“IF THEY CAN’T MOVE, THEY ARE NOT MADE CORRECTLY.”…OR…

“IF THEY ARE NOT MADE CORRECTLY, THEY CANNOT MOVE.”

“If they can’t move, they were not made correctly.” This is a quote from the recently deceased Beagle breeder, Jim Hendricks. I don’t believe I ever met him, but I certainly agree with this statement, although I might reverse it to say, “If they are not made correctly, they cannot move.” For many years, the Beagle has been bred to hunt rabbits or hare by scent. In order to hunt effectively for several hours, frequently day after day, the Beagle needs to be built in such a way as to enable him to move efficiently and stay sound.

If a Beagle is crooked in the front or the rear, hunting long hours is very difficult for him, and he will be very stiff and sore the next day or days. This was very obvious many years ago when I started with three field-bred Beagles of incorrect structure. If they had hunted hard for several hours, it would take them days to recover. The Beagle standard describes a hound which can hunt hard and stay sound, and is also able to move efficiently. If he has long and low efficient strides he can cover the ground much more easily than the short choppy moving hound. If he throws a leg in orout instead of straight, he is also wasting effort, and putting stress on his structure. His movement is far from efficient.

A good shoulder is essential for long strides. He should have a sloping scapula attached to a sloping upper arm or humerus. Putting your fingers on the top of the scapula, or the top of the shoulder blade and at the place where the humerus connects with the scapula, you can easily feel and see the angle they produce. These two bones should be close to equal in length. The elbow is directly below the withers or the top of the scapula…the place where you measure the Beagle for his height. If correct, the shoulder assembly is fairly wide, when viewed from the side.

Looking at this again, after a few days break…why did I start with the shoulder? …. Accidentally on purpose, I suppose! The shoulder is very important to the Beagle structure, in both the field and in the show ring. And a poor shoulder is very difficult to get out of a breeding program. Years and years ago, Ginny Coleman of the Colegren Beagles told me that a head is very easy to improve in one generation, but that is not the case with a straight shoulder.. Every day I take out all of the dogs in the kennel, and the next day all of the bitches, for a walk and some hunting.

The standard has a Scale of Points indicating the relative importance of the Beagle’s parts. Several years ago, the AKC wanted to remove these scales from the various standards, but it has stayed with the Beagle Standard. I find them useful to look at the total dog, keeping the different areas in balance. It is as follows:

Head

Skull ……………………………5

Ears…………………………….10

Eyes……………………………..5 25

Body

Neck ……………………………5

Chest and Shoulders……………15

Back, loin, and ribs……………. 15 35

Running Gear

Forelegs …………………………10

Hips, thighs, and hind legs………10

Feet ……………………………...10 30

Coat ………………………………..5

Stern ……………………………….5 Total: 100

This scale helps us to look critically at our Beagles and not get “hung up” on a particular quality. There is no perfect Beagle and all have strengths and weaknesses.

According to the standard, “The skull should be fairly long, slightly domed at the occiput, with cranium broad and full.” And the muzzle should be, “… of medium length – straight and square cut – the stop moderately defined.” The skull and muzzle should be fairly equal in length. The eyes should be large, but not protruding, soft and hound like, of brown or hazel color. The eye color should go with the color of the hound; a lighter eye is appropriate for a lemon hound, but darker is preferred. The bright “yellow” eye or “headlight” eye is not acceptable. The ears should be let on fairly low….an easy check is to see if they originate opposite the eyes which would be correct. They need to be long

enough to reach the end of the nose or the ground and hold the rabbit scent in . And don’t forget the nostrils which should be large and open in order to catch that scent. There are several defects listed all of which prevent you from looking at that head and thinking it is lovely, The bitch head should be slightly more refined that the dog.. The head is given 25 points out of the total one hundred,so don’t be a “head-hunter.”

The body is given 35 points. The neck needs to be long enough for the Beagle to reach for the ground and smell while running. It should be of moderate length and not “loaded” in order to function correctly. When you look at the Beagle from the side, the body, when mature, should drop down slightly below the elbow. The depth of the body from withers to the elbow should be equal to the length of the front leg from elbow to the ground. When you look down at the Beagle’s body, the width of the shoulders and the hind quarters should be similar.

