Dogs, maybe stuffed ones.

[ssbeagle]

I took the backseat out of the jeep last week, closed the garage, and put all three barking beagles in the back. I drove around the block, and that was about as much as I could handle. Two people walking their dogs went by, and mine all started barking and baying like crazy. That was fun. I don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon. I'll just stick to taking one dog at a time and only when it's time to go to the vet. I need the "dog whisperer"! (By the way, I saw him on tv, and he drives an Unlimited, too! No, he's not the "dog psychic". This is a dog trainer called the "dog whisperer".)

[huskerjoe]

I have one Beagle - can't imagine 3....when mine gets going on a really good barking fit, I swear it sounds like a lung is going to pop out. The funniest is the low grunt barking he does while he is sniffing along the ground, I can't figure out how he manages to be sniffing so hard and bark at the same time.

[ssbeagle]

Having these three beagles has been like having two-year-olds in the house! They can be very funny and very loving, but they need boundaries and a lot of supervision. If they manage to get out the front door, they're gone in a heartbeat. I have a large, wooded area near my house, and they have gone there in the past when they've escaped. It's awfully hard to get through all the tangled branches, and they just tend to stay on whatever scent they've picked up and ignore your attempts to call them back. If I manage to get close enough, I just tell them to stay, and I grab them. Anytime they've gotten out, there is always the first concern of them getting out on any of the roads.

They all have their own unique bark. My "boss" beagle, Pickles, is short and round. When he gets wound up, he sounds like a basset baying and yodeling. The middle one, Pebbles, is a taller beagle. Though known as the "wuss" in the family (sorry, Pebbles), he's very outspoken. He has no problem giving me a piece of his mind, and he is also the alarmist. If there's a squirrel outside, he'll bark his head off, and you won't be able to hear anything else. The youngest, Quigley (as in down under...your feet) is a fiesty little alpha dog and another longer legged beagle. He's the sweetest little darling when he wants to get your attention, but he also thinks he's a little pit bull. He has a fit if anyone or anything happens to be out in the neighborhood. No one has a right to be out there, he thinks, if he can't be out there. His bark is deep, but breaks in a high pitch. Put all three together, and it sounds like a kennel when you come home or someone comes to the door. If we have pizza delivered or someone comes to visit, I have to take the beagles to another room or out in the backyard till they settle down. If you have visitors you'd like to get rid of, these guys can do the job!

[huskerjoe]

I know the pit bull mentality - we have a six foot fence around our back yard - ours barks like crazy if anyone walks by, but as soon as someone enters the backyard he just rolls over and wants them to scratch his belly.....we named ours Hoover, for the fact his nose is always on the ground. He got out a couple of times, but he has always come back home on his own {those noses are amazing} - he even got away while we were on vacation at the beach, a couple of hours of looking and we found him waiting on the deck when we got back....I'll admit, he's not the brightest dog I've ever had {he had parvo as a puppy, vet gave him about a 5% chance of living - maybe that scrambled his brain a little} but he is the most loyal dog I've ever had - he always wants to be around me.

[ssbeagle]

That's amazing to make it through Parvo. We had a lab years ago that we thought had it. It was very scary. It's so rough when they get sick because they can't tell you what they're going through. One of my 2 older beagles, Pickles, was diagnosed with Cushing's Disease in January, and we have been living on a rollercoaster with all the symptoms, tests, and medications. A tumor on the pituitary or adrenal gland throws off the metabolism. He's always hungry and always thirsty, and muscle gets used up more than fat, which can weaken the back legs. He pees lakes, but it's so diluted from all the water he drinks. (Thank goodness for tile.) Treating it is expensive and very unpredictable. He's been through a lot in the last five months, including high blood pressure, but he's spunky, and I won't give up till he does. I can't imagine what it would be like without these guys!

[huskerjoe]

We lost one dog a few years back to parvo - it was awful. When we brought home our beagle from the animal shelter and found out a week later he had it also we were devastated but also determined to make him as comfortable as possible since we figured he wouldn't make it either. We took him to the vets every other day for fluid injections under his skin and we would sit on the back porch with him every hour or so squirting pedialyte into his mouth with a turkey baster - every time we went to the vets office he seemed amazed that he was still alive! Once he started to show signs of improvement we gradually started feeding him solid foods again {hamburger cooked with rice} - watching him eat for the first time after about two weeks was extremely exciting! We were very lucky, the mortality rate with that disease is horrible. The worse thing is we contacted the animal shelter as soon as we found out, protocol is supposed to be that they not only contact all other pet adopters in that time frame but to shut down operations until all animals have been cleared from having the disease - we found out later none of that happened. I hope everything works out with Pickles!

