Friends of ours are lifelong Beagle lovers. I know that as with other dogs with floppy ears, they can tend to get ear infections. The current pair they have seem to be a bit overly energetic, at the opposite end of the spectrum from calm and sedate. I suspect if you do a search for your question, you'll get good info.

Good luck to you and to the pooch.

You going to get one of the rescued beagles from that lab? I hear they are very sweet.

Beagles are high energy and they like to bark. The neighbor had one kept in a cage out back. Not a good dog person.

They are lovable and cuddly. They have a high prey drive. They are usually good with kids. Plan on walking, on leash, several times a day.

ETA: yes, we filled out the same book for our mutt. MinPin, Dachshund, Chihuahua, or Target?

Every breed has pros and cons, but overall Beagles are good family pets, form strong bonds with family members, are generally friendly toward both people and other animals. They are hunting dogs, scent hounds, so they will follow a scent for miles and miles if they are not confined and can be pretty stubborn when following a scent. (Don't just stop and come when you call.). They are vocal and bay which can make you unpopular with your neighbors. They are also prone to separation anxiety.

What I know about Beagles is they have terrible recall...if they are on a scent, it's almost impossible to get them back. They seem to be more instinct driven over human approval. Sounds like whatever dog ends up in your care will be a lucky dog!

Yup, Beagles are bred to run in a pack after prey. But I hope you have success with your adoption.

We quite literally have had to jump through more hoops to adopt our dogs than we had to get a child from foster care.

I adore dogs. Am kind of dog obsessed. Have only ever adopted. I'm completely reaslistic that all dogs have their personalities and quirks. And various breeds then to have certain traits. When I adopt, I try to avoid certain breeds that are not the best match for my own temperment, lifestyle, and personality.

Based on all the beagles I have know and spent long amounts of time with, I would not adopt a beagle unless it was a senior.

Is this your first dog or have you adopted dogs previously?

I worked in the humane industry for 25 years and when I wanted to adopt a 2 year old dog that had some pretty heavy emotional issues (had been mistreated) the rescue denied my application.

I don't have a physical fence around the property, so they wouldn't allow me to adopt a dog.

Didn't matter that I had more experience working with animals than she will ever have, didn't matter that I had successfully trained other dogs that were the same breed as this one to stay within the property lines. Didn't matter that most of the dogs I had adopted over the past 30 years were all emotionally fragile dogs that needed special care. It was rediculous. I checked with some other rescues and most will not let you adopt unless your yard is fenced.

I ended up purchasing a purebred puppy. The breeder had a few questions, but was thrilled that one of his pups would be going to a home where the owner had experience with the breed and had experience with raising puppies and training dogs . . .

When I wanted a companion for my dog I ended up finding an owner who was looking for a home for one of their dogs. Their lives had gotten too busy and they didn't feel they had the time for 4 kids and 6 dogs, so I took one of the dogs off their hands.

I have also seen really bad adoptions from some of the rescues. Dogs that are not suited for a family with kids when they are not good with kids or a dog that needs an experienced owner be adopted out to a complete novice.

They make up rules to make them feel like they are doing the right thing, but half of them have no idea what they are doing.

One of the rules that I often told people how to bypass was that cats couldn't be adopted unless they were going to be kept inside. I agree with that when the cat is litter box trained, but if cat doesn't use the litter box and a farmer wants a barn cat to keep the mice away, why wouldn't you adopt the cat to the farmer? It will have a much better life than living in a tiny cage for the rest of it's life.

It is all crazy

Some of the rescue groups around here are like Nazis. My two dogs have been dead for three years and they were 17 and 15, so it was a long time ago I rescued them. I had to fill out a long application form and then have a home visit. I DO have a fenced yard, but it's a picket fence, which they made me reinforce at places.

Cat rescue was no better. One denied me a cat because I hadn't had my cat in for a 6-month check-up, although we were there earlier that year for a healthy cat. So I found my two cats, my 15 year old Maine Coon ands my three-year-old in the alley in my town, and the third one I got from the Humane Society in 2019.

I know nothing about Beagles, but they seem so sweet, and I was so happy to see them released from the testing company. Is yours one of these?

We tried, really tried. We are dachshund people, have owned three that are in heaven, waiting for me. They contacted the vet, our five references. I sent the video of our condo that they wanted. We got turned down because we did not have a fenced in yard. I explained that even when we were in our houses, we didn't have a fenced in yard. We are big walkers, and the boys all lived long, healthy lives. I guess the people running the rescue organization had the kind of lifestyle that they just sent the dogs out to play. We didn't have that lifestyle with ours .All I could think of was "Then who picks up the poop?"I was disgusted with the whole process.

