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Day set for kids, beagles
RELATED STORY: Club promotes appreciation of nature, wildlife
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Devon Williams, 10, of Hubbard pets Black Betty, a beagle, as Monica Bassett holds the leash. They’re in a three-acre fenced “puppy pen,” where young dogs can safely learn to trail rabbits and youths can learn how to handle their dogs.
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Derek, left, and Devon Williams, both 10, of Hubbard, pet beagles Scotty and Casey at Hubbard Conservation Club, where Trumbull County Beagle Club will sponsor Youth Beagle Day on Saturday at club grounds. The beagle club promotes the breed and conducts hunts.
By LINDA M. LINONIS
hubbard
Nothing could be more fun than dogs chasing rabbits and kids chasing dogs. And doggone it, there’ll be singing, too, as the beagles bay and bark in the pursuit of bunnies.
The occasion is Youth Beagle Day planned from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday by Trumbull County Beagle Club at Hubbard Conservation Club, 1760 Wick Campbell Road.
“We’re about promoting beagles,” said Fred Arnaut, president of the beagle club and vice president of the conservation club. He explained that so many conservation club members are hunters and own beagles that it was only natural that the beagle club form as an affiliate of the conservation club. It’s been in existence since the early 1990s and has about 25 members.
The youth day allows participants to safely work with their puppies and young dogs in a three-acre, fenced “puppy pen.” “If they don’t have a dog, we provide one for them,” Arnaut said.
The beagles can “hunt” for the rabbits in the pen ... following their instincts as far as sight pursuit and fine-tuning their skills in scent tracking. Rabbits have an “ace in the hole” in a manner of speaking because club members have put in pipes as hiding places; the dogs can’t get in.
“Spectators are welcome to attend. They can see if they’re interested in the club,” Arnaut said. Registration is closed for the actual event.
Connie Swartz, master of the hounds and club trustee, oversees the event. She said beagles are good choices for children because of “their kindness, willingness to please, energy and personalities.”
For children whose families have dogs, it’s a chance to work with their dogs in a safe space and get help from people who have had beagles for years. “It’s a lot of fun. ... Sometimes you don’t know who’s chasing who.”
Swartz said the beagle club also “engages the kids in outdoor activities.”
Arnaut reiterated that idea. “It’s about nature ... being out here and seeing wildlife.”
As beagles become more disciplined in the hunt and in returning to their owners, club members take the dogs out on trails on the 42-acre conservation-club property. “They’re as good as nature made them [beagles] if you give them the opportunity,” Swartz said.
She added that the beagle club, like the conservation club, is family-oriented.
Monica and Jesse Bassett belong to the club. “I’ve been into dogs all my life,” Monica Bassett said, noting she once rescued basset hounds. “This is an active sport ... hands-on working with dogs.”
Swartz said the club has sanctioned hunts in which five beagles are sent into the field with a judge. “Dogs are scored on how well they do,” she said. Arnaut gave Swartz her first beagle in 1998, and she’s owned and bred the breed ever since.