I'd like to get a beagle for a part-time hunting dog but have heard that they're very destructive in the house, chewing and destroying everything. Is that true? Does it help to get an older dog with less energy, or are they all like that?

thx

Hunter308

I'd say that by far, the greatest drawback is the constant barking.

If you give your dog lots of exercise you won't have many problems. It never ceases to amaze me that people get a high energy dog and never give it the exercise it needs and the dog misbehaves and chews up the house and they wonder why. Beagles need a fair amount of activity to burn off pent up energy. My mothers beagle was having some issues and she started taking it on off leash walks and the issues went away.The best way that I can think of to exercise a beagle involves a bunny and a shot gun. Daniel77 is right about the constant barking beagles tend to be quite vocal.

quote:

Originally posted by daniel77:
I'd say that by far, the greatest drawback is the constant barking.

LOL, we have one dog that is part Lab and part Beagle.

My 9 year old daughter tells people she's 1/2 Lab and 1/2 Bugle.

My family has had beagles for years and never had a problem with them destroying things. Now young labs, that's a different story altogether.

My parents have a lot of land and it's invisible fenced, so they can run around a lot, which may help them burn off extra energy.

They're great pets and make a really good upland bird dog.

Pete

quote:

Now young labs, that's a different story altogether.

that's no lie.

Never heard of a beagle as a bird dog. I'd like to hear more.

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Originally posted by wetdog2084:
If you give your dog lots of exercise you won't have many problems.

Have to agree with that. Peace through exhaustion was the frist of three dog handling commandments I learned from my grandfather.

Dean

i have had three beagles and they are all different the one i have now went through a chewing on everything phase but now he only chews on his toys... the only problem that i have had is all three have been very gun shy and i dont know why

Chewing is something that ALL dogs will do. The solution is to not let them get away with chewing anything other than what you want them to chew on. I buy "kongs" and "nylabones" for my dog since they are really the only thing that is going to stand up to his chompers for any reasonable amount of time. I've nipped it in the bud with my dogs, only had a few instances to speak of where they chewed something up (if you don't count my departed golden retriever who chewed everything...). The trick is to catch them in the act and savagely whoop dat ass! If fluffy is chewing on your new tennis shoe you left on the bedroom floor, yank the shoe out of his mouth and beat the hell out of him with it. My methods for de-chewing a dog may not be for everyone, but they do work. When it comes to breaking a dog from something, you can't reason with them, but you can make them understand.