My mother started with Beagles back in the late '50s, and so I've been brought up with them
I find them a charming little breed and you can take them anywhere, very much friends
with everybody and friends with all dog-dom as well.
They're a good all-round little dog.
They really are a genuine, level-headed, sensible little dog.
They've got a very even temperament, they're easy, you know they are clean little dogs
in the house.
One it's integrated into your family it becomes part of your family very quickly - whether
there's one of you or several of you.
They're great fun dogs and they do usually enjoy the company of other dogs.
We would often re-home them with another dog because they do like that dog company.
I've had families have puppies that have got four or five children, and I've had old age
pensioners buy them and individual people - and as long as they can have them perhaps,
nowadays you can take them into work with them, or they're self-employed and they take
them around, that suits a Beagle equally as well.
You know they're quite happy to toddle along with you and go to work.
Because they are a hunting breed, they use their noses to smell with and of course that's
the first thing they do.
A Beagle is a scent hound.
So the archetypal picture of a Beagle is nose down, bottom up, following a track.
So if you're thinking about training them, you want to do recall more recall and then
even more recall.
You need to get past the fact that the nose is the most important thing.
You're the most important thing.
Therefore, really early, twelve weeks , 14 weeks when they're fully injected, get them
off the lead and they must learn that you are taking them for a walk - not the other
way round.
I would give serious consideration to having them on a harness and a long line.
A Beagle's idea of being close to you can be a huge distance away.
And if you let a Beagle go off it may well find a track to follow for a long period of
time.
They're not a breed that you can get after and get really cross with because they get
a bit whimpish then - but they certainly are a breed that you can be firm with, but just fair
Properly trained you can let them off the lead, so you can take them for normal walks
and enjoy the dog and theyr'e very much part of the family.
They are a short-coated breed so a good stiff brush once or twice a week is usually sufficient
and of course they do lose their coat like any other breed does - or the majority do
- probably twice a year, Autumn and Spring, so a little bit more attention with the brush
then and that's all you need.
Fortunately for this breed there are very few health issues.
Other than ordinary ones that older dogs may have.
This particular breed has recently been discovered with a problem which we call MLS syndrome
- now we are all testing for that and it's a recessive gene - so you have to have two
carriers to make an affected - and over time, the next few years, this will disappear altogether.
Generally they are a very healthy little dog.