Marking the Check

Have you ever walked into a room only to forget why you went into it in the first place?

Don’t you hate it when that happens?

It sort of happens to dogs, too: Check out the short video below:

These Beagles are working their way out of a “long check.”

Huh?

First things first.  “Marking a check” originates from the hunting world (and since been adopted in field trials for Beagles). It occurs when the hounds momentarily lose the scent of a rabbit they’re pursuing. In a way, they act a little like we do when we’ve forgotten why we went into a room.  Very often, we humans can remind ourselves of what we wanted in the room by leaving it and returning.

In the hunting world, when a Beagle “marks a check,” he or she is indicating (or marking) the spot where they last detected the rabbit’s scent before losing it. In other words, they’re retracing their steps (or nose, as it were).  It’s an important behavior because it tells the other hounds and the hunter where the last spot was when the scent was detected. It gives everyone a chance to regroup and look for the scent from a known point, and it’s what you saw in the video, albeit a shortened view of the behavior. The hounds in the video were involved in a “long check.” This means that they either lost the scent trail for a long time, or over a significant distance. Maybe the rabbit doubled back, or perhaps it cleverly evaded the dogs by taking an unexpected detour, possibly over tough terrain. The dogs simply have to work harder to reacquire the scent which may be why marking a check has been adopted in field trial: It shows a dog’s training and intelligence in scent work.

Hunters value the skill because it helps maintain the efficiency of the hunt by preventing the pack from getting too far off the actual trail. Indeed, experienced Beagles that consistently “mark checks” accurately are highly valued in rabbit hunting. The Beagle that stops and stays put at the last known location of the scent while giving tongue and keeping the pack together at the check is known as an “anchor hound.”  The anchor hound essentially acts as a focal point for the pack’s efforts to recover the trail.

Image: Clip Art Library

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