I cant believe it's been almost three weeks since I wrote in my blog! I'm falling behind. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to force your self to do it. My biggest problem is getting in the mood to blog.

Since my last entry the World Beagle Extravaganza has come and gone. I think a lot of people had a good time. I cooked a pig on Friday and everyone enjoyed a free dinner on the the beagle club. Let me thank Mike Newman and Pete Peace for all the help with the pig. I'll try to have a couple pictures form the extravaganz posted.

I spent a some seat time on the the John Deere today. I was working on my fall feed plots. I disk in all the millet getting ready to plant some grazer rye and winter peas. Hopefully I can help the bunnies a little. You have time to let you mind wonder when you just riding around on a tractor. I got to thinking about beagles and improving the breed. I remembered what Bill Watt said to me many years back when the UBGF was really starting to grow. He said " if they really wanted to improve the comformation of the beagle they would have the show then take the top five to the field." While I'm not advocating that it did make me think of all the faults people will knowing breed.

I saw in one of the hound magazine a dog advertised as the "greatest dog alive." Now I happen to know this dog has gotten breed a lot. I also know this dog has a bad bite and is very shy. So shy that he got out of the kennel at his owners house and it took three days to get him caught!

To make it worse, many of his puppies are also shy and some have bad bites. This isn't mentioned in the add anywhere. I wonder why any responsible or ethicle breeder would promote a dog like this? These are the type faults that should have caused the dog to be culled before he ever went in the starting pen. The best I can figure, the only reason a person would breed to this type animal is because they are unethical or irresposnible. If they haven't taken the time to find out about these issues and they breed then they are certainly irresponsible. If they know about it and breed, well....

I just feel sorry for the unsuuspceted new or inexperienced folks who buy puppies with out knowing all the facts. Beagles shouldn't be a way to swindle people out of a few dollars or try to bring fame to yourself.

If you are thinking about breeding dogs, remember those pups will be dogs. Remember we have a responsibility to the sport we enjoy to make it better than the way we found it. We need to work to make it easier for new beagles to enjoy our sport. Anything we can do to help them have a good time early on is important.