15 Endearing Beagle Facts - How Many Do You Know?

Beagles ooze such unique personality and these Beagle facts ascertain why 'Snoopy' dog is consistently among the most popular dog breed in the world.

Here are 15 Beagle facts that will make you love them even more! 

1) Beagles had no formal name

Despite being thousands of years old, Beagles had no formal name until 1475.

It is uncertain how the name Beagle came about but many have suggested it is derives from the French word "begueule".

2) Early Beagles were smurfs

Early Beagles were tea-cup size! Well...mug-size to be exact. They were small enough to be put in the hunters pockets and carried around during hunts!

As hunting gains popularity in the 1830s Britain, larger dogs were preferred as game companions. Breeders began cross-breeding Beagles with bigger dogs which over time gave us the modern day Beagles that all we know and love.

Mini Beagles eventually went extincted in the early 1900s.

3) Beagle facts: They have ultra nose

While dogs in general have a keen sense of smell, Beagles in particular live for it.

To put it in perspective, humans have 5 million scent receptors. Dachshunds have about 125 million while Beagles have a whopping 225 million scent receptors!

Their receptors count tied with the much larger German Shepherd and second only to the formidable Bloodhound which has a 300 million receptors count.

However, numbers aren't the only factor that contributes to the Beagles' ultra keen sense of smell... 

4) Build to sniff 

Beagles are physically engineered to sniff, pursue and hunt. 

Aside from looking charming, those iconic long droopy ears serve a more practical function of helping Beagles capture scent trails by sweeping them toward their noses as they trudge along. Their short legs keep their noses low to the ground, allowing them to track a scent easily.

5) Beagle facts on nose recognition

Beagles remembered scents like the way humans remembered faces. A Beagle can tell the difference among 50 smells at any given time!

6) A tale of tails

All purebreed Beagles have white-tipped tail. When a Beagle is latched to a scent, her tail will point and stays up until the source is located. This body language couple with that flashy tail allow hunters to spot their Beagles easily from afar.  

7) Color changing

Beagle puppies' fur color could alter drastically as they grow. Light fur may turn darker while spots seem to change location!

8) Beagle facts: They are noisy!

Beagles have 3 distinctive vocalization. The 'standard bark' are often a sign of excitement for example(s):, having a visitor or just before meal time. 

The howl on the other hand is used by your Beagle as a sign of distress or loneliness. 

Finally, the bay is another feature that complete the Beagles' package as a hunting breed. This long deep yowl is use to alert fellow pack members that the Beagle is on to a scent trail and could be heard over a great distance.

9) Beagles' neat image

Beagles' short coat shed an average amount and easy to manage. Brushing of coat once or twice a week is enough to keep your Beagle looking handsome at all times.

You might also be pleased to know that Beagles do not drool! 

10) Beagles come in two sizes

They can be under 13 inches tall weighing about 8 kg or between 13 to 15 inches tall and weight around 14 kg. These sturdy dogs are surprisingly heavy for their size! 

11) Beagles can detect cancer

A study by Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Pennsylvania shows that beagles are capable of identifying lung cancer in humans with 97% accuracy!

12) Exotic fruit

Lemon Beagles are extremely rare. They sport a typical hound-look with beautiful lemon and white colored coat. This lack of color compared to the typical Beagles (usually consist of 2 to 3 colors) lead many to believe lemon Beagles are albino which is a common misunderstanding.

Lemon Beagles are just an extremely rare variation of the standard Beagles.

13) The most iconic Beagle

On an article that questioned ' How many Beagle facts you know?', this feels a little redundant. But Snoopy is so synonymous with Beagles it feel wrong not mentioning him!

Debut in 1950, Snoopy is not just the most iconic Beagle of all time, he is also one of the most recognizable fictional character that continues to delight fans through books, movies and television specials.

Creator Charles M. Schylz was inspired by one of his childhood dogs during the conception of Snoopy!

14) Elvis

Another celebrity on this list! While not as popular as Snoopy, Elvis the Beagle has an equally amazing job of detecting pregnancy in polar bears with a near 100% accuracy without ever meeting them!

Detecting polar bear pregnancies are always a series of hit and misses in the past with months of aggravating waits that often result in false positives.

Enter Elvis the Beagle.

Elvis would sniff samples of polar bears' poop sent from zoos all over the country and could identify early pregnancy with such accuracy he even proof experts wrong!

In this particular case Elvis identified traces of pregnancy from a sample zoologists had preciously labeled negative. There were doubts at first that Elvis is losing his touch but upon further investigations, it further cement just how competence Elvis is in his line of work. There is no getting around this Beagle!  

As of writing, Elvis is under the "employment" of Cincinnati zoo in American. Click here and read all about the mysteries surrounding polar bear pregnancies and Elvis's amazing journey.

15) Beagle facts: They are poor security guards

Beagles are widely employed for their excellent sniffing and tracking abilities. These qualities couple with Beagles passive and strong pack-oriented temperament makes them great as search-and-rescue dogs, drug-sniffers at the air-port and service dogs just to name a few.

However, Beagles natural friendliness make them poor guard dogs! A task so synonymous to owning a dog in the first place, a beagle will likely welcome and licked intruders to an inch of their lives instead!

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