Burner's Little Pack

The little tricolor Beagle let out a loud, high-pitched squall, the kind that vibrates heart-throbbing excitement. A loud bawl followed, as the dog threw her head in the air, taking in the warm, moist April scent. Just as Amanda broke into a series of short barks, called a chop mouth, with her head down, tracking the rabbit’s fresh footprints, one of the three judges called out, “Get your hounds. The hunt’s over.”

It was a defining moment, one that brought Earl Bruner to tears. Amanda advanced to the finals of the champion class out of nearly 300 rabbit hounds at the most competitive American Rabbit Hound Association-National Kennel Club (ARHA-NKC) event of the year. Ultimately, the fast-moving 5-year-old won the top event for the second consecutive year.

Lagging 25 points behind going into the semifinals, Amanda needed the 40 points for striking and jumping the rabbit that put her 15 points ahead of the second-place finisher. It was a repeat much like the year before when Amanda jumped a rabbit in the last 20 seconds. Watching intently from a nearby hillside at Thresherman Park in Boon ville, Ind., were Earl’s wife, Patricia, and 14-year-old grandson, Dustin Warford. They had handled another hound in the semifinals who placed fourth in the World Hunt, LP R CH Bruner’s Blossum. When she realized Amanda had won, Patricia couldn’t help but jump for joy.

Little Pack competitions are fast-paced, exhilarating events in which the fastest of the fastest vie for the top prize in three classes — champion, grand champion and open. Five Beagles are assigned to a cast. Though the hounds work as a pack, they earn individual points for finding and running rabbits. This year’s Little Pack World Hunt drew people from 39 states who brought with them more than 700 rabbit hounds.

Choosing his words carefully, Earl says, “Amanda has more desire than any dog I own now and more desire than the average dog.” Twenty-one years in Little Pack competition have earned the Bruners a lifetime of winners that others only dream about, which accounts for why Earl chooses his words thoughtfully when describing his hounds. Amanda is the second Bruner hound to win the World Hunt two times. LP GR R CH Bruner’s Lucky preceded her, capturing the title in 1993 and 1995.

Earl and Patricia have won 12 national ARHA-NKC competitions and are accustomed to being in the spotlight. They have appeared on several covers of The Rabbit Hunter from days when the magazine put Little Pack winners right below the masthead. Patricia was featured in 2003 as a prominent woman beagler. Not surprisingly, the magazine has fielded a few complaints through the years from people tired of seeing Bruner hounds on their magazine every month.

In 2003, Earl was quoted in The Rabbit Hunter saying, “I have heard several people say that you only own one super dog in your lifetime, and I have been blessed with three. Any of these three dogs could jump more rabbits in a day than the rest of the pack put together.”

In the article Earl was referring to Bruner’s Pepper, Bruner’s Lucky and Bruner’s Big Ben. “Pepper,” was his first field trial winner, having won the 1988 Kentucky State Championship. Pepper was the granddam of Lucky,” who in 1994 at age 2 ½ was the youngest rabbit hound to be inducted into the ARHA Hall of Fame. “Big Ben,” Amanda’s sire, was “the best male I ever owned,” says Earl, of the Beagle who made the Hall of Fame in 2001 as a reproducer.

Now, Amanda is added to the list of “super dogs.” “Big Ben, Amanda’s dad, was her equal,” says Earl. “Her dam, Smith’s Weedeater Trap, won the World Hunt in 2000. Amanda was the stud puppy.”

Earl, too, is a member of the ARHA Hall of Fame. Inducted in 2000, he accumulated the necessary points based solely on the accomplishments of his hounds, although he also has served the sport in other ways. He and Patricia formed one of the first ARHA clubs in Kentucky, the Bluegrass Beagle Club, in 1989, followed by the Shelby County Beagle Club in 1990. Earl was vice president of the Bluegrass club for two years, which included the club’s hosting the 1989 World Hunt, and he served as president of the Shelby County club for 14 years, during its turn hosting the 1993 North American Championship.