Jennifer Hogan It seems the more experience one has, the less likely a rescue will give a dog to you. I gotten several wonderful pet quality dogs through private rehoming. Then get criticized for not going through a rescue. LOL I feel I rescued my dogs from the middleman. My opinion is that far too many rescues are not regulated and too many people who run them are nothing more than animal hoarders supporting their habit through non profit status. See a lot of it in the horse industry also. I have horror stories that I have encountered at recues. Once I lied to a rescue to adopt a dangerous dog that had been rehomed 5 times. His foster was afraid of this dog. Nutty person who thought she would find the perfect unicorn home for him. He'd been living in crates for almost a year of his life. We brought him home and had him humanely put down by our own vet 3 days later. The poor dog would never ever have had a good life and could have easily killed someone down the road. Spent 5 hundred dollars to save this poor guy and DH was between jobs at the time. Mybest friend worked at the humane society and it broke my heart to hear her many stories of unadoptable dogs (for good reason) being back doored by "volunteers" to be giving to rescues. She's a passive sort so was afraid to whistle blow the situations as many others who feared losing their jobs if they didn't look the way. We can and should do better.

We ran into issues when trying to adopt from a rescue...apparently they didn't view us as good parents. So we now adopt our pets from the local animal shelters who are more than happy to give the pets to us and will often include either free or deeply discounted spaying.

Over 50 years ago we had a purebred beagle which we got as a stray. Turns out he strayed from us too ... had a severe case of wanderlust. So we gave him to the local hunt club who was more than happy to get him to be part of their beagle pack.

My late Mom and Stepdad had a beagle. She was constantly looking for food and when she didn't get it she would claw at stepdad's arms (Mom had passed away), which had paper thin skin due to his medication. He always looked like he had done ten rounds with Mike Tyson and the house looked like a crime scene due to the blood on his arms getting onto every wall and piece of furniture.

I have a beagle. He will be 10 yrs old next month, and hes a sweetheart. Yes, he gets into mischief, and is very active. He occasionally digs holes, out in his dog run, and gives me a downcast look, when he does, so he knows what hes doing. Hes a lot of company, and I love him to pieces. I am 87 and have no problems keeping up with him. Yes, he bays, or yodels, whichever you want to call it, but, not excessively. Mine is a full sized beagle, not a mid or small sized one. He weighs around 40 pounds, so hes not a lap sized one.

My dogs have all come from rescues and while they grilled me, put me through my paces and paperwork, only once did I have a fence and the fence was the biggest problem. They made an unannounced home visit at 9:30 pm to check the height of my fence and see if it was as I said on the application. They were concerned about a dog jumping the fence. I have always lived in cities where nobody has a fence and walking your dog instead of letting them out in a yard is the expectation. I love how well socialized and non-territorial city dogs are. (Though a few think it is their job to protect our building.)

I like getting dogs that are such mutts you really cannot tell their breed and it is a true guessing game. Sure, it can be a crap shoot, but mine always been sweetie pies with quirks. No yappers, no super attention seekers. Nobody begging for attention. Mellow is the name of my game. I pick a dog based on how they interact with me when I visit them in the shelter. I think I'm pretty good at it. A number of neighbors want me to go with them the next time they go dog shopping at shelters.

Yes, it's the socialization that not having a fenced-in yard provides. We lived in a neighborhood that was shaped like the letter "P", and it took an hour to walk the dog around the block, meeting and talking to everybody. We would let the little kids hold the leash for a few minutes. They were so proud! And the dog was so happy to get the attention. Granted, we had small dachshunds,. Large dogs need to run. But ours did zoomies around the house too.

As I said, I got disgusted with the whole setup. I sometimes think that the people who run the rescue organizations (not the shelter people), are a clique. And they prefer donations to adoptions.

I also agree about walking a dog. It's how I met all my neighbors. And with Murray, I showed two small girls who were terrified of dogs, that dogs could be nice. It took a few weeks but when they came up to the street, on their own, and wanted to pet Murray, I knew we had success.

I didn't have a fenced in yard until I got Carmelita. She was just 8 weeks old but it didn't take her long to start running through the neighbors yard. They didn't mind but I did because I knew I was not going to be able to catch her. So I had part of the backyard fenced in and she and Fred got to run around as much as they liked. I finally took the fence down when my neighbor put up a privacy fence because their german shorthair pointer was able to jump the chain link with no problem. It was an opportunity to get my backyard back because by then Carmelita always stayed right with me when we were outside. Fred had passed and she would not go anywhere without me.

The socialization cannot be stressed enough. Walking is good for the dog's brain and emotional well being.

Last year I adopted a beagle/Jack Russell mix from a shelter. He was 13, so I suspect the shelter went a little easier on me, but maybe not. I joked to a friend that the application was 28 pages long. An exaggeration, but it was definitely long. I was 82, and I gave my daughter's name as someone who would take responsibility for the dog if needed. The shelter called her to confirm this.

