Chisum-Trail Kennel was unofficially founded in Southern California in 1988 with the purchase of a pair of German Shorthaired Pointer pups and plans to train them for hunting. They were litttermate brothers and both were euthanized before 3 years old due to crippling hip dysplasia.
In late 1988 a litter of Bluetick Coonhounds was advertised in a local paper and on January 1, 1989 a male pup from that litter became Chisum-Trail Kennel's first coonhound, PR Blue Cajun Cody. I've always loved dogs, especially hunting dogs, but until that day my interest in coonhounds had been nurtured only by reading Where The Red Fern Grows and dreaming of someday owning coonhounds and going coonhunting. Never did I imagine I'd be able to get involved in this sport in Southern California!
Later that year a 6 month old female Bluetick named PR Chisum Trail Squeegee joined Cody. She was renamed Cameo. After changing kennel names several times I decided to return to the name Chisum-Trail, with the hyphen added to differentiate from Cameo's original kennel name. That was the official beginning of Chisum-Trail Kennel.
My involvement in UKC competition events began with Cody, Cameo, and lots of help from some great people in the no longer active Southern California Registered Treehound Association. I'd like to take a moment here to thank a few people who were very influential to my start in coonhounds. Thanks to Dennis Hadaway and Tom Cornelius for taking me hunting and helping to start and break my young hounds. Thanks to Dave Simons for instilling a desire in me to always have good, well-bred Blueticks, and for showing me the value of those old BBCHA yearbooks. Thanks to Jerry (RIP friend) and Claudia Pendlay for all the lessons in conformation and bench show handling, the fun and interesting experience of hunting with a disabled person, the hours spent studying pictures and pedigrees, and for being wonderful friends for many years.
Chisum-Trail Kennel moved to Northern California in 1993 in a loaded-down UHaul truck towing the old '76 Jeep pickup. Jessie rode up front in the UHaul while the dogbox in the back of the Jeep held 3 more Blueticks and 2 Redbones.
Tiny and I met at the United Houndsmen of California UKC events in the Sacramento area shortly after I moved up north. We hit it off with a mutual interest in the Blue dogs and in 1995 we decided to move in together. We stayed with the Chisum-Trail Kennel name and even though Tiny had some excellent Hammer bred dogs, I convinced him to continue on with the line of dogs I had. In 1998 we purchased our first beagle.
We finally got married in 2002 and Chisum-Trail Kennel is going strong as we debate the requirements of a good Blue dog, which lines are better, and who should be bred to who.
