What Beagles.co.za is About

The purpose of this site is to provide centralized scheduling information relating to our field days, and to share photographs and other information about our wonderful hounds and their achievements in the field.

The Beagle is an all rounder, excelling both as a show dog and as a master of tracking a scent and should be allowed to remain as natural as possible.

Please note that we do not hunt live quarry. At no time do we ever let the hounds off after live rabbit or hare. In fact, the hounds are so conditioned to following the laid scent trail that, on the rare occasions where they have flushed live quarry, they have totally ignored them and carried on along the laid scent trail. In South Africa, we do not use artificial scent such as aniseed mixed in oil as we believe that our hounds should run on as natural a scent as possible. Our lure is generally made up of a mixture of pilchards and sardines.

The aim of the drag hunting field days is to provide a controlled environment whereby we can let our hounds socialize and use their natural ability to trail a scent laid by the huntmaster. Beagles are after all a pack animal, and the need to form a group with a defined social hierarchy is very strong. They also love to run their little legs off!

We hope you find our site informative. For more info on our Field Days click here. Browse our Photo Gallery and sign up to BeagleTalk, a forum for likeminded Beagle Lovers. We also have a small variety of fun products for sale in our BeagleShop. For site updates see our News page. Our Links page is dedicated to links we hope we will find interesting, particularly Non-Profit Organisations devoted to helping animals in South Africa.

Beagles.co.za is not affiliated with any breeders. Please do not contact us with puppy enquires. If you are looking for a beagle puppy, please post in our forum BeagleTalk or join our Facebook page where we have a thread for breeders and people from all over the country who might help.

Some general points about Beagles: Beagles are hardy, sturdy squarely-built, small hounds. The Beagle has a sleek, easy-care, short coat, which can come in any hound colour, for example, tri-colour, black and tan, red and white, orange and white, or lemon and white. The coat is close, hard and of medium length. The head is broad and slightly rounded, and the muzzle is straight and square. The feet are round and strong. The black nose has full nostrils for scenting. Beagles have long, wide, soft ears. The brown or hazel eyes have a characteristic pleading expression – a face that is very difficult to say “NO” to! The tail is carried high, but never curled over the back.

People who do not own Beagles are often intrigued by their tail which is held straight up in the air. Given the length of the grass that we sometimes work in, the very tip of the tail is often all you can see of the pack as they go about their business. Beagles have a distinct howl / bay of a bark when they are on the hunt. Beagles are gentle, sweet, lively and curious dogs who just love everyone! A happy little tail-wagger! They are sociable, brave and intelligent and generally calm and very loving. They are excellent with children and generally good with other dogs. Beagles have minds of their own.

They are determined and watchful and require patient, firm training. It is important you are this dog’s pack leader and that you provide the proper amount of mental and physical exercise including daily walks or other forms of exercise. The Beagle has been used in packs, alone, and in pairs, for hunting hare, pheasant and quail. He has also served as an excellent narcotics detection dog (often seen at airports around the world) and makes a fine family companion. Unfortunately, because they are fairly uniform in size and small, Beagles are often used for medical experimentation.

Observing beagles do what they were bred to do!

Early winter mornings with our eager hounds

Waiting for the next line to be laid