question about beagles

[Biggamefish]

Many people are spot on with what they are telling you.  I also grew up with beagles my father has three and I have these two.

Yukon Cornelius and Elmer Fudd
 

First off beagles are hounds which means they are stubborn, don't take that as not smart cause they are extremely intelligent.  I found that my wife and I had to be very consistent with training.  Good thing is beagle tend to be food driven and very small treats go along way when training.  Get a fresh rabbit hide and let them chew on it when they are a puppy.  Get them started young.  Once they know sit stay and come start with them in the yard with distraction and get them to come back to you.  This will help later on in the field.  I run both with shock collars and gps collars.  They both come in handy for training and recovery.

  My two are family pets before rabbit dogs but they hunt well.  As for male or female.  My father has all females and I have males.  They are all great family house dogs.  Some says the females are more driven but I have not seen that with ours.  

  Feel free to ask any questions in a p.m if ya want.  I will try my best to answer them.

Matt

[Ron LaClair]

Dolly watching her baby pictures on the computer

     

She loves to hunt and when she's not hunting she reads about it

   
   

[ChuckC]

I took a beagle, "cricket", from a friend who's life was changing dramatically and for a totally kennel raised dog, she walked into the house, proclaimed the couch was hers and learned the rules, including house breaking, right quick.  

Yes, she barked / bayed, especially on the trail, but not so much in the house.  She wasn't a great bunny dog, but she absolutely loved to go after them and I took her out each year for a few hunts.  I liked to watch her and hear her and she just did what she was born to do.  

As she aged and was more stiff, I had her on a blood trail and she helped me find a decent buck that had eluded me till then.

I am not a hard core beagle fan, likely won't own another, but I sure did enjoy watching and listening to her.

When I was younger, I went on a hunt with some friends of my FIL who were NUTS about bunnies and beagles.  There must have been a dozen dogs in that pack and hearing them open up was awesome !  Would love to experience that once again.
ChuckC

[tracker12]

I grew up with beagles and loved them.  My daughter and son both have hounds as family dogs.  None of them listen worth a hoot but they are loving pets.  For me I need a dog to sit stay and come when I want them to so I migrated to labs.

[reddogge]

Cutest dog on the planet. I had one way back in 1971. He proved to be an escape artist when let out. We spent many a day searching for him. To compound the problem we had two small children so we had to eventually give him away. He was a good rabbit dog though.

My best hunting dog was a lab and he was a waterfowl specialist but could do creditable duty on birds. My son did take him one day to run rabbits unbeknownst to me and they got 8.

[2nocks]

Great dogs.  Here's one of mine, he's part redbone. Trained to run rabbits. He does like to finish them off after being tagged with a blunt. He's great on squirrel too, I just have to get them before he chews them all up.  My other beagle is learning well from him.

Here he is trying to snag some bird food and getting busted while he's at it.


 [/IMG]    [/IMG]

[V I Archer]

We have two beagles now.  I originally wanted a weimaraner, but my wife was terrified of dogs, so we got Missy instead.  The second one two years later was entirely my wife's idea!  I trained Missy to blood trail and like most beagles, she is all nose.  

Two years ago we were blessed with the birth of our son, Desmond.  Desmond loves both Missy and Emma, and they love him!  it probably helps that now he is a great source of food, but from the day we brought Desmond home, Missy especially has been near him every waking moment.
 
 
 
 

They do shed a lot, they are incredibly smart.  We had to put a child lock on our fridge long before Desmond was born after an entire loaf of banana bread went missing and we found the wrapper in Missy's bed.  On the plus side, neither bark unless we rile them up or they see/smell/hear something outside that shouldn't be there.  By the way, the howl of a beagle puppy is one of the sweetest sounds you will ever hear.

I acquired Missy expressly for blood trailing.  She is never off leash as her recall sucks when she is determined to find the source of a scent.  Both our beagles have given us incredible amounts of joy and I cannot imagine life without them.  I think we are a beagle family for life.

[Keith Zimmerman]

I bought my first and only beagle with my paper route money when I was 12.  My grandfather always had beagles.  Now my uncle still raises them.  Hes written 4 books about them.

I think his web is  www.beaglebard.com

[Ron LaClair]

Dolly and her kitten buddy

     

When she was a puppy she liked to chew on my whiskers

   

She turned out to be a real good hunter, she trys to copy me

   

[Krex1010]

My experience with beagles is limited to one, had him 17 years. I dearly loved that dog, as calm, loving and mild mannered a family member I could imagine. He was also stubborn as a mule at times, he would go through periods where I could see the wheels in his head turning "I go out the door to pee.....so it must be ok to pee on the door". As for hunting grouse with a beagle.....not sure I'd expect much there.

[ScottV_7]

Mr. LaClair, that hound of yours is killing me!    


 

As for hunting grouse with a beagle.....not sure I'd expect much there. [/QB]

Yeah, I've had ones that barked on them, but they'll pretty much accidentally flush grouse and pheasants. That being said, my dad's beagles when he was growing up actually chased them until they flushed. Pheasant, not grouse.

