Laneline - Hunting Beagle History & Informational Site : About Our Dogs

About Our Dogs

Some of the hounds of "yesteryear" that our dogs "derived" from.

On one side there is the Dingus MacRae & Indian Hill line. This particular line we got from Mr. Larry Perry of West Virginia. There were females directly out of Dingus MacRae that were bred to Indian Hill Major. Larry had a male called “Deep Creek Jake” out of this cross. Jake had a littermate brother called “FC Mill Branch Major”. Mr. Perry took different Dingus bred females and crossed them back to Jake & Major and than selectively line bred their pups together “for years”. Larry consistently line bred these hounds to be about 3/4 to 2/3 Dingus MacRae and the rest Indian Hills. Some of his pedigrees would have in a five generation pedigree, 9 crosses of Dingus MacRae & 6 crosses of Indian Hill Major. Joe Lane, an admirer of the Dingus MacRae and Indian Hills Line, acquired a male called “Perry’s Little Jake”. Later another male out of his stock called “Wooten’s Barney”. We also have acquired a few females from Mr. Perry over the years and started our own line breeding with this line. Mr. Larry Perry likes the Dingus Macrae blood but also is an admirer of the Yellow Creek blood. Dingus was a Fish Creek line bred hound and fish Creek derived from Yellow Creek. Mr. Perry is a very calculating and wise breeder, over the years he didn’t stress too much about “FC” status or demand for his kennel name to be put on the registration papers. He simply bred to better the “hunting beagle” breed and to consistently produce gundog rabbit hunting “machines”. If the true totality was configured, the amount of dogs that has come from Mr. Perry’s kennel or were produced from his dogs that were deemed “FC” status under another kennels name, it would easily place him in the hall of fame in any AKC club, the UKC or the ARHA. Many, and I do mean many gun hunters will testify to this.

Larry Perry, Joe Lane, John Toy & Jim Lane

On the other side is the Yellow Creek breeding. Our Yellow Creek breeding comes directly from Mr. John Toy of Ohio. His kennel name was “Indian Run”. Mr. Toy and his brother Joe acquired the “original” Yellow Creeks back in 1939 and he has been selectively line breeding Yellow Creeks to Yellow Creeks every since. Though many lines and kennels were started with Yellow Creek hounds and other “Yellow Creek” breeders have come and gone over the years, out crossing and formatting their breeding programs around the latest field trial fads, Mr. John Toy consistently bred to better the “hunting beagle” breed, and had the goal to preserve the original state of the “Yellow Creek” hunting beagle “gundog”. Mr. Toy stated; “We have owned puppies from some of the finest Yellow Creek hounds. A lot of old names that are familiar to me, as my brother and I had puppies out of some of the greatest like Gray’s Linesman, Pleasant Run, Nu-Ra Buddy, Sammy R, also puppies from Lee Madden’s stock and from the greatest champion I’ve ever seen, FC True Tone Dandy, owned by Mr. Lawrence from Salem, Ohio. Mr. Toy stated; Mr. Madden and Elmer Gray were my idols.” In the early 90’s Jim Lane, an admirer of the Yellow Creek line, acquired a few dogs out of Mr. Toy’s stock, the favorite being a female out of “Yellow Creek Blackfoot Rocky”. Like Mr. Larry Perry, because he was out of the “field trial” limelight, Mr. John Toy never received the credit he deserves. Laneline Beagles are a combination of the Dingus MacRae, Yellow Creek and Indian Hill Major bloodlines. Some of our crosses have more or less of the three lines with-in their pedigrees, depending on the cross. We have also added Hill's Shakerag Ozzie who is a Dingus MacRae / Gay Baker line bred hound. Adding him to our breeding program reinforces the Dingus MacRae and adds the Gay Baker blood which derived from some of the same hounds that we see in John Toy's Yellow Creeks, like Gray’s Linesman, Pleasant Run, Nu-Ra Buddy and Sammy R to name a few. We were blessed with this dog, thanks to Bev Cross. Ozzie originated from Hill's Shakerag Kennels in TN. Also, some excellent linebred Yellow Creek blood has been added from Mike Oszust’s {Alamo Creek} stock which derived from John Toy and some other old Yellow Creek blood.

With the pure grit, desire, hunt and jumping ability from the “Rabbit Machine That Couldn’t Be Stopped” Dingus line and the brains, line control and nose from the “Ole Funnel Nose” Yellow Creek line and adding the drive, “run to catch” determination of the high percentage “off game proof” Indian Hills, and then line breed, line breed and line breed, we thought we would come up with the “perfect” dog. We don’t claim to have that perfect dog yet, but we sure are trying and we are pleased with what we have.