The American Beagler Forum

anyone ever heard of any successful breeding programs with faster hounds crossed with cottontail hounds, such as branko, northway, greenbay ect. crossed with weir creek, black creek, stubby ect. if so what type of hounds were produced ? just curious.

there is NO difference between a cottontail hound or a hare hound.

How can you say there is no difference between cottontail and hare hounds?

adirondackjoe wrote:there is NO difference between a cottontail hound or a hare hound.

there is alot. manly foot. and yes i know of alot of guys who were tired of the over running and slowed them down a touch by using a med speed hound.

I don't think there is as much of a difference in the dogs as there is in the game they pursue IMHO.
A cottontail has more erratic movement with many twist and turns. A Hare runs a straighter larger circle.
Which one of these species will a dog be able to display more foot?
My dogs have a lot of Branko bloodline and several IFC champions in there. I run cottontails and dogs have to learn to gear down some in order to
adequately stay on line. However, you let that bunny go in a straight line or a large circle for any distance at all and you see them kick into over drive.
My dogs have never run a hare but, I have watched some video of dogs running hare (i know this is not indicative of all hare hounds) i'm confident my dogs could run with them.
A lot of dogs have won trials running both species....did there foot speed change or did the dog adjust?

i can say that because ive been running both now for almost 50 years and have owned and run with fast dogs, slow dogs, big dogs and small dogs. some were great, some not so much but the one thing they all have in common is they ALL ran both cottontail and hare. if they were a good cottontail dog they turned out to be good hare hounds. good hare hounds run cottontails just fine. some places i run have both cottontail and hare and if you don't see the rabbit on the jump there's no way your gonna tell cottontail or hare. last year my dogs ran a hare for over 3 hrs. before i shot it. it never went out over 115 yards. this year my buddy's dog ran a cottontail out over 900 yards before it came back and he shot it. if your happy with the way your dogs run cottontails your gonna be happy with the way they run hares.

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Only differences in Beagles running any rabbit down here is one running in a not picked cotton field and one running in swimming deep water.

Both these take a dog, hound, Beagle, or mutt, regardless of its breeding getting used to it and adjusting for it and some never do.

I would agree that most beagles that can run one are able to run the other, but that being said some lines tend to run cottontails more efficiently while others perform better on hare.

the difference is line control !!!! on a turning rabbit cottontail hounds does the best hare3 bred hounds tend to do too much over running and cant keep it going with out break downs

seems like a lot of you southern boys are introducing northern hare hounds into your programs , my question is it to add speed or to add nose to the more tradional cottontail bred dogs or maybe both

personally i like the intensity some of the northern dogs run with. seem to have alot of power but imo. you have too many over-runs and break downs on cottontails. i like speed and power but also want a hound to stay on the track and run it like he's tied to it. seems almost impossible to have hounds with all these qualities ???

jim matuszewski wrote:seems like a lot of you southern boys are introducing northern hare hounds into your programs , my question is it to add speed or to add nose to the more tradional cottontail bred dogs or maybe both

You Northern guys kill me thinking there isn't any foot or nose in southern bred dogs.

jim matuszewski wrote:seems like a lot of you southern boys are introducing northern hare hounds into your programs , my question is it to add speed or to add nose to the more tradional cottontail bred dogs or maybe both

I haven't seen them all, but I've yet to see Hare bred dogs with a better nose than cottontail dogs. Admitted, most of the ones that I have seen have been bred for trials and not for the severe conditions of Canada and Northern snow and extreme cold. It may not be a difference in nose power, but a difference in concentration on cold trails that is the difference. If you search pedigrees back far enough you will find Wilcliffe Bannister in Hare bred dogs. You will find Sureplace Happy Boy in Weir Creek. Of course all beagles started from the same group of beagles, its all about the breeders since those days.

We've been doing it for about 20 yr. but staying in the same family, I think that adds a greater advantage to keeping what you like. The Yates blood had been bred for cottontail/swamper, the north boys still ran hare. They all got together to run both and bred from those who displayed the ability to adapt. I think that is the key, your hounds will never be any better than what they're tested for and what's required of them. There are always failures, some will develop and can't pick it up or slow it down when needed. I had a buddy that had a good driving cottontail hound named Toby, when we took him up to run hare the first time he loved it but afterwards, refused to settle back down when returned to cottontail land. My buddy claimed it ruined him for cottontails and I'm pretty sure he sold him. Toby was a really good hound but his desire and energy all worked against him when it came to working the twisting cottontail again, the love of those long drives spoil the levelheadedness to focus on running the rabbit in some...jmho