beagles... yes/no?

My friend has 2. They drive her to distraction at times, but they are very loving. One has been 'arrested' a few times for stalking young girls (who fed him crisps, so why wouldn't he follow them?), and the other does have the occasional deaf, nose down moment. Most recently was found charging up and down a frozen lake, much to her and everyone watchings horror!
 
I think it depends on the beagle TBH, just like any other kind of dog. There are some terrors out there and there are some lovely dogs out there. I have one who has barely any of the beagle traits and who is 99% fantastic on recall (HHO'ers might remember the time she did go and then met me at the car) and one who can't go off the lead at all for a variety of reasons, one of them being he has no recall. I will say though that neither of them destroy anything in the house, are not particularly loud (unless on a scent), and stay out of the rubbish, etc. As house dogs mine are brilliant. Not perfect (what dog is?) but very good.

They are also absolutely wonderful companions and the two I have are the most affectionate little dogs I've ever known, even the one who had a rough start in life and who consequently doesn't socialise very well with other people or dogs.

These days the beagles get an hour or two in the woods or similar every day and I run quite a bit of it with the one who can't go off the lead (although I end up screeching to a halt if there is something for him to smell which is QUITE often :rolleyes:) and they have access to a very large garden pretty much all day. One of them will sit under a tree in the garden staring at a squirrel for hours (she takes her job as garden wildlife watchdog very seriously) and one won't go out there for longer than it takes him to take care of business and may bother to scare away a squirrel if they are on the way to his chosen spot in the garden. They are older now though - both 7. In their younger days they had 2-3 hours a day of a mix of walks where they could run and on the streets and were perfectly fine on that. They did not have free access to the garden then either, just access to a very small garden when we were home.

So ... it depends on the beagle but they can be an acquired taste I will admit that :).
 
Lol Galupy, how is the invalid, Regan is haling nicely, stitches out tomorrow, walking bearing weight nicely.

Glad Regan is doing well. Willie is as well. I took him up to our regular vet (not the surgeon) to take out his staples today and everything was great and well healed and they came out nicely. He'll be happy to be without the inflatable collar when we aren't home now, that's for sure, although I had it on him earlier before we went to the vet while I was in and out of the room he was in and he was fast asleep with it propping him up and he was snoring up a storm and chasing rabbits in his sleep so I don't think it was that tough for him to deal with. He is also bearing weight nicely most of the time although he does still keep it up at times as well. Out next milestone is a call to the surgeon in 4 weeks time to check in on how the recovery is going and book him in for a follow-up visit and x-rays.
 
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