Like a member of the family

There is little doubt about the love Wayne Forman has for his hunting dogs.
The 66-year-old cares well, almost to the point of pampering, dozens of beagles he owns for some 40-plus years now. He has fed and watered them, gave them shelter and has provided the proper medical care to insure their health. Forman also patiently hones his pack of beagles’ natural instinct for hunting rabbits.
And while one might expect this from a caring dog owner, he goes a step further with so rather unconventional forms of care such as lying in the kennels, which are located behind his home, so the puppies can take to their mother. Or when one of his dogs passes away, he makes sure to bury it with some of the ribbons and trophies the dog has won in various trials and competitions.
“You have to give your all to that dog,” Wayne said. “Something tells me those dogs know when you are doing everything you can do for them.”
“I grew up watching him train dogs,” said Garland Forman, Wayne’s cousin. “He takes a lot of pride and care in what he does. The dogs are treated just a good as his daughter was.”
Like many young boys growing up in rural Evangeline Parish, Forman was raised around dogs but didn’t really get serious about raising beagles until 1972 or 1973, when one of his dogs placed in a Cenla Beagle Club trail event held in Ferriday.
In the decades since that day, Wayne and his beagles (Checkers, Domino, Egypt, Honey and Neon to name just a few) have competed in hundreds of trials and competitions in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. In fact, the sport dates back to 1890.
Even though Forman found initial success in the competitions, he still had to learn the difference between what he thought made a good dog and what judge’s thought.
“The main thing I have had to learn was even though you own and believe in your the dog you still must figure out what the judges are expecting out of him,” Wayne said. “That’s where a lot of people get their nose broke figuratively because they go in thinking ‘I got a good dog nobody is going to beat. The dog may not get beat by another dog but he may do something stupid like bark too much or run out of the line. A judge will take all those things into consideration.”
And having a dog be crowned a champion is no small task.
In his lengthy career, Forman has raised only a few recognized field champions. In 1997, Forman’s Chicota’s Haywire was crowned a champion after winning three trials, placing second in another and nabbing two thirds and a fourth.
A dog earns more points from weighted trial events, competitions that feature dozens of fellow dogs. Back in 1997 for example, Haywire took first at the West Bank show against 73 other dogs, first at the Rose City show against 57 others and first at the Great Southern show against a field of 42 other beagles.
“You have to have a pretty damn good dog to win at a trial,” said Wayne, who has been a longtime member of the CenLa Beagle Club in Alexandria. “I’ve been to a lot of them and I have won some and I have got beat before. People think it is just a trial and there is nothing to it. They couldn’t be more wrong.”
Like any other individual who raises hunting dogs, Wayne like teaching his pups the ‘down’ command and getting them accustomed to the sounds of shots fired at a very early age.
But according to Forman, who actually prefers squirrel hunting over rabbit hunting, the most important aspect of training the dogs is having them run.
“The biggest thing is putting that dog on the ground and running it,” Wayne said. “It is the best experience for you and that dog to learn. He’s got the natural instinct to run after a rabbit.”
After a few months, Forman will then begin taking his beagle pups to his 12 acre field in between Bayou Chicot and Ville Platte. There the pups will get a chance to chase wild rabbits. Forman makes sure to pair a younger pup with an older dog, which helps the younger dog from drifting off the foreign scent of the rabbit.
“That puppy needs a chance to find its own rabbit,” Wayne said.
From traveling hundreds of miles for competition to spending dozens of hours training in a field, Forman has spent a significant portion of his life with his dogs.
“When I was getting after it I would go all day to a trial,” said Wayne, who worked as a transport officer at the Evangeline Parish jail for 18 years. “One time I left a trial in Bayou Blue and there was another trial in Texas the next day. So I drove all the way back home and then loaded up some other dogs and took off for Texas. When you know you have a good dog then those are things you have to do. You got to get after it.”
“You have to put a many, many hours into this,” said Peggy Wayne’s wife. “You can’t put a dog in the pin and expect it to be a field champion. Just like you can’t write a song and leave it in a dresser drawer and expect it to be a hit.”
Even though the now-retired Forman has scaled back the number of competitions he participates in, he will continue raising and training beagles.
“I have no plans of getting out,” Wayne said, “though there are some days when my legs talk to me with a loud voice encouraging me to think about it. After I go hunting or we go to a race and put those dogs back in the truck I feel like I got to quit this but I can’t. I just like the sport of running dogs … it is in my blood.”