Is finishing a dog to akc fc still a big acomplishment

[Ron Conroe]

love to see that kind of running, that was inpessive at that speed.

[sparky]

Watched the Video,and this is my opinion. The 1st Turn looked Great! I would give the front dog 2 positive marks/scores.One for snapping back an making the turn,and the other mark/score for speed an drive. The 2nd Turn not so Great. I would give the front dog a negative mark/score for blowing over the end,I could also hear some extra mouth when they (dogs 1 & 2) went over the end,but I couldnt see which dog it was,it couldve been both of them.I would give dog 3 a positive mark/score for not getting sucked in,and making the turn.

Front Dog - 2 positive marks,1 negative mark
2nd Dog - No Marks,Me tooing.
3rd Dog - 1 positive mark

[Bev]

You've got a fast eye, sparky! That's a lot of scoring for a 9-second run, and pretty close to what I actually saw. What happened is, the first turn onto the path, #1 dog made the turn, #2 dog blew over the line and went just into the woodline on the other side of the path. It turned and paralleled the path, and later joined the pack on the second turn recovery. Dog #3 made the first turn as well, and also went past me. He's the second dog you see in the clip, but he was actually the 3rd dog to hit the path. 3rd dog gets past me (about 6 feet past where the hare turned back in) he snaps back to the exact point of loss and follows the track in claiming. At that point it's easier for dog #1 and the rest of the pack who had also come down the path (I missed them by swinging my camera around) to cut back in from behind me. I try not to give negative score unless their actions lead to a negative outcome.

So, me having the unfair advantage of seeing the entire sequence, I would score it like this:

Front Dog #1 - 2 positive marks; 1 for speed and drive, 1 for making the first turn flawlessly. I would note his blowing over the end on the second turn, but he didn't leave the country, he was still on the path, so I'll forgive it.
Dog #2 - 1 negative mark; blowing over the end on the first turn. She didn't hark to the pack until Dog #3 had recovered the check.
Dog #3 - 2 positive marks; making the first turn, and snapping back to the second checkpoint to recover the line before Dog #1.
Dog #4 - No score good or bad. He was in there, he made the first and second turn, but he was coming up the path after Dog #3 made the check so he followed Dog #3 in.

Here's where my opinion is a little different; it's one of those "mileage varies" things, but I didn't see the me-tooing. After the 2nd dog blew over the first turn, there were only 2 dogs barking - the 2 dogs you saw on the path. The other 2 didn't chime in until the pack was back together. They were all getting high scent, and were running heads up. There might have been a couple of extra barks from Dog #1 overrunning the second turn, but nothing I would hold against him travelling at that speed. I didn't think me-too barking because of the total shutdown of mouth when they were back together in the woods and momentarily lost the line again. Then you can hear them recover, with all dogs putting in again.

I've watched this clip 50 times, pausing and noting times and position of dogs, and everything said and done, I think they did a pretty decent job. Even though the hare made 2 tight turns on them within a few yards, the whole pack only lost 2 seconds to him. It wasn't totally flawless, but it's hard for me to find a lot of negative when such a small pack of dogs can pressure a hare that hard, but then again I like fast dogs. I'm thinking if I hadn't been standing there, the 2nd turn wouldn't have happened at all, and they might have done what they've done a few times in the past, flat fast-track the hare to a kill. Gambling dogs don't get that lucky very often. And I don't get lucky enough to get clips like this very often. I'm usually in the wrong spot or too late with the camera, lol.

Sorry to sully the thread - back on track, I think the FC title is a huge accomplishment. I wish I had one.

[BCBeagles]

I do have one, bought her with a partner didn't make her, and she is a NICE one. I watched 2, 6 yr old grade males of ours lay it to her today. Dogs are dogs, TITLES ARE IMPRESSIVE, and EVEN HARDER TO ATTAIN, but they can look average as well. Sometimes our expectations are for perfection and that dog has not come in front of these eyes yet.

