My mom’s beagle. The photo was taken with a cell phone the day we took him from the kennels at the vet school. He pretty much stayed on that futon for 3 days, other than taking walks and eating in the kitchen, thinking that that was his new cage area! It took him a couple of weeks to figure out the staircase at my parent’s house. His favourite spot, though, is on the couch, next to my mom as she watches TV.
If I were living in a situation in which having a dog was possible, I’d get a beagle from the vet school. They deserve a nice retirement, and they are such sweet dogs who desperately want to please. That, and they are incredibly calm when brought to the vet for check-ups!
Winchester is probably half-beagle at best, but we have absolutely no idea what that other half might be. I like to think we got the best of the beagle, and whatever else he’s mixed with overrode all the less-desirable qualities. He almost never barks, I’ve only heard him bay twice in nearly four years, and he stopped chewing on everything we owned once he was pretty sure we weren’t going to give him back to the shelter. He’s a rescue, and while we can be fairly certain that he wasn’t abused before he came to us, he was most certainly neglected. However, he is the cuddliest, loviest dog in the world.
He absolutely adores attention. He’ll sit down on the front lawn of our building when he sees someone coming down the sidewalk and just wait for them to approach and pet him. The only thing he loves more than people is other dogs–though he’s not very dominant, and is usually content to lead the whole dog park in the most rousing game of “Chase Me” he can manage. On the day we first brought him home, he walked right in and submitted to our cat, though Superman didn’t fare quite as well.
He’s something of a peacemaker between other dogs–if he sees two dogs at the park barking at each other, he usually tries to get between them and convince everybody to get along. I have yet to decide if this is adorable or really, really stupid, but thankfully it hasn’t backfired on him yet. He plays a very funny game with smaller dogs that we like to call “Can Your Head Fit In My Mouth?” People at our local dog park used to say he was the best teacher to socialize puppies with–he’d knock them down playfully but never hurt them, and eventually he’d let them “win” and climb all over him.
