I tried doing my dog breed research before getting Sparky, but all the information was so vague. This article from a beagle rescue in Oregon, gets the breed. Dog writers really need an editor, but they make good points.
Beagles need guidance as they are extremely smart.
Everything Sparky does is deliberate. He makes no mistakes. Sparky won’t try to do a thing, I just turn my back, and he’s done it.
Trash, food, candy dishes..nothing is sacred to a beagle. They are NOT the type of dog you can be watching TV with while eating a pizza and expect to get up to answer the phone and returning to anything other than an empty pizza box..if that!
Sparky is a trash hound. He pays no attention to the garbage can, unless he can get to it. Then, when I’m not looking, he takes what he wants. Three times, Sparky has stolen a loaf of bread because I put grocery bags on the floor. He ignores it until I take some canned food downstairs. Sparky also stole a bag of marshmallows.
Some are bolters and dashers, others are wanderers. It’s not that they are running away from you or your home..it’s just that they are running “to” something that caught their noses.
Sparky has gotten out of the house five times. He is so charming and polite that he lulls me into complacency. He’s never bolts out of the door. I watch a TV show, then notice that Sparky is gone because I left a door open somewhere.
Beagles simply cannot be trusted to be off-leash, or to consistently obey their owners when they are outside.
Sparky’s brush anchor makes him think he can’t run away. He gets stuck often enough that he doesn’t try to wander off. When given a command, Sparky doesn’t obey. He either agrees or doesn’t.
It may seem at times that they forgot everything you taught them. Not true. They just make decisions on their own sometimes.
Beagles are not programmed to please their people…they are more like party animals who manipulate you into thinking they want to please you.
Sparky is bullshitting me all the time.
Beagles are house dogs; not “outside” dogs. They are very social and people-oriented. They are very pack oriented and consider YOU their pack so naturally, they are not happy in the yard by themselves.
This doesn’t seem like it’s true, because Sparky loves sniffing around in the yard and woods, but I think it is. I put up a dog-run cable for Sparky. He can roam a 100 feet, even into the woods a bit, and 10 feet on either side. If I put him on the cable and go in the house, he sits in the yard looking at the patio door.
Sparky is a cute puzzle.
