Most respected field trial organization?

[Bubba Gump]

A couple last notes for you DG TX.

AKC has lost 500,000 registrations in 7 years
AKC has tens of thousands of non hunting beagle show champions
AKC has the smallest of the three US recognized beagle programs
AKC can brag that they are bigger than CKC
AKC bars you for not keeping the records that AKC should be keeping for you.

AKC has the highest fees in the country. Must be to compensate for the lost registrations.
AKC registers far more pet beagles than trial/hunting beagles
AKC is the only place for a beagler to hide from ALL of the competition
AKC is the only registryt that offers a discount on vaccuum cleaners. LOL

[DG TX]

Mr Gump, since you went from registries to me PERSONALLY, (subject:DG TX) my name is Duke Gilleland and I live in Texas. Let us not hide behind "guest" sir...
If I may ask, do you work for or own UKC? UKC has some great looking hunting/bench Beagle champions. But, is it not true that there are non hunting UKC Beagle Bench Champions? Do you hold it against a person to enjoy the breed as a pet? I believe there has been a UKC Beagle club in East Texas for some time now. One last thing. Could I interest you in a vacuum cleaner? I here they are great on pet Beagle hair!
HAVE A GREAT DAY MR. "GUMP"

[DRamey]

Steve C. Sorry I've been so long getting back, I've been out of town. I have enjoyed this discussion tremendously, especially your informative posts. I wish that you or someone with your experience would write some articles for the magazine about the history of field trialing including parallels between the pack hunting you guys were doing to the brace trialing the others were doing. By the way, I'm getting ready to introduce a new subject to the site and I am interested in your feedback. Hope I don't open a can of worms! Have a good day.

[DarrinG]

Duke, pay no attention to the slammers who shoot anonymously.......if someone wont sign in their name when they bash someone, it says alot.

[MDH68]

UKC for me. I like being active in the trials. Striking your hound, calling lines and having a say in the judges scoring. Its similiar to a real hunting situation. I tried a arha lp hunt and found it rather boring. No interaction with the hounds or fellow trialers. Just wasnt like hunting to me. I have been a rabbit hunter all my life. I have just recently got into trialing. As I said above the UKC format is similiar to hunting and thats what I know and am comfortable with.



Mike

[Steve C.]

DRamey, I've only been trialing seriously about a dozen years- had beagles for 20 years before that but like a lot of folks, didn't care about anything but shooting rabbits. Since I started trialing, I was fortunate enough to meet a number of veteran beagle men who had been involved with beagle trials back in the 50's and 60's and had bred and owned some of the great hounds we hear about today. It's never a waste of time to ask questions and listen to the guys who've been around for decades, like Duke, for one (DGTX). We are very fortunate to have guys like him and SR Patch on board to answer questions and tell us about what was going on in the sport years ago. I've become somewhat of a student of the game and have made a lot of phone calls and written a lot of letters to guys who were the early promoters of our sport, from Canada to the deep south. Some guys didn't care to talk much but other guys like Charles Webb from Texas wrote long detailed letters describing the early days of SPO in the south. Mike White and Terry Perry from the Maritimes could answer any question you could think of about beagling in eastern Canada. Too many guys to name without leaving out a bunch. The history of beagling and researching pedigrees has been almost as much fun as the dogs themselves. The more we know, the better job we can do as breeders. As for the other organizations, I have nothing whatsoever against them, they just haven't been around long enough to know if they'll stand the test of time.

[Randy H.]

U.K.C. Never played in this format.But for me just lookin at the age of some of those so called Champios,please I think i will just stay away and save my money.

Now ARHA (LP) I reaqlly enjoyed those two hour cast, If u had the right hound he could he/she stood a real good chance of kickin ASS,usually made it easier on the judge I was one of those judges back then with no complaints then,made chapion hounds then,with the one hour cast today still make champions.but this one hour stuff sucks.Usually when u come back from the winners cast with the rules so easy its like everyone knows what hound is the winner sometimes from the start of race."still sometimesa we all get fooled" when the judge reads his score card.still pretty good compition and Beaglers.

AKC Midwest,or any club that runs small pack option. Very good Compition,and the Beaglers very aware of there sport,as hard as it is in AKC to get a win, those Beaglers actually made a club change its club officers with something like i have never seen before,they didnt show for the show,stayed home or wherever. Now that was pretty cool.That club used to biggest event in AKC hopefully she will come back strong.Now running in the midwest or any other akc event U might as well be patient for you want to be there in the end all the different series makin the cut is one cool experience,knowing that two judges haft to agree on what they are bringing back,then u get measured "of course in" whatever class then u find yourself in the winners pack running against guys you have read about.Then the race is on and this goes for sometime, they pick up hounds from worst to first.then you get down to a brace and by then it could be a couple hours of runnin now this is really takin a look at hounds.This does Happen,Then u have those bitch seasons they picked up the wrong hound oh well take it home go back to the woods and keep at it,unless your dog blind then u will never learn.this happens.I like midwest the best.

I like the ARHA "PP" hunts I like the rule your hound must run by alone circle a bunny to earn its ch title.

[New York Hillbilly]

Randy H,
I agree with you on the last statement about liking the PP rule of having to circle to the gun a rabbit solo prior to being able to carry the title of Champion. I think it should be done in all formats of all registries and should not be a problem for anyone who feels they own a true rabbit champion. It seems only logical and fair to me.
NYH

[WSRandy]

NYH, You hit the nail on the head. Soloing is the only way to know for sure what you have and a gun will take away any doubts about gunshyness, as well as not reward a dog who is a mouthy me-tooer. Champion title is something that is just thrown around anymore and given without merit.....sadly, It dont mean squat!!

Of course........PP allows certification of dogs in a starting pen, which I strongly disagree with. But they still must circle and shoot over the dog. I know of more than 1 dog NOT making Champion because of gunshyness or not being able to solo. Kudos to PP for making the dog earn the title.

Randy

[DRamey]

SteveC. I agree that there are some fine older beaglers out there. We all need to use them for examples for ourselves. Too many worrying about what everybody else thinks about their hounds and not enough keeping house themselves. I have had beagles since 1971. My first were brace hound rejects that were too rough (for an 11-year old from the eastern ky mountains, solid gold!). I later went to strictly grade hounds that seemed to do it right. I now only look at how a hound can run a rabbit and whether he has a lick of sense about him. I run ARHA LP since that is what we have here to choose from, but I enjoy it tremendously. The swapping tales and companionship is as good as the trialing. I'm sure that in the registries that you have run in you have seen some totally crazy hounds as well. I'm talking about hounds that could really run a rabbit but ran past a dozen to get to the one at the other end of the field, the hound that never minded or was aware of the location of the handler, etc. I'm working a pup that has heavy Northway breeding (Spur and Driver) and he has a ton of sense. I've culled hundreds that could run but were not sensible. Too many beaglers are breeding for the wrong combinations in order to get maximum speed, nose, etc. and leaving out more critical qualities. That's where the registry comes in to play. It may be the reason why some registries are lagging behind in number now. What's your take on this, guys?