To get a beagle?

[mashh]

My parents think I am. DF says they are hunting dogs so are hard to train and very noisy. DM says they are working dogs, not family dogs and no one really gets them as domestic pets.

DP grew up with one so is happy to have one but says his childhood dog was stubborn and had bad recall. I personally just don't want a big dog and preferably a low maintenance breed. Aibu to consider beagles?

Our beagle was a beauty. She wasn't led by her tummy but we could never have her off lead and she escaped a fair few times over 15 yrs!! oh and the shedding!!!

If you want a nice family dog I would say staffordshire bull terrier, lurcher, greyhound or just a heinz57 if you can find one or are in the small margin that can use rehoming centres!

A woman along the road from us had a beagle.
It was so loud & noisy - It bayed all the time.
You could hear it loudly out in the street.

We had two Beagles. We had our boy from being a pup, and he was a destructive little terror 😂 Though, very well-trained for his master (my brother). All my brother would have to do is say his name and he'd be by his side, wouldn't step out of line. My mum though, he had her wrapped around his paw 😂

Our girl was a rescue from Beagle Welfare and although not trained, she was an older girl and no trouble. They were both mellow in their older years.

Our boy as a younger pup needed a lot of walking. My brother is a runner and Henry would go on lots of runs with him, then he'd be happy to go for a walk again with mum an hour later.

They also appear to have no trigger that tells them they're full. Henry would eat ANYTHING. He'd eat to the point of vomiting then eat his vomit if anything was accidentally left within his reach or if he'd managed to destroy something with food inside whilst we were out.

They are hard work but absolutely worth it.

My dog is a beagle cross and my god don't we know it.

Rhe good points are Lovely temperament, gentle and patient with the DC, happy to be left, doesn't chew the furniture,

I have a beagle cross currently wedged to my side with his eyes firmly on my chicken pie. If I get distracted he will do one of his famous snatch and runs and I'll have no pie. I can usually train dogs not to beg quite easily but not this one.

He doesn't bark much but when he does, my God, it is loud. It actually physically hurts.

He is everyone and everythings bestfriend (except the crows. He tried to make friends with the crows when he was a puppy and they did not appreciate it. He avoids them now). He loves people very enthusiastically and violently but instinctively knows to be gentle with puppies, smaller breeds and young children. Toddlers are his favourite thing in the world but he can get possesive over them which causes him to bark loudly at anyone who moves a toddler out of his reach so we tend to keep him away from very small children as it can be frightening to people who don't know him well.

He's not destructive inside the house but my garden is nothing but a collection of holes. If he finds more food than he can eat he buries what is left, once he's done playing with a toy he buries it in the garden and sometimes he digs just for the hell of it.

We have child locks on all the cupboards and freezers and can no longer have a bread bin on the counter. He's alarmingly clever. He will soon know how to open the child locks the same way he learned how to open the oven, freezer and cupboards and we'll have to come up with a new solution. He can open internal doors so we cannot contain him in one room.

His recall is actually not bad but we have to start every walk off with a recall game to reinforce it before we can let him off lead and he will come barging into us every 10 minutes or so demanding treats. He is deceptively strong for his size. We can only walk him on a front leading harness as if he catches the scent of something it's nose to the ground and pull like a train until he finds the source. Loose leash walking is out of the window once his nose is on the ground.

Of all the breeds I have had I would say he is the one who brings the most laughter and love but also the most work.

Oh, he also has a very sensitive tummy. I've not found a kibble that agrees with him yet (tried Wainwrights/Millie'sWolfhearts/Autarky Junior/Skinners sensitive). He's now on raw as the tins he can eat without liquid shitting all over my kitchen are too expensive (think £4-5 per day to feed him).

We have a beagle, they make nice pets. If you contact Beagle Welfare they have some lovely beagles in, our bitch was rescued as a 2 year old, we had her from BW. They are very gentle, kind and considerate souls, a lot of depth to their personalities. Very prone to eating anything even remotely edible and a real tendency to weight gain! They also have selective hearing and their recall isn't the greatest.

Ours is the spit of 'Bob'

www.beaglewelfare.org.uk/dogs-for-rehoming/page/2/

OP, don't get a beagle.

They aren't bred to be family pets, and therefore when kept in a domestic setting are very destructive, hard to train, strong willed and will run off.

I have seen family members at breaking point with beagles and a colleague who had a kitchen so badly damaged it had to be replaced.