Earl’s partner in rabbit hound endeavors is Patricia, his wife of nearly 39 years. “I love the dogs as much as he does,” she says. Not only does Patricia help train and then pleasure hunt the hounds, she assists in whelping litters, caring for puppies and choosing breeding partners. Though she used to frequently help handle dogs in competition, it became increasingly difficult after she contracted Lyme disease in 1997 that led to rheumatoid arthritis. Patricia is undoubtedly the magic behind Bruners’ Beagles.

A Special Kind of Hound

The Kentucky Bluegrass region is horse country. Thoroughbred enthusiasts relish Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, and everywhere you go an equestrian culture is depicted on business names, signs, mailboxes and yard decorations. Near Waddy, Ky., 40 minutes east of Louisville, where the Bruners live, family-owned horse farms line the sides of country roads. “Growing up, everyone had horses for work,” says Patricia, who was raised in rural Ander son County. “Earl and I grew up with gaited horses.”

Earl was 15 years old when he met a pretty 14-year-old brunette named Patricia at a Mount Eden, Ky., county horse show. Neither of them had their driver’s licenses, so they dated for more than a year on horseback, she says.

One of 12 children in his family, Earl “was the pick of the litter,” Patricia laughs.

Today, they live down the road from where Earl’s parents, Myrtle and Derwood Bruner, lived. The hill country is rich with heavy, dense blackberry briers, honeysuckle, wild floral roses and thick weeds, the kind of cover that takes a special hound to penetrate and produce a rabbit. Soybeans, alfalfa and corn — good feed for native cottontails — abound in farmers’ fields.

Patricia, one of five children in her family, was the only one to inherit her father’s and grandfather’s love of hunting — that would be hunting of any kind. Besides Beagles, they had foxhounds, coonhounds, bird dogs and mink hounds. Stewart Perry, her father, and Newt Perry, her grandfather, “taught me almost everything I know about Beagles,” Patricia says.

It didn’t take Earl long to realize that an interest in dogs and hunting was a sure way to “get in good with Patricia’s daddy.

Soon after they were married in 1970, Earl bought an Irish Setter named “Kelly” from Patricia’s father, with the intent of hunting quail. They bred the bitch and kept two puppies. A couple of years later, their daughter, Melissa, was born. When she was a 2-year-old, Melissa loved to play with her father’s setters, but he wanted her to have her own dog.

Along came a tricolor pet Beagle for Melissa that Earl bought from a friend at work. “Snoopy” gave Melissa a buddy, and when the hound was old enough to run rabbits, they started taking Snoopy hunting with Patricia’s father’s and grandfather’s hounds. They bred Snoopy to “Major,” a Beagle Patricia’s grandfather owned, producing “Misty,” a plain rabbit hunting dog, Patricia says.

Misty was bred to “Rusty,” a “mousey red” hunting Beagle owned by a friend of Earl’s. The breeding produced Bruner’s Pepper, a hound whose “mousey gray” color, Earl will tell you, is one of the oldest colors in the breed. It came from foxhounds in England. Through the years, that light gray, chocolate color has reappeared in the Bruner bloodline. Today’s Bruner’s Pepper III represents the ninth generation going back to Snoopy.

Earl couldn’t help but fall in love with beagling. He developed a passion for the excitement of the chase, particularly the moment when a hound jumps a rabbit. A few bad winters of heavy snow took a toll on Kentucky’s wildlife fowl population, and the quail never fully recovered. The circumstances led to beagling becoming the main hobby sport for the Bruner family, and pleasure hunting was the focus.

Even today, pleasure hunting comes first, competition second. “If I could only do one, it would be hunting. I believe I have better dogs as a whole since I started competing in hunts, mainly because I run them a whole lot more in the off season to get them ready for competition,” Earl says. “Yet, if I never got to hunt, I would not have the quality of dogs I have been blessed with because I would not run a dog nine hours a day as I do in hunting.”

