“Beagles are Remarkable”  

By Gary Ramsey, Published in the Adirondack Express on January 29, 2008

About nine years ago our daughter brought home a Beagle puppy.  At the time, we had just lost our Newfoundland to a car accident and didn’t want another dog just yet.  Besides, Beagles are not family pets, they’re just hounds with that annoying howl.  But when that endearing little puppy arrived with those big, sad eyes our minds changed in a hurry.  My daughter named this soft, white and brown female Beagle, Tilly.

Tilly house trained easily and became an adorable family pet.  She loves people and tries to cuddle up next to you when ever she can.   If your sitting on the couch, before you know it Tilly will be beside you with her head on your lap.  She doesn’t bark much either and rarely does she howl.  Hmmm… maybe Beagles aren’t just “hounds” relegated to the field and outdoors.

When Tilly was almost a year old I took her on her first hunting trip.  I turned her loose in a briar patch and within minutes Tilly picked up the scent and was on her way, howling and barking as Beagles do.  After taking several rabbits, I attempted to collect Tilly to go home but I couldn’t get her off the trail of those darn rabbits!  Eventually, I was able to “cut her off” and “catch her.”  A few weeks later, a friend of mine with a “seasoned” Beagle offered to let Tilly work with his dog, Kip.  At the hunting spot, Kip started hunting immediately and Tilly followed.  Within just minutes, Tilly lost all interest and wandered back to the truck.  I thought her first hunt was just luck and Tilly probably needed a lot of work to be a good hunting dog. Lacking the knowledge to train a dog, I began thinking about how to get her properly trained for the field.  Then Pat suggested putting Kip in the truck and let Tilly run alone.  To my amazement, Tilly started hunting again and we each took a few snowshoes in front of her that day.  Pat, who had a lot more experience with dogs, assured me some dogs just won’t hunt with other dogs.  He was right.  Tilly became a fine rabbit dog, as a lone hunter, all on her own -- I was only a bystander in the whole process.  The only thing I did was to teach her to come back (but only after a good run) to a biscuit treat.

Like all our previous dogs, Tilly is one of the family.  She sleeps inside and is “in” much more than she is “out.”  Some of my friends said I would ruin her as a hunting dog by spoiling her that way.  Not so.  Whenever you let Tilly out in a rabbit patch, she starts to work right away yet is perfectly content to sleep by the wood stove or join you on the couch on a cold winter night.  Tilly is nine now, and although a bit overweight, she still has what it takes.  We took her out just the other day and away she went howling after those snowshoe hares.

One cold night in December, my wife was bringing in wood and had Tilly outside with her.  Suddenly, she heard Tilly take off on a scent.  It was about 4:00 PM.  She tried to catch up to her but couldn’t keep up in the snow.  When I arrived home at 4:30 PM, Marilyn immediately told me what happened.  It was getting dark so we began tracking her with flashlights.  The forecast for the night was cold, real cold, with an overnight low of around 6 degrees.  Shortly after I picked up her trail in the snow, I found snowshoe rabbit tracks -- lots of them.  This isn’t good!  We followed her for another hour and half and then gave up when her tracks headed into a hemlock swamp.  It was dark, cold, and too dangerous to try to follow her through that swamp.  We were certain she wouldn’t survive the night.  Although she is a tenacious Beagle, she had never spent a night outside her whole life let alone single digit temperatures!  Marilyn canvassed all the neighbors that were home on our road just in case one of them saw her earlier in the day.  One neighbor thought they may have seen her around 4:30 or so, but there was no sign of her there.  We had done all we could for the night.

We got up early the next morning and headed out before breakfast.  It was cold when we left, two below.  We looked for a couple hours, looking for her frozen body in the snow.  We came back to the house for coffee just as the phone rang.  It was another neighbor, “your dog is running around out back.”  We went right down, but couldn’t find her.  Upon returning to the house, she was laying at the front steps, 17 hours from when she left and over a night that was below zero!  There was ice crusted between all her toes, the hair on her belly was frozen completely with solid ice.  She could barely move her hind legs.  We carried her to the house, wrapped her in a blanket and put her on the couch.  She spent the rest of the day and that night on the couch, but the next day she was back to normal.  She did have frost bite between her toes and on the bare part of her belly.  It look a few weeks of nurturing on her part for the redness to disappear.

Beagles are truly remarkable dogs.  They’re tough, fun-loving, hard working, a bit determined when on the trail but they always seem to know their way back.  If anyone tries to tell you that Beagles are only hounds and don’t make good pets, they’re wrong.  Also, at least in our experience, you don’t spoil a hunting dog by letting them stay inside.  Tilly is a true member of our family, loves the grand children and is always ready for the hunt whenever I take her out.  If you’re looking for some winter fun, get a Beagle and go rabbit hunting.  Although we hope Tilly lives forever, and no dog will ever replace her, I am certain our next dog will be the remarkable Beagle!

 

 

 

Tilly with Grandson Zach