Shortie's First Field Trial

My decision to enter Shortie into his first field trial was a somewhat hard fought one. My husband didn't really have an interest in entering our family gun dog into a competitive trial just to prove he was a good rabbit hound. I understood his reasoning but I also wanted to see how he would fair against other hounds - mostly out of curiosity but also to reassure myself that neither of us were truly kennel blind.

After much poking and prodding I finally convinced my husband to go with me to our first trial which took place at the Shelby County Beagle Club in Waddy, KY. It was an early morning (which I am not particularly fond of) but I was very anxious to get on the road and arrive early at our destination. A short twenty minutes later we arrived at the clubhouse and were ushered inside and instructed to fill out the appropriate paperwork to register our hound with NKC and get an entry form completed.

As the entry deadline came and went we were informed that there had not been enough entries that day to have an opens class run. Unfortunately the trial was scheduled on the same day as another - the Illinois state hunt - which reduced the normal number of entries that day. As disappointed as we were about Shortie not being able to participate in the trial my husband and I did get to participate as spectators during a champion class. We ended up learning a lot about how trials work and the way they are run so Shortie's first trial was definitely not a waste of time.

#beagle #trials