[geeks] Re: Beagles (was Re: Breeding, etc.)

[John Duksta]

At 06:19 AM 4/30/2001 +0000, Kris Kirby wrote:
>Our beagle is probably five now, and has so little training it's not
>funny. Somehow, over a year or so, she has learned commands without really
>being taught. Not many commands, but a few. She's really independent; she
>knows "down", but won't do it on linoleum. Won't eat vegetables, jello,
>cheese (gave her too much medication in it) or fruits. If it ain't meat or
>bread, she's generally not interested.

We got our beagle about a year and a half ago from a no-kill shelter.
According to the folks at the shelter, he was a hunting dog from
New Hampshire and wouldn't hunt anymore and was thus given up as
'rendered useless.' When we went to meet him (we had been scoping out
the shelter's web page for a month or so waiting for the right dog
to show up) while all the other dogs were jumping on their kennels
and barking, he was all curled up and chilling out in his bed. We
knew that this was the dog for us.

Bailey is about 9 or so now. He knows "sit", "car ride", "dinner",
"walk" and "lay down". "Sit" only works immediately if there is a
treat involved, and "lay down" only after about 6 repetitions.
I pretty sure he understands every command we try to give him,
it's just that beagles are incredibly willful and are going to
do what they damn well please, unless there is a food motivator
involved.

He'll eat just about anything you put in front of him, except
mushrooms, but we try not to give him too many table scraps as
he has a tendancy to get pudgy. He also loves to eat crap off the
sidewalks when we're not paying attention. I think that being a
scent-hound, he's much more ruled by his nose and stomach than
he is by us.

Regarding Chris's post about pets as children... our pets are most
definately our children. We refer to Bailey as the 'baby-dog', and
the cats are like teenagers who only talk to you when they want
something (food or a clean litter box).

-john