Patricia echoes the sentiment. “Dogs in our kennel were bred first for hunting and second for competition,” she says.

A New Competition Era

The American Rabbit Hound Association was founded in 1986, 12 years after Snoopy arrived at the Bruners’ house to be Melissa’s pet. When Earl saw an ad in Ameri can Rifle magazine for the ARHA’s Kentucky State Championship in 1988, he asked his friend Wayne Waits if he wanted to go with him and try out their 6-year-old littermate hounds, Bruner’s Pepper and Wait’s KY Rock.

Held in Hyden, Ky., on a moun taintop, the state championship included 56 Beagles. Earl won with his “mousey gray”Pepper dog, and Wait placed seventh.

“After that, I was addicted,” says Earl. “Pepper was a very special dog, a super jump dog who could find her own rabbits. She excelled in both jumping and tracking ability. Pepper strictly used her head and had an extraordinary ability to find and jump rabbits where other dogs passed them by. She also could stay on the original rabbit she had jumped.”

Pepper quickly finished the Little Pack Rabbit Champion title. A new era began at Bruners’ Beagles with their introduction to ARHA-NKC Little Pack competition. Through linebreeding — and occasional outcrosses — they produced rabbit hounds with speed, brains and ability.

“You breed the best to the best and hope for the best,” Earl summarizes. Twice they have hauled away a 20-foot trailer loaded with trophies and plaques won at field trials. Still, the trophy room at their house is filled with awards.

Describing the virtues of a good rabbit hound, Earl says, “Jump dogs are a main ingredient to a good pack of dogs. Every dog I own has to be able to jump, run and circle a rabbit by himself as well as in a pack.

“The brains to go with speed is hard to get. Speed is always relatively easy to come by, but the goal is to produce a dog that gears down when scenting conditions require him to do so. I like a dog that is fast, but will shut his mouth when he runs off the rabbit line.” Patricia agrees. “The qualities I look for are ability and intelligence. Jumping ability is at the top of the list. A rabbit has to be jumped before it can be run. A lot of good track dogs can run a rabbit but hardly ever jump one. Scenting ability would have to be next. A dog should know when the scent on a track is hot enough to open on and still be able to produce the rabbit.”

Gender-prejudiced, Patricia will tell you she prefers females over males, and for a reason. “It has been our experience that females make better jump dogs and are easier trained, not as hard-headed,” she says.

Hard-headed is how Bruner’s Big Ben arrived as a 9-month-old puppy. Rightfully so, he had been running lose, doing as he pleased, at his former home. A friend, Barry Pollitt, recognized the pup’s potential when he saw him jump a rabbit in a tobacco field on a 100-degree day, despite poor scenting conditions. Pollitt asked his neighbor if he could have the dog, and the neighbor was quite willing to let the hound go as Big Ben had been chasing his cats. Pollitt knew if anyone could train the hound, Earl could.

“I spent a lot of time working Big Ben, and gradually trained him,” Earl says. LP GR R CH Bruner’s Big Ben was a top-performing hound not only in the field, but also as a stud dog, thus his induction into the ARHA Hall of Fame in 2001 as a reproducer. Though Big Ben died last year at 14 ½ years of age, his legacy continues. “His offspring are winning today,” Earl says.

Big Ben is the sire of Amanda, this year’s Little Pack World Hunt champion winner, and the grandsire of Blossum, the hound who placed fourth. He sired LP GR R CH Bruner’s Gambler, now 10, a male who has placed in the Top 10 at the World Hunt for the past six years. Realizing his strength as a reproducer, the Bruners had Big Ben’s semen collected when he was 10 years.

