My son and I have been invite to our first field trial tommorrow.It is an arha trial being held some where in n/e Alabama. We are not taking any of our dogs but the guy that we are going with said that we could handle a couple of his dogs for him. As you can imagine we are both pretty excited about it. I hope it turns out to be the first of many.
Jeff is right about having fun and be sure to watch the hounds run closely to see if they are really like the ones you left at home! You may like yours a whole lot more tomorrow night! :wink: James
Let me tiell you about my first trial. Fresh out of highschool had a pair of gyps I was real proud of. Not knowing any better I took a gundog to a walkie-talkie trial. As luck would have it I drew out in the first pack of the day. They had us keep the dogs on a leash, the gallery jumped the rabbit, and they had us drop the dogs on the line. My dog was put down third dog back. Those dogs started barking but not moving. Dolly and I both wondered "what the heck" she cocked her head to both sides, jumped clean over the first two dogs and the race was on. Judges, gallery and all spectatoers gasped. The judges started hollering pick up that dog boy, get that dog. I ran through the woods, she finally had a check and I caught her. An old man ran up to the judge and said why did you pick that boys dog up? She was fast but she was on the line. He said Mr., we don't want to have to run to judge a pack of hounds. My buddy blurted out, " you better be glad he brought his slow one, You'd have to be on a motorcycle to judge his other one". We did'nt get invited back!!
OUCH... The proverbial running too much rabbit...... What ever that means :headscratch: Bet they almost fell off their walkers and canes!!!!!!!
Hope you have fun but like EH and dbounds said, watch the dogs to make sure the format is your "style" of dogs. Field trialing is a lot of fun and gives you something to do when rabbit season is over as long as you dont take it too seriously. Its more important for you to like your dog than a judge.
MackC, The trial was in balington,Alabama. It was a little farther than I thought. It is probably 3 or 3 1/2 hours from where you live. The club is called Little Mud Creek Beagle Club. They are in bad need of some more members. They've been there for years just dont have many members. I met a few guys there who live up around you. Wade Hill, Kenneth Hill from Shake Rag Kennels, and another guy named Dudley something, all from Decherd,Tn. They are having a pkc hunt at Estill Spings this Saturday. Thats up around where you live. I will probably go see what thats all about. Let me know if you're interested and I will try to get some information on it.
"BRamsey" I know the baileyton club. Its not too far from me. less than 2 hrs. I also know those guys you mentioned. Good guys all of them. The trials they attend are ARHA LP, I haven't been to the PKC hunts yet, Wade has been trying to get me to come. The ARHA LP trials are set up for individual dog work and a point system, so smooth runs can be a rarity. The PKC trials are also set-up on a point system and focus mainly on speed and drive. My gundogs aren't suited for either of these types of trials but I do own one dog that I use strickly for attending the ARHA trials. I take some of my gundogs to AKC SPO trials. All the trial formatts can be fun if you don't get to serious about them. There are a lot of nice beagle people out there with different types of dogs. I consider all of the trials to be enjoyable games. None of them are the same as hunting.
MackC, I did see alot of very fast but very sloppy running saturday. I dont think my dogs could keep up but would probably get alot of checks once they got caught up. My dogs are slower gundogs also. I was hoping pkc would be a little slower for line control. Are the spo trials closer to what im looking for? I had alot of fun just being around all the beagle talk. I think they have some akc trials in Georgetown,Tn. Have you heard of or been to them?
You might try the AKC SPO trials. They range from flat medium to fast. But they do focus on line control. If that don't work try the ARHA Progessive Pack, they are fast but focus more on line control than the ARHA Little pack. The AKC SPO clubs in your area would probably be Hiwassee and Cookville. You can look up trial dates and locations on the AKC website. Hiwassee is having a derby trial in march I'll probably attend. If you want to go let me know and we can hookup.
I too have not been field trialing very long but i have seen some very nice spo hounds in the last year(and some not so good) but i have meet some wonderful people in this sport that have been more than willing to help a greenhorn out . My best advice would be to run the kind of dog that you like and you will enjoy this sport a whole lot more
How are your dogs bred and their running style and Ill bet someone could point you in the right direction as to which format they would most likely fit into. No matter which style you like there is a format out there that they would "fit" in.
