My Life with Dogs » Pocket Beagles

Aggression in Pocket Beagles?

Lynda — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:51:54 +0000

Beagles are one of the most non-aggressive breed of dogs. They are known for being non-aggressive to other dogs and people. Yet, here is a question I received about a little pocket beagle that is a bit “off-center”.

The Question:

We purchased our 10 inch beagle in Downeast Maine in 2001. She is 8 years old and weighs about 18 lbs. My question is, are they known to be a bit protective or aggressive. Ours is a little aggressive with men who enter our home that she is not familiar with. If a woman or child enters our home, it has never been a problem. If an unfamiliar male enters she growls and tries to get their ankles. She never really seemed to do this until we moved from Maine to our apartment in Florida. My husband was also on a ship at that time, leaving for a couple of weeks to a month at a time.

We now live in Western NY and she has a yard to run in. She still seems to be a bit agressive though. Outside we do have to keep her on a runner (it reaches about half of our full backyard with plenty of exercise opportunity for her) as we live near woods and I do not want her to run off. I am afraid if she were to get loose, she may either bite at someone she does not know or be hit by a car. She also tries to bite the tires on cars as they drive by when we have tried to take her for walks. I am really not sure how to help her with this behavior. I would appreciate any advice you have. There are not a lot of pocket beagle owners that we are aware of, so it seems information is hard to find locally.

My Answer:

My pocket beagles are not protective nor aggressive. It is not the normal nature of a beagle to have these traits. I do believe that these traits can have a genetic component so, personally, I would not breed a pocket beagle or beagle that showed this kind of behavior.

The other side of the coin is that your pocket beagle could have learned this behavior. After reading your message, I have several questions for you:

Since the beagle didn’t develop this till you moved to Fl, could your dog have been reading off your apprehension being in a new place in FL without your man when other MEN came into your home? Dogs are extremely sensitive to your emotional nature. Dogs that care about you easily pick up on your apprehension and maybe it was her way of keeping Men at bay for you.

Regardless of the cause of the behavior the important question is: What do you do when the beagle is aggressive? How do you tell you it is not acceptable behavior? You always make a response to her behavior whether you know it or not. You either show her you accept it or you are displeased with it.

I think for the behavior to have continued over this long period of time, your dog thinks you accept her behavior. You must take more control of the situation if you want the behavior to stop. You need to read your dog’s behavior and stop it before she starts it.

I also think that putting a dog on a runner oftentimes makes them more aggressive than they would be – which may be related to the frustration of never being free. Is your yard fenced – no? I don’t want her to run off and bite someone or get hit by a car but she has to have some time to be a dog. Do you have a dog park? Beagles are bred to run and even at her age her instinct is to run and follow that scent.

So I would suggest that you get her more exercise. At 10″ and 18 lbs she is a chuncky girl. Work out some of the extra energy and take more control of her behavior when she is aggressive..

For great pointers on how to work with this problem check out The Dog Whisperer on National Geo – also check out his website Cesar Milan. He often has dogs with similar problems on his show and talks a great deal about this problem

Hope this helps. Keep us in loop with your progress.

Spiderman arrives Boise

Lynda — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:22:32 +0000

Whew, getting Tom aka Spiderman to his new home in Boise was a feat! The little guy had to leave Shreveport, fly to Memphis, on to Minneapolis and then into Boise. Our first attempt was cancelled due to temps over 85 in Boise. The second attempt required an early morning departure from Shreveport. We loaded Spiderman up and headed for Shreveport the night before. What a wonderful pup! He was perfect! Never made a sound in the Holiday Inn and was perfect in his crate for the trip on Northwest Airlines

Of course, the 6:30 a.m. flight was a hour late and he missed his connection from Memphis to Minneapolis. Then the temperature was too hot to fly him later in the afternoon. He waited in the Pet Facility and finally flew off to Boise at 9:00p.m. that night. He arrived at midnight. Calm and cool and ready for his new life. God love beagles. They can be so cool!

From Pocket Beagle Puppies born May 20th

Pocket Beagle of the Month Winner

Lynda — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:57:00 +0000

Meet Mugs: Pocket Beagle for the Month of June

Owners: Dottie and Rob Wotherspoon
Orlando, Florida
Mugs was born October 29, 2007 and she is a fun loving female.

www.pocket-beagle.com

Jake’s puppies

Lynda — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:48:48 +0000

Several months ago, I received this great handwritten letter in the mail:

Hi, my name is Jake. My dad’s name is Pete. I turned nine in June. I think I’m old enough to have a puppy and take good care of the dog. I would like to have a girl pocket beagle. My dad is building a fence around the back year so we can play. You can send me and my dad any information at his email address. If you have any puppy pictures I love to see them.

Thank you. Jake

Enclosed with the letter was a deposit for a beagle that was due to be born in about 30 days.

The puppies were born and I sent Jake pictures and updates on the pups. He chose the one he wanted.

Nine weeks later, the pup was sent on a road trip to its new family and Jake. I didn’t hear a word!

Then about a week later I received this pic and email:

Dear Mrs. McCall, The puppies came a few days ago. It was the best day in my entire life when I saw the two puppies. I thought I was only getting one. I had named one KC before they got here from the pictures you sent. They were a little scared at first but now we are good friends. They are so soft and cuddly and they love licking me. They sleep in my room, but in a crate, until they get older. I am so glad you sent me two
puppies. I will take great care of them.

