Sound of baying beagles is music to their ears

EDGEFIELD, S.C. - Gene Jennings braved a brisk January wind to make the announcement everyone was waiting for.

"Get 'em at the gate, fellas," he cried. "It's time to get started."

The members of the Savannah River Valley Beagle Club brought their dogs forward for a ritual they have come to love.

"Most of us, like me, been doing this most of our lives," said Frank Simper of Martinez, who has served as the group's president for a quarter-century.

The Beagle Club, founded in 1950, holds monthly field trials where favored beagles can test their mettle - and their noses - before a jury of seasoned judges and handlers.

"We always use wild rabbits," Simper said. "Nothing pen-raised. And we just chase them. Never shoot them or kill them."

He turned to his colleagues as the first brace of tail-wagging competitors stood waiting.

"You ready?" he asked the dog handlers. "OK, now we need a rabbit."

Finding a rabbit at the club's manicured grounds is easier than it sounds. Volunteers form a line and move forward, beating the low briarheads and privet with sticks.

When a rabbit flushes, the first person to see it yells "Tally Ho!"

And the hunt begins.

The beagles are placed "on line" where the rabbit was seen. Then they bay loudly and move methodically forward, carefully sniffing each inch of earth as judges carefully evaluate their progress.

"It's wonderful, just wonderful," said Pete Proctor of Hickory, N.C., who keeps anywhere from 50 to 70 of the soft-eyed hounds at his kennels.

During the trials last week, he was pleased with the performance of one of his favorites, Sunshine Candace.

"She just turned two," he said. "And she's got four wins already."

Soon, she could accumulate enough points to become a champion.

Beagles, as a species, are widely respected as being loyal and friendly, and needing lots of space and social interaction.

And the same can be said for many of their owners.

Bill Forward, a retired union official who traveled from Rhode Island to the club trials last week, said almost anyone can be a beagle fan.

"You'll find just about everything here, from the poorest of the poor to the richest of the rich," he said. "It's a funny bunch, but we get along just great."

Bob Idalski is a computer engineering professor from Michigan. But last week, he was just another dog fancier enjoying the music of baying beagles and plenty of hot food cooked up at the clubhouse.

"I've been doing this since about 1960," he said. "It's not just the dogs either; it's the camaraderie, the people; it's a really good group."

Beagle clubs are fewer in number than they used to be, said Jennings, and so is participation at the Savannah River Valley club's events.

"There was a time when we ran 250 to 300 dogs," he said. "We still do 90, maybe 100, but it's expensive to travel around now and a lot of our members are getting older."

There is young blood in the crowd, though.

Christopher Oswald, 10, of Batesburg, S.C., accompanied his grandfather, Carlyle Gantt, to the trials last week to learn what he can about a sport his grandfather has enjoyed for six decades.

"If you want somebody to tell you about beagles, that's the man to talk to, right there," he said, gesturing toward his grandfather. "He can tell you anything you want to know."

Reach Rob Pavey at 868-1222, ext. 119 or rob.pavey@augustachronicle.com.