I agree with most everything written above. This type of dog is rare and they are not the best thing for a smooth running pack. On the other hand, they do exist and I believe they are a worthwhile goal to try and breed for. Not only that, they sure are fun to hunt with when you are lucky enough to get one.
Closest thing I have now is a female named Rose. She is a daughter of the Sandy female I mentioned earlier. Under ideal conditions Rose can run a hare with lots of speed and very few checks. When she does run out of scent she slams on the brakes and goes right back to the point of loss, picks it back up and is gone again. When she is running like this, the hare does not have time for all those tricks. He runs straight and fast. One mistake and he will get caught, but hare don't make mistakes. On days when there isn't much scent (which is most days during winter up here) Rose will slow down as much as she has to, to keep on the line. Even on those bad days though, sooner or later she will get up close to one and make him run. I don't think she could have run with her mother and she will never be put in a feild trial but I will always have room for her in the kennel.
If any of you have dogs like this you are wanting to get rid of, just let me know and I will be right there.
Extra Fast Hounds
Moderators: Pike Ridge Beagles, Aaron Bartlett
the closest thing i have seen lateley is a bitch that is a little over 13 inches and very oddly bred. she comes from beagles that are used for running fox on top(hounds come from northeast) and robs diamond on the bottom. she has a very keen nose and runs straight, true, fast and the few checks she had were very short(seconds). worked checks very close. seen her run twice, once with some of my hounds and they caught a rabbit and once with a couple of her offspring. she didn't catch the rabbit, but came very close before we stopped her from going on to someone elses property.
TomMn, you really hit the nail on the head! The dog that can run to catch will generally have a steadier run (if he's not faulty) by making the hare more concerned with what's behind him than ahead of him. The original question was not about what type of hound is best for hunting but about fast, accurate hounds in general. As far as the title FC, the title didn't make the hound, the hound made the title. This title is no guarantee of a great hound, but it certainly has a value as the dog must have performed well under a variety of judges and conditions. I agree that there are not enough snow trials but that is a seperate topic from the original one. Before I began trialing, I thought that my hounds, and those of my hunting buddies were just about as good as a hound could be. While they were certainly good hunting dogs, they couldn't hold a candle to SOME of the great FC's and IFC's I've seen since. As an example, at the Vermont Beagle Club several years ago, after about a 9 hour run with over 40 other hounds, IFC Cool Running Sonic locked onto the hare and left the pack well behind as she ran the hare down from behind, never veering off the line. This almost NEVER happens and is about the same as someone winning the Boston Marathon by 10 minutes over the second place contestant. We all like to think that our hounds are as good as a hound can be, but then we witness something like this and realize that our hounds generally fall short of the mark. I've seen a lot of great hounds have memorable performances both in trials and out hunting but almost always when I go hunting with someone who claims that they have a hound that can't be beaten, he's either faulty or maybe a very good hound, but not a hound who could win a field trial. Now, before anyone thinks that I feel field trials and titles are more important than hunting, I'll say right now that I judge a hound by it's performance while hunting above it's field trial record and I spend a LOT more time hunting than trialing. But you can't know for sure where your hounds fit in until you've seen some of the best hounds on the continent run. Out of the hundreds of FC's I've seen run, only a relatively small number would suit me as a hound who could help my breeding program, as the trials don't always test for some traits that are important to hunters more than trialers. But the field trials do act as a way to gauge our hounds' abilities. I don't care if my hound can lead a big pack of hounds all day- that's not important to me as a hunter. At the same time, when I see a hound that can outnose, outcheck or just plain outrun mine, I know I've got work to do.