The American Beagler Forum

I got a question maybe some of you may be able to help me. I have just recently caught the fever of these little beagles and I can't get enough. My pup is 7 mos old and running pretty good. How old do they have to be to get into trials? and do any of you suggest this may be too young for him? Next, I went to a trial recently( I won't mention where) and I didn't really like what I saw. There were probably at least 20 dogs there and they were all running together. They were running a rabbit and seemed like a huge amount of checks. they came close to where we were all standing lost the rabbit and dogs went every which way. I mean some dogs went real wide right off the bat. and after a few minutes one of them found the rabbit and dogs came from every which way. My question is, Is this the way trials are conducted? It looked sooooo disorganized and if my dogs ever acting like that they would be somebodies house pet! What is a standard for trials? I know there are different types and i know I don't want to run my dogs like that . But I would like to get into trialing. My other Question Do you just bring dogs into these enclosures and release them.or are they expected to hunt with you to a certain extent? I have worked hard to get my dogs to stay close until they are running. I don't want them to think they are aloud to go running off all the sudden. Any comments good or bad will be greatly apppreciated. I am hungry for information!!

I will state flatly that 7 months (or 8 or 9) is far too young to subject a hound to the pressure of trialing. He is neither physically or emotionally ready for competition at this age. Let him be a pup while he's still a pup but keep him learning too. I generally want 2 full hunting seasons on a hound before I feel he's ready to be trialed and even then he'd really better be something special. One thing hounds learn from trialing is how to cheat, and they will cheat if given too much pressure too early. It sounds as though you witnessed a Large Pack trial with that many hounds down at once. You saw first-hand how good dogs will sometimes look bad from the pressure of competition. Dog will do things in a pack that they would never do when running alone or with a few good packmates. My advice would be to attend a few trials in different formats to get a feel for how things are run and become familiar with the rules and the things judges look for in a hound. Keep running your hound solo or with a few others until he's experienced and mature enough and then give him a try, preferably in a small class. It's a lot of fun but very tough to place a hound in a licensed trial. Success comes to those who work the hardest at it. Good luck with your hound!

I agree with Steve hes probably to young right now to take, just keep running him, we hardly ever take ours unless they are at least a year old

Thanks
Rocky Hill Kennel

I agree w/ these guys on the age. Take this time to let him fine tune his running skills and build self confidence. In the meantime you can use the time to educate yourself on the different trial formats. Here's the websites where you can get info. and trial dates close to you for the different formats.

http://www.arha.com
http://www.ukcdogs.com
http://www.prohound.com
http://www.akc.org