How Important is close check work?

[tinymwoods]

If a pack of hounds loose the track and go into a check situation, it is usually because the dogs messed up. All dogs mess up. If they messed up by 3 feet a close check dog may get that lined out first. If the rabbit looped back or the dogs just over ran it by 20 feet, a dog that will reach out will find it first. We usually run dogs that will do both. The biggest problem around here is a dog that reaches out will miss a tight sitting bunny that has went back into a brush pile. MOST of the wide swingers looking for a check are not real brushy. Not all, but most. They will cover a lot of ground, but will not find the tight sitting bunny most of the time. I like a wider searching dog, but within reason.

[augerhead]

Still I think alot of confussion on whats being said. I dont think anybody wants a dog that creates alot of checks, tears up races or over runs bad. Thats not a good dog! But the Kind of hound I am talking about will straighten most of the checks, crawl in the bad scenting condtions but keep you tight up on the rabbit when they can.I have owned a few that can do it right to suit me. They do not create checks the abilty to run a rabbit doesnt mean they have to be slow or close checking.Ive seen dogs that can be rolling full speed, rabbit cut hard to the left , they may over shoot alittle but shut up , swing to the left pick up the rab and be gone before the others get to the check. They seem to know where to go to look and dont seem have to run all over wildly. A GOOOOD FAST SWINGING DOG I think most people would have to like. A bad close working or bad swinging wild dog nobody likes.JMO

[bucks better beagles]

Let's see if we can get some agreement here: Everybody likes a GOOD DOG. Right? Everybody has their idea of what a GOOD DOG is. Right? We are dealing mainly with semantics here. Everybody wants good running. Nobody goes out there in the heat and mosquitoes intentionally to have poor running. Do We? So, if we can agree on some of these things, then it is just a matter of what you like as far as size, color, mouth, and speed. Skip the words swinging, cutting, skirting, babbling, etc. These are too open to discussion.

[Newt]

Years ago I had many opportunities to run with a hound by the name of Briarpatch Black Magic bred by Roy Kennedy of Vermont and owned for years by my good friend Dan Lea.Magic was probably the best bare ground hare hound I've ever seen.In his prime I never saw the hound that could regularly get many checks on him.We'd see the hare come by and create a check and the pack would come in to the check area and start to work and you'd hear Magic hit it 50-100 feet out and be gone,time after time,day after day,year after year.I've seen other hounds get so discouraged trying to run with him they'd quit and go find their own rabbit.Was he a gambler?NO WAY as he was right most of the time.He just didn't waste any time looking for scent where it wasn't and had enough rabbit sense / brains to quickly get where it was.

SG, I'm not a UBGF beagler either and agree with you that a dog with some energy and zip will circle a rabbit more efficiently. However, in my experience a dog like Black Magic is useless, unless you are jump shooting, on an average to bad scenting day on cottontails.