Border Beagler Wayne Ireland is the Type of Member Every Club Needs
By Larry Lee, BraceBeagling Editor
February 25, 2003

Wayne Ireland standing beside one of the five kennels he built for Border Beagle club.

The science of genetics applies to human beings just as it does to our brace trial beagles. Wayne Ireland is positive proof of that. He is kind hearted, gentle in nature, will do anything for anybody when needed, and is an ideal club member who is always doing the kind of things that nobody else wants to do.

Several years ago I traveled to the Southern along with Henry Alkema, Ralph Gillum and Wayne. I had known Wayne for many years but never knew there was a common bond between us — his family members. As we sat in the back of the car, side by side, for the many hours it takes to get from Michigan to Georgia we discussed many things. I asked Wayne where he was from originally and he replied, “I was born in Pontiac but my parents were from Layton Corners, near Montrose, Michigan. They moved to Pontiac after they got married in order to find work in the auto factories there.”

“Layton’s Corners I said! Why there are lots of people there from large families and many of them are related. Do you know any of the Wendlings,” I ask him. “Why yes, I have all kinds of first and second cousins that still live around there.” Wayne replied.

Then it struck me. I had worked for many years at Buick Motor Division in Flint, Michigan and there were lots of Wendling brothers I worked with. They were all just like Wayne, very polite, friendly, gentle and willing to help you in anyway they could. Yes, genetics was at work and Wayne and his cousins were living examples of it.

Wayne is really a jack-of-all-trades. He was a watchmaker by trade and ran a jewelry store in Walled Lake, Michigan for many years. He retired from that profession several years ago. However, as the picture accompanying this article shows—he is also an accomplished carpenter. Border Beagle Club was badly in need of new kennel space for the many dogs it hosts for its annual licensed trial during the month of August. One set of kennels had already been built by other club members so Wayne decided to help out and built others like it. He really went to work and all total during the summer and fall of 2002 he built five kennel units. Some of the kennels contain eight kennel units while others contain sixteen. All total the five kennels hold an additional eighty dogs. This gives Border room to house 150 dogs comfortably during its licensed trial. Henry Alkema and Ralph Gillum helped Wayne with his effort. Wayne still intends to build one more sixteen-unit kennel but that will have to wait until the hard Michigan winter weather breaks.

Building kennels for Wayne didn’t stop with his effort at Border. Ralph Gillum expressed a desire for Wayne to build a portable kennel that he could take down to Wilburn Flowler’s farm in Kentucky. That was no problem for Wayne. He designed a four dog portable unit that could be hauled to Kentucky in the back of Ralphs’s S-10 pickup and be assembled in about 15 minutes after they arrived.

I asked Wayne how he obtained his carpenter knowledge and he said, “I built my own house and when you do things like that with your hands you learn how to build and repair things. Again I could see genetics coming into play as all of Wayne’s cousins that I worked with were expert skilled tradesmen and all were among the best in their profession.

Wayne’s talents don’t stop with watch making and carpentry. He also is an excellent artist. He likes to paint horses but recently painted a picture Of Ralph Gillum’s Hall of Fame bitch, Gillum’s Courtyard Annie, from a picture I had given him. Ralph said he was delighted when Wayne presented it to him.

Wayne said he has always been interested in dogs. In his younger days he raised English Setters for his family to use to hunt pheasants with. However it was one of his children’s schoolteachers that got Wayne interested in beagles. The man’s name is Brian Woolcock. One of Wayne’s children brought Brian to his store and they got talking about hunting. Before the discussion ended Wayne decided to buy a hunting pack of three beagles from Brian.

Wayne used them for hunting rabbits but finally Brian invited him to a trial at Border Beagle Club. That is how he got interested in beagling. The year was 1968. Wayne said, “It didn’t take me long to realize my hunting pack was the wrong type of dog for brace beagling so I sold them and bought a brace trial dog from Brian. I had lots of fun with him and I have been hooked on brace trial beagling ever since.”

Wayne has finished three dogs during his beagling career. Their names were Gillum’s Hondo, Greenway Stacy and Greenway Hector. Regarding these dogs Wayne said, “I liked all of them but Hondo was my favorite. It would take him 24 minutes to go 100 feet but he would do it perfectly.”

Wayne has always been a loyal Border Beagle Club member. He helps out at all the trials and has held the offices of secretary and assistant secretary during his many years as a club member. He is now the vice president of Border and also has the job of making sure the clubhouse is taken care of. Wayne runs dogs with Ralph Gillum, Henry Alkema and I quite often but he always takes time to do some minor repair or cleaning during the time we are at the club.

I asked Wayne how he got interested in becoming a watchmaker. Wayne said he was in the Army in 1954 and went back to his job at Pontiac Motor Division but decided there was no future for him there. He said he was only making $2 an hour, with no health insurance and only $1500 in life insurance. So he decided to go to watchmaker’s school, which took him a year to finish. After graduation he went to work for his uncle in his jewelry store in Walled Lake, Michigan.Wayne’s uncle died in 1969 and Wayne continued to run the store until he retired in 1999.

Wayne enjoys his retirement very much and spends his time painting, golfing and running dogs. He says, “I love being outdoors, but what I really enjoy the most is watching good hounds work." His cousins back near the old homestead at Layton Corners are avid hunters but have never showed any interest in the sport of brace beagling. I guess that is where the genetic link I wrote about earlier breaks down. Perhaps, unlike their cousin Wayne, they haven't been exposed to our great sport of beagling yet!