Beagle Puppies

A hound small enough to follow on foot

Hounds that hunted hare by scent turn up in English writing for centuries before anything called a Beagle was standardised, and the small ones were always the practical choice. A big pack needs horses. A pack of little hounds that work a hedgerow at walking pace can be followed by someone on foot with a horn, which is exactly why the type survived in country parishes long after the grand hunts moved on.

The modern breed comes out of one of those parishes. In the 1830s the Reverend Phillip Honeywood put together a pack in Essex that is generally treated as the foundation of the Beagle as we know it, bred for nose and voice rather than for looks. Thomas Johnson took up the work shortly after and produced hounds that were handsome as well as useful, which is the version that crossed the Atlantic. American breeders imported steadily through the 1870s, and the American Kennel Club recognised the Beagle in 1885.

The name itself is an old argument. One line traces it to the Old French becgueule, roughly “gape throat”, for the noise a pack makes on a line. Another prefers the Gaelic beag, simply meaning small. Either explanation fits the dog.

Two sizes and one very good outline

The American standard splits the breed into two varieties by height: one for hounds thirteen inches and under at the shoulder, and one for hounds over thirteen and up to fifteen. Weight generally runs somewhere between twenty and thirty pounds, and the difference between the two sizes is far less obvious in a pen full of puppies than it sounds on paper.

The build is compact and solidly made — a hound in miniature rather than a small dog. The skull is broad and slightly domed, the muzzle square-cut, and the eyes are large, wide-set and brown or hazel, which is most of the reason people stop at the window. The ears are long, low-set and rounded at the tip, and when you draw one gently forward it reaches nearly to the end of the nose.

The tail is the detail worth knowing about. It carries up in a slight curve and finishes with a white tip, and that white tip has a purpose: a hound with its head down in tall cover is invisible except for a flag waving above the grass. It was bred in so the person walking behind could see where the pack had got to.

The coat is short, dense, close-lying and weather-resistant. Tricolour — black, white and tan — is the picture most people carry in their heads, and it is worth knowing that tricolour puppies are often born black and white and grow the tan in over the first months. Lemon and white, red and white, and the ticked patterns that get called blue tick and red tick are all part of the breed as well, and no two hounds are marked quite alike.

Merry is the official word

The breed standard describes the Beagle as merry, and it is a rare case of an official document getting a dog exactly right. This is a cheerful, level, outgoing hound with very little side to it. Pack hounds were bred to work shoulder to shoulder with other dogs and to be handled by anyone who picked up the lead, and centuries of that leave a dog who assumes everybody is a friend and most days are going to be good.

At home that translates into a companionable dog who wants to be where the household is. A Beagle will follow the cooking, insert itself into the middle of a game, and sleep pressed against whoever sits still longest. They are easy with children, straightforward with other dogs, and a Beagle raised alongside a cat generally treats the cat as part of the furniture.

They also have a voice, and it is a good one. The bay is a rounded, carrying, unmistakably hound sound, and it comes out for the doorbell, the delivery van and anything else the household ought to know about. You will always be told when someone is at the door.

They like company, and short absences are worth building into the routine from the first week — a chew to work on, no ceremony on the way out or the way back in. A puppy who learns early that people come back takes the pattern in stride.

What the nose does to a walk

A Beagle’s scenting ability is among the very best in dogs, and the whole animal is arranged around it. The long ears stir scent up off the ground toward the nose. The loose skin at the throat holds it there. The low, deliberate head carriage keeps the equipment where the work is.

That is worth understanding before your first walk together, because you are not really going for a walk. You are accompanying an investigation. A Beagle on a line of scent is completely absorbed in it, and watching that absorption is one of the quiet pleasures of owning one. Most owners settle into a long lead or a securely fenced yard and let the hound read the ground properly, which is the entire point of going out.

Twenty unhurried minutes of nose work does more for a Beagle than twice as long spent marching. Give the hobby somewhere to go and you have a very easy dog: scatter a handful of kibble in the grass, hide a treat under one of three cups, take the next street over instead of the usual block. The same talent has made the breed the obvious choice for agricultural inspection teams at airports, where a small, friendly hound can work a crowded baggage hall all day and be pleased to see everyone in it.

Training, paid in cheese

A scent hound was bred to solve a problem on its own, out in front of the handler, which means a Beagle weighs an instruction before acting on it. That independence is not a shortage of brains. It is the thing that made the breed useful, and it responds beautifully once you find the right currency.

The currency is food. A Beagle that has tuned out your voice will still work for cheese, and that single fact is the most useful thing anyone can tell you about teaching this breed. Keep sessions short, cheerful and well paid. Ask for one thing at a time, mark it the instant it happens, and stop while the hound still wants another go.

Recall is the piece to invest in, and the way to build it is a long line, an open space, and payment every single time in something better than kibble. Because the appetite is such a strong lever, most owners measure meals rather than filling the bowl and count training treats against the day’s total. It keeps the rewards worth having, and it means there is always a Beagle in the kitchen ready to work for the next piece of cheese.

Grooming barely counts as a task. A rubber curry or a hound glove once a week lifts the loose hair and brings up the shine, and most Beagles fall asleep partway through. Wipe the ears while you groom and dry them properly after a bath. Nails a little and often, teeth brushed as routine, and that is the whole job in about ten minutes a week.

Coming to meet the Beagle puppies

A Beagle in a photograph is a set of markings. A Beagle in front of you is a small, dense, surprisingly muscular hound with a soft manner and a nose already at work on your shoelaces, and you cannot judge size, coat or personality until one has climbed into your lap. Littermates differ more in character than they do in looks, and ten minutes on the floor usually sorts out which one is yours.

Our Beagle puppies come from our network of licensed breeders, and our team can tell you what a particular puppy’s parents were like. We have a store in Orlando and one in Nashville, and you are welcome to sit with a puppy for as long as you like before deciding anything. Find directions and hours, and ask about financing while you are here. Every puppy here goes home with its vet records, its vaccination history and a health warranty, and our team will walk you through what those cover.