Kerry Beagles: Waiting for Google

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Waiting for Google

Is it pretentious to reference things you actually have never read or seen? As in, "Waiting for Google" like "Waiting for Godot", which I know is a play, but have never actually seen or read. Well, whatever. Point is, I'm waiting for the Google spider to come around and hit this blog so that I can hopefully jump up in the listings for Kerry Beagles, and possibly get some traffic. So I'm posting this just to push myself back up the list of updated blogs and maybe get some traffic. Unfortunately, I know nothing more about Kerry Beagles than I did when I started this, since nobody has stopped by yet!

# posted by Jarviswabi @ 1/10/2006 09:45:00 PM

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Kerry Beagles are an ancient breed of hound from Ireland. They were bred for hunting, and are still used in drag hunting (chasing the hare without killing it). They are technically not a "beagle" in the same sense as your average beagle, being larger in size. They're probably most closely related to the English and American Foxhound. Apparently, they are extremely rare in the United States (some say they don't exist), but my wife had the good fortune of finding one in the woods of southern Indiana, our dear Max whom you see below.

Maximillian Simone

According to the few websites I've found that mention Kerry Beagles (see Links below), there are still a few packs of Kerry Beagles kept in Ireland, and interest in their breeding has surged in the last few decades. Among the most famous of all Irish hounds are the Scarteen "Black and Tans" (see below).
Scarteen Black and Tans

Kerry Beagles were brought to the U.S. in the 19th century by Irish immigrants, and were most likely used in breeding several varieties of American hunting hounds. I've found mention of them in the lineage of Treeing Walker Coonhounds, Blue Tick Coonhounds, American Foxhounds, and Plott Hounds. Nobody seems to have any information about whether Kerry Beagles were maintained in the U.S. as a distinct breed.
Painting of a Kerry Beagle

In addition to my Max, we've found one person who posted pictures of Kerry Beagle puppies on Dotphoto, and any of them look like they could be a baby Max (plus the mom looks just like him), and I think they're from the U.S., and one other person posted a picture of their dog that they had identified as a Kerry. So I think there must be a few out there, either remnants of the original packs, or descendants of individual dogs brought over this century. I'm not big into breeds or breeding (we've rescued all our dogs), but Max was such a unique and special dog, I find myself drawn to wanting to understand his heritage and see if anyone else out there has been lucky enough to have a Kerry in their lives.
Some more pictures of Max...
Max enjoying the sun

Max knows he's more interesting than the paper

Kerry Beagles

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Waiting for Google

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