slow starter/great finish!

[new kid on the block]

Does anybody have a dog that money can't buy but when they were younger you didn't think they would make the cut. Like a light switch, they just turned on. If so what were some of the traits that made you question if they were going to be a rabbit dog?

[Shady Grove Beagles]

I know this is a rabbit dog forum but in general hound dogs have a lot of the same attributes so here's a coonhound recollection from years ago.
My buddy Frank picked up a 2 year old Bluetick hound out of the breeding he liked.Guy that had her said he hadn't done much with her and she hadn't shown him anything.
Frank took her out religiously by herself and with others and she wasn't running the track and wasn't treeing.Would fight a shot out coon but that was about it.
The night came when he told himself and the dog - "this is it ,you don't do it tonight you're not coming home".
Lo and behold that was the night she tripped off,ran and treed her own coon.She ended up being a very nice hound that was without fault.
As far as the beagles go I'd say that there have been a couple that at 1--1 1/2 years old I didn't think I would be keeping because they just didn't give the kind of mouth on track that I want.Too tight.
By the time they hit 2 years old they came fully in to their mouth and were keepers.
Have had a couple of hounds that were hard to get to leave the trash alone and that would aggravate the fire out of me and I'd want to kill them.Once I got them broke they were dead broke,tattletale broke and made good hounds.
Leet Ware an old Vermont bear and cat hunter that I used to hunt with quite a bit told me one time" many guys will give up on a young dog way too early and sell him.Then the second guy that gets him often ends up with a darn good hound".

[new kid on the block]

Enjoyed your story!

[Shady Grove Beagles]

We live in a culture these days that want everything "right now",micro wave,instant,no waiting,chop-chop,hurry it up,drive thru,instant log in,etc.,etc.
This maybe works okay for technology,electronics and "fast food". Not sure how it's affecting us humans: more easily distracted,loss of patience??
We need to keep in mind that these young hounds in many ways are like our children. As juveniles they mature at different levels of ability, they can have their good and bad outings.Sometimes they are all business and other times still act like pups. Doesn't mean they are going to be super stars or idiots.
Of course as the owner / trainor it's up to us to know what we want and only experience can give us a clear picture as to if a dog has "got it" or if he was born"without it".
I've been at this hound dog stuff for close to 50 years now and have a pretty good idea as to what i expect a young hound to be showing me given the exposure / experience he's been given.
As my friend Tony Bruleigh from Vermont has said " the good ones should be showing you some flashes of brilliance in that first year as to what they'll become.If they are not then they probably aren't what I'm looking for".
I know a lot of folks put a great amount of emphasis on how early their pups start.Getting super excited when the 5 month old is trailing and opening on rabbits and getting equally bummed out when their pup is showing little interest at the same age.I can honestly say that I've seen little difference in the grown dogs that started at 5 months or didn't get with it until 10 months.It's how they progress once the "light" has gone on that counts.
Reality is that not all dogs "make"it .You are the one that has to determine if they are showing you they have some promise or not.
If the breeding is there then I'd ere on the side of having some patience with them.

[Aubrey Holcombe]

Bossman:

I likewise love your story's I have a few if my own, Now the Trash thing, I found out long time ago, if you breed to a Trashy hound,, you asking for Trouble!! I was starting , and breeding beagles, long before there was the Shock Collars, so I have my theory, if they was a trashy hound, I just Would not breed to them,, and so over the many years of breeding, I seldom ever experience any problems with a deer runner, in fact my starting pens have old doe's jump inside them and have the littler fawns. I start the pup inside with them, and they don't mess with them.

My B.T. Pup 'Spit" never messed with them either, can't wait to the Deer season is over so I and get him in the pack, will keep you Posted, he is going to be a 14'' hound, and I love is quickness, need to call the old Ga.State Patrol , in south Ga.see how his is doing?

D.R.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>>

[warddog]

When I was a kid my dad and uncle bought a dog together called Whitey. A friend of my dad gave him a very young male dog called Jack because he had nothing to run him with. Whitey was the best dog my Dad said he ever saw and I hunted with him for years as well as our entire clan of relatives that hunted back then. They ALL said Whitey was the best rabbit dog any of them had ever seen and those of us still around rabbit dogs use him as our measuring stick today. Jack hunted with Whitey for many years and we hunted every weekend all weekend long. Young Jack would go with Whitey the entire trip BUT did absolutely nothing as far as running a track. Dad said surely "IF" he had any brains he would learn something tagging along the way. He didn't seem to be catching on and then Whitey died. Dad said, well, I've kept this dumb dog for three years now and he hasn't done a thing in all that time but tag along so this will be his last trip to the field if he will either do SOMETHING or he probably will not come back. Out we went with one of my uncle's dogs that wasn't much count either but would run a rabbit and much to our surprise Jack took off like he had been doing it his entire life. Dad told his friend that he got the dog from and he came to go with us one weekend to see this lil pot licker go and couldn't believe he was the same dog he had had a few years ago. Dad got another job up in the northern part of the state and we had to move but could not take any dogs so dad asked the guy if he wanted Jack back and the guy said of course as he is surely a rabbit dog. The friend hunted Jack until he died of old age and said he was one of the best he had ever owned. I doubt I would have kept a dog three years but Dad being old fashioned did not want to get rid of a dog a friend had given him and he knew he would not want him back being a follower rather than a leader. It sure did take him awhile to show his talent but when he did he had "it". Ole Whitey, which dad called White Meat is still our measuring stick today and Jack ended up being a pretty darn good rabbit dog but he didn't have it ALL, including retrieving ALL rabbits shot, as Whitey did but he did run the hair off of them rabbits albeit rather late in his life.