Run to catch

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Got a phone call today and very much enjoyed visiting with Daddy Rabbit.
Mr. Holcombe got through his hernia surgery and said that yes he's still pretty tender but doing alright and should be ready to go when gun season rolls around. If you've never met or talked with this gentleman you'd never believe he's got as many years under his belt as he does.He's like the Energizer Bunny.
He told me that the 5 month old pup that he got from me, in his words "is running like a grown dog and is all business about the rabbits".
Now Daddy Rabbit has a couple of enclosures to start and run pups and dogs so that sure helps but he is impressed with "Spitfire"
Hearing this report from a man who is in the Rabbit Hunter Hall of Fame means a lot to me and excited for him and the pup.
Hope to hear those kind of reports from guys that have the littermates.

[Aubrey Holcombe]

Yes Sir, "Spit" is making me Proud everyday. Love that little fellow!! I am hoping that he stays on the small size, for his age he is just about right. Nice looking pup sounds like a big Hound giving good Mouth. I have to stop running the pup in this hot weather.

When I have one that love the race like he does, hard to keep him in the Kennel. I am hoping that his litter mates owners give us an Up Date on them soon.

Keep looking Up!
D.R.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>>

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Wishing my son Zack a Happy 31'st Birthday.
Zack started his hunting / hound dogging career with me at around 1 1/2 years old. We'd gone out for a walk and I had him in a backpack child carrier. I'd turned out a 9 month old bluetick coonhound to go with us to give him some more woods exposure.It was Spring and the peepers were going at it in the swamp just before dusk.Gunner had ranged out some and next thing i knew we had a short race and a tree on what you'd call a "pop-up coon". With the baby on my back I pushed through the pines to find Gunner treed and the coon in sight.
Zack was going to Large Pack on Hare trials with me and handled my Rock dog in the Vermont-New Hampshire Derby Championship taking 1'st when he was 7 years old and over the years handled many dogs for me and others at Little Pack trials.
Here's a pic of him with me up in northern Maine on a hunting trip when he was 21.
Been a good hunting companion and a rabbit slayer-- he always seems to know where the rabbit is !
Happy Birthday son.

[Aubrey Holcombe]

Happy birthday, young man here is wishing you Many more!
I stop having Birthdays, on June 30th, ever year as this passed I was 79 and from now own, that will be my Anniversary. Don't want to be in the 80
that sounds to old!

My pup, "Spit" is running like a 5 year old, I run him just about ever day, he is now running with my best male "All Day" they can get the job done, thank again for that little fellow. he is a Joy to have around.

Yours In Sports,

D.R.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>>

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Hey what about the ticks?
Here's something I've noticed before and was thinking about it again when I came in from running the dogs this morning.
Come April and here's the ticks - mostly those little "seed" ticks.May,June and July they're awful and I'm picking them off me and the dogs everytime we run.These are usually the big mature ticks.My dogs will even get them in the kennel when they haven't even been out of the pen running and I'll be picking crawling ticks off me just sitting in the dog lot petting them up.
Now in August and September it's still plenty hot but NO ticks!
I've run 4 mornings this week and haven't seen / found a single tick on me or the dogs??
I've noticed this every year.Not saying I never find ticks on my dogs in the Fall but they just seem to disappear about now.
Anybody else?

[Aubrey Holcombe]

Dana:
Good friend coming over first thing in the Morning, Labor Day wants to see that Pup I been bragging about run! The "Spit" is wound up, that boy stays ready! I been running him with the best young male that I got "All Day" now my young male is No push over he, has a big loud mouth and I have got him in good shape, been running these two together, ever day for a couple weeks now.

The kid that has theses, two litter mates, and they can get the job done, the came from me, as I own their Mother and daddy didn't want to part with the one that I call Shadow. He kept making me some good offers, so I finally let him have the pup. Now he want to try and make my pair look bad! I think "spit" and "All Day" will handle them? I will let you know we come out.

d.r.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>>

[Beagle Huntsman]

Dana: I believe the deer and lone star ticks are active all year, except maybe when the temperature is below 20 in winter. They are in different sizes at different times of the year. I found 2 on my leg this past weekend that were no larger than a pen dot. The are the type that can carry Lyme Disease. The lone stars can cause an allergy to red meat. Mostly these ticks are found near wooded areas.

The larger old dog ticks are mostly found in fields from April to August. They require moisture, so after the summer gets too hot and drier, they disappear, either dying off or burrowing into ground litter. That’s why we aren’t seeing them now.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Beagle Huntsman
Makes sense to me.
Thanks for the info.
Learn something new everyday.

