Advice to a Beginner 219 



one officiating whose first instructions to those en- 

 tering the ring will be 'hands off your dogs, gentle- 

 men.' " 



"G. M. F." then comes back with some retorts 

 com'teous in trying to make some of the points 

 clear that jDuzzled "C. F. H." in regard to the 

 proper type of beagle that would not only win on 

 the bench but in the field trials, by saying: "If one 

 had a hound which exactly filled the requirements 

 of the present standard of the National Beagle 

 Club of America, can any unprejudiced person say 

 that such a hound w^ould not be fitted to w^in at our 

 field trials and at our shows? He might not, it is 

 true, win at either, but the point I make is this: 

 w^ould he not be best fitted to do so? 



"The gentlemen on the committee who formed 

 the standard had the ideal beagle in mind, and it 

 explained to the best of their ability what they con- 

 sidered the requirements to be. They sum up as 

 follows: 'General appearance a miniature fox- 

 hound (meaning our English foxhound, not an 

 American), solid and big for his inches, with the 

 wear-and-tear look of the dog that can last in the 

 chase and follow his quarry to the death.' So much 

 for the standard, which could not be expected to 

 and never has pleased those who for years had been 

 breeding an entirely different type of dog. 