A lovely shoulder is useless without strong driving hindquarters. And if one is better than the other the movement from the front or rear will be thrown off. This will result in side-winding, skipping and other movement faults. Good angulation, low and short hocks, as well as good muscling are all important. A rabbit does not keep to level ground, the Beagle needs to be able to negotiate rocks as well as up and down ground. And he needs to be able to turn quickly. If he does not have tight cat feet, he will be sore and lame the day after a good run. There is a saying with horse, “No foot, no horse,” which means the same thing. He needs to be able to keep working and running for hours without suffering the next day.

A coat is given five points…..he needs a short hard coat to protect him from briars an branches and to keep him warm. The thin soft coat does neither.

The tail is also given five points. The set is important, as well as the brush. It should be moderate in length, and should not be carried forward or back. A tail carried with a “teapot curve” is not visible when the hound is working in heavy cover. And a tail with insufficient brush is increasingly bloody as he works. When scenting a rabbit, the tail will “feather,” or move back and forth. Watch how your Beagle wags his tail….with a good tailset his tail will be up. The tail which feathers forward or to the rear is not as visible in heavy brush.

A Beagle which conforms to the standard will move with low and long efficient strides. He will be able to cover the ground easily and without strain. If you watch him trotting, do his front feet come forward to a point below his nose? If so he is probably moving well. If the Beagle or horse is very long in back, or even too short it is harder for him to be balanced.If you watch a horse trotting in the pasture, and his back seems to bounce, he will not be a comfortable ride. You don’t ride your Beagle, but you want a level topline with no dips for less stress on his structure.

This description of the ideal Beagle does not include some very important aspects of the Beagle. His temperament makes him a wonderful pet, good with children as well as strangers canine and human. The aggressive Beagle, and there are some, is useless in a pack situation; he has to function as a member of a pack helping not hindering the others.

If he is always racing to be in front, he will be pulling the other hounds ahead of their scent and they will be overrunning the lines. And if he is fighting in the kennel he will teach the younger hounds to do the same….he cannot stay.

Another essential part of the working Beagle is his “desire.”This cannot be appraised when you watch the Beagle standing still or trotting around a ring. The Beagle who works relentlessly to find and follow a rabbit has that quality. If he just doesn’t care about hunting and would rather be chasing butterflies or carrying sticks around, he is not carrying his weight. Some Beagles come to a check where for some reason it is difficult to find the rabbit’s line whether it because he made a sharp turn or crossed a dry stretch of ground or the line had been “fouled” by humans or other animals, they put on the brakes, and work the loss methodically until they find it. Others are not that intent, and either keep running or make a very large loop to find it…they might luck out and hit it, but are more apt to lose it. That hound might have lots of desire, but it needs to be controlled.

The Beagle’s use of his voice is very important. He must “speak” or bark when he has the scent….some get very excited after a whiff of scent,or after a sight chase and bark all over the place, or “babble,” which is very distracting for the rest of the pack. Others are what is called “tight,” in that they will work a line but not speak until they have been working it several yards. That quality is normal for a young hound who is learning how to run a line, but they should learn to speak when the scent is strong enough to run. As soon as one hound speaks, the others should rush in to him to help and the rabbit can be pursued more rapidly. Unfortunately, you cannot predict this from a Beagle’s behavior in the house or kennel. The hound who barks consistently as soon s you start the feeding routine, is rarely the babbler.

The Beagle should have a responsive and even temperament. He should not be overwhelmed by new people, children, new areas….or cows, horses

or donkeys he might encounter while hunting. If spooked by something he should come to you for “help,” not run home or to the kennel. Fortunately that is another quality that makes the Beagle so nice to have around. If of sound temperament, not much will bother him.

This “old” Beagle standard has served us well for many years. It describes a Beagle which is physically able to function well in the field as well as the lovely-moving Beagle in the show ring.

Mandy Bobbitt

Bedlam Beagles

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