The American Beagler Forum

IS running the front all the time fast? Are is it the dog that moves the rabbit with non stop. I have had both but i think that the one that can hold the line with good foot is the fastest dogs, i believe this because with no break downs the races seem to be faster and longer. the dog that over to much slows the race down.

HOW DO YOU THINK.

A fast hound to me is one that is usally 20 to 30 yards in front of the pack. I run a right quick pack of hounds and have one that is always ahead of the pack by that much. I consider him fast......


hounddog
Jim Umbarger

speed is relative .....

for example what u think is fast might be medium speed to me or vice versa.

This is a great question--which I think goes to the heart of our sport. I think the ultimate answer is given by Whiteriver, with the understanding that there is a judgement of the question in a human's mind.
However for the fun of it-- if we look at the question from a physical or logical view there is a relative measure--the speed of the rebbit. Therefore "fast" goes from Zero to Hare-on-the-rabbits-bottom or Cotton-on-his-tail. And somewhere between Zero and running lagamorph is the other classification-- scent chasing versus sight chasing. For example in bear hounds we want a fast hound to track and eventually sight chase catch, harry, and tree or bay the bear. However in rabbit dogs we have differing views of want we want out of our hounds. Line control, smooth flowing chase, or hair on the back of your neck screamers (with all the associated variables and correlated charachterstics--good and bad--as judged by a human).

And this is where the relative issues pop up. What we have seen in beagles from the 60's onward is the influence of brace trial bloodlines that moved the dogs to line control artisans. Gun hunters started developing there own formats (spo, pp, etc) This is confusing if you are just getting into the sport--but I think healthy for beageling. A revolution!

The reason this is such a great question(how fast is good enough) is because the answer is relative! Relative to what the individual likes in a rabbit hunting dog. However the FC title today takes a little extra homework to understand its meaning.
Just more fun researching peds and watching dogs run!!

Magoo

fast is just has been stated relative can be slow to me but fast to u..i have ran with a few folks that said i have fast dogs but after we ran they decided they didnt ..they didnt to me but they did to them. have ran with other that said they had fast dog there dogs were wild and crazy were they fast or just wild runners?? BUT ME=== i like A FAST RACE POUNDING THE BUNNY ALMOST IF NOT CATCHING IT ..checks dont worry me at all i expect checks from fast dogs. but not over running 30 yards lol. swinging out 30 yards thats is not fast thats just crazy!

hounddog wrote:A fast hound to me is one that is usally 20 to 30 yards in front of the pack. I run a right quick pack of hounds and have one that is always ahead of the pack by that much. I consider him fast......


hounddog
Jim Umbarger

When run solo does your "fast' beagle catch a lot of rabbits?

Eleven last year, five so far this year.

hounddog
Jim Umbarger

fast is when they can catch alot of rabbits ive only seen one true fast dog and he would catch 50% of the rabbits he jumped now to me med-fast is ther there 20 to 30 feet behind the bunny buring his butt up with few breakdowns.

to me a fast dog runs the track fast with his head up. There are fast dogs that can't run a track, few that can. A medium dog runs a track just not as hard. there mediums that can't keep a track going, but there are more mediums that can keep a track moving. to me slow dogs track more than they run. I like a fast dog that can run a track, but man it's hard to find one.

Unless a mature rabbit is caught out in the open or cornered it usually has little chance of being caught by a beagle. I think many rabbits that are caught in the thick stuff is because the rabbit has a heart attack and dies or is not healthy. I had some slower medium speed SPO type hounds years ago that caught a rabbit once. There is no way these dogs could out run a rabbit because they tracked with their noses down.

Must be in the high cholesterol part of the midwest, because rabbits are having a lot of heart-attacks in front of my hounds.

Rabbits get caught every once in a while making mistakes. But when you see rabbits being pounded for over an hour stopping, panting, standing up and looking back, its time too grab them dogs, because that rabbit is about to have a heart-attack bigtime.

The line of hounds we run catch rabbits on a regular basis. They run heads up when conditions permit and put there noses down when they don't.

So, respectfully I disagree with the author about line control making a hound faster. We breed for hounds that pursue to catch. Personally that is what I want. It is not for everyone.

Duke wrote:Must be in the high cholesterol part of the midwest, because rabbits are having a lot of heart-attacks in front of my hounds.

:

I could be made a believer. I just never seen a lot rabbits caught by beagles. Every once in while my medium speed pack of yesteryear nabbed one. I figured the rabbit either was not healthy or made a big mistake.

JohnnyRingo,
You are invited to join me in running hounds anytime. I am from the Cincinnati, Ohio area. Always looking for comraderie in the field.

Duke,
I would like that. Maybe we could get together this season for a hunt. I could bring one of my Branko dogs down your way. Shoot me a email in the future and maybe we can plan a hunt. Thanks for the hospitality.

JR

There is more to this topic then stated here!

I believe I run as fast a hound as there is in the country and my hounds seldom catch rabbits in the wild. So, cover must play a large part in whether hounds catch rabbits. I hunt in the nastiest stuff around, multifloria rose. The reason the rabbits are there, is that the fox can't catch them either. I guess what I'm saying is, if you turn a wild rabbit loose on a football field with a pack of dogs behind it it is probably going to get eaten, but the same rabbit and dogs in a multifloria rose patch, will only get caught if Mr. Cottontail makes a huge mistake. JMHO