LEB CITY BEAGLES
HAREHUNTER.COM
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. " John.14:27
ABOUT US
We live in the south western portion of Maine in the small town of Lebanon. We started our formal "beagling" activities some years ago in the summer of 1961 when I got out of the Navy. Since then and until now a great deal of time has been and is spent running hounds, hunting, and participating in field trials as a judge as well as a competitor.
My early years were spent in the Large Pack format and in that format I finished 7 hounds and savor some great memories of those days, years ago. All these hounds were good hunting companions and would account for a very high percentage of game started, on a training run or under the gun.
Around the mid 80's I lost interest in the Large Pack trials as not enough credit was given to line control and too much focus was given to the across the path type of hound who is over competetive and runs with a totally reckless style. The wild over running, reckless type of hound always did get alot more credit than it deserved even in those days years ago when I competed and the judging has grown worse and worse over the years since then.
Then in the 90's I got to hunt with a dog named BUCKSHOT MR BILL and subsequently bred a bitch named Wingate's Faith to him and the offspring from that cross inspired me to get back into trialing. Since then I finished another two hounds with that breeding in the SPO trials and they all have made very good hunting dogs. Both these dogs had the ability and toughness to compete favorably in the Large Pack format if the judges adhered to the rule book a whole lot more than they do these days.Although all trials have some failures, the SPO trials that I attend in the north east are managed pretty well for the most part. The best format for testing hounds is under the gun under all conditions over a period of time. LOST RABBIT is absolutely an unacceptable conclusion any time any where!
I was lucky as a youngster to have been able to learn from such great HOUNDSMEN as Maucice Sampson "Watatic"- Ray Libby "Namrog sister girl"- Charlie Leadbetter Round pond"- Jim Hooper "Ela river"- Derrell Ovitt "Maple sugar"- Jim Tyler "Lyman"- "Huck Rollman "North bend"-Elson Meller "Brad-Ju". But the ultimate teacher was the hound itself. For the judging, hunting and running of many hounds for many many hours is the best approach to learn the ways and means of that hunting hound we love THE BEAGLE
Over the years we have had the pleasure of finishing 9 AKC Field Champions who were all quality hunting dogs. Our beagles are hunting dogs and all our champions spend their lives during the hunting season "OUTSIDE THE FENCE" running to the gun. We continue to breed our hounds with the intent of making our best; better. Field trials provide us some pleasure during the off season, but hunting is our primary activity.
WHAT OUR KENNEL STANDS FOR
HUNTING is our passion and all that we do and all that we strive to accomplish with our Beagles has to do with producing the very best hunting dog that strikes our fancy for this part of the country. Our demands are simple,
FIND GAME. That means the hounds have to hunt hard until game is found and on the move.
RUN IT . Then they are required to persue that hare or cottontail for long periods of time without a loss consistently, and to run with a minimum amount of lost motion with enough forward speed to move the hare or cottontail in a decisive ,anner so the hunter can get the quarry shot!
DO IT ALL DAY. Another requirement our hounds must have is the desire, strength and endurance to stay with the hunt from dusk to dawn with no drop in performance.
THEN DO IT AGAIN TOMORROW . As long as the hunter wants to keep hunting, the hounds we keep must to be able and available to hunt and run day after day 'till the trip is over.
Making our demands even harder to achieve, is the need to get the hounds to perform all these goals on the cold snows of our winters. A goal very difficult to attain.
Our old bloodlines were tied around the famous SUGAR RIVERS SWEET MAGNOLIA and currently are centered around the famous F.C. NOMAD'S BUCKSHOT MR BILL. I had the pleasure to hunt over Bill several times on some deep cold snow. He was a great performer under the most adverse winter hunting conditions you could imagine and the family tree burgeoning from him through his offspring do pretty well under the gun too.
This is a view of our kennel and it can keep as many as 24 hounds in a neat clean easy to manage facility. The forty feet long concrete floor under the kennels is on an angle of about 30 degrees. I rake the waste material under the dogs daily and then hose the cement clean and the water runs down the gutter by the sidewalk to a drainage ditch behind the kennel.
GILBERT "BUTCH" KEENE 558 JIM GRANT RD. LEBANON ME. 04027
E-mail joyk140@metrocast.net PHONE 1-207-658-9057