I have seen a lot of talk about entry fees as of late. The price you pay to enter your dog in a trial. Today most clubs charge a fee of $20 for entry. This goes to keep up the beagle club, pay the judges, pay fees of 3.50 per hound to the AKC, and probably a few other things I can't think of right now. I have some old hounds and hunting magazines and noticed in the 1940 the entry fee was normally $5. If you adjust for inflation that is about $93 today. $20 sure seems cheap.
Lets just look at the facts. If you were to burn a tank of fuel to go the a trial $75. You have to eat weather you are running dogs near home or at a trial so that is a wash. You enter two dogs at $20 each. You have a total of $115 in the trial. Now lets assume entry fees are at $25. The total cost of the trial is $125.. That is an increas of 8%. That does not seem out of line to me. I've heard the argument from folks who enter three or four dogs in each trial. I wonder if they really have 3 or 4 dogs they think may win the trial? If they do then they could easily sell one of the dog and recoup the cost of the entire trial season. That way they can continue to have fun. If in fact they don't have 3 or 4 that are good enough to win, they should cosider only bringing the best to keep their prices down.