[ssbeagle]

I'm glad to hear he's okay now. How old is he?
I'm not sure beagles score very high in the brains department! Pickles is our smartest, and I guess that's why he's the boss dog. He likes to play games with tennis balls and ice cubes. He'll put one in his mouth and bat another across the room between his front paws as he trots along. He likes to put them under furniture and try to get them out. They're so naive about so many things, though. We have two old cardboard standups of a couple of Nascar drivers that have been behind the dresser for about ten years because the beagles are terrified of them. I've let them walk all over them, and they're still scared of them and bark like a stranger is in the house! To keep them from trying to get out the door between the house and the garage when I come in, I can hold just about anything and say, "See this? It gets dogs!", and they will back up. They're so funny! You can take the remote control to the tv, go "bzzzz", and they'll back up, too. But they're very spoiled. They're spoon-fed last bits of whatever we've eaten, get ham on their dog food daily, and get tucked in at night! I think all my former hobbies have gone by the wayside since the beagles came along. I can spend hours playing with them!

[huskerjoe]

He just turned 4. What amazes me most about these dogs is their ability/desire to eat just about anything - ours found a coke can one day, we could only peice together about half of it - no idea where the rest went but I have a clue.

[ssbeagle]

Oh, no! I swear they are like "Jaws"! You might find a license plate inside one! Pickles cannot have toys with squeakers anymore. Everytime I buy those stuffed animals with squeakers, he goes on a mission to rip it out and eat it! Tennis balls and stuffed animals that no longer have squeakers are the only safe toys anymore. The tennis balls last a few months, usually. Nylabones, rawhide, frisbees, and rubber toys are banned! They don't digest very well! Kitty litter has to be behind a childproof gate, and garbage pails go in a closet or up on a cabinet, if their small. The rattan chairs are now in the yard, since they got chewed by the youngest beagle. I have no books, magazines, or potted plants where they can get to them. As for food, I think beagles have a sixth sense. They can be out in the (fenced) backyard, but if you open the fridge or even a bag of bread, they'll come running back in! Watch out for chocolate, though, because I've heard they'll get really sick.

Even one of the labs we had a long time ago ate phone books, pillows, bamboo blinds, and a paneled windowsill! That poor guy was as dense as a rock, but he was lovable!

[huskerjoe]

We learned the hard way on the nylabones thing - for starters he finished one that was about 4 inches long in about 5 minutes - and then for the next few days cleaning up the back yard wasn't much fun at all....we mostly stick with the rawhides at this point, he has never taken to any toys, we tried a few but if he couldn't eat it he wasn't much interested - he does like playing tug of war with a rope though, that dog has some jaws on him!

[AXejeep]

Dog Lovers!!! Me too....I have a staffordshire bull terrier named Winston. This little guy is my shadow. I've had him since he was 6 weeks old...he's now 2. He loves a good jeep ride. Every since I took my hardtop off last week he waits by the jeep looking for a ride. He can't get enuff of it. Folded seat + extra unlimited cargo space = big fun.

[huskerjoe]

There's tons of us on here - I guess it just fits with the Jeep lifestyle! Send a message to TreeofLiberty, he will post pictures of some of the coolest "Jeep" dogs I've ever seen! They all look quite at home in the back of his LJ....

[moneypit]

Have you seen the new Jeep commercial with the dog riding with his head out the window while his owner offroads. When they get home the dog gets let out of the back and he is a white dog with a muddy brown head.....the drives says "well you wanted the window down"

[ssbeagle]

I'll be watching for that new commercial! I have to see that!

[treeofliberty]

huskerjoe said:

There's tons of us on here - I guess it just fits with the Jeep lifestyle! Send a message to TreeofLiberty, he will post pictures of some of the coolest "Jeep" dogs I've ever seen! They all look quite at home in the back of his LJ....

Man, ours really do love Jeep rides. Sometimes we'll just take them to the store or some other mundane destination. The shorter two like being able to see out without having to climb up on the arm rest .

What amazes me the most is to take them on an all-day trail ride, with lots of rock crawling. I'm tired when I get home, but they ran the whole trail standing up.