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?

She's wearing a little fleece jumper we get from My Chi and Me. I'm not a fan of dressing up dogs for the sake of dressing them up but she feels the cold a lot. She wears fleece jumpers in the winter and a coat on walks most of the year round.

mychiandme.co.uk/collections/just-for-pups/products/chihuahua-puppy-fluffy-striped-blue-and-white-vest-with-rocking-horse-motif

She is both a dog and also his favourite toy. It took a lot of work to get him to realise the chihhaua did not actually belong to him and was allowed to leave the room/be carried/held by people.

I like beagles and DSis has one who is lovely but low maintenance he is not!

Most of the people searching for their dogs in our local woods 'own' beagles.😁

Beagles like to run long distance - so might well leave you miles behind if you don't keep them clipped to a lead. Don't worry though - they are capable of hunting for and eating their dinners in the wild. (My brother's catches and eats squirrels and pigeons even in their garden.)

They can climb high fences (like cats or foxes) and trees.

We had a beagle , not low maintenance and really hard to train as a puppy.
They also are very greedy dogs also until he got older we had to keep him on the
lead as not very good on recall.
On saying all that he was the most loyal loving good natured dog you could wish to have , my kids adored him.
Still miss him we had him for 17 years and tbh thinking back we could have done a better job of training him.

My mum grew up with a beagle during her teens and 20s. Describes him as a wonderful dog, great with everyone and everything, but had horrible recall and was pretty thick.

Have you considered a whippet? Temperamentally similar I feel, but better behaved.

Of course it's not normal.

Any dog that's not getting adequate attention and stimulation will howl and bark constantly - the breed is irrelevant.

Beagles are loud when they bay, but they only really do that when on a scent as they've been bred to call their handler to them when they find their quarry.

Now that secure dog fields are more common I might rethink having a Beagle.
We had one as a family dog from when I was about 12.
He was fine on the lead hated the car and if he got a scent well he was gone!!
He had low cunning when it came to pinching food but I taught him to do an obstacle course and he was great with people and other dogs.
Never found him smelly and he was fine with our cats.
He lived until 16 years old and only needed the vet in the last few years.
With access a dog park I think they would be fine as a family pet.

We have a rescued beagle for 6 years now. He was returned to the shelter a few times basically for being a beagle. I have heard the are hard to house train but for us he's been a dream rarely an accident. The barking took a long time to control and sometimes he loses his mind howling. But honestly I don't think the are half as bad as people say. He is dumb as a box of rocks but we adore him

I've got a JRTx beagle, so a mixture of two absolute lunatic breeds and she's a rescue from an unknown background. She's absolutely great. Very gentle, loves kids, doesn't really howl. She's lazy as anything too - likes going for a stroll about about 30 minutes of zooming off the lead and she's absolutely exhausted.

She sheds like mad though, is obsessed with food and will go bin diving if you take your eyes off he. Thanks to the JRT she also has a serious jump in her and I've caught her on the worktop before.

Wow thank you for allllll the replies - wasn't expecting so many.

To the poster who said there will be funny beagle stories - there definitely have been! Some have genuinely made me lol

To the poster who said that Americans might breed beagles for cuteness/less hound qualities compared to British beagles - you might be onto something there.

Thank you for alll the cute pictures of your dogs 🧡

Why do some people think they smell particularly bad?

Overall you've given me loads to consider, probably won't get one but I'll definitely keep them in mind. We live in a city so major daily walks might be an issue. Will definitely keep in mind rescuing an older dog who might not have loads of energy to expend though

An old Beagle will pootle along for 2 hours quite happily - he just won't sprint off into the distance quite so frequently, especially if you have snacks and teach him a hand signal for 'come and get them!'. And then he'll snore in front of the fire for the next three hours.

Hope you find the dog for you @mashh .

Mine doesn't smell bad. My Mum would definitely tell me.

She's just sat on DH's knee. She adores him. I love most dogs so good luck.

Thank you! Your dog has such interesting colouring x

@mashh I haven't posted a pic but agree the pictures I've seen are gorgeous dogs.

This thread has kept me amused today. I have done jobs in between reading and posting though 😃.

