Most dominating performance you have witnessed??

[WELLS WOODS]

I heard he cheated.

[TrlBustinBeagle]

Some people think the dogs of the past are all watered down. Heli Prop was one of the most dominating dogs to run. I never got to see him first hand but my uncle was partners with branko and had alot of the greats down here in his kennel. When I asked him out of all the ones he had who was the one he would base a foundation around he said Prop or Jack. So we ended up buying a double Heli Prop grandson who if we trialed back then would have finished in akc midwest easily. I'm not just saying that cause he was my hound but I do judge midwest trials so I know what it takes. We also had his sister who had 11 seconds in the Midwest Association. The first cross I ever used him as a stud on was to my Hard Rock daughter and we had 4 pups trialed and she won dam of year off just these 4 pups for the Midwest Association. Right now I have a granddaughter of Prop that also has 4 more crosses in her 5 generation pedigree. She has more speed than the typical Prop offspring but that comes from the double shot of Copper Boy and the Hard Rock in her, but like Prop the longer she runs the better she gets and has super control. Her 1st cross this upcoming spring will be to a Heli Prop grandson who is also a great grandson of him. I guess in time I will see if Prop puts his trademark style in this cross. It's like in every cross you have to truly put the time and knowledge into it to increase your chances.

[big mike 50]

Jim I am just going off hearsay because I have yet to see John Deweyse's Navigator dog go but I was standing there when a man who has been running dogs with him for around 30 years told him Navigator was probably the best dog he has owned. Keep in mind John has owned and finished around a dozen IFC's including a good number of these old dogs of the past people are talking about. And if the reproducing power of Navigator's parents hold true he could be the dog you are seeking. Just trying to speak to what I think you were talking about.

[WELLS WOODS]

FC Blue Banks Pleaser dominated a trial at Franklin, Co. Illinois (AKC Mid-West) one year. He was a big black & tan with a fast chop mouth. He was linebred Sock It To Me (Maximum Effort x Prima Donna). FC Schroeder's RJH Slammer did the same at that same club I think. She was directly by Sock It To Me. Several of the best dogs I've seen run were Sock It To Me bred now that I think about it. They all had fast chop mouths & were built straight & leggy. IFC Taylor's Sock It To Me blood can really be beneficial in certain areas. They were line running dogs also, but some would run too conservative for me. Crossed with a hard hitting bloodline, you would get speed with incredible line control. Moon Pie & Grace were by Sock It To Me & Camp Creek Gertrude. Gertrude was directly by East Coast Trimmer. Sock It To Me was a black & tan, but Pie & Grace were tri-colored like Trimmer. They could handle the track faster than any dogs I've seen.
FTC Moneysunk Mountain Man's dam, FTC Moneysunk Socket was by Sock It To Me also if I remember correctly. Socket also had an IFC Able's East Coast Trimmer mother. I heard she was one tough hound to beat in her day.

[birmi1nr]

FC Reaperline Taboo (FC Birch Lake Hector x Greenbay Tula) Northeastern Wisconsin SPO trial back 2 or 3 years ago destroyed the 13' Female class that day. She made it hard for us to place dogs 2nd-NBQ because she left basically nothing for them to get. She was in a league of here own on that day.

[WELLS WOODS]

FC Thomas's Sandy III was probably the best 13" female I've ever seen. In her prime, I can't imagine her getting beat. She had it all; power, control, nose, brains, desire; special hound! I think she was FC Northwoods Spotty Sam & FC Indian Hills Majer bred. I remember one time at Jessamine Co's licensed trial, the club was running the 13" females & the 15" females at the same time, but in different areas. The two classes got fairly close at one point & Sandy got in with the 15" class. I was watching the 15" class winners pack run. They came around the big pond where everyone could see a 100 yard stretch or so & we noticed a strange dog leading the pack by about 20 yards; we eventually found out it was Sandy from the 13" class. The owners of the 15" females were humbled a little to say the least.
She ended up winning the 13" class that day. I think she won about every trial she was entered in. He quit running her in trials after she made FC, otherwise she would have been a legend if he had kept running her like most people do today.

[Doug G.]

The most dominating performance I ever saw was by Tony Upton's Max dog. I think it was the year that they let him make champion but he was still in the open class. I had a young dog in the cast and we jumped a rabbit and ran it for the whole hour of the cast. The score the judge had at the end was 300-50-0-0-0. I'm pretty sure that he stopped scoring Max at some point to. It was a very impressive performance.

[S.R.Patch]

I know I sound like a stuck record from over the years but Cody's Sharpe Mikie impressed me for total dominance of eating up a rabbit. All you could do was buckle up and hold on!!!...

