We hope to connect with others that desire the same type of hunting and field trial beagle we do. Our goal is to get closer to our ideal beagle with each breeding. We evaluate our hounds through actual performance in the field as the primary measure. In the kennel, our dogs only bark when startled or when an intruder is present. They do their personal business in designated areas and not in the be
dding or feed / water dish. Most people say they have never seen a beagle so quiet or handle so well in the field. We don't teach our dogs any complex commands, but they have such a strong desire to please, they seem to study our behavior as much as we do theirs. They aim to please like few other hounds and have a unique level of comprehending. We handle and train our dogs daily. We administer vaccinations, wormers and many medical treatments ourselves. We groom our dogs regularly by trimming nails, cleaning ears, bathing / dipping, brushing coat and physically exam each with our hands for abnormalities such as tumors, cuts, insect bites, etc. With this constant attention, our dogs are calm and trusting of our leadership when put in an environment to perform. In the field, our hounds are cast to find game on their own. They must hunt on their own to find game. We don't find game for them. They are encouraged to run only targeted game and they discouraged from running any other game. As they pursue the desired game, we have a host of characteristics they are evaluated against:
1. Nose: they must have nose power that allows them to maintain awareness of the game track in all environmental conditions and temperatures.
2. Speed of Pursuit: our beagles must pursue the game with the primary intent to overtake it.
3. Mouth: our beagles tongue on the track of the game they are pursuing. The volume must be loud and frequent enough for the hunter to intercept the game. Barking off the game track, re-running a line they previously ran or back tracking is not tolerated.
4. Check Work (recovery of a loss): we expect our hounds smell every track the game puts on the ground. Our beagles drive the track very fast and with this level of aggressiveness, they lose the track at times. We evaluate our hounds on their ability to recover the game from the exact track (point of loss). We want them to work to find the game from the point of loss.
5. Line Control (accuracy of running the line): our ultimate goal is for the hounds to never lose the game, but at the speed our hounds pursue the game, they will occasionally lose it. We assess our hounds on line control with the ultimate goal of keeping the track between their legs.
