Beagles and Beagling 
86 
The handler has the privilege of rendernig all the 
assistance possible to his dog when in competition, 
assuming of course that the ethics of the game are 
observed and there is no breach of the running rules. 
Picking a beagle for field trials is not exactly like 
looking over bird clog prospects; and yet one general 
law must be taken into consideration, and that is 
the spirit of competition. No pointer or setter can 
win without the fighting spirit, the desire to outdo 
his competitor, and by the same token this holds 
true of beagles. The beagle that is content to allow 
his brace-mate to do the work and has no initiative 
of his own, will never make a field trial dog. It 
does not follow because a dog is a good field trial 
dog he will not do for shooting. On the other 
hand, the good field trial beagle is always a good 
shooting beagle, though some shooting beagles 
would never make field trial dogs. However, I am 
inclined to believe that the shooting beagle without 
enough initiative would not be considered a good 
one for either purpose. It is true that sometimes 
shooting beagles are good because they have a 
splendid nose, are level headed and given their time, 
can route up more rabbits and bring them to the 
gun because of their very persistence, which still 
would not win because they are too slow, and in 
field trials one must get results rapidly; quicker than 
the other dog, and this is what it requires to win. 
There are some beagles, however, which are too 
fast for their noses and here again is a fault that 
would not be desirable, especially in a shooting 
beagle; although sometimes it is the very speed that 
wins for a beagle in field trials, as he can depend 
