A Field Trial for Basset Hounds

This is the Mary­land Beagle Club in Shaws­ville, Mary­land. Bas­set Hound field trials are of­ten held at beagle clubs, and this is a very nice one, with large fields, and many rabbits.

Waiting for the com­pe­ti­tion. Many peo­ple regu­lar­ly com­pete with a num­ber of dogs, and here vist­ing dogs can be tem­po­rar­ily housed in the ken­nels to the right. The Mary­land Bas­set Hound Club holds field trials in October. Basset hounds com­pete for champ­ion­ship points. Contact Marge Skolnick at slip­pery­hill@aol.com for details.

The fields are quite large. Each is se­cure­ly fenc­ed so that dogs can­not be lost when they are off-lead on the hunt.

The fields are stripped with brush and grass.

Beaters walk along the brush to flush rabbits. When one runs from the cover, the point is marked, a brace of two hounds is brought up, and the brace is let go to pursue the trail.

The hounds are scor­ed on their search­ing abil­ity, adapt­abil­ity, and pa­tien­ce with the problem.

Here is a sight chase. This should­n’t hap­pen. The hounds are scored only on running scent trails.

Each brace must be re­trieved be­fore the next brace can be started. Af­ter all the braces have run, sec­ond and sub­se­quent ser­ies are run to score the hounds. This doe, to the right, has a fawn bed­ded down some­where in the field, and won’t leave.

Next brace!

Here is a riddle from Tolkien’s works, a riddle particularly appropriate for field trials.
Do you have the answer?

We are emeralds and diamonds,
Lost by the moon;
Found by the sun,
And picked up soon.

Left-click for the answer:

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