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[Steve Mikkelson]

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[Josh Riser]

The Trail's female I own has very good speed, control and check work. She is calm and quite in the kennel and listens very well. I have also seen two other Trails dogs that were very calm in the box waiting to be let out they also had very good speed and control and one had really hard hunt. My Trails female does not have the size I was hoping for and could hunt harder when soloed but has shown alot of improvement with hunting and age. I like my Trails female so well and the others I have ran with that I plan to breed my other female to him when she comes in heat again so I can have another Trails female in my kennel.

[poteetkennels]

Steve,
To put it simple. He is a amazing hound. I wished he threw a few more little ones. And if you get one let me know.

[big mike 50]

I haven't been on here in a while but I just started my Trails pup today and the first thing I see when I log on to send Steve a message is this post. My pup is 8 months old and I haven't worked with this pup as we just our first baby boy in September and I started a new job and was working overtime the last few weeks. Took him out today with a litter of pups that are 4 months old and after an hour or so of ramming around doing puppy stuff he started working some lines we put him on and then when he was in a brush pile he opened and came out and ran about a half circle. Looks good and I really have high hopes for this pup.

As far as the question at hand the 3 Trails pups I have seen go were "powerful," They could drive the line with speed and snap right back on a loss and owned the check. And for my pup today the scent conditions were poor and dry and he ran 4 rabbits today, and I really liked his mouth. But like poteet said good luck getting a 13" out of him. He throws some monsters.

[bucks better beagles]

Steve:

I have had four trails pups and latest one is out of FC Juel Kool. Three of them were and are keepers, one of them was not. The one I have now is a big, solid blue tick with a wonderful disposition, a good bawl/squall mouth. He is good on the line but not a "line runner", adequate speed, and a little "laid back".

Bottom Line: I like the Trails pups and would recommend them. Will take all I can afford or find.

Buck

[birmi1nr]

I own 4 dogs out of Trails between the ages of 8 nonths - 3 yrs, with all 4 being out of different bitches. The bitch sides are heaviest with the following blood Turbo, Ranger Dan, Primetime, Blue Ninja.

1. All the dogs i've had were farely easy to get started. 3 out of the 4 started on their own in the wild betweem 5-7 months old. 1 was started in a pen at 5 months.
2. Kennel manners - Every Trails dog I own has excellent kennel manners. They all have the same calm disposition about them, easy to collar up, and not unruley. I have kenneled Trails for a short period of time and observed him in his kennel at Steves several times and he is the exact same way.
3. Looks - In my opinion Trails dogs are some of the best looking dogs out there.
4. Hunt - My 3 y/o female out of him has all the hunt you could ever want while my 2y/o male I would rate at average. Upcoming 8-11 month old pups out of him look to have average to a little above average hunt so far. Their styles of hunt do very some hunt on the run like a bird dog, while others are a little slower and more methodical in the way they hunt. The ones that lack a little in the hunt department seem to still jump their fair share of rabbits simply because of their nose power.
4. Nose - All mine show above average nose power. They can run on stale snow here in Michigan as well as our hot dry summers.
5. Speed - Dominating speed; none of mine have, but they are more than capable of running in the front of any pack and leading at times.
6. Check Work - I can tell the ones of mine that have Trails type checkwork and the ones that work a check similiar to some of the dogs on the Bitch side. I would say 3 out of 4 of mine work a check similiar to the way that Trails does.

I have probably seen close to 20 different dogs that are out of Trails run, yes some were better than others but they were all solid rabbit dogs. They may have lacked a little in one department or another that would keep them from being great, but none of them had any major disruptive to the pack type faults(backtracking, mouthy, etc). That's something that I can't say about some dogs I've seen out of some of the other big stud dogs of this time.

[mybeagles]

I had the opportunity to hunt all day over two trails pups that were 1 year old. We had 7 dogs on the ground, 5 of them the 13" variety and these two monster trails pups. They were both big beautiful pups with good conformation. Both had big mouths, decent hunt, and were pretty line concious for big males. One I would describe as medium speed (6), the second I would describe as med-fast (7). Didnt see anything out of place and they did a good job for young hounds.

One of the two was over 16", the other was a full 15". Ive seen a couple others and they were all full 15" with very straint front legs.

Mybeagles

[Joeyman]

I own Two Trails hounds. One oversized (khan) I knew that when I bought him he's a gun-dog so it don't matter to me. One is dead on 15" 30lb on the dot his name is Thunder. Both males are up front type runners. Thunder being a touch faster. Big mouth dogs. Thunder higher pitch mouth. Khan very deep course chop chop chop mouth. Both do NOT open untill rabbit is up but they have barked a few times on a heavy frosted ground guessing cause one or two of my other dogs opened so they harked in a few times theirselves.

As far as on the line. I feel that they have good line control. I've seen them make the turns I've seen (thunder) running second or third in with a group of faster LP dogs and take the front from them when they mess up cause he keeps on the line and follows thru.

Kennel. They both like to bark when its feeding time. Thunder like to still play bite with his kennel mates. He's like a big baby wanting attention. but overall they lay around for the most part. Seem like normal dog behavior to me.

They both come to me when I call for them. Both do not show shyness

Check work is Fair. They have my older dogs to compete with. I've got a couple good check dogs they compete with.

Jumping rabbits for me - Thunder is the better of the two in that department. Khan not so much of a rabbit jumper.

Thunder likes to eat rabbits on me...lol I'm still working with him on that.

Both have ran deer on me due to others and they joined right in like it was candy. I zapped them hard but....

THIS ONE shows thunder the best - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVI_xuEpR88

[big mike 50]

My pup ran one full circle yesterday after just starting Saturday. Great mouth and it looks like he is going to have some speed to him if he can get it figured out.

[swift run kennels]

i have one off Trails X Iris i like real well. he is a all around nice hound. good hunt with plenty of speed and good line control will not bark early just the way i like them,

[Greg Wells]

I think a bitch that needed brains & a clean mouth that had plenty of hunt would be the cross for Trails. I bred Trails' sire, Gator, & kept & finished his sister, Spring. She was as close to perfect as you could ask for; only fault: could have used a touch more nose on tough conditions. From what I've heard though, Gator was great on snow; John Dewyse said he soloed a hare for 7 hours on snow & caught it. He said that was the only dog he ever had to do that.
I've seen Scott Music's bitch look amazing! She has a huge nose & very smooth on the line with a quick, loud chop mouth.

[Steve Mikkelson]

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[bucks better beagles]

Steve: Looking at the poll, what is it telling us? Not being a smart ass, just wondering what one can take away from a poll of this sort?

[klrconcrete]

Big, Average dogs??

[jumpNrun]

he produced me 8 nice pups so far all have a way to go before i can tell exactly what they r goin to do but i have a variety of hounds small to big just what i wanted so far all are high strung and use thr nose when i feed em n the brush and will pak with adult hounds at 4 months old really good lookin dogs reggie bitch and trails X