I grew up in the hills of
southeastern Kentucky with coon dogs, squirrel dogs, and rabbit dogs. I had
never heard anything good about registered dogs and remembered hearing a great
uncle say to a man who asked if his dog had papers "My dog don't use papers, he
wipes his butt on the ground!" This was the attitude of most hunters who had
hunting dogs. Most hunters viewed registered dogs as those for show, and they
only owned dogs who produced game to the gun. I remember being able to hunt with
many fine grade dog beagles my dad had owned over the years, but for some reason
we were never able to reproduce hounds with the same or better qualities than
the adult dogs we owned; so every few years we were looking for replacement
dogs.
A few years after graduating
college I decided I wanted to find a bloodline of dogs that had the traits and
qualities I so much enjoyed in some of the grade dogs I was fortunate enough to
hunt with as a kid. I wanted hard hunt, intelligence, good nose and line
control. Size and color was not a priority but I had always been fond of black
and tans as a kid. During the time I spent looking at many different dogs, I
remembered the saying of my great uncle regarding his thoughts about papered
“registered” dogs. However, I also remembered the problems my father and I had
reproducing the traits we liked in the non-papered dogs. I was very hesitant to
seriously consider looking for registered dogs because the only ones I had
remembered as a kid were the frozen toe dogs…..you know, the ones that would
take so long circling a rabbit that your toes would freeze off before the rabbit
made a full circle!! That was definitely not what I wanted!!
After asking a lot of questions
at many Mid-West Gundog Trails, watching a lot of the field trials in person,
and trying out dogs from several different bloodlines, I finally found a
bloodline that seemed to have the traits for which I was looking. And, GUESS
WHAT, they were not the “frozen toe” dogs! That bloodline was Sock-It-To-Me!!!
I have had this bloodline of dogs for over 12 years now. I have tried other
lines from time to time but rarely have I come across any other bloodline that I
can produce, without question, the same traits I have in the Sock-It-To-Me
line……Hard Hunt, Intelligence, Good Nose and Line Control. I also have good
confirmation and the color I always loved…..Black and Tans. Of course, as a kid
I did not realize how important confirmation was when it comes to endurance but
I learned this over time.
It is important to add that
there are other good bloodlines of dogs out there and there are a few people out
there who are not kennel blind and do not breed dogs solely for the amount of
champions in the pedigree. Those people who breed for the betterment in quality
of the dogs are the ones I appreciate most and am thankful to have met or talked
to over the years. My thanks to all those before me who recognized the best
traits for a beagle and only bred their dogs with the sincere belief that the
next litters would be equal to or better than relatives in their pedigree.
- Terry Tapley, owner of Journey's End Kennels -