/path,etc.and actually hunt.I own chaps and briar coats because I like to get in the cover and work with the hounds.You'll see more of what your hounds are actually doing then just listening to them.
My beagles are not like rooting pigs or" tear the proverbial brush pile apart" but they don't seem to have any problems finding rabbits.

[WELLS WOODS]

Concerning field trials, it takes a hound with a lot of intelligence to be able to handle the pressure of running in hard going packs over time & still be able to run the line & stay sound minded long enough to finish in the Mid-West. I really don't think one trait is much more important than the others though. Without nose, brains & desire, you won't have a complete hunting dog. Conformation & looks are very important to me also.

[Remmy]

Handling is important to me. Chasing a dog around is worse than having to kick up a rabbit. Imho.

[South Woods kennel]

HUNT... Without it you have a bag of Dirt especially where i live!

[mybeagles]

1. Nose
2. Desire
3. Control

[tom summers]

Desire & Intelligence,
with these 2 qualities all things are possible for a hound
if a hound has desire it will have hunt it will do it best to find and run a rabbit. Without intelligence the hound will not become outstanding. I have seen a lot of hounds that will hit the brush and not be seen until you call them in and while they are gone "hunting" not start nearly as many rabbits as a hound with brains. So if you do not have brains the will waste a lot of your time waiting on them to jump or you will have to do it for them.
Tom Summers

[rabbitearl]

As I see on here hunt is # 1 but some say running is more imported I can jump a rabbit. Now lets look at these two. Hunt in a dog.You really don t need it if you re in rabbits.I can go in there and jump rabbits or on the first rabbit you got them moving around, and rabbits every where and if there are no rabbit. You can hunt all you want. there s no rabbits. You will not jump one. Now running one, fall in the same boat. If you have rabbits every where it don t take a good back of dogs to keep one going. but to go were there s no rabbits.I don t care how good they can run one.We got to find one first and if I am out there we want hear them run long.I am not having a gun to hear the dogs run. It like what I said.A good jump dog. But give me the rabbits like they had along time ago and I will take that. But in all of it.A dog that handle is very imported. I seen some that puts there dogs out in the pens and if it want for the fence on the other side to stop them.The dogs would be in another state. Look at how many rabbits they went by. Or to put a shock collar on a old dog in a rabbit pen. I have trials before that you have to jump on a dog to stop them.For yall that's has rabbits every where. You re bless. Be thankfull you have that. Over the years of having these 7 pens and hunters from every where coming to run there dogs.I ve learn one big thing.RABBITS. They makes the different.

[S.R.Patch]

I agree with you Earl, when the fish are biting everyone is a fisherman.
I had a fishing buddy that was likened to a good jumpdawg, he had a singleness of mind that could put you on fish no matter the conditions of the day or time of the year. He taught me alot!

[Newt]

Earl, to your point, Have ever been hunting, and spot a sitting rabbit in a brush pile. The rabbit just sits there. You find a stick and beat on the brush pile and the rabbit just sits. A beagle walks over, starts into the brush pile and the rabbit immediately jumps and streaks out the other side.
A few years back, I had a bitch that was very good in all phases of rabbit hunting. One season, she was in heat when the season opened so I left her at home. The spot we hunted, we hunted every year with success. On this day we hunted several hours with little success. Jumped a couple and decided there were few rabbits there. A couple weeks later we came back with "Candy" and she jumped rabbits all day long.
We hunted the same spot because my friend had emphysema and could not walk on steep terrain. This spot was ideal for him to sit on top of the hill and shoot as the rabbits ran over the top.

[S.R.Patch]

Newt, I think what really defines your jumpdawg is going in behind hunter leaving a field and jumping rabbits after they've told you "might as well move on, there's nothing in this area?.
I've hunted field on certain days and got nothing and then on another day in the same field killed the limit. Seems some days rabbit are out and moving and other days they're "in the hole". jmho