By now, if you’re like most Beaglers, you’verun some of your hounds and think they are wor-thy of competing. I’m sure they’re the best dogsever and, in your opinion, can beat the pants offany other dog. I have some of the same kind ofdogs in my kennel! So now you find the closestclub, load all your gear and make all the prepara-tions to compete. Maybe, like me, you give yourbest hound an extra helping of feed, some extrapetting, and a little pep-talk. Morning arrivesand you excitedly grab your best hound, just sureyou’re going to bring home that trophy. You getto the club and to your surprise there are morepeople than you expected. While your confidencewaivers a little, you pet your hound a few extratimes and maybe whisper a prayer. One last peptalk and you walk into the clubhouse to make thefinal commitment. You transfer money from yourpocket to the person taking entries. Now youchit-chat, make new friends, and secretly size upthe competition. This is the part where, depend-ing on where you are, you might hear things like,“Those AKC people are all stuck-up!” Or “I trieda trial once and they were rude!” Maybe, “Theypicked my dog up in two minutes flat!” Even,“Those ARHA people just run grade hounds!”

And, “The last time I tried an ARHA hunt, Iswear I ran against a small coonhound. Didn’teven look like a Beagle!” Sound familiar? Itdoes to me.

You see, I run in AKC SPO and ARHA GundogDivision. I have double-registered dogs. Whilesome aren’t real pretty, none look like smallcoonhounds, yet! My wife’s dog, Boomer, wasalso double-registered. He lacked a few pointsfrom being an AKC Field Champion. He had hisAKC CHB title, and was a ARHA Gundog BraceGrand Rabbit Champion, a Gundog Pack GrandRabbit Champion and Progressive Pack RabbitChampion. He is also in the ARHA Hall of Fame.I had another female, Twain, who was so politeshe’d step off the line so the faster dog couldmove up, then she’d fall in politely and bring upthe rear. She always had a 4th in AKC, and inARHA Gundog Brace she had a whopping 450points, but not a single win! Honestly, I countedall her placement slips. Unlike Boomer she justlacked that “killer instinct” required to drive tothe front of the pack. Are there differences inAKC and ARHA? Sure, that’s why there are twodifferent registries with different running for-mats. Is one better than the other? Well, thatdepends on your perspective. From my point ofview, I don’t think there is a difference, none thatmatters to me anyway. For the most part, thebloodlines are familiar whether you run AKC orARHA. I have In-Line Black Jack, Deer Park

ARHA Gundog Division or AKC SPO; Can a Dog Compete in Both?By Mike Franklin, Collinsville, OK, 918-633-3519 and Submitted by Brian Spini

Boomer and Tammy running

Mike and Larry with Ruby

Spike, Crank’s Chicken, Hay Chicken, Narron’sCadalac Jack, and Haymaker bloodlines. I runacross those bloodlines, and many more, all thetime whether at an AKC or ARHA trial. There aredifferences in formats and in rules, but you knowwhat? If we’re all breeding from the same thing,aren’t they going to run pretty much the same?

I actually favor starting my dogs in ARHAGundog Division. I think the Gundog Brace for-mat is excellent for introducing a young dog tothe experience of field trialing. In GundogBrace, you run against one other dog. Despite thename, it is NOT walkie-talkie dogs. It just meansyou run against one other dog, that’s it! Your dogis probably used to that at home; therefore it’snon-threatening to the hound. I think the formatis ideal for a young hound. I’m a firm believerthat you can ruin a good dog by throwing it intoany competition too soon. It’s a ton of stress totravel, stay in a box or trailer for several nightsand then run in a foreign place with strange dogs.That’s the equivalent of dropping you by para-chute into the middle of some foreign countrywith a map, no Smartphone and saying “GoodLuck!” The ARHA Gundog Division’s GundogBrace format is great practice and a great way tointroduce the trialing experience to a younghound. Don’t believe me? Find the closest cluband go check it out. A lot of clubs offer you theability to “try it for a day” for a reduced price.You still have to register your dog with theARHA, which you can do at the trial, but thenyou pay a reduced fee to enter your dog. Try itwith a young dog, I bet you’ll be back.

For those with experienced trial hounds, theformat I like is the Gundog Division’s Gundog

Pack trials. This format is run almost identical tothe AKC SPO format. You get a pack of no morethan five dogs in all series except the winners’pack. The winners pack is run with no more than7 dogs. You are guaranteed to be judged on a rab-bit. What I like, and feel AKC could improve on,is hunt-in-the-dogs is one of the main thingsjudged. It’s amazing how many Field Championsthese days can run the fur off a rabbit, but would-n’t run anything if another dog didn’t do thehunting first. ARHA is dedicated to preservingthe HUNT in the hunting hound. The GundogPack format tests a hound’s ability in a pack sit-uation, just like you would run at the house orrabbit hunting. The dogs are fired over using ablank pistol, and the distance the judge fires isequivalent to firing at a rabbit while hunting.ARHA Gundog Pack showcases what the Beaglewas made for, hunting in a pack situation andkeeping the rabbit accounted for at all times.

So to answer the question, can a dog run bothAKC SPO and ARHA Gundog Division? Myanswer is absolutely yes! Certain dogs are betterequipped to run both, such as my Boomer, or myfriend Larry’s dog, Ruby (pictured here). Rubylacks one win to be an AKC Field Champion, andjust recently placed first in the ARHA GundogPack 13” class at Mid-Arks October trial.

Now do your part, take that great dog you knowis the best Beagle around and find your closestGundog Division trial. Check it out at:www.arha.com or on the board at: www.rabbit-dogs.net oreasternkansasbeagleclub.blogspot.com. You canfollow me on Twitter at the handle @OKIE DOGSUPPLY or email me atmike@okiedogsupply.com. You can also contactthe Gundog Division Chairman, FreddieBeavers, at 501-259-1251. He’s always ready tohear from you, too.

I challenge you to get that dog out, get yourgear, and go check out an ARHA Gundog trial.You’ll make more friends than you can friend onFacebook, and you’ll be hooked. You’ll havesuch a great time watching your dog do the bestit can, in a format it was bred to run in, that youwon’t care that I beat you! ? I look forward toseeing you at the next Gundog Division hunt.Run It and Leave No Doubt (I Cor 9:24).

What Twain thinks of going home