Who gets the credit for a great hound??????

[Ky. Hunter]

I am going to add one more comment to why I said training and then I will just read. If any of you know a fellow by the name of Terry Griesinger that lives in Northern Kentucky, ask him about the female that he got from me called Coonie. When you let the dogs out of the truck, all the other dogs will be running around actint wild etc and Coonie will walk over and start eating grass or something and when you get your gun loaded and ready to hunt all you have to say is "Let's go Coonie" and she will go hunting and when the rabbit holds up or is killed she comes back to you and sets beside you until you give her the command "Let's go Coonie". If you want to take a break while hunting you don't have to put her on a lead to keep her with you because she is there until you give her the command. She is the only one I trained that way because if you trialed her that would hurt you and 95% of the time she was the one showing the other dogs where to go so she knew when the rabbit went into a hole and she didn't care how much the other dogs barked she would not leave until I said "Let's go Coonie". Best handling dog I ever had and I scolded her one time for running deer and that was all it took and oh yea, she got plenty of love when she was laying the house and that helped with the training.

[big mike 50]

Just because we love what we are doing doesn't mean it is not work training a dog. Small game season doesn't open until September 15th yet I spent over 17 hours in the woods or driving to hunting spots last week alone. Granted I had a grin on my face the whole time and didn't want to leave the woods but that is the work we do to train our dogs . I look at it like this, anything someone gets paid to do can be considered work. This site alone is full of people offering to "train" your dog for a small fee. Sure it probably works out to to about $1.23 an hour after they get a pup started but thats the price you pay to do something you love. JMO now all I have to do is get the wife to let me quit my job and work at my hounds all day, thats an 80 hour week I could handle

[Joeyman]

I think it all comes down to LUCK.............lol

[beagler282]

The dog has to have it in them first but if you can look at a hound and see where it's faults are there are ways to fix them thru training to make them better.The trainer is my choice.

[Buckeye Blues]

It's a given if you dont run your dog he aint gonna be great. That Jamacan who won 100 meter dash in the Olympics wouldnt have set the world record if he hadnt trained, but he would have still had it in his genes to do so.

Its also a given that the handling of a dog is all the trainer. The trainer teaches him how to behave, but a well behaved dog doesnt make a great hound.

I give credit to the breeder. If you dont make the right cross all the training in the world isnt gonna make a great hound.
If you spend countless hours standing out in the field listening to the hounds run do you pat yourself on the back at the end of the day and tell yourself you're a heck of a trainer? I think not. More than likely you pat the dog on the head and tell him good job like I do. If the cross isnt made the dog dont exist.

This is my opinion and you're entitled to it!

[Jack]

Who gets the credit for the sorry ones.

[mtnwaykennel]

I agree with you Buckeye.
We "train" hounds to come here when we call them. We train them not to run trash. We train them not to roll in crap. We train this and that but there is not a one of us who has ever "trained" the hound to sniff... bark and run. There is no way we can be that conceded is there?

Sure... some of the great "trainers" who have good hounds day in and day out have a hand in it, mainly cause they run those hounds day in and day out, time time time is the king. There is no substitute for time and sterness in the handling of a hound. It takes a good handler to make a good hound handle, and in most people's mind a dog that does not handle is not worth anything, so that is what we can say we train these hounds to do.
The only real Training we do with a hound is break bad habbits and praise the good ones... give the TIME out in the brush and love love love and If the hound has it in him/her, then it will come out.

Bill Woods

[bucks better beagles]

When I say "trainer", I simply mean a person who puts a dog in the woods often and tries to bring out the positive traits and eliminate or minimize the negative ones. Obviously, a bad trainer would not do justice to anything. IMO - to know the breeding of a dog is interesting but only if I like its actions first. If it acts like an idiot, I don't care if its mother and father walked on water. To me, it is an idiot. I paid dearly to learn this lesson in both time and money.

Bob

[bucks better beagles]

Jack said: "who gets the credit for the sorry ones." Great, I missed that post until I was rereading. That would be a good poll to take. Lets say we have a litter of 6 puppies from Momma great and Poppa greater. How many of them will be top notch? Come on, be honest.

When I was much younger, I took the breeding path. If I had a litter of lets say 6 puppies, I would feed, shot, worm. etc. ad nauseam and keep them until I was sure which ones would be to my liking. I found that maybe an average of one pup from each litter would make it. The others might be OK but not what I wanted. Perhaps, my expectations are too high but, if you don't aim high why play the game.

Bob

[BCBeagles]

Bob,

You are right on with the # of pups that make it. I say at most 25% of any litter make what most consider good hounds, let alone great. A cross is always a shot in
the dark. Don't get me wrong, selective breeding and linebreeding, increase your chances, but there are no guarantees in it. It is like a great athlete from a family of
five boys or girls. Are they all great? Probably not, even with the exact same parents. It all comes together a small percentage of the time in any breed of hound or we
would all have the next world champ! JMO. Lots of folks are considering these dogs to be good and they are really just adequate. I feel there is a BIG difference there
in that scenario.

[flinger]

who gets cedit for the bad ones ? WOW ! what a way to kill a topic ( and some egos ) i have to say the dog ! you can take the best bred dog and if its never taken out , it will never hunt , you can have the best trainer and the best bred dog and if it dont want to do it , it wont , the owner means nothing to me , anyone can own a dog !ive seen some real good dogs come from worthless parents and worthless dogs come from great parents , great dog handlers have brain dead dogs , hows the saying go ? you cant fix stupid ! until i can smell a rabbit track , or anyone else for that matter , i cant teach him to run a rabbit , i can teach him to sit , stay , come or fetch ! but not track rabbits ! bottom line if a dog doesnt want to do it , you cant make it ! i believe all the stars have to align to make a great one ! pure dumb luck ! if it was any other way , there would be alot more great ones than there are ! but im still wiating to see who gets credit for the bad ones

[Newt]

I would like to se a show of hands of the beaglers who gave credit to the trainer that got their beagles from the animal shelter. I'd also like to see a pedigree of their best hound.

[bluemouse]

I vote for the rabbit without him/her no race.

[Joeyman]

I vote for the rabbit without him/her no race.

lol.............I don't know bout you guys but the rabbit is the one who is training my dogs.........lmao

[bucks better beagles]

bluemouse is right. It takes a rabbit to make a dog. But a good dog can make a bad rabbit look good.