[mdbeagler]

I know I sound like a stuck record from over the years but Cody's Sharpe Mikie impressed me for total dominance of eating up a rabbit. All you could do was buckle up and hold on!!!...

I have a female that has Cody's Sharp Mikie in her pedigree top and bottom.

[Jonboy]

I have enjoyed reading these post about gator and prime time my male roscoe is double breed gator prime time. He picked up. 2 wins a 2nd 1 3rd as a two year old.

[Squareebeagles]

I had a fish fry Friday nite fielden didn't want to eat guess he just likes hot dogs

[WELLS WOODS]

Some of these posts make it look like we are promoting more speed, but we are only praising talent. These hounds I mentioned were dominant in the check area also, but that isn't talked about enough sometimes. Their foot was impressive because they could control the line & make the turns that most hounds can't without breaking down. Hunt, checkwork and a lot of other things are more important than speed in order to be considered a good hound.
Prime Time was as fast as any hound I've ever seen and still control the line, but he was a "rabbit hound" first and his speed is not what earned him his title; it was his desire. He could grub out old checks that most give up on. I remember a few times when the judges wanted to move on after several minutes of a lost rabbit & Prime Time would come up with it and have it going again before I could find him. He produced a lot of good hounds; none of them were quite as fast as him, but they were talented line runners like he was with his no quit attitude needed to do well in the trials.
Point being, speed without talent and desire is useless.

[S.R.Patch]

It's interesting that all the talk of what makes a hounds special in the trials is just what a rabbit hunter expects in his hunting hounds.
Many hounds it seems are brought up in the trials never having known the hunting field, otherwise these "special qualities" would be just what's considered as necessities of a good rabbit hound.
Makes me wonder now-n-days does the rabbitdawg make the trails or does the trials make the rabbit dog?

I talk to fellows who can't wait to get their 6 month old pup into the trials and I say, shouldn't the hound mature and prove himself something special and of high quality in the hunting field first? I remember our first cabin we built as boys and the fun, sweat and thought we'd put into it. We had the vision and the plan, the hammer and the nails but could hardly call ourselves carpenters.
A alot of busted thumbs and rebuild to develop anything reliably stable but it formed a foundation to learn and grow from. None of us grew up to become master carpenters but we all to varying degrees knew how to build a sturdy structure to withstand time and could drive a nail straight.
Had we got put on a housing job instead of that first cabin project, I recon most of our development dampened by overwhelming expectation or disheartening time spent fetching water and carrying boards.

I bought a hound back from a trialer because she could not hold the front on his hounds, but he thought is was something special she would grub out the hard checks while his hounds had cast themselves far upon the hills looking for the line and most times jumping another rabbit. I told him, "when rabbits are few, you'll be back for her". But as it went, he never did, the trials and their time constraint pushed for hounds that wouldn't waste time on a lost rabbit and having access to the best rabbit area in the county, the high population allowed for this to continue.
I got a tickle out of Joey's commentary on one of the trials he attended, "the rabbit didn't go that way", the rabbit turned back there", that's not the rabbit they were running", a hunter would go home in disgust of his hounds that day, but at the end of the trial no doubt there was a winner.
I guess what I'm trying to reveal is, the best performances I seen were not at field trials, but rabbit hunting... jmho

[Schag]

An older gentleman once told me the following: "Many a good rabbit hound were ruined at trials; and more mouth will help you more than it will hurt you." I have been to a "few" in my life, and both statements I have witnessed to be true at some point.

With that being said, I have seen many good hounds at trials that I would be proud to own.

[WELLS WOODS]

With all due respect, until someone changes my mind, I believe the AKC Mid-West FC's are the best, PROVEN gundog hounds today. These dogs have been evaluated time and time again by the most unbiased judging system that is humanly possible in my opinion. These trials are no place for a young, immature hound for sure and it will almost always take even a good, mature hound that's new to trials a few times before he gets used to the trial setting and can settle in and be able to perform like you know he can. There is no way to properly evaluate trial hounds and grade the quality of the best without judging and seeing the action first hand week after week. Most people just see the negative side of trialing of unhappy handlers, rough early packs due to some of the faulty hounds entered that judges have to give a chance. I've seen the positive side of field trialing many, many times as a judge when you get down to the end after many hours of hard work getting to that point and your best 3 or 4 hounds of the day are smoking a rabbit without a hitch and there isn't anything the bunny can do to shake them because they are just too good. That's what field trialing is all about to me and very few people that were there that morning with high hopes have stuck around to see the end goal of why we were there in the first place.