The American Beagler Forum

How many dogs do you own and how many do you run at a time?

I've been running on a small piece of public land that dosen't allow guns, and alot of the guys who run there bring anywhere from 10 to 15 dogs at a time. That's too many in my opinion, especially for such a small area that others are trying to use at the same time. There are usually at least 2 to 3 guys there and sometimes as many as 5 or 6. Not all of them bring every dog in the neighborhood but some do, 12" dogs running with 17" dogs, cold trailing dogs, 10# overweight dogs, 2 year old dogs that aren't started and they call them pups.Well what do you think. I guess I just need a new place to run.

The problem with running on public land is that anyone can run there. You can't judge what they are running just because you are upset because they are there. I do not run on any public land for this reason. As far as how many dogs someone should be runnning, it is each to their own. If you want to get away from that you need to find land to run on where you will not run into this.

I kinda mix it up, i run Brace, pack (5),and solo. I have been soloing a lot this time of the year and through out for trial conditioning,plus i have 8 great pups at this time that is coming on strong,so i will be spending a lot of time packing and soloing them with our solid season hounds until season opens again.
I to ran some on Public land but ran into the same problems, so i pulled out.i have gotten several new private land owners this year who let me run hounds on there land, and i have finally got on a 1500ac land lease also this year, so this has help me when i run and got me off the public lands to run on.
So i would check around and find some new grounds to run on.

http://gibsonsplateaukennels.synthasite.com/

I usually hunt alone or with a friend and I was always a 1-2 dog man BUT as I get older I find it harder to find the "RIGHT" dog for me soooo I believe I will go with 3-4. The two young dogs I have are real decent track dogs , fair in the check, a little loose, but TERRIBLE jump dogs. I need to add a Jump dog and a dogs a little closer in he check.
I am 60 years "Young" and have had two Rabbit dogs out of probally 150 Beagles and I still am looking for the the dog THAT DOES IT ALL. I have always believed that if you run tooooo many dogs you have a few barking dogs a few following and 1 or 2 doing the work. I really like the "Music" and I believe that has as much to me adding to my dogs as any one thing.
Thanx,
Jim

I limit myself to 5 - 6 dogs...I personally can not do more dogs justice. But, I typically run 3 dogs at a time. Often I'm running w/ someone else and they will have another 3 dogs or so. I find (for me) that once I start taking more than 3 dogs I end up working more than enjoying myself. I can manage 3 easily and a pack of 3 good dogs can get the job done w/out any problem.
-Pete

I'm not upset that they are there I just think they should show a little courtasey and some respect for other people who are using the same area, not just me there are plenty of others that use it with fewer dogs. They can run as many as they want and whatever they want It is public land but show a little bit of respect for others.

If you don't want me judging your dogs or what you run then don't bring them out in public. I'm sure they don't care what I think about them anyway.

4 are plenty. If you have a wild Cutter / Swinger 1 will do!!!!!!!!! Be careful what you run your young stuff with. I had thought I could run mine with a clean running hound of mine, but he was too much of a Check and Jump Dog for them. They got to looking at where he was too much.

That's the good thing about Colorado. I can run my one dog and not see anyone else. In four years here, I've seen one other guy with a beagle and was told by a game warden that there's a guy that runs three dogs. Everyone's more concerned with elk than enjoying the long season following dogs chasing rabbits and squirrels.

mike crabtree wrote:4 are plenty. If you have a wild Cutter / Swinger 1 will do!!!!!!!!! Be careful what you run your young stuff with. I had thought I could run mine with a clean running hound of mine, but he was too much of a Check and Jump Dog for them. They got to looking at where he was too much.

My dogs would be looking for ol Reject too. No need for another one with him .
Myself, Tim and Alan Buster were talking about this at a hunt Sunday. It seems as though when you get too many dogs all they want to do is race each other and get in each others way. I think 6 is a max number for good running. More than that is usually a mess.

Sem,

In all honesty some of these guys dont see anything rude about what they are doing. Its clear this spot gets heavy running with high numbers of hounds. Doesnt matter where you live there will always be popular public running areas that get high volumes of dogs. Many of these guys are in it for the conversation and friendship. The more dogs; the less its about individual dogs and more about other things.

To answer the question directly, I try to keep 4 dogs. 2 finished dogs and 2 pups. My preference is a brace. I run the finished dogs one day and pups the other. Few of us ever seem to get exactly where we want so often end up with just pups.

I think your question pertains to how many dogs is reasonable to run in a public running area. IMO as many dogs as they have in their kennel. Its hard to take 20 hounds to run on 40 acres of private land where its easy to run a brace or small pack. Thats one thing that attracts large pack guys to these venues, having 100's of acres where they will not be trespassing on private land. Your options seem to be run with 50 dogs or find another spot. I know beaglers that have tried to suggest rules on public land only to have a shotgun pointed at them and told to mind their own business. I have had guys without dogs shoot the rabbit my dogs were running. Is it rude, yes.... Is there anything you can do about it, NO. Hope you come up with a plan that works for you.

Mybeagles

I could care less how many hounds somebody wants to run, but other than getting them some exercise, I can't see getting any hound work done when there's over 5-6 beagles......

I prefer running three or less in the off season. Sometimes solo works. During hunting season we go with 6 to 10 dogs. Some of you would be suprised how well a good matched pack of 10 can run a rabbit. The last day I hunted we ran 9 in the morning and split them into one pack of 5 and one pack of 4 and put the guns in the truck for the afternoon. The pack of nine had one of the best runs of the season with pups and vetrans getting action. I rarely hunt alone, usually there are two or sometimes three dog owners. We all have similar styles of dogs. Some days the fast high flyers shine like new money, other days the mid pack grubbers show why they eat our expensive dog food. I have watched the fastest dogs run mid pack when the big noses were getting it done.Over the last few years the racing and cutting dogs have been eliminated and over runs are short. With all that being said I am looking forward to the next few weeks of running smaller groups of dogs. I have some young ones that will get some miles on them braced and maybe some solo action.

Just be happy you have public land to run on, it is very limited and scarce here and once the gun season is out, you can't train on public land.

Well said jar242. After this month the public land that I run on will be closed until I think September and it is getting harder all time to find private land around here to run and hunt on. Here in my area we can't hunt on the public land at the WMA, just run and trial.

I own 8 including a pup and like running 4-5 at a time.