Repeat. Do not get a beagle.

They are sadly used in lab exepriments

Beagles are known as a convenient breed to execute testing and experiments on. They trust humans and are comfortable around them. In addition to it, Beagles are affectionate, which makes it easier for the researchers to carry out experiments.

Their kind nature doesn't always help them though.

They molt.
A lot!

Not in my case and many others.

@BeagleMum9 The thing about a public thread is everyone has different opinions and views.

I have seen tears over a beagles terrible behaviour, destruction etc from not just one person in my life.

So many dogs that are so so much easier to train and are ideal low maintenance family pets.

Someone on our road has one. It’s lovely but always escaping and running around. I don’t think they walk it enough. I see the daughter leave her house to take it out and she is back 5 minutes later.

Pressed send too soon.

My dog is a beagle cross and my god don't we know it.

The good points are her lovely temperament, gentle and patient with the DC, happy to be left, doesn't chew the furniture, and is generally a sweetheart who loves nothing more than leaning against you which is her version of a cuddle.

Not so good points are the shedding and the food obsession. I cannot emphasise the food obsession enough. All these dog friendly bars and cafes? Absolutely no way could I take her to one. We did try once and ended up sitting outside on the terrace, alone because it was 6C and blowing a gale, trying to gulp our coffees before they blew away all because she started yelping like she was being murdered when she saw a cake at the next table. She will eating anything that is food or potentially food, this includes snails from the garden (mmm, crunchy), blackberries straight from the bush, an entire fucking mint plant which resulted in the worst mint-scented diarrhoea you can imagine, my lunch on several occasions when I've stepped away to answer the door or see to the DC, seaweed, and numerous slugs. When on walls she has to be dragged away from any sort of dropped food, she does know not to jump up and snatch food but floor food, abandoned food, and found food is considered fair game. Her walking harness is a hiking one has a handle on the back which was advertised as a means of helping your dog to get over obstacles while out in the wilds. We use ours to lift her away from whatever it is she's attempting to eat.

Food obsession does have advantages when it comes to training and to things like bathing her. I can slap some peanut butter on her licky mat and she won't even notice that I'm showering her. Medicine too. The vet recommended wrapping her worming tablet in a bit of ham or poking it inside a dog treat so I unwrapped the tablet snd showed her just how greedy my dog is when she wolfed it straight down as-is.

She isn't generally yappy or a barker but she does talk. She makes all sorts of crooning sounds, whoops, snorts, rumbles, and whines. They're usually pretty quiet and not being full beagle she can't get the full beagle volume but she does give it a good go, luckily not in the house but when we're out on a walk and she gets excited she gives her version of baying. She also does this yelp-howl which goes "oooh woo ow" over and over with increasing intensity when she's super-excited. It sounds like she's terrified and I've had comments about her being upset or agitated, she's not, it's her doggy version of "OMG I LOVE THIS!".

She can be let off her lead but I have to be selective about where and what's around us. Somewhere with lots of people having picnics would not be a good idea but the beach at this time of year is great for her. She loves other dogs, particularly big dogs because in her head she too is a big dog, but she doesn't always recognise when playtime is over and has to be put back on the lead. She loves tracking scents so I try take her to places where she can do this off lead without too many issues, there's a big field near us that's fenced in and she loves to track smells around it.

On the subject of fences, get a big one. They can jump much higher than you'd expect. From standing she can jump up and get her face level with mine (I'm 5'6) she can also jump and scrabble her back legs to climb, a 6' fence in a must. She doesn't particularly dig though which is a plus however she will go out of her way to find fox poo and roll in it.

@bonzaitree

Yes, I get that.

I'm wondering if we have just got lucky. I've changed my username to type on this thread as everyone I know knows I have a Beagle. May be being a little paranoid.

She really is good though and if she gets told off she comes and creeps. My other dog just looks at us with a ''What's your problem?'' face.

We are not having anymore dogs after the two we've got because we told want to as tied down when we are older. The only thing I find hard work about our Beagle is she does molt. However she doesn't cost me £30 every 7/8 weeks at the groomers like my other one.

I've never met anyone who is a Beagle that hasn't been destructive or that hasn't suffered with separation anxiety

Mine doesn't have separation anxiety at all. We have dog cam to watch him when we're out. He usually spends the first fifteen minutes sniffing for food (his treat drawer and coat pockets are the first place he will try). Once he is satisfied there is no food within reach he will sleep or play with a toy until we come home.