I've had many dogs in the past, but Bowie (as in David) is my first beagle mix. His eyesight and hearing are failing, but his nose is sharp. Another defining quality of the breed is his ability to be stubborn. If he doesn't want to go in a certain direction (such as toward my car if we have a vet appointment), he simply plants himself where he is. Bowie weighs 30 lbs., but he has a BIG bark! He used it often at night last year when I was sleeping upstairs and he slept downstairs. Arthritis made it impossible for him to do that many stairs. But I was hospitalized during October and November, and I've been sleeping downstairs since then. Bowie is quietly happy that we're together at night.

As Elmer mentioned, the floppy-eared breeds are susceptible to ear infections, and that has been my experience with Bowie. Also, he has a prey drive. His former owner told the shelter that he was good with cats, but he is not. He is, however, wonderful with kids. He's also devoted to me, and although he sleeps a lot at 14, he always seems to take note of where I am, and follows me. Telling him, "Don't get up; I'm coming right back," is useless. lol Many dogs will do this, but I've read that the hounds are noted for it.

Dog fighting is still very much around, albeit illegally, and the nice man who shows up at the shelter with a couple of kids, saying he's looking for a family dog, could very well be looking for a dog to train for fighting, or a puppy or kitten to use as bait. Shelters deal with this, among other things. They have my sympathy.

Bowie is quite attached to his plush squeaky toys, especially Lambchop.

I have a fundamental issue with NO KILL philosophy and the large number of independent rescues.

Back in the 70s and 80s we had a horrendous pet overpopulation problem. The humane industry began all the spay/neuter campaigns. (remember Bob Barker reminding everyone to spay and neuter)

We reduced the number of animals entering shelters from 15 million a year to 7.5 million a year between 1970 and 2000. We also saw a societal change in the way people viewed pets. Our pets became part of the family, not a dog that sat in the back yard or a cat that roamed the neighborhood and got fed once a day at the back door.

Around 2000 is when we saw a big shift away from these campaigns and toward NO KILL.

There were huge grants available to shelters to become "No Kill".

From 2000 to 2010 the number of animal intakes was relatively stable

dropped from 7.5 million to 7.1 million. Adoptions increase from 3.25 million to 3.4 million.

The requirements for grants were based on the desire to become no kill. Each year the requirements to get grants got harder to meet and our shelters had to get more creative to continue to get the grants.

By 2010 the grant money was pretty much available only to those who were successfully meeting the no-kill numbers. Between 2010 and 2020 the number of animal intakes dropped by almost 2 million, from 7.1 to 5.3 million. 5 times faster than the previous decade.

Adoptions increase from 3.4 million to 3.9 million and euthanasia dropped from 3.1 million to 620,000.

How did they drop the euthanasia rate so dramatically? The number of people owning pets hasn't really changed. The overall pet populations are continuing to drop due to the awareness of Spay Neuter / Pet overpopulation, but nothing dramatic happened between 2010 and 2020 except the grant funding.

Shelters had to figure out how to get the numbers, so instead of continuing to focus on lowering the pet population and educating the public we needed to fix the numbers.

Step 1 - don't accept dogs or cats that are not likely to be adopted.

Step 2 - transfer animals to someone or somewhere else so they are counted as live outcomes.

Independent shelters, non animal control facilities stopped accepting any animal that was brought to them, limiting intakes to only easier to adopt animals and a handful of bleeding heart stories that could be used to optimize public donations.

Many communities separated animal control and humane facilities, so your stray and feral populations got eliminated from the shelter count. Animal Control is paid for by tax dollars and doesn't rely on grants or donations. The local shelter could refer people to animal control if they owned a dog or cat that was deemed "hard to adopt".

But, if you wanted the grant money, you still had to either greatly increase the number of animals being adopted or find ways to further eliminate animals that were not getting adopted without euthanizing the animal.

For cats we created Spay/Neuter and release programs (TNR). Instead of euthanizing stray cats we would fix them and release them back onto the streets. Millions of cats have been taken added to the street cat population instead of being euthanized. Millions more are breeding street cats where community shelters are not accepting stray cats nor participating in a TNR program.

Dogs are a bit more difficult - can't just fix and release. Stray dogs running loose run into traffic and cause car accidents and pose a bite risk to the human population. But we could transfer these animals independent rescues. Even if it needs to be euthanized a week later the transfer is was counted as a live outcome. Owner surrenders for euthanasia never count toward the shelter's Euthanasia rate, so the rescue could bring the animal in and request that the animal be euthanized and it became an Owner surrender for euthanasia.

We also sent animals from one shelter to another (each counting as a new intake). If you move 100 dogs 6 times and each shelter deems 10% unadoptable you can reduce the population by half without going over the 10% threshold.

