I told myself i was not getting involved with this conversation, because i catch enough heat over my opinion the way it is. I have to say i appreciate when people enter dogs to fill a cast for the champions and grands. this allows me to run the dogs i bring to a hunt. on the same token at this level te dogs weather retired or not should make an effort to hunt, and if they simply go out and finish the nap they started before the hunt they should be scratched. nothing personal towards anyone hunting, simply following te rules that are in place. Here is the part that surprises me the most, I AGREE with Dean, we have to have the newbies and young dogs,if we are going to continue to grow. and as i have also stated numerous times the open class shoud be relaxed when it comes to dogs attempting to hunt. I started bringing Droop as a young dog to the hunts long before he was even remotly competative. I did this for the enjoyment of the hunts. he would go hunting when he felt like it or walk around like an idiot if he didn't. Droop was also one of the dogs scratched for a deer chase at the michigan state hunt. I was not on the cast and do not fully know what happened. I do know if the rule was in place as stated that he could not continue that weekend, and it had not been the final cast of the weekend. I would have had to set him out. but luckiy the rules state 3 times in 1 year . What if the dog trashes on the last day of the hunt? will the dog not be allowed at the next hunt? If thats the ase who is gonna keep track of this, and what happens when the owner of that dog decides to just stay home instead of leaving what may be his favorite dog home? That cost the host club and te AHBA money, as well as costs all the hunters the enjoyment of hunting with a good friend. That is the point here snt it hunting with friends? As far as HOY points, sure there can be improvements in the way its done. and i am sure changes will occur to improve it, or there wouldnt be as many people posting here. I can also speak only for my self on this one but i have trophies, placques, ribbons and all kinds of useless trinkets from both coonhounds and bassets, and yes i am going to do everything in my power to make my dogs te best they can be to continue to win every chance i get and collect all he titles and trinkets my dogs can win. Reguardless if i simply throw them in a drawer at home. every time look at them i will remember a story from the hunt it was won at and i can reenjoy the fun ttimes that were had The big thing here after all my rambling is everybody will never agree on what makes something perfect. but we have rules in place that are not enforced, and unless we enforce the ones we have then anyone trying one of our hunts for the first time will not take any of us seriously as an orgnization

Marc My opinion for what it is worth is that I see your point. I just don't see a way to fix it. I don't think it is that much of an issue. It is only an Open Class problem. The Open Class is the beginning Class. The true pets don't make Champion most of the time. I believe that most people are there to meet people with similar interests and to compare & compete hounds. The titles are part of it. If your take the titles and HOY away I believe we would lose even more participation. It is a big part of the incentive anyone that isn't local has to drive many hours to a trail. They can hunt with friends locally. I agree the harder the title to obtain the more it is worth. Now an above average (but not excellent) hound will make Champion at roughly 3 years old, give or take six months. Attending less than 1/2 the trials per yr. Then make Grand at 5 or 6 yrs old. It seems most people start retiring hound at 8 yrs old so are they really making the title to quick? Or do you feel my numbers are off?

fblockston, my blueticks are American Blueticks, the redtick is an English Redtick...They are UKC Registered.........The pups will need to be single registered with UKC. fblockston, the thing is, we are talking about 1 hunt. If you have never hunted with the dog, how would you know by that 1 hunt, it was the occasional off game incident or that it has a trash running problem. You can't. That is my point. I know it's not fun to have one bump trash or be in a hunt with one that bumps trash. And I agree that those who own pure out trasher runners hsould not be entering hunts. Just like those that own ill dogs should leave them gators home.

Here is an idea to increase the quality of dogs in the HOY race, instead of giving all dogs entered points only give dogs that finish the hunt with plus points HOY points, this will insure all dogs run rabbits succesfuly. i realize some cast will come in without running any rabbits, and under ths situation even if no rabbits are scored would they really deserve points? If your cast someplace that you dont hit any rabbits, call time out and move to another spot. its just an idea. Whats everyones views on it?

i would say the problem with that could be that there are those times when the scenting conditions and or rabbits just might not be there. i have seen dogs work there butts off,and i mean hard, with their nose down zigin and zagin and rompin through the brush just to find rabbits but they just couldnt get any up. it is hard to say that because a dog didnt get a rabbit goin means they dont know whats goin on

Good Idea in some ways but hard to score, would need to change the results report. Now I only get places, not scores. We currently only give HOY points to the dogs that place. If we could get participation up, most likely only the dogs that hunt would place. Because of lower turnouts right now maybe we should reduce the places given which would reduce the number of dogs getting HOY points at a hunt. Maybe do 10 Open, 7 Champion, 5 Grand instead of the 10/10/10 we have now. This system in the smaller hunts results in every dog not scratched placing. Might also consider making places vary with hunt participation. Say 70% of entries place. Meaning a hunt that has 10 open dogs only places 7.

What's going on with the format of this post?