You need hard wearing toys too. My dog will kill (and eat) soft toys, soft bedding, and anything with a squeak. Her toys have to be as solid as possible. Fetch isn't great either, she loves to chase a ball but if you want it back then it's tough as far as shes concerned, finders keepers and your own stupid fault for throwing it away.

Mine does the creep mentioned above when she's done something wrong, lies on her belly and drags herself forwards with her front paws. Makes it very hard to stay cross with her when she's done something she shouldn't have.

You have to be strict about their diet and food as they can gain easily. Ours is crossed with a pug who are also food obsessed and easily gain weight. Her food has to be weighed out, she needs a slow feeder to stop her wolfing it in three bites, and she will carry her empty dish around while crying to try guilt us onto giving her more. Her treats for the day are also rationed and go in a little dish, when they're gone there are no more until the next day. She gets 100g of dry food and 200g of wet food a day, I split it into two meals and it looks miniscule but any more than that and she chunks up really quickly. The best day of her life was when the tails.com delivery came and DH didn't realise what it was so left the box on the passage floor and went back upstairs to work, the bloody dog realised exactly what the package was...

There are plenty of small dogs that are likely to be more suitable. There are plenty of sites e.g. the UK and American Kennel clubs that help you select a suitable breed.

Why do you want a beagle? The comments you've had from other family members are fairly representative of the breed to be honest (cue every other MN'er jumping to tell me their beagle was the quietest, most well trained dog in history)

They make a lot of noise. Unless you live on a farm in the middle of nowhere, your neighbours would probably prefer that you chose a quieter breed.

We've always had lab crosses but were looking for another dog and fell in love with the photos and descriptions of this terrorist at our local rescue.

She's almost two and is without a doubt the loveliest, cuddliest, funniest dog. If I could spend half the day walking and half the day on the sofa tickling her belly she would be the perfect dog. But I need to do stuff, like work. So far we've had a totally trashed garden - astroturf and sofa destroyed, pots dug up, plants, erm, manicured, any tools left out wrecked, bags of compost etc that were by the shed dragged across the garden, ripped open and helpfully distributed. In the house, skirting boards chewed, she loves a bra (but only my comfy ones...) or a FlipFlop, food repeatedly stolen, oak coffee table now has no corners or edges without perforations, we've replaced the sky tv remote multiple times and she's still obsessed by the current one, just so much destruction. And that's alongside a frequently replenished toy box full of a wide range of 'indestructible' and enrichment toys that don't come cheap when you're buying them every week. This is with 3-4 walks per day (morning, lunchtime, 5pm, bedtime) with off lead time in different places (park, woods, country park etc), her recall is getting worse not better as she's settling in with us and gaining confidence.

I love her to bits and wouldn't be without her, but she's definitely not a low maintenance dog. I've just been woken up (night shift last night) by a dog on my chest, nuzzling into my shoulder. We've worked out that ears, nose, brain - only one will be in operation at any given time.

ooh - she's not especially smelly or particularly vocal - she just joins in when my other dog barks.

i need to get up now as I can hear a chewing/ripping sound outside my door and I need to go see what she's got this time...

it is true that the nose goes down and the ears become purely decorative

Yup! But we live rurally so it's easy enough to walk over fields or through woods on a long line and let her sniff to her heart's content.

At home, she's like a more sociable cat. Always looking for the best place to curl up and loves a cuddle, but very much on her own terms. She's devoted to our other dog who she mothers and grooms.

Have to say we don't have the food issues, but a friend had one a few years ago and had to put a lock on her fridge, such was the dog's determination. I'd have another anyday.

re: toys

We get WufWuf delivered monthly. You get 2-3 toys and 1-2 chews or bags of treats. He loves it. He recognises the box and loses his shit the second he spies it. Although most of the toys are soft toys because they are delievered to him monthly they tend to last long enough for the next box to arrive (albeit missing a few parts and most of their stuffing).

From experience Beagles fart much more than other breeds

As many pps have said, beagles are not low maintenance - you're not unreasonable to consider one, but go into it with your eyes open, prepare to be dealing with all the negative traits listed on this thread (then it'll be a nice surprise if you end up with one that breaks the mould) and if you honestly wouldn't want all of the above breed traits in your own dog, consider something else.