Robin Gets a Life: Beagle Number Four: Bernie

One big event that occurred during my blogging lapse was the addition of Bernie to our family.

March 2016

Our Bonnie (Beagle Number Three) died in early January, 2016. Almost immediately, Jim started browsing Petfinder, in search of a new companion. He found Bernie, being held at the Eaton County Humane Society. He'd been picked up as a stray, and was estimated to be about four years old. Frankly, I didn't think the picture was very impressive, but Jim persuaded me that we should take a look. We drove there on the Martin Luther King holiday, January 18, 2016.

Bernie still needed to be neutered, so we couldn't adopt him yet. We took him home, though, as a "foster," with the agreement to bring him back for neutering on the 26th. We then formally adopted him on the 28th, and brought him home for good. For us, though, January 18th is his "gotcha" day.

Because of Bonnie's penchant for digging under the fence, we decided to reinforce the fence before allowing Bernie out back unsupervised. This meant a lot of standing out there with him on a leash, sometimes in snow, sometimes under an umbrella (it was several months before we got the fence sorted). As it turns out, Bernie seems to have no wanderlust at all; he has only wandered off once, and this was when he followed his nose out an open gate.

They say it takes three weeks for a rescue dog to start settling into his new home. This was certainly the case with Bernie! There were days when I wondered, "What have we done?!?" He wanted lots of attention, he beagled my knitting projects, and he barked— a lot! Happily, he did indeed start to settle down after several weeks.

As soon as possible, we enrolled Bernie in one of Gail's classes at Briar Wood Dog Training. He got along fine with the other dogs. He was smaller than most of them, and announced his arrival each week with riotous howling. It took a while before I could get him to sit, but Gail assured me I wasn't going to break him if I forced his little rump down. When the class ended, he had indeed graduated, and was given the "most improved" award.

We stuck with the classes for a while, attending an intermediate class, and then a hobby class. The socialization was good for him, and he turned out to be a smart little guy (in spite of being a typically stubborn hound). When he finally learned "by heel" and "bang," we felt like he'd arrived!

We've had Bernie six years now. He's a happy ten-year-old, and very much part of our family. Here are some things we've come to learn about our boy.

He has some anxiety. He doesn't like his crate, but he'll go to it on command, and if we're gone, he's happier there. He knows when we're getting ready to leave, and tries to "hide" in the couch. If I go outside to work in the yard, he isn't interested in joining me, but prefers to simply stand by the door, howling.
He happily eats his dog food, but not until he's sure there's nothing better available. He eats a little after our walk, and leaves the rest until the evening. After he's finished begging (unsuccessfully) for our dinner, he tackles his own food in earnest.
He gets along well with other dogs. We've had dogs stay with us, and while Bernie doesn't play with them, or become best buddies, he is happy to let them share his couch.
Bernie's absolute favorite thing is going for a walk. He lives for his walks, and enjoys a good sniffari - there are so many good smells! He will pause in the park so little kids can pet him (although this is more successful at the end of a walk, when he has satisfied his urge to smell the world). He does like to bark at other dogs, but most people simply laugh and say, "he's a beagle!"
Speaking of which - Bernie is unusually small for a beagle, so we sent a test to Wisdom Panel to check his DNA. We learned that he is 100% beagle. According to the DNA analysis, seven of his great grandparents were field beagles (which I take to mean "hunting"), and one was a show beagle (which I take to mean "not hunting"). I've heard that beagles sometimes end up lost while out hunting; perhaps that was the case with Bernie.
Perhaps because of that hunting gene, he isn't bothered in the least by thunderstorms or by fireworks. This definitely makes our life easier!
If you leave a glass of water on the floor by your feet, Bernie will help himself to it. I sometimes have a jar of M&Ms on the floor, and Bernie has never been interested in them, until one evening, just last week. I looked down to discover him standing there with his nose in the jar, having a good old time!
Bernie likes to play with his treats, throwing them in the air and pouncing on them. Occasionally we hear a desperate howl, calling us to rescue his treat from under some piece of furniture.
As far as we know, he's never met a cat in person. But when he sees one from his perch on the couch, he explodes. There's a grey and white cat who regularly walks past our house (or even in our yard), and Bernie goes ballistic. One time there were baby skunks in the front yard; I thought they were adorable, and Bernie thought they were a danger to life as we know it. Happily, he only observed them through the window. (At this point, I made sure to pick up materials for a de-skunking bath, just in case.)

Here are a few photos from the six years Bernie's been with us. Frankly, it was hard picking just a few; he's a very photogenic boy!