My daughter has just arrived home with a beagle.She found her on the Beach running around with no owner to be seen.If no one comes forward to claim her we will keep her,her temperament is just gorgeous!

Now,I was hoping to get some advice from Beagle owners,the only thing i know is that they are chow hounds?? And that they maybe can't be walked off the leash :( Is there any way around this? I have never had a dog that didn't walk well off the leash.

Any info/tips will be greatly appreciated :)

Has the dog not got a microchip or tatoo?

well my sister in laws beagle is fab off lead,have you contacted the police or had her micro chipped scan to see who her owners were
jo

We took her to the vet,no microchip.

That's great to hear Joanne.I cant imagine how to exercise a dog properly if they have to stay on the lead all the time.

Beagles are often not great off lead, recall can be terrible, once they are off they are off, it's well known as one of their only bad breed traits, many owners have to keep them on lead. I dare say this one has slipped off and could now be miles away from home.

I wouldn't get too attached, she probably has an owner worried sick, hopefully you have contacted all the relevant parties, to find her owner, not many people dump Beagles.

I have no doubt that she is lovely, Beagles do have great temperaments, but her owner must be devastated and worried right now.

At least she has you to care for her, my advice keep her on lead, get a nice long extendable one for her, so that she does not bolt off again and get lost once more, I really hope that her owner is found, but if not you have a lovely breed to adopt here, great with dogs and people she'll be a pleasure to own, just don't trust her not to disappear. :-)

Hi

I know it's very tempting to start planning for a 'found' dog to join your family.  However, it's very likely that the dog already has a home - particularly when, as you say, her temperament is so good.

Please make every effort to look for her owners before getting too attached.  There are some very sad stories about people who've lost dogs, and they never get over it.

Here are a few things you can try:  DogLost, ring round all vets within a 10 miles radius of where she found, call the council/dog warden that operates in the area.  Call the boarding kennels in the area - she may have gone missing from there and her owners wouldn't even know yet.  Ring the local police station - ask them what advice they give to people who've lost their dog, and take the same steps to see if the owners are already looking.  Revisit the area each day to see if flyers have been posted.  Check on Facebook - I know that there are groups on there for people searching for dogs.  Good luck :)

We will put up adds and look for lost dogs adds also.I know i would be utterly devastated if i lost one of my dogs :( It is awfully hard not to get attached,she's stolen my heart already! But I'm sure fate will step in,if we were destined to find her then so be it,if she she belongs back with her owner then I'm sure we will find them.

Think the fact that she was found wandering answers the question about walking off lead - all scent hounds are born with a system that closes the ears when the nose is engaged, it is therefore very difficult if not impossible to have 100% recall - well it is possible but not usual.

I'm sure someone is desperate to find this dog and you should contact the police and dog wardens and vets in the area where she was found and about 15 miles from that area.

> Think the fact that she was found wandering answers the question about walking off lead

Just what I was thinking, Nova!

Thank heaven for the internet in cases like this - at least if the owner is looking, there's every chance they will be re-united, so many avenues to get the information out there.

M.

Hi :-)

Well done for taking in this poor lost dog!  I found a Lab just before Christmas, and thought I'd better just mention a few things.  I found that there is no system for logging 'reported missing' dogs and 'found' dogs or if there is, you can't depend upon it.  So, one day you speak to a particular person, who doesn't know about the person who reported the dog missing the previous day!  It's a real problem, and it happened in our case with the Dog Warden, several local vets and local police station.  In our case it was a real cock up, as the dog I found was actually registered at the vets I took him to... and the owners phoned that practice while we were in the building!  Yet I still had him for 4 days before anyone put 2 and 2 together.  In our case, the owner didn't have access to the internet so you can't always assume they would report it that way.  I assumed that anyone who lost their dog would be doing the things that I would do if mine were missing... this was definitely wrong to assume. 

So... just wanted to mention these things, you (the person who found the dog) really have to go out of your way to ensure dog and owner are reunited, which never occurred to me before people on CD put it in perspective for me.  I'd recommend ringing local vets, kennels, police and dog warden daily to ensure information doesn't go missing!

Good luck, whatever happens :-D

Clare 

This was typical of my Beagle he's be fine for weeks off lead then take off and be gone for ages. Usually returned to where he last saw us his record was 9 hours.

I'm sure some one is looking for this Beagle contact local vets petshops etc

>She found her on the Beach running around with no owner to be seen.

That's pretty typical for a beagle, or indeed any scent hound. Once they get a scent they follow it until they lose it - she could live anything up to 20 miles away, so make sure you publicise her well, because her real owners are probably distraught, getting more and more worried about her.

I believe you're in Australia, so the law might be different there, but in the UK the finder of a stray dog is never the legal owner, and it's an offence not to inform the local dog warden and if necessary come to an agreement that you can foster her rather than take her to the pound.

You need to also contact you local dog warden as well as that where the dog was found - Has this already been mentioned?
Have you contacted the breed club as well? I know in our breed that sometimes this is one of the first places owners go.

Really hope you find the owners to this dog, from what you say it would suggest that its well looked after and does have owners somewhere.

The owners have been found,the vet that daughter took her to,to check for microchip kept our details.Thankfully the owner contacted them.
I say thankfully.... My daughter went out  to the shops and the second she walked out the door the dog freaked OUT!She just about ripped the blinds from the windows to get through,dug up the door mat by the front door.I then took her out the back and she paced,slobbered and "bayed" the whole time,it was dreadful :( 
They were together for a total of around 6 hours and she got attached to her so quickly.There was nothing i could do to calm her down.I've heard of separation
anxiety,if that was what it was but never experienced it first hand

The owners were more than grateful. Apparently their side gate blew open and the dog took the opportunity.They wont be letting that happen again!

Great news - I can imagine you could easily get attach, they are an attractive looking breed. But at least you've had a short taster of what they are like if you wanted a dog in the future, and you can be very proud of your daughter for bringing the dog safely home so nothing bad happened to her while the owners were searching.

The one thing I noticed is they're very hyper and full of energy, it's not something I could handle.

I'm so glad the owners have been found. When I was young my dog bolted after boys put fireworks on the doorstep and knocked the door. I spent years looking for her visiting the pounds every week, driving around fields, parks etc. To this day I don't know what happened to her.