The American Beagler Forum

We had a good morning hunt with a lot of hard, steady running (11 dog pack) but by noon most of the hounds had started looking a little used up. Anybody got some that are still worming the thickets after running wide open all morning?

I have a 10 year old Ace in the hole male that we recently ran 12 days straight all day and was still hunting hard at the end . He put down several younger dogs . On an average we probably had 15 runs a day . You can drop a pack of dogs he will be the first dog to strike and the last dog back to the truck .

Flash that is the type of dog I would love to have a pack of,Hunt is one of the hardest things to find in a beagle anymore in my opinion I dont mean go deep I mean hit the briars not skirt around them crawling through the brush man I love to see a dog with desire like this just havent seen it in years I have a female heavy Branko breeding that is 1 1/2 years old that is making the grade just not there yet

Flash I would sure like to run with you for a day, to see such a hard knot hound. Man, you must be proud to own him.

I would argue the reason he can go all day is because he is used to going all day. When I run for 6 hours 2-3 days a week, when I decide to run for 10 hours the dogs can do it. Most dogs sit in the kennel all week on an auto feeder and when you pull them out on Saturday 4 hours is all they have. I think most dogs if you got them out for 3-4 hours on Tues and Thurs night after work, you would find they could go 8 or so on Saturday.

There are special dogs that just have no bottom but these are the exception not the rule. Its still not good to lay them up for weeks and then run them for 10 hours once a month. Good way to hurt a dog. Proper nutrition is important also. VERY VERY VERY few comercial foods provide the necessary nutrition a dog needs to funtion to their potential, and the ones that do, nobody wants to pay the price.

Unless your set on running 11 dogs at once, break them up into two packs running one pack in the morning, go eat lunch, and let the second pack out in the afternoon. I think you will see your running improve.

Mybeagles

any advice on how to get more out of the hunters/handlers..? 5-6 hours of tromping around the brush, and I am spent..! I'm seriously thinking about cutting down on the fried food and cold beer, that nutrition angle really hit home..!

The Army is always looking for a few good bodies. They will keep you in shape starting with physical fitness (PT) that starts at 05:30 every morning 5 days a week. They will run you till you puke so drinking looses its appeal. Foods not all that great, so you will skip some of the meals resulting in some weight loss. Locations can be plenty hot, 140 deg in some spots but lots of sand.....

2 packs is good, but where we hunt if you leave your dogs unattended you may not have them when you return. One guy I know had his dog box stolen while he was hunting.

I shot some video of the last hunt, and yes it is very hard to get good footage of even medium fast dogs in action unless they run across an open field. In thick pines the noise is about all you get. But I would like to see some video of dogs other than Mark's, not that I don't like his but just to see some of these brag dogs in action... so get those highlight reels uploaded and show off those superstars!

On the endurance issue, I don't think we can soup up the hounds we have to do much more than a hard half day hunt. Funny thing is, I have driven many a mile, and many a time, to see dogs that were supposed to do much better.... they didn't... but the owners had some fine excuses!

Larry G wrote: Funny thing is, I have driven many a mile, and many a time, to see dogs that were supposed to do much better.... they didn't... but the owners had some fine excuses!

It's really not funny any longer, Larry. I too have driven many miles, spent a lot of $$, and bought several pups from those "great dogs" and my lottery never matches what was advertised as the jackpot.
It's been an expensive lesson but judging by the number of "great dogs" for sale, there are still a lot of players buying tickets.

I have to agree with mybeagles, if you don't condition your dogs they won't cut it for a whole day. It takes about 2 or 3 months of consistent running to get a dog conditioned to consistently go all day. Then you still have to get them out or they'll slide back a bit. Once a dog is run up it is easier to maintain their conditioning, but many don't have the initial time to build them up so they never quite get there. You can't buy conditioning, it has to be put in and then maintained.

Tim is correct, this doesnt happen in a couple weeks but rather several months. I have never struggled to have dogs that would go 8-10 hours. Dogs that will go 12+ are extra special.

I have had guys ask me to get their dogs in shape and would like to come back in a month to pick them up. When I tell them it will take 3 months and maybe even 5 or 6 months if the dog is way overweight they just look at me like Im stupid. I have only owned a couple dogs that wouldnt go more than 4 hours and they were mediocre dogs at best. You have to work up to it. Think about yourself, if you were fat and out of shape would you start out running 25 miles a week? If you have run your dogs 20+ hours a week for several months and 4 hours is all you get I would say there are only a couple explanations:

1. You havent consistantly put the time on them.
2. Nutritional/health issue/possibly overweight. Im suprised at the guys that think a 2" thick fat layer on a beagle is acceptable or normal.
3. Lack of desire/really bad pack of dogs (unlikely)

I know this for sure,the more you hunt the dogs the tougher they get. When hound starts to get in top shape they change not only in the way hunt,but in looks too. I ran my dogs 17 days in a row and they acted worn out for the first few days. Then started getting toughterand tougher. They made me want to rest. I found to run this way they need fat meat along with the dog food. When I did this I was makeing my own dog food.

Jack,

I agree about the feed. I am switching to a completely raw died. If you study dog nutrition and commercial foods you will soon learn how grossly deficient they are. Unless your buying the $50-$60 a bag food your just feeding a bunch of extremely low quality waste products. To say that purina is better than Black Gold or Sportsmix or High standard or Diamond is just splitting hairs. They are all made of waste products and subject your dogs to health issues. Dogs getting cancer, tumors, etc is being linked to commercial dog food, check it out. I have read some really good research done on commercial dog food and I was horrified. I hope to be able to speak more inteligently and from experience a year from now.

Anyone that would have an interest in watching my dog hunt or to just go hunting with me and my crew is welcome to do so . We go every Saturday and most Sundays just send me a PM on here and we will get something set up . After mid March my baseball/softball umpiring starts and I don't have much free time until fall . For those who don't think my dog is "all that" he was in an above ground 3x6 kennel all summer in October we put him in 3 major hunts .......never been run any at all and he won all 3 hunts ...one of which was the juv. diabetes hunt . My dog only goes out on weekends I dont' have time to run him all week like some. The chistmas -newyears break is the only time we get to hunt more than a couple of days at a time .ANYONE IS WELCOME .

I dont question your dogs ability, but in my mind you clearly identified why your dogs are running out of gas. Sounds like you may have a real special dog if it can win like that with limited conditioning. I have heard of dogs that could do that but never owned one.