Looking into 14" Beagle

[Fox]

e) make sure everyone carries a dog rope
g) give the standers a full load of crap if they don't make an effort to snag the dog when he comes out

This seemed to be the only thing that never happened, ha ha.
The guy running the show also would only dog into the wind, so that deer and dogs would always go backwards.

The old trick of keeping an extra hunting jacket in your truck works often. If you lose a dog leave your extra coat on the ground, the dog will generally come back and be found laying on the coat in the morning.

We have had years though where the old stubborn dog gets through because one of the guys is too lazy to grab it and then we hunted dogs for 3 days. Eastern Ontario with radio collars does not mean you will get to your dog, it just means that your signal will get bounced around and screw with you until you do find them.

[beagle2618]

It is a great sound eh.

What zone are you in?
The problem is that dogs always get away, beagles are not smart in an I am going to listen to you way, but they have ridiculous prey drive and stubborn as anything. I laugh when beagle owners say "I just don't know what to do with him, I cannot let him off the leash or he just runs away" well go figure, he is a beagle.
The way to keep them going where you want them to go is to learn where the prey wants to go and run the dog accordingly, if you learn the escape paths of the deer and run the dogs on those runs to blockers on those runs then you should either shoot the deer or have the blockers grab the dogs.

The problem lies when your blockers just watch the dogs run past and then tell you, the houndsman, that "oh I saw the dogs go past and out the back", well why did you not grab them? You did not want any dog scent on you?.

Dad had beagles since before I was born, still has1 pure bread and 1 cross with a walker, the pure bread is sneaky and the mix is a suck but dumb as a door knob, can he ever hunt though.

bull #$%@.. they are as smart as any dog... its the trainers or so called hounds man that make them look dumb.... I've got a kennel full that don't need leashes if I let them out... handling is a major part of hound work... if they won't handle they are no good.

[beagle2618]

Fox - there are things you can do to keep the beagles from getting lost as much.

a) go with the smaller ones - shorter legs, shorter range
b) go with a female - less independent
c) don't keep them as a kennel dog - keep them as a pet
d) have everyone feed them treats around camp - when the come out to a stander they'll go over to him to see if he has treats
e) make sure everyone carries a dog rope
g) give the standers a full load of crap if they don't make an effort to snag the dog when he comes out

Follow all that and ... well, you'll still lose them now and then, but hopefully less often.
A beagle will get lost a lot in its first 3-4 years. Eventually it will figure out how the game works.
In the last 3 years I've lost my 12yo beagle twice...once I used the tracking collar to find it the next morning 4km away,
the other time, it came back to the truck and 9pm.

a smaller one will go as far as a bigger one.... a female is not independent.... kennel dogs respond and hunt as hard as any couch potato... don't feed treats when they are working, only when they get back... won't need a rope if they handle... yes give standers hell if they don't attempt to call em in.... and a beagle won't get lost if it back tracks... has nothing to do with age... especially at 3 years... dog should be back tracking well before that..... 2 cents.

[Sharon]

a smaller one will go as far as a bigger one.... a female is not independent.... kennel dogs respond and hunt as hard as any couch potato... don't feed treats when they are working, only when they get back... won't need a rope if they handle... yes give standers hell if they don't attempt to call em in.... and a beagle won't get lost if it back tracks... has nothing to do with age... especially at 3 years... dog should be back tracking well before that..... 2 cents.

Off topic but..... I assume you have found that to be true in your experience. I never found that to be true. ?

[beagle2618]

Off topic but..... I assume you have found that to be true in your experience. I never found that to be true. ?

sorry Sharon... I should have said.. sex has nothing to do with independence.... training does... eg.. if you solo a dog.. male or female... for a long period of time... then that dog will be independent... not to say it shouldn't pack up.. cause it better.. but what you should be after is a dog that needs no help... a dog that will hunt on its own and not wait for others to do its share of the load... eg.. I've got a female now that was soloed on hare for the first 2 years... she is great...everything I want in a hound... independent enough to not need help.. yet still packs good and contributes to the race... a female can be and cannot be as independent as a male would be more to the point I was trying to make.....every dog is an individual and should be treated as such

[Sharon]

Okay. You had me worried about your experience.

[swampsinger]

Sorry for staying off topic. I prefer the females, and if anyone asks why, I reply. Beagles are like lions the males are good for f....ing & fighting and the females do all the hunting.

[werner.reiche]

My observations are based on hunting with 5 beagles over 20+ years. Two were 13" females, one 15"male, and two 13" males. Usually we run them one at a time, because if you run two of them, they will get lost.

When I say females are less independent - I mean in reference to the hunter, not a pack, and I mean that in a positive way - they are more inclined to hunt with the hunter than bugger off and do there own thing. Likewise with the kennel vs house dog (mine are about 1/2 kennel 1/2 pet), the kennel dog IMO is more likely to do his own thing.

Re smaller/female running different from larger/male - that's a personal observation as well... but (unless they've changed the trial rules) beagle trials are run separately for male/female and big/small, such that a beagle trial is actually four separate trials for the four classes.

"Lost" where I hunt usually means while they were backtrailing, they crossed a road or track and followed it out to another hunter. They don't really think they are lost - they are just with another hunter. I guess the exception to that was this year when she started a deer at 4pm and ran it until 9pm. She was less than 1/2 mile away most of the time. When she quit tonguing it only took her 20 min to get to the truck.

Strangely, I don't see the differences in spaniels on birds that I see in beagles. There are differences - but they can't easily be defined by size or sex. My experience with beagles is not as great as spaniels, and although I've watched a couple of beagles trials and talked to a few trialers, I can't say I've picked up a lot from them.

Cam - I know you are in to beagles far more seriously than I am and likely more knowledgable - I have a pretty narrow view of what I see on them based on what happens during 2 weeks each fall (we're not allowed to offseason train for deer) and some scent drag trailing training. Your comment about a dog should be able to backtrack by 3 - mine probably takes longer because it has not had the training experience yours do. If you saw my dog run - you'd probably think it was 'untrained'.

[Mount Sweetness]

Everyone has an opinion and their experiences are great to hear. Thanks