[Bev]

I see the same thing; I've had some grade dogs that on a daily basis, were excellent dogs - performed as well as any. but I envision the sweet part about a FC title is the coming together of it all. A person would recognize the talent, train and condition a dog in every spare hour, then put his/her faith in the dog to perform in a consistent enough manner to haul them to trials, weekend after weekend. A dog they felt was worth the entry fee, gas and lodging expense, standing in the rain or heat with the gallery, maybe going home empty just to try again next week. And then ribbon by ribbon, the three wins and all the points needed finally arrive, and the partnership -- the joint effort of man and dog is rewarded. I worked hard and made some champions and grand champions, both bench and field, when I was trialing ARHA and UKC, and I remember how good that felt. If I can ever retire I'd like to try and make an AKC FC, too.

[BCBeagles]

I agree Bev, I am not taking away from the titled dogs and the guys who have them. They are DEDICATED to the sport in a VERY SMALL percentage!! They know good hounds and put the time and effort in for sure. It is a long road, a TON of running, a ton of time, a ton determination to finish a hound!! It takes super consistancy to make it and a well rounded skill set!!

[ray s]

I'm fairly new to AKC but I'm not new to beagling what so ever. And I have seen some awesome winners packs in the midwest federation. To me, this is a sign of competent judges bringing back quality hounds at the end of the day. Which I believe is what the rule book intended.
If I am ever fortunate enough to own a beagle that has EARNED the "field champion" title, I will definitely consider it a huge accomplishment!

[redpup]

Wow Josh I am sorry you have this bad taste about akc trials after only attending less than a handful. The judges work hard at trying to sort the hounds out to come up with the best at the end of the day. And yes they do miss some things going on to the next round, but by the end of the day they usually find the faulty hounds and get them up. Yes I have seen some hounds that I thought was doing some good work keeping the race going and them not make it to the next round, that's just part of trialing. It takes a lot of time trying to figure out the right program to have a hound ready to start trialing. How much conditioning what kind of diet, do you run them up to a day before a trial or give them a couple days rest before going. Each hound is different and you have to figure out what works best for each one. Look at it like an athletic getting ready for the olympics each one has their own way of getting ready to compete. Then for a hound going week after week putting up with the pounding, gambling, racing, backtracking,swinging, mouthing, of faulty hounds, and it not blowing a dog up before it finishes is a Hugh accomplishment in itself. I could go on but anyone who trials knows what I am trying to say. It is a HUGE ACCOMPISHMENT to finish a hound to an akc champion. If it wasn't everyone in beagling would have one. jmo

[Farm dog]

Redpup pretty much covered it.

[jdmart]

Wow Josh I am sorry you have this bad taste about akc trials after only attending less than a handful. The judges work hard at trying to sort the hounds out to come up with the best at the end of the day. And yes they do miss some things going on to the next round, but by the end of the day they usually find the faulty hounds and get them up. Yes I have seen some hounds that I thought was doing some good work keeping the race going and them not make it to the next round, that's just part of trialing. It takes a lot of time trying to figure out the right program to have a hound ready to start trialing. How much conditioning what kind of diet, do you run them up to a day before a trial or give them a couple days rest before going. Each hound is different and you have to figure out what works best for each one. Look at it like an athletic getting ready for the olympics each one has their own way of getting ready to compete. Then for a hound going week after week putting up with the pounding, gambling, racing, backtracking,swinging, mouthing, of faulty hounds, and it not blowing a dog up before it finishes is a Hugh accomplishment in itself. I could go on but anyone who trials knows what I am trying to say. It is a HUGE ACCOMPISHMENT to finish a hound to an akc champion. If it wasn't everyone in beagling would have one. jmo

Roy that is the best comment on this post of the realization of finishing a FC.

[Bobby Vest]

Finishing a hound in any format takes a lot of work, time and money. I think AKC FC in front of a dogs name means more than any title you can achieve. Roy did hit the nail on the head. I have a lot of respect for the people that trial dogs and finish them. If we all kept logs of running time, gasoline, hotels etc. it would probably surprise everyone just how much it takees. You have to love the hounds and the people or you wouldn't keep doing it.