This month in Dogs with Jobs we meet a modern beagle pack.
Presenter Kate Fairweather caught up with the beagles at the Alresford Show. Her interviewee Danny Allen has worked as kennel huntsman with the Palmer Marlborough Clinkard Meon Valley Beagles for eight years.
Country shows like this are part of the summer season for the beagles – they parade around the arena and children are invited in to run with them and meet them up close.
Beagling has been around since Elizabethan times, but there are only around 60 beagle packs in the UK, many of them college packs like this one – attached to an school or university.
Beagles have amazing noses, and are used for detection work in many contexts (you often see them used as airport sniffer dogs). They’re not particularly fast, and so humans follow them on foot. The hounds lead the way as they follow an artificially laid trail over the countryside. The hunting season starts from September.
Portsmouth born and bred, Danny explains the lure of the green fields and the outdoors, and why he loves working – and to all intents and purposes, living – with over 50 beagles.
The interview was recorded at the Alresford Agricultural Show in September 2022.
All photos taken by Danny Allen.
Video: the beagles entering the arena
Do you work your dog or dogs?
If your dog works (or volunteers, perhaps) and you would consider coming on Dogs with Jobs, please get in touch! Kate would love to hear from you and is always interested in working dogs. You can reach her at team@shineradio.uk.