Shelters are happy to work with the independent rescues in order to reduce their euth rates and qualify for the grants. The independent rescues have their pick of the dogs going up for adoption and take them free of charge. Most shelters provided the spay/neuter and first shots as part of the deal.

So 15 years ago you could walk through the shelter and pick the dog you wanted, now you only see the leftovers that none of the rescues snatched up first. But you can't just go to the rescue and adopt the same animal at the same cost. Now instead of $50-$150 you can expect to pay $350-$600.

The shift from funding prevention (spay/neuter) to funding mitigation (No-Kill operations) has caused the fight against overpopulation to stall.

Has anyone experienced being turned down for an adoption because they are too old?

I adopted two dogs from the Humane Society, one from a rescue. I don't recall any specific questions, but if my memory is serving the questionnaire was more involved with the rescue. When I got my first dog, which was from the Hum Soc, I did not not have a gated yard and they still let me adopt, and my other two I only had a small dog pen, the yard did not have a fence, and they let me adopt.

"So 15 years ago you could walk through the shelter and pick the dog you wanted, now you only see the leftovers that none of the rescues snatched up first."

Your explanation is interesting and may be the reason I don't see that many "good" dogs on the Humane Society webpage anymore. Yes, "good" is subjective, but it seems in my area it's pretty much all pit bull or rottweiler mixes, not a lot of other breeds/mixes unless they're late adolescent or older dogs or "problem" dog (say, not good with kids or some type of specific requirement); only infrequently will they have a puppy that doesn't have pit bull or rottie in it.

I got my current dog from this location as a puppy -- she was adopted out the day before but the family received a life-changing health diagnosis later that day and they brought her back. I got there on the right day at the right time before anyone else snatched her up. I firmly believe we were just meant for each other :0)

jrb, I was concerned about that when I got my current dog. I knew that at age 75, I didn't want a puppy for many reasons but mainly because I didn't want someone to have to take the dog after I check out. I went through a rescue only because they had a dog I was interested in. I have to say that they had a lot of different breeds, more small dogs than large as they are a small rescue and are limited by the volunteers they have to help. The dog I got is now a 7 year old toy poodle. I got her last November. She is so easy. She has a lot of personality and we are getting to know each other's routines. I don't know if shelters and rescues prefer younger adopters but I think actual breeders try to discourage older adopters, especially depending on the breed you are looking for. Someone else may have a different experience.

Since I found two of my cats in the alley, I didn't have to go through questions about my age. But in 2019 the Humane Society had no issue when I adopted Poppy and Piper and we were even given a discount. Unfortunately, Piper died at five from cardiomyopathy. But I think that's an older age bias. Older families are usually not as chaotic as younger ones with children and other pets, and work and school all day. Retired people are home mostly all day and have a more sedate lifestyle than young families.

I know when I'm gone for more than six hours, three cats are lined up at the door like...we thought you had died, and who would feed us.

Has anyone experienced being turned down for an adoption because they are too old?

I was almost turned down because I had cancer. I was younger than 30. They were afraid my income would be too unstable because I was on medical leave. I showed them how much money I had in savings and with a lot of persistance, finally convinced them. The moment I was diagnosed my first thought was I have zero regrets in life except for never having had a dog. I was going to get that dog!

@Alisande - Your dog is adorable and is so very lucky to have you.

I'm sure this is a very unpopular believe, but I don't have a huge problem with kill shelters. Some dogs live in such terrible conditions and confinement for so long I think euthanizing is a more compassionate choice.

My third dog came from the most insane rescue. They had him for two years because he was their favorite and thought nobody was good enough for him. Two years in a loud barking shelter in a chain link run. He was a Pyrenees mix. I reached out separately to one of the trainers who worked at the shelter and we conspired to make the adoption happen.

Our role as a public Animal Control and Humane facility was to enforce the laws, educate the public and help match people in our community that were looking to adopt a pet find a pet that was a good match.

Owning a pet provides many seniors with a sense of purpose. Caring for a pet can reduce stress and keep them active. Isn't the well being of the seniors in our community as important as finding a single forever home for the pets in our community?

Isn't keeping the children in our community more important than saving the life of an aggressive dog?

I have seen far too many Animal First rescues that place the wellbeing of animals above all else. Most are nut jobs who just want to be viewed as the hero saving dogs. Total fanatics that can't see that there are reasons to euthanize or understand that it is cruel to place a dog or cat in a tiny kennel for the rest of it's life without ever finding a home or that it is wrong to let dangerous dogs live in our community.

I think every person running a rescue should be vetted to ensure that they meet the standards required to be good citizens and will use sound judgement to make decisions before they are allowed to run a rescue. But for now they are left as judge and jury.