The American Beagler Forum

I ran a ARHA PP trial, and hound "A" was picked up 40 minutes into the cast after two rabbits had been scored. An additional rabbit was scored, witch ran for about 15 of the remaining 20 minutes of the cast, after hound "A" was picked up. After review of score cards, and discussion with the judge, the handler was advised that all three minuses were for "not working the check area" . However, the score cards indicated that hound "A" had more checks then any hound in the cast (9) , yet had run one rabbit, and 20 minutes less, then the rest of the cast. the question is how does the hound with the most checks in the cast get picked up for "not working the check area"? What were the hounds with 3, 5, and 8 checks respectively doing?

I would say hound A was swinging out of the check area.In pp they want a dog to work a tighter check. Hope this helps.

Sounds like what Swamp said. Your dog A was working a wide area. Sounds like a LP dog to me.

Good question Hawk..It does throw up a red flag in this regard, what were the hounds with 3 & 5 checks doing? In my view it appears that those hounds were piggy backing off of hound (A), they are the ones that should have been minused. However, without being their it is hard to say , only going by the information given. I can certainly understand why a handler would question that.

it was almost certainly for swinging........the faster dog guys cant seem to grasp this.you say your dog runs more rabbit than the pp guys,but in their eyes,their dogs actually run more.the 50 feet your dog left out swinging out to get a check,their dog might not leave out but 10 feet.its just personal preference really.....i can carry my lab out and it will run and catch rabbits,but i wouldnt say this makes it a better rabbit dog,would you?............

He was working the check area enough to get 9 nine checks, but also worked outside of the check area enough times (3) to get picked up.

I've seen this alot.......a dog that works hard but sometimes wants to reach out there before working the check area or doesn't quite return to the check area to begin his search.