I bought my first Beagle, Lady in 1980. Previously, I had owned a Beagle-Cocker mix and loved the personality of the Beagle in her. When she died at the age of 12 years, I decided it would be an AKC registered Beagle for me!  

Not knowing what I was looking for nor reading up on the breed, I traveled out to see a breeders puppies advertised as 'ready to go home' at five weeks old! Not doing my homework led me to pick a female out and take her with me the same day! To my horror and dismay, she was full of worms! Running her to the vet the next day, I was gently told as nicely as possible that this Beagle was not ready to be away from her mother-not until puppies are eight weeks old. It was to be the first of several lessons I learned with this Beagle! My first Beagle was a Blue-Tick Field Beagle. Her ticking did not come until she was with me a few more weeks. But Lady had captured my heart so I kept her. She did have a few show dogs in her line; Elsy's was one of the kennel names. At two and a half years old, she was bred for the first time. Within her litter of puppies was a female I decided to keep, named Princess. Princess was bred to a Daf-a-dale male and produced some very nice puppies and it was at this time, I began to recognize the differences when breeding Beagles. Shortly after this, I acquired a female Beagle, Lucy, from Georgia Meyers. I decided to enter a show after being encouraged by Jean Dills, owner of Pickadilly Kennels and an AKC judge. She had seen my Beagle, Sugar, and thought the Beagle had merit. This was in 1985 and Sugar became my very first show dog.

These two Beagles, Lucy and Sugar, were my foundation female Beagles in what was to become Applegate Beagle Kennel. It was not until I met Mike and Karen Kurtzner that I was to buy my foundation male, Sun Valleys Good Time Charlie.  It was Mike who also showed and finished Charlie as a champion for me. Mike & Karen remained as handling Charlie and took him to a few Nationals for me. They did retain stud rights on Charlie also. I didn't realize until after he took a lot of Best in Breed awards how important it was to Special him at the dog shows.

Charlie became not only the sire of 21 Champion Beagles and 150 litters of puppies, but he will always be my favorite Beagle of all. He was born in 1989 and died on May 19, 2002 at the age of 13 years.

Currently I have Ch. HighgatesMr. BojanglesApplegate and Ch. Highgates Alfie of Applegate and both males are out of Ch. Applegates Precious Twainheart. Precious was out of my breeding and I sold her to Rick Sedlack in Florida. Bojangles sire is Ch. Shaws Spirit of the Chase and Alfie's sire is Ch. Vijams Peter the Great and both of these males have Charlie as their grandfather on one side. Ch. Applegates That Ol' Black Magic is a male in my kennel who has sired several champion Beagles. I also have had a lot of Page Mill in my line of breeding. I do practice line breeding to keep some of my own line going. Out crossing is necessary for one to do occasionally but you always run the risk of introducing unknowns into the breeding line and sometimes the outcross breeders does not know what is being carried forward into the breed.

For instance, Ch. Sierra Skylines Goin' Bonkers, a Beagle I brought into my line, is a very nice 13 inch who was the #2 Beagle in the nation for a year or so. But, much to my dismay, he carried the gene for Chondrodystrophy (The Funnies or Dwarfism). I had Bonkers neutered and participated in a study at USC, Berkeley with over 25 blood samples. Bonkers had previously sired several champions and some were carriers of this gene so I took them out of my breeding program all together. I kept a couple of champion Beagles and became very careful about who I bred them with.

My advice to a novice breeder would be to start slow! If you see a look you like then do some line breeding to establish this look and then seek out a cross breeder. There are distinctive trends in the popular look of a Beagle, the short back, longer ears but I think it is detrimental to breed for a trend.   My dogs have really enriched my life after losing my husband, Bill, to cancer in 1997. We had been married 50 years. My Beagles are a big part of my life and they have filled me with joy. The love they give to me is more then I can express. I keep very busy caring for my Beagles and most of my vacations destinations end up at the Beagle Nationals!

I am a charter member of Columbia-Willamette Beagle Club formed here in Portland, Oregon in 1992. I have always served as a board member for CWBC and, in 2003, was honored as a lifetime member within the club. I belong to the National Beagle Club and have the responsibility for CWBC puppy referral. A spay and neuter contract for pet quality puppies as well as a return contract for all show/pet quality puppies purchased is a requirement for my kennel. The stipulation for a fenced yard is also included in my contract. 

I hope you have enjoyed reading about Applegate Beagle Kennel & viewing my Champions Beagles as well as those adorable puppies!

 Thank you for visiting my web site!

Written September 2006