|
I have received quite a few requests asking for some updates and a new blog post. I have been so busy that some things get put on the back burner. Earlier in the summer, I had been running the hounds nightly. The last 3 weeks I have only run sparingly. As many know, I’m not a fan of the heat and humidity and we sure have had a lot of that this summer. It looks like next week will bring some cooler nighttime temps. My garden has been a challenge this year as well. From fighting the lack of rain, to the critters, the garden has been a struggle. Groundhogs, deer, bugs and rabbits all have bothered my plants this year. My beans have been mowed down three times now. My tomatoes have all had a bite taken out of them and now my cucumbers (which I’ve never had issues with before) have had their vines nipped and now the cucumbers themselves are being nibbled upon. Add to this several varieties of lettuce seed that I grow never came up and one beautiful patch that did come up (inside a fence!) was raided by an angry woodchuck.  The spring pups have gone to their new homes. They were some absolutely gorgeous, energetic little buggers. The time flies when you are taking care of young ones and before you know it, those 8 weeks are gone and the kennel is quiet again.
 My keeper, Phoebe ****************************************************************************************************************************************  John with Dierks Bentley Many have asked about the boys. I have been told they feel like they know them from my writings. John has spent the summer working in Ocean City, MD. He came home for 2 days at the end of his annual National Guard Drill and then went back to OCMD. This is the first summer since he was 5 that he hasn’t played baseball. He is supposed to be back the end of August.  Blair has been all over the country for his Marine training and is now stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina as part of the combat logistics regiment. He was at Parris Island, SC, Camp Geiger, NC, then Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and now back at Lejeune. He surprised us with a visit on Memorial Day and then headed back to Missouri after 3 short days. In his travels, he met Trace Adkins at Dulles airport. Many know Trace Adkins as the voice of the Wounded Warrior Project commercials but as anyone who has a Marine knows, he also sings “Arlington” and “Semper Fi” which both mean a lot to us. Blair said they played “Semper Fi” every week after church services and when we were at Family Day at Parris Island, they played an awesome slide show to it. (Semper Fi video)
It has been strange being “empty nesters,” it is SO quiet here and I miss the boys but they are out seeing the country and living their lives. It leaves me with a lot of time to run dogs and do some other things that I haven’t had time to do in the past. **************************************************************************************************************************************** One of my pet peeves is the oversized beagles being produced. According to AKC, a hound over 15” is the only automatic disqualification for a beagle (everything else is just a fault to some degree). Now I have had a few hounds that have gone slightly over but it is something that I am always on guard against. A beagle is not a harrier or a foxhound. The standard is very clear. I have had folks from real snow country (Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine) that prefer the smaller hound that stays on top of the snow. It’s all about the HEART! Also many of these oversize hounds are out of proportion. The necks aren’t long enough to comfortably reach the ground (beagles are scent hounds, not sight hounds). Once a hound goes over the 15” mark, it is tough to keep all other aspects of the hound in the proper ratio. Legs and elbows, shoulders, spine, head and ears get out of whack on these oversize hounds. A beagle is a compact hound that should look like a beagle, not a pony with flop ears. The paper breeding and looking only at certain traits (e.g. color) and not evaluating the entire hound will lead folks into trouble. Indiscriminate breeding will leave many with health issues down the line or faulty hounds that aren’t worthy of carrying on the legacy. The standard was written by very knowledgeable houndsmen and every part of the conformation standard has a practical application to the hunting hound. Stamina, durability and efficiency all play into the conformation of a well put-together beagle. They all also play into the longevity of the hunting hound. As a critical observer, the most common fault that I see, without a doubt, is faulty feet. So many hounds have splayed, long toes. In the field, a widespread liability is swinging and blindly charging the front. Again we are talking efficiency in running a rabbit, and many hounds cannot circle a rabbit on their own. Take the pack away from a hound and you will see what you really have. I haven’t bred the perfect hound yet, but that is what I’m striving for. Lastly, I see some people on the internet claiming “Patch this” or “Patch that” but then they exclaim that their hounds swing and skirt, run trash, go over 15” or have other faults (physical or running) that would never have been perpetuated by Willet, Mike or myself. If you are promoting hounds that are direct opposite to what the Original, AKC Registered kennel stands for and has always stood for, why are you claiming the Patch name on your hounds? Just because your hound carries in his/her ancestry hounds named “Patch”, does not make the hound worthy to be bred.
0 Comments
|
Archives
January 2024
|
RSS Feed