We had a beagle as a family dog growing up. She passed away age 14 a couple of years ago. We let her off the lead at the field by our house only however she would sometimes go missing for hours so we just used to go home and she’d turn up eventually. She stole a sausage off a bbq that a group of teens were having one day at the field…also an ice cream out of a toddlers hand.

she was utterly good driven and would manage to get food off the worktop (frozen packs of chicken breasts, loaves of bread) we couldn’t have a bin cause she used to empty it out. The shedding was UNREAL. Hoovering every day.

she ate 10ft of skirting board, multiple shoes, furniture, etc. to be fair my parents were first time dog owners and I think as kids we choose a beagle purely on looks. My dad had GSs growing up.

I have a cockerpoo now who is an absolute dream BUT she’s so boring compared to my beagle 😂😂

@mashh My JRTx Beagle lives in a city - we're in a garden flat, but the garden isn't huge, so no good for proper exercise. She's about 5, but she's an excellent moocher/potterer. Likes running errands and mooching around on the lead with me, seeing interesting things and smelling interesting smells. She just really likes being out and about so is surprisingly compatible with city living.

I think she's happiest when we do lots of little trips multiple times a day.

Dustbins on legs.

Our beagle is 4 years old. Had her from puppy and is very well trained. A beautiful breed, loyal, full of personality- a joy to have as a companion. Had one prior to her too.

You need to think more on whether YOU would suit this type of breed rather than it suit you. People get dogs based on looks and make them suit their lifestyle which isn’t then fair on that breed of dog. It is a shame to read so many negative comments about beagles- from experience I see these behaviours are usually down to owners not being compatible with the type of breed.

You need to put a huge amount of effort and time into this breed, they are highly intelligent and need stimulation, routine and exercise off lead, or else will put on weight/be destructive/have bad recall. Play games of hiding toys/treats, throw ball, firm with signal regarding food and rewards, each and every day is a must.

From an early age, you must leave a beagle a couple of hours (built up to 4 in our case) so they learn to self-soothe otherwise become too attached, unable to be left .

Vast majority of time ours is walked off lead / happily runs alongside when jogging, she does up to 7 mile runs, 13 mile walks as her limit. She gets at least a 4-6 mile walk each day.

She’ll go for deer, as is her instinct (flushing/hunting breed) but will always come back as trained.

They are beautiful, rewarding dogs, but don’t suit everyone. An under-stimulated, under-exercised beagle will cause issues (as is the case with most active breeds)

We have a beagle (cross) next door too - no way, not now, not ever would I consider the breed. Although, to be fair, they are crap owners. Our dog pretends it doesn't exist; we'd like to but the noise makes that difficult.

Beagles are amazing. Loving, funny, super cute.

However, they are also absolute little bastards to train and will cross three lanes of the motorway for half a mouldy sandwich. The howling is something else entirely.

I adored my beagles, but I can safely say that my current doggo has given me less trouble in the four and a half years of his life than those buggers gave me in any given hour that I had them.

Thanks for the input. You can control what they eat. My girl does not raid bins etc and at 9 years old is a healthy weight.

That is so true it’s hilarious. You forgot to mention the bricks ability to open the utility room door to make the stealthy escape up the stairs to your bed and the bricks absolute refusal to get off your bed unless offered some grated cheese 😂😂

Adorable creatures that would push a toddler down a flight of stairs to get at their BabyBel.

Mine doesn't raid bins either. She is food obsessed and part pug which is another breed that is food obsessed so its like greed squared but she knows she's not allowed to jump up and take food, isn't allowed on the sofa if anyone is eating, isn't allowed in the bin, etc. However as I posted earlier she considers floor food, "abandoned" food, and found food (in the street) to all be fair game. This can also be controlled to an extent such as not leaving food in her reach when stepping away from a meal for a short time, being careful not to drop food when prepping meals, reminding the DC not to share their food with her, looking ahead on walks and pre-empting visibly dropped food such as ice creams at the sea front or apples/cherries under the trees so she can be steered away in time. It's not perfect and she does occasionally manage to snaffle things she shouldn't but she's not some rampaging beast gobbling up everything in sight completely unchecked.