I grew up in the hills of southeastern Kentucky with coon dogs, squirrel dogs, and rabbit dogs. Growing up I never heard anyone say anything good about registered dogs. A great uncle of mine had fine coon hounds and was asked by a man, who wanted to purchase one of the hounds, “does your dog have papers?” My uncle responded by saying “My dogs don’t need papers; they wipe their butts 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 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 were not the top priorities but one of my favorite grade dogs when I was growing up was a black and tan so I was always looking for another dog like her and was fond of that color and still am. 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 -