Thank you so so so so so so so so so so so much,

love’

KC, Bella, and Jake

This is greatest reward in breeding dogs. I get to meet some of the best people in world. And Jake, here, is right on track to be one of the great people of the future. Right now, he is one of the great kids!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!

Dog Emotions

Lynda — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 18:41:57 +0000

Do Dogs feel an attachment towards each other? Do they care for each other? Lucky is the great (great) grandfather of several of my beagle Moms. Birdy is the great, great grand aunt of the same beagles. The two of the lived in my beagle retirement home.

The old ones need to have a “safe” place where they can get away from the young dogs. This is even more important when the dogs are “less than perfect.” Lucky has a bit of arthritis. Birdy has cancer. Bad breast cancer.

She had an infection in her milk glands as a young dog and they got enlarge and hung down. Being a pocket beagle they almost reached the ground. At about 10 years of age, she started to develop tumors along her belly. They didn’t grow fast and at her age, we decided not to subject her to any cancer treatment.

Birdie got along fine living with her long time friend, Lucky. They would go for little walk arounds (we have 1000 of acres of wood surrounding us) come in and sleep in the sun. Somedays Birdie would go to Lucky nudge him and head out the dog door. When he didn’t follow she would come back and try and get him to go again. They appeared happy and content.

Finally the tumors started to grow. Movement got difficult for Birdie. One tumor become enormous and Bitsy had to drag it around. I know that many of you would say “Why didn’t you put her down?”

Our philosophy with our dogs, horses and cattle is “where there is life, there is hope” and we don’t put an animal done till it says that it is time.

Birdy never complained. She couldn’t walk far but Lucke encouraged her to move around a bit. When she didn’t want to go, he stayed with her. He cleaned her face, licked her eyes and watched over her.

One evening after 6 to 8 months after Birdy got bad, she was moving really slow when she come to supper. I told the “old man” that she isn’t going to be with us long now. Birdy died that evening.

The next morning we found Lucky sitting beside her in the dog house. He wouldn’t budge.

We also believe that dog’s grieve over death.. so we left him alone. After about 48 hours, we had to take her. He just watched and then went into a howl that he continued for several days. I thought he was going to die.

I put his two granddaughters in the pen with him in hopes that it would take his mind off of his loss. It did! He quit howling.

It has been about 6 months since Birdy passed. Lucky is OK. He is not happy but he is OK. He goes on little walks by himself. He loves to be petted and always greets me with a wagging tail. But one day I know he is going to go for a walk and not come back. He will go off to die.

Super Mom, Julie

Lynda — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:59:01 +0000

In Honor of the great Dog and Horse Moms that I have had the pleasure of knowing.

Julie, Julie, Julie. An amazing Miniature Beagle Mom that I was blessed to have. Julia had many pups over the course of her life and she loved every single one of them. In fact she loved all puppies. Her’s, her sisters’, her nieces! If it was puppy she loved it and would care for it.

One year,I created a spot for Julie to have her pup at the end of the concrete alleyway between the runs in my kennel and the backwall. I fixed up a den made of straw and she was delighted with the arrangement. She kept her 5 puppies snuggled up in a ball right in the center of the den.

About 2 weeks after Julie whelped, another little miniature beagle girl had her first litter. Everything seemed to go wrong for her! She lost one puppy. Then another. Nothing I did seemed to help! Within a few days we were down to the last pup and he wasn’t looking good.

I decided to try a crazy thing. I would give the last little pup to Julie, My SuperMom. By now, Julie’s pups were plump and 2 to 3 times bigger than this poor little pup that was clinging to life.

As I placed the pup in the group with her other pups, I thought, “This will never work. The pup can’t compete for a teat. He can barely move.” I was sure that he would be pushed out of the den and away from the other pups.

With my options down to double or nothing, I left the pup with Julie and her other babies, vowing to return in an hour or so to see how things were going.

When I returned, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Julie had made a new nest about a foot from her puppies’ nest. In the middle of this nest, lay the little orphaned puppy with his new Mom, Julie. She was licking him and cuddling him as he nursed.

Julie maintained these two nests, keeping the lone pup warm and full as well as her own pups. After a couple of weeks Julie must have decided that the little guy was big and strong enough to mix in with her pups because I found all the pups in the same pile of puppies.

Julie nutured all the pups into healthy, happy little pocket beagles. I named the little orphaned puppy, Lucky. Lucky to have survived. Lucky to have had Julie accept him.

Lucky grew into a beautiful male and I used him as the stud dog for my kennels for many years. He was the sire of many puppies and is in the pedigree of almost all the puppies that we have today.

Today Lucky is 13 years old and still lucky. The last couple of years, he and one of his lifelong girl friends lived together in a retirement village on the farm. His mate, Birdy, developed breast cancer in her later years. She manages to get along OK and they waddle around the ranch. Lucky with his arthritis and Bitsy with her enlarged teat. He cleans her face, guards over her and encourages her to take a little exercise every day.

This behavior is a bit out of type for a male dog but it reminds me of the great care that he had a pup. The nurturing of the young is one of the most important thing that determines what kind of adults they will be.

In my experience, I have found this to be true for dogs, horses, cattle and people.