The American Beagler Forum

What's the biggest number of dogs you run in your pack? How many dogs is too many to have in the ground at once? I would like some feedback from hunters and trialers

on bare ground u can run as many as u want. we have had over 12 down with 2 guys. winter and bad snow more then 2 just dont work if the snow is a fine powder.

I don't like more than 5 or 6 dogs on the ground at once. The cover is thick here and it is hard to keep track of more than that. If the cover was more sparse I wouldn't mind more dogs on the ground.

I like three although I would like to get all five out at one time. I don't have enough e-collars.

Larry

I run 4 by myself, when my hunting partner comes we run 8. The most we ever ran at once was 22 with 5 people all on bare ground.

I like to run a trio as they can push pretty good and give enough music to be enjoyable to listen to.I'd say here in Tn. on these cottontails 5-6 dogs is about as many as I like to go with when I run with someone else. Any more than that and it can result in some "un-necssary roughness' calls.LOL.
When I travel up north to hare hun we usualy run 5-6 at a time yet we've had some heart pounding heads up runs with as many as 10.That's big country and the hounds are running a big stinky hare and even with a larger pack they can all get packed up good for an extended race that sounds super.
Twenty years ago I used to run some in the Large Pack on Hare trials in the Northeast .If you want to see something go check out a LP trial with about 40 15" males in it for the first couple of hours.Talk about a Chinese firedrill! LOL.

i run what ever i own, no one stay at home. normally 7-10 dogs, and who ever goes with me. so on average at least 15 dogs on the ground. all bare ground, on brush rabbits and hare. i guess if i hunted more cottontail that might be to many dogs.

IMO...more important than the number is the style. We haven't had much success running too many overly competitive dogs in ANY number. When we got the horse racers out then the races got MUCH better even with 6-8 dogs down on a cottontail.

All is what you like, but I really like 4 complimentary hounds that are very much the same style and very independent of each other...tough to get, but it can be done.

Good running to all!

i like to run as many as possible during good scenting conditions but have found that there is an advantage to only running one or two when the snow is deep .

For me, a 3 pack is perfect and a 5 pack is plenty. I figure if I can't get a good race out of them, I need different hounds. Running with my friends we may have 6-12 down. It's alot of fun to watch and compare hounds together.