[Mr. fingers]

Well, as you can tell by the pics they are ridiculously cute.
Our beagle "fletcher" "fletch". Is one spoiled pooch. He sleeps in our bed with us under the blankets by our feet he's very warm he feels nice on a cold night. He loves being under a blanket. He sheds year round especially after he cuddles with you and you give him a good scratching . So wearing a black shirt or pants are out of the question. He's a great watch dog he's Always looking out our front window up,and down the street and he barks  and bays at any thing that moves out side if some one walks by with a dog he will bark and bay long after they walked by. You can hear him 3 blocks away. He does,get annoying. We should of have named him Flair "AKA" Rick Flair AKA Nature Boy. Because Woooooooow!!!! Is what he does.

We got him after I read an article by Darrel Quidort. "All Dogs Go To Heaven". He wrote how beagles are great rabbit hunting dogs and there easy to train just take them hunting.
Well like,everyone else says he gets on a scent and does not know his name and will not listen to you. And will not come back. Beagles walk by scent not by sight. Have you ever seen the bugs bunny cartoon where the hound is sniffing a rabbit trail and bugs bunny is standing on the side of the trail leaning against a,tree eating a carrot and watching the dog walk right by him that's my beagle, he has had rabbits within spitting distance but won't lift his head up off the scent trail to look up and see the rabbit right there in. Front of him  He does have quite the vocabulary of barks bays yodels yelps, and yips. He also make this funny kind of a popcorn popping sound when he's on a hot trail.
As far as blood trailing he was still a pup when he found a huge doe that I gut shot. When we first brought him to the shot sight he took up the trail that the deer came in on. I thought this isn't going to work well my wife took him and tried again and it took him a little bit ( he was gathering information) and boom he found blood  and then he was on the trail there were times where  we did not see any blood and he seemed to be getting what we thought was off the trail and we pulled him back to what we thought was the right direction. Turned out we were wrong we were In 4 ft. Of tall grass and the thickest brush and he knew where that deer went. Had we trusted him we would have found her a lot sooner.
To attest how smart we got a electronic fence that takes up to 4 weeks to train your dog to stay in it boundries Fletch had it in a day and half.
My wife and I say this is our one and only beagle. But, I can't imagine life without him.
Tim.

[larry]

as far as male vs. female, I've found that the females tend to be less hard headed and slightly more willing to please you. I had one beagle that would run grouse, her voice would change to more of a yip when she was on a grouse, but they are not pointers, you have to be right with the dog if you plan on getting a shot when they flush.

[larry]

one other thing, as far as a hunting dog goes, a lot of trial dogs (which generally have excellent hunting lines) are bred and geared for speed. Personally, when hunting with the bow, I like a medium to slow running dog, around here, a fast dog on the track will cause the rabbits to hole up fairly quick, where as with a slower running dog, the rabbits will just lope along, staying ahead of the dog, stopping now and again to check if the dog is still on them. makes for more shot opportunities.    

[george gray]

We have a dog that's half beagle.The other half cattle dog of some sort.I took him back to the hog pin I mean I carried him there and put him down close to a rabbit and he ran back to the house.

[ron w]

Many, many years ago a friend had a hound the was half beagle and half Black and Tan hound. Her name was Rhubarb and she looked like a Black and Tan hound but hat the build of a 13" beagle. That was the best hunting dog I ever walked behind. She would speed up for Snowshoe hare and slow down for cottontails, she would work the base of a tree if a squirrel  was up there and she would range right in front if a grouse was present and then flush. I would have a beagle in a heartbeat if it was like her.

[razorback]

Ron, I believe you be guilty of spoiling your dog

[Gil Verwey]

In regard to sex of your future dog, I would recommend a female. I have had both male and female Beagles and English Setters. I have also owned a female Doberman. I have a female chocolate Lab and English Setter now.

Female dogs bind more to the family and people, while male dogs bind more to the property. They do bond to the family, but they are protective of their territory. I have found male dogs to be more stubborn than females. I have found male dogs to bark more and my male hunting dogs would pee on anything that didn't move. If I didn't keep moving they would have peeed on me too. Many people believe that a male hunting dog is a better hunter, since they feel the males are larger and more aggressive. I have found my females to be smart, receptive and as good hunters. Gee it sounds more like I am talking about humans!

With a female dog you have some other concerns about when they go into season. One of my English Setters would go into season right in bird season. Therefore while hunting with other dogs in the area it becomes a distraction, since you would not her bred that way. If you do not want to breed her you can spade her.

The good thing about dogs is that you are their hero and their love is unconditional. I read an article in Gun Dog by a famous trainer. He stated that a smart adult dog has the mind and intelligence of a two year old child. Would you train a two year old child using corporal punishment. Don't do that. Think of your dog as a two year old child and train it appropriately.

[Homebru]

One mans "stubborn" is another mans "tenacious" or "dedicated".  Hard to pull them off of a hot trail but, THAT is what they're for.

Love beagles.
homebru

[Mr. fingers]

That makes sense what Gil said about males being territorial of there property my beagle Fletcher is very protective of his yard he will relentlessly bark and anybody passing by our yard.
I'm sure the neighbors just love it    :rolleyes:   too.
Unless you plan to breed I would get a female fixed right off the bat.
We have a white lab next door and when she goes into heat we have one love sick beagle. To the point he keeps us up at night pacing and whimpering through the house looking for love out the window that faces there house.