Beagle Nose To The Ground

If you've been meaning to pick up a 5-foot-tall polyurethane sculpture of Snoopy for the rec room or the front lawn, you're in luck. St. Paul, Minnesota, is auctioning off more than 60 of these works of art, which have been on display in the city and its environs since June 14.


"They're our Statue of Liberty," said one city official about the 225-pound sculptures that were featured in a putting-on-the-dog tribute to native son Charles Schulz, who created the comic strip "Peanuts" in which Snoopy appeared.

If the pedigreed dog fancy had a Statue of Liberty, it would be sculpted in the image of a beagle, too. When "Peanuts" made its official debut on October 2, 1950, the beagle ranked second in the American Kennel Club's (AKC) annual count of new registrations. Since then the beagle has ranked no lower than 9th on the AKC's hit parade, and from 1953 through 1959 the little hound with the big ears was America's most popular dog. Indeed, there has never been a time since the AKC's inception in 1884 that the beagle was not one of the most popular breeds in this country.

Hounds in Gloves

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the word beagle first appeared in the English language in 1475 in the following passage from the Squire of Low Degree: "With theyr begles in that place, And sevenscore raches at his rechase." (Raches were small hounds brought to France from England during the 14th century. Heaven only knows what a rechase was - or is.) The OED speculates that beagle evolved from the French beguele, meaning "open throat," and was generally applied to a shouting, noisy person.

Beagles and their reasonable facsimiles preexisted the word beagle for many centuries in Great Britain. When Roman invaders arrived in the year 43, they brought small hounds along, and these hounds made conquests of their own among the small hounds then living in Britain.

The next major contribution to the British hounds' gene pool was provided by William, Duke of Normandy, who defeated Harold, King of England, in the Battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066. In addition to the French language, which English rulers and nobility spoke for the next 300 years, William brought large, mostly white Talbot hounds to England from the European continent. These hounds are thought to have contributed to the development of the Southern hound, a slow moving fellow with large ears and a deep voice that is one of the ancestors of the modern-day beagle.

Although William was partial to Talbot hounds, subsequent rulers of England favored beagles. Edward II (1307-27), who acquitted himself poorly as soldier and king - and offended English nobility by lavishing money and other rewards on his male favorites - is remembered among dog lovers nevertheless for keeping a pack of glove beagles, who had come by this name because they were tiny enough to fit on a glove.

The beagle's popularity extended through the reigns of Henry VII (1485-1509) and Elizabeth I (1558-1603). The latter, who never married although she was an incessant flirt, kept packs of pocket beagles that were only nine inches high at the withers. When Elizabeth and other nobles went riding, they took the pocket beagles along, releasing them only after the larger hounds in attendance were hot on the trail of whatever prey was on the menu that day.

By the beginning of the 18th century, as Alexander Pope noted in the couplet that opened this article, men had discovered the pleasure of repairing to the field with a pack of well-bred beagles to watch them perform their artistry. Within 50 years, however, the beagle went into decline as foxhunting, a far more exhilarating chase, became all the rage. Ironically, the beagle was obliged to contribute to its own decline by participating in arranged marriages with a larger variety of hound called the buck hound, which was already employed in hunting fox. These unions produced the ancestors of the present-day fox hound.

As foxhunting grew in popularity, the beagle's fortunes declined to such an extent that the breed might have become extinct were it not for the farmers and small landowners of the southern counties of England, who maintained packs of beagles that were used to flush rabbits into shooting range. But for the efforts of these yeoman and their counterparts in Ireland and Wales, the beagle might have become extinct.

A dog as beguiling as the beagle makes a poor candidate for extinction. Thus, a number of beagle fanciers started The Beagle Club in 1890 "to promote the breeding of beagles for show and sporting purposes." Five years later the first standard for the breed was published, and in 1897 The Beagle Club sponsored its first show.

Beagles arrived in the United States before the colonies had become united. From their earliest arrival in this country, beagles' ability to help put game on the table made them useful, and hence popular. Their affability and devotion to good company made them even more popular. There are few things as consistent and cuddlesome as a beagle.

Nose to the Ground
The beagle is a scent hound or, as dog authority Dave Barry has observed, "a nose with feet." This configuration enables the beagle to excel at sniffing out rabbits in the field, contraband fruit at airports, or termites grazing behind the wall of a house.

The beagle's inclination to follow his nose also makes him a challenge for people whose pursuits are more sedentary. Left to his own devices for long periods of time without a task to perform (even if it's nothing more than a good, brisk walk each day), the beagle will start to look for ways to amuse himself. Random chewing, digging and howling are his top three choices.

Beagles are intelligent and adept at solving problems. These qualities, however, can make beagles difficult to train because intelligent, problem-solving dogs sometimes become bored with routine exercises. When beagles get bored, they're apt to look for a different way to achieve the desired result of an exercise, or they might choose to pursue a different result altogether. That's why few beagles have obedience titles.

A beagle isn't a yappy dog, but it will bark and/or growl when strangers of any species come into its territory. A beagle will also bark when he's excited or he's bored, as he's sure to be if he's left alone too long. Because beagles were bred as a pack animals, they are inclined to get along well with other dogs - and with cats, too.
Beagles are as happy to play with children as children are to play with them. 

Nevertheless, beagles, like any other dog, should never be left alone with young children. Beagles are inclined to play - if not roughly, rambunctiously - and their spiritedness can may lead to accidental injuries to their playmates. What's more, beagles are often "mouthy." They aren't biters, but they will use their mouths like an infant uses its hands, for investigative purposes.

Maintenance
Beagles are clean dogs and seldom require a bath unless they've been rolling about in decomposing wildlife. Their medium-length double coat - coarse outer coat over a soft undercoat - should be brushed with a medium-bristled brush or a hound glove at least once a week. Regular brushing helps to loosen and remove dead hair, thereby making way for new hair growth.

Beagles generally shed more in the spring, as their coats are inclined to thicken during the winter. Shedding is caused by an increase in light, not temperature. The greater the exposure to light, the greater the shedding. Exposure to increasing light usually correlates with a rise in temperature during the spring, and that is why some people believe dogs begin to shed because the weather has turned warm.

The beagle's generous, low-riding ears should be inspected at least every two weeks for signs of infection or waxy build-up. When a beagle's ears need cleaning, a session with an ear wash should be sufficient. Odor emanating from a beagle's ears is a sign of yeast build-up or some other kind of infection. Other signs of ear infections include head shaking and scratching. These signs indicate a trip to the veterinarian.

Colors and Combinations

Beagles come in two sizes: the 13-inch model does not exceed 13 inches from floor to withers; the 15-inch model is more than 13 inches tall but no more than 15 inches. Whatever their size, beagles are most commonly arrayed in black, white and tan: a black saddle, white legs, chest and belly, and a tan head. Other color combinations include read and white, and lemon and white. Black and white beagles are rare, and all-white beagles are even more rare. Many beagles have a white blaze on the face, but a solid tan face is common, too.