[steve w]

I don't think there has been a month in a year that we have not found a tick on a dog. Granted the hot dry months they do seem to subside but let it cool down and rain and they can pick up where they left of in the spring. Same thing in winter when it warms up suddenly. A couple years ago I had a dog get sick and the vet diagnosed Lyme disease, doxycycline did the trick but I decided to test the other dogs I found 4 out of 6 came back positive for some sort of tick born disease. Anymore the Lyme shot and tick prevention for the dogs is a must, I have had good results with the Seresto collar and also the oral once a month Simparica. I think that it will get worse before better with these nasty little bugs and don't forget to protect yourself as well as the dogs.

[warddog]

The ticks are lousy here too but the chiggers have eaten me alive. Can't even seem to mow the lawn without getting loaded with them much less what is out in the weeds and woods. I wonder if chiggers bite the dogs as they do me? If so they have to be eaten alive as they are right in where the chiggers hang out.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Got a very enjoyable phone call this evening from Tim Nugent of Virginia. Tim and his son Jordan bought a young male named Rooster that I raised 2 years ago out of Bomber x Tess.They like him so well that they bought 2 pups out of the Spook x Josie cross this past Spring.
Tim called to tell me that he'd sent both pups to a starting pen in South Carolina last week. He said the guy that owns the starting pen told him that those 6 month old pups started within a couple of hours and that he had to take them out of the pen after three days cause they were catching his rabbits.
He then put them in a larger running pen but said after several days he had to get them out and put them up for a while as they had run their feet raw.
He told Tim he didn't have anything that could run with them.Now I don't know what that fellow runs for dogs but it sure is encouraging to me to hear those reports on pups.
My friend Bob Ferranti from New Hampshire and his son Ryan in Vermont have a pair of littermate females to Tim's pups and Bob messaged me last night and said their females are running good down at their beagle club.
Bob and Ryan are coming down to hunt with me later this year and I am some psyched to see these young blueticks run a rabbit.
Nothing like watching a young hound start when the light bulb turns on.
I'm a firm believer in line breeding to capture the traits I want but breeding can't do it all.
Getting pups in the hands of guys like Daddy Rabbit,Tim and Jordan Nugent,Bob and Ryan Ferranti,Ed Stutz,James Best and Josh Stofer can help insure success BECAUSE,THEY WILL PUT THEM IN THE WOODS !! Thanks guys for the up-dates.

[Rabbithoundjb]

Dana Diva hasn't started but I haven't put in an enclosure yet. She is showing good instincts and habits out in the wild though. I like to get them use to coming to me, staying with an old dog, getting in the bush and trying to find out what the old dog is doing before I put them in the rabbit pen. Just the way I like to start them. I figure I will take her and Snoody to the pen in a few weeks.

[Slaux]

When your dogs are catching them consistently out in the open, rabbit or hare, you've got something special in your pack. I've had my dogs catch many hare out in the open. Never like to see a bunny or hare that can't run anymore, but like I said, when it happens consistently out in the open, you've got at least one, very, very good hound in your pack.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Got up early this morning and figured I'd try and get some running in on my hounds before it warmed up.Left the house and it was 62 degrees but calling for another 90+ degree day.
Running has been very tough here the past 5-6 weeks. We haven't had a drop of rain since August 28 and it's been 90 or better this entire time also.
Jumped 4 rabbits this morning and the dogs were struggling.A lot of long checks and stop and go running. As one fellow used to say on this board "no internet running today".
Although the running on the first 3 rabbits was uninspiring, I do give the beagles credit cause they never gave up and kept working until they had it back up again.
The fourth rabbit they jumped decided to forego the weed field and spent the next 45 minutes running pretty big in open woods.His mistake as they were driving pretty hard and caught him.First run down of the season.
I started this thread exactly 2 years ago today because my pack of 4 females were running down and catching rabbits at a pretty regular clip and had wondered how frequently other's hounds "Ran to catch-- and caught".
I think that a lot of the reason my girls have been so adept at catching their game is because they are all closely related and run very smoothly together as their traits are very similar and complementary.They feed off each other well and no one is screwing up the runs.
Slaux. I think all of my girls are pretty nice rabbit dogs that get the job done.Truth be told ,I think it's my bluetick Josie that does most of the catching.
She's very quick and ACCURATE. She can put a lot of pressure on and when the running is pedal to the metal a cottontail can't stand it.

[Beagle Huntsman]

Dana, My hat is off to you and your hounds or any hounds who can catch under these conditions. Scenting just cannot be very good. I generally find rabbits don’t run well in October, so I have trouble getting them to stay up for a long run.

But you have found the secret to a great pack....all hounds working together, sharing responsibility for checks, taking turns leading in the drives, thinking and acting as one. When hounds in the pack are all related, it is easier to get that.

I have heard formal pack people talk about a great pack the Nantucket-Treweryn had in the 1960s that was made up of all littermates from two of the same crosses.

Dana, the bloodline you run is known to be an agressive one. What would happen if you added more hounds, say 8-10 more? Would they catch even more?