I (Laura) started breeding hunting Beagles with my father in
1992, we bred & hunted a grade (non-registered) pack of
cottontail hunting dogs until 2002 when we acquired our first
AKC registered field-bred Beagles which we bred jointly until
he retired from breeding in 2004. We found homes for most of
the original stock from this line with the exception of our
dual-purpose bred female "Misty's Lady Liberty" which I retained
to breed. Lady produced several litters for me of dual-purpose
bred Beagles who have made excellent pets, hunting dogs, &
performance dogs - although most of her offspring were less
typey than the average show-bred Beagle, there is a bitch from
her last litter that we have recently re-acquired for our breeding
program "A-Quality Liliana". Lady has since been retired and is
enjoying life as a spoiled pet.
Having had a rough start in the beginning with many of the
beautiful show dogs I acquired having received negative results
on their health testing or producing less than satisfactory
offspring, I decided that I did not want them as my foundation,
so they were spayed/neutered and placed as pets.
I restarted several times over - resulting in much knowledge of
the breed as well as the ability to see past ones love for a dog in
order to properly judge them against the standard so that we
may better the breed.
In January 2006, I registered my kennel with AKC under the
prefix "A-Quality" which stands for our goal to breed "A" Quality
Beagles - not "B" or "C" Quality! If the name sounds familiar, it is
also the name of my father's business "A-Quality Construction".
We don't believe in doing anything half way, we believe you
should be completely devoted to it.
In Fall 2007 after a short courtship I married my childhood
friend, now husband Stuart Scott Short. He shares my
passion for the sport of purebred dogs that are bred primarily
for good health & temperament as well as conformation. Scott
and I now jointly breed under the A-Quality prefix.
In 2008 we produced a litter that gave us our first AKC Show
Champion, CH A-Quality Sassy Cassie who lives with her dam's
breeders. We also heard the good news that "A-Quality Athena"
born in 2005 achieved a Rally Novice title in AKC as well.
We occasionally breed a litter with our close friends Pam &
Wayne Ruedi of Abbie Road Beagles in California. They have
several of Cammie's offspring which they are showing, "Abbie
Road Carolina On My Mind" recently won a 5 point major!
It is our belief that we should not sacrifice health or
temperament for conformation. We are tired of being caught up
in "My dog is better than yours!", we believe that all breeders
should be working together to better our canines instead of
running a race to produce the next top show dog!
Over 90% of puppies produced from all litters end up as pets
eventually (even after their show careers are over) and thus a
healthy, even tempered, long lived dog is much more important
than how many ribbons they can win! (Ribbons & trophies can
only get you so far!)
Although we do compare our dogs to other breeding stock at
AKC & UKC events, we don't put as much of an emphasis on
how much they can win as some other breeders do. Our goal is
to breed for healthy, even tempered Beagles who look like a
Beagle should and that still have the desire to seek out bunnies
as a hobby!
In August 2011 we made the move to our recently acquired
home on 10 acres in Bonneau, SC. We hope that it will be the
home to the A-Quality Beagles for many years to come!
If you have any questions or comments "Contact Us".
Look up our group on Yahoo Groups "A-Quality Beagles"
Look us up on Facebook "Stuart Scott Short"
Look at our videos on Youtube "Beagler29431's channel"
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