One female bred solely to Big Ben was LP GR R CH Bruner’s Cassie. Those four breedings produced pups that won the ARHA World Hunt and Little World. In 1994, “Cassie” won the Ohio State Championship and placed third at the World Hunt. She was inducted into the ARHA Hall of Fame in 1998, one of three females to achieve the honor, and in 2002 as a reproducer.

The youngest hound to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, Lucky competed in hunts around the same time as Cassie. Her win in the grand champion class at the 1993 Kentucky State Championship secured her induction into the Hall of Fame, although she also won the Little World that year and the Ohio State Championship the year before.

Lucky was the fifth generation bred from Snoopy, and her granddam was the original Pepper. Earl was once offered $10,000 for Lucky, but he refused to sell. “Bruner’s Lucky had more heart and stamina than any dog we ever owned,” he says. “She hunted exceptionally hard and jumped a lot of rabbits. She did it all with pure gut and heart. I would not have changed a single thing about her.”

Not strictly an ARHA-NKC competitor, Earl has dabbled in Professional Kennel Club (PKC) Small Pack hunts, which are similar to Little Pack competition. Gambler won $1,300 at the first PKC Small Pack hunt in 2003. The money prizes are enticing, Earl says.

Raising Pups to Track Rabbits

Kentucky country life would be amiss without horses, especially if you’re a horse lover as are Earl and Patricia. Western Pleasure Quarter horses are their passion, and they have a handful in their stable. Earl is often asked to judge county horse shows like the one where they met as teenagers. Closer to their house are the dog kennels with about 20 rabbit hounds, 15 females and five males. Ground kennels enclosed with chain-link fencing provide ample space for exercise. One or two litters are whelped a year, and new puppies receive plenty of socialization.

Earl and Patricia raised their daughters, Melissa and Stephanie, now grown with children of their own, around the hounds and toted them along to hunts. Now, their grandchildren, Dustin Warford and Jessica Cook, and even great-granddaughter, Bristol Cook, take part. “I am a firm believer in kids and puppies playing together,” Patricia says. “All our dogs have been played with and loved from weaning age. The results speak for themselves.”

A three and a half acre enclosure within view of their front porch provides a natural habitat for wild cottontails and is used for training pups that are 6 to 8 months old. The high vantage point allows them to see the rabbits as they move around the pen and the pups as they work the trail.

“Most of our pups are started with some of our older dogs that have slowed down and don’t have the speed they used to have,” says Patricia.” Most pups are running at the age of 6 months.”

Longevity is a trademark of Bruners’ Beagle, with most hounds living to be in their mid-teens. Patricia attributes their long lives to good dog food, keeping ears mite-free, using monthly flea and tick preventive, practicing regular worming, ensuring vaccinations are current, and giving lots of individual attention. “Regular exercise is a must,” she adds.

Never ones to dodge quality veterinary care, the Bruners sometimes travel many miles to see the best veterinarians. Their primary-care veterinarian is in Louisville, and their reproduction specialist is in Ridgeville, Ohio, near Cleveland.

Purina® Pro Plan® brand Chicken & Rice Puppy and Adult Formulas are fed throughout the kennel. “You’ve got to make sure the main ingredient is meat, and Pro Plan provides just that,” says Patricia. “Our hounds run hard, and they need a good protein source to keep them going. We have fed Pro Plan for many years. We truly believe it is the best food available.”

As much as Earl and Patricia enjoy the thrill of competition that comes at an event like the World Hunt, they have also grown fond of people they’ve met. “The World Hunt is like a big family reunion,” Patricia says. “The most rewarding thing about competition hunts is the great friends we’ve made from all over the country. We will remember and love them for the rest of our lives.”

As for Amanda, this year’s champion Little Pack World Hunt winner, she’ll be taking another stab at a World Hunt victory in 2010. Should she win, she’ll set a new record at Bruner’s Beagles as a three-time World Hunt winner. Either way, she will settle into retirement doing what she and her owners love best: pleasure hunting in the great outdoors and producing future Bruner’s Little Pack puppies.