Beagle (dog)

Beagle

Tricolor Beagle
Other names	English Beagle
Origin	England
Traits Weight Male 22–25 lb (10.0–11.3 kg) Female 20–23 lb (9.1–10.4 kg) Height 13–16 in (33–41 cm) Coat Short haired, hard coat of medium length Color Tricolor or white in combination with black & tan/brown or brown/tan Life span 12–15 years
Classification / standards FCI Group 6, Section 1.3 Scenthounds: Small #161 standard AKC Hound standard ANKC Group 4 (Hounds) standard CKC Group 2 – Hounds standard KC (UK) Hound standard NZKC Hound standard UKC Scenthound standard
Domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris)

Traits
Weight	Male	22–25 lb (10.0–11.3 kg)
	Female	20–23 lb (9.1–10.4 kg)
Height	13–16 in (33–41 cm)
Coat	Short haired, hard coat of medium length
Color	Tricolor or white in combination with black & tan/brown or brown/tan
Life span	12–15 years

Classification / standards
FCI	Group 6, Section 1.3 Scenthounds: Small #161	standard
AKC	Hound	standard
ANKC	Group 4 (Hounds)	standard
CKC	Group 2 – Hounds	standard
KC (UK)	Hound	standard
NZKC	Hound	standard
UKC	Scenthound	standard

The Beagle is a breed of small hound, similar in appearance to the much larger foxhound. The Beagle is a scent hound, developed primarily for hunting hare. With a great sense of smell and their tracking instinct, the Beagle is employed as detection dog for prohibited agricultural imports and foodstuffs in quarantine around the world. The Beagle is intelligent but single-minded. It is a popular pet due to its size, good temper, and lack of inherited health problems.

Although beagle-type dogs have existed for 2,500 years, the modern breed was developed in Great Britain around the 1830s from several breeds, including the Talbot Hound, the North Country Beagle, the Southern Hound, and possibly the Harrier.

Beagles have been depicted in popular culture since Elizabethan times in literature and paintings, and more recently in film, television, and comic books. Snoopy of the comic strip Peanuts has been promoted as "the world's most famous beagle".

Dogs of similar size and purpose to the modern Beagle can be traced in Ancient Greece back to around the 5th century BC. Xenophon, born around 430 BC, in his Treatise on Hunting or Cynegeticus refers to a hound that hunted hares by scent and was followed on foot. Small hounds are mentioned in the Forest Laws of Canute which exempted them from the ordinance which commanded that all dogs capable of running down a stag should have one foot mutilated. If genuine, these laws would confirm that beagle-type dogs were present in England before 1016, but it is likely the laws were written in the Middle Ages to give a sense of antiquity and tradition to Forest Law.

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Wikipedia