This procedure says that judges should approach their work with the attitude that the future welfare of the breed is in their hands, and should make their findings and selections on a basis calculated toward keeping the Beagle useful for both field trials and hunting purposes.
I was thinking about the dogs that I have known over the years that I have hunted with and were successful at field trials. I guess I have been fortunate to have seen several dogs that were good at both. Some were as good but none were better than F.C.Tate’s Lady Bear. She was owned by Tate Carter and J.W. Orvin and handled to her championship Scott Wilson. At the time Scott was campaigning Lady Bear, he was also trialing F.C. Shaul’s Oopsey Daisy.Either one or both made the winners pack in 22 trials in a row. I was fortunate to be at a lot of these trials and watch them perform. They never disappointed. Lady Bear finished with over 500 points accumulated on her way to making F.C. Useful at field trials- I think so.
Plenty of beaglers watched Lady Bear run at field trials. A much smaller group got to watch her in the arena that I thought she excelled in- rabbit hunting. Lady Bear would find you a rabbit, run you a rabbit, and would not let you loose the rabbit. She was a pure joy to have on any rabbit hunt. The only flaw that she had was that at the end of the day you had to go get her because she always wanted to run one more rabbit. I wish every gun hunter could have had the pleasure of spending a day in the field with this “rabbit dog”. Useful at hunting- I know so.
Procedure 5-A paragraph 6 admonishes us to keep the beagle useful for trialing and hunting. It is up to breeders and judges alike to bear in mind that this standard should always be strived for. Lady Bear was an excellent example of a dog useful for both purposes.
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