Your breed has a purpose: the Beagle
This is the third article in the series of seven breeds that I am writing about.
Real life with a Beagle!
Gawd, just LOOK at it!!
There’s not much that’s not to love about the Beagle. Or is there?
Full name: Beagle
Group: Hound (scent hound, specifically)
Developed in England as a hunting dog, primarily for hares. Resembling a sort of midget version of the (I say!) fox hound, with a face that probably first appealed to us as they stared out from behind wire cages in Beauty Without Cruelty movements a couple of decades ago.
Beagles remain the #1 dog for lab tests.
But I digress.
The action of hunting rabbits is called “beagling”, and that is how they got their name. Or it could have been that Beagles caught more rabbits and therefore the term beagling was coined, but whichever way it turned out-
BEAGLES LOVE HUNTING RABBITS.
We have a Beagle mix called Edna. We call her the bunny boiler. We had rabbits, you see. Had. Edna will sit with chicken chicks on her head and cuddle kittens, but rabbits bring out the Beagle nature and no rabbit is safe from Edna.
We have a lot of Beagles visiting us in the kennels from many different homes.
Beagles are exceptionally clever, problem-solving dogs. They are escape artists of note, and once they have escaped will follow their nose for days. It’s partly why so many end up as strays, and often unclaimed ones at that, as they will follow their nose for enormous distances, often outside of the range of your local vet or shelter. They are lost, and no one is looking for them outside of their home area.
I have watched a visiting Beagle climb a tree (vertically!) to escape a kennel pen. Her mate from home was with her and very relaxed, but this Beagle was on the scent of something and wanted out!
There are many videos of climbing Beagles available on YouTube (here’s one of a tree-climbing Beagle, and another of a fence-climbing one). Google “climbing Beagle” and there are hundreds of videos.
Beagles want to be with their people, and exhibit varying levels of separation anxiety. Quivering, barking (they “bay”, and do it when they are excited, or happy, or sad…), howling, digging and destruction.
They are highly food driven and phenomenal food thieves, being extremely athletic and as mentioned, intelligent. Watch this video. No, seriously. Watch it until the end.
There are Beagle videos all over YouTube. Here’s one that’s learnt how to open a bin to steal food.
So — we’ve worked out that they are clever, and athletic. Beagles are not the breed to be left home alone, unattended (even with other dog or animal company), while you are working your 9–5. No dog likes being That Dog, but Beagles will find creative ways to keep themselves occupied or worse, learn to escape and get lost, injured or killed.
Beagles LOVE hunting; it is in them — and they are efficient wild bird killers and more. If you’re walking your Beagle off leash and the nose goes down and the tail goes up, there is a long sprint and vocal chord strain in your immediate future.
Early and on-going multi-species socialisation in a controlled environment is critical if you’d like your Beagle to co-exist with small, fluffy creatures.
Health concerns:
Epilepsy (we have seen it in one dog here)
Entropian (“cherry eye”)
Issues with the disks in the spine
A range of eye problems including glaucoma
“Reverse sneezing” which, while not a real health concern, is an alarming sound, and in a multi-dog environment can cause other dogs to pile in and cause a fight.
While Beagles rarely cause fights, they have a tendency to shriek in disdain if they are displeased or offended — it sounds like they are being murdered — and again, this can cause other dogs to pile in and fight.
Again, in an effort not to re-invent the wheel, I found a great link on The Good and The Bad of Beagle ownership. I smiled a little as I read through it, given that this article is based on my personal experiences with Beagles. Complex little dogs they are, as can be seen in this link.
;)
