We had an exciting time this morning. One of the beagle breeders we’d contacted through the Scottish Beagle Club site invited us to come see a two and a half week old litter of 10 pups. With such a large litter, she said we’d be pretty much assured to get one of the female pups after Christmas, though we wouldn’t get our pick of the litter since we were pretty much at the end of the waiting list. That all sounded fine to us, so we jumped into the car and headed straight over.

Now everybody knows puppies are seriously cute, but still nothing prepared me for the sight of 10 sleepy little pups all piled up on top of one another. The cute-o-meter swung even further to the right when one of them rolled over onto his back in the throws of a doggy dream. But all that was nothing compared to how amazing it feels to hold one of those tiny, trusting bundles in your own hands.

The pups’ mother was on hand to meet us, though in classic beagle fashion she seemed much more interested in food. In fact it was up to the pups to get themselves out of the way when mum was looking for a comfortable position to consume her chewy stick. I suppose the sudden appearance of ten new babies would be enough to leave anyone feeling in need of comfort food.

All the beagles we saw at the breeders home lived up to what we’d read about the breed: happy, outgoing and affectionate dogs, with plenty of character and a tendency toward mischief. This left us in no doubt that we’d chosen the right kind of dog, and now it was just up to the breeder to make sure that we were the right people to own a beagle.

As expected the breeder wanted to make sure that we’d got a decent garden for our little chum, and fully appreciated the beagle’s penchant for escape attempts and “selective hearing” when on the trail of an interesting scent. She seemed satisfied that we’d done our homework and would be able to give our dog the attention and care it deserves.

So as things stand now we can be pretty sure we’ve seen our future family member, we just don’t know which one yet! That question should be answered in a few weeks once the breeder has decided which pups she’s keeping. That’s fine by me, in fact I’m kind of glad the decision has been taken out of our hands – how do you choose one from ten equally gorgeous little furballs?

I went through my childhood and early working life never getting to experience the joy and hassles that come with owning a dog. There was always a valid reason: no-one at home during the day, no garden, rented accommodation etc. etc. Now that my partner Susan and I are working from our own home all that has changed, and we’re now able to add a four-legged furball into our lives.

But what dog to get?

Adoption – not all that it first seems?

My first thought – no doubt sparked by the endless pet charity ads on tv – was to adopt a reasonably young dog from a rescue home. It seemed the ideal solution; we’d be able to bring love and safety to some cute little mutt that had been rejected by its previous owner, and we’d get to skip the puddle generating chewing machine that is commonly known as a puppy.

A quick Google revealed that there were basically two sources for adopted dogs in our part of the world (Scotland) – the SSPCA and Dogs Trust.
Both of these organizations operate responsible rehoming schemes. You must first in fill a questionnaire to indicate your interest in adopting a dog and possibly get your home and garden checked by a member of staff to make sure it’s suitable. In due course you get to choose your dog and eventually take him home.

Since there’s an SSPCA center only a short drive from our home, we went for quick visit. What we found didn’t quite match the rose-tinted picture painted by the organization websites. The majority of the dogs were stray Staffordshire Bull Terrier crosses. Neither of us liked the idea of a stray; such a dog would probably need to be house trained, something that might be harder with an adult dog that had spent time living on the streets. Also, Staffies have an unfortunate association with dog fighting and are a common breed choice for hoodie-wearing hard men in the UK.

The more we researched it, the more the rehoming idea lost its appeal. Dogs thrown out of their home or rescued from an abusive home often have problems that take great patience, confidence and experience to correct. The chances of getting a well cared for dog from a happy home – perhaps handed into the center due to emigration, divorce etc – are pretty slim. If you’re going to take the adoption route, you have to be levelheaded, choose your dog very carefully and be prepared to return a dog to the home if it turns out to have intractable problems. Maybe I’m a wuss, but I couldn’t handle the idea of taking a dog home only to be forced to take it back a few days later. Equally, I didn’t want us to be a stuck with a problem dog for the next decade or so!

Breed choice

So after all that, we ended up deciding to get a puppy – but what breed?

As it turns out, there are lots of free breed selectors online. We tried a few of these and although they didn’t all come up with the same answer, they did give us plenty of factors to consider besides size and appearance. Every selector includes things like exercise level, grooming requirements and character traits (affection, compatibility with children, other pets, suitability for guarding and so on) but some also factor in suitability for owners with allergies and common breed health complaints for example.

In the end, we set our hearts on getting a beagle.

We’ve Googled for local breeders, and are now waiting to see if we can get a pup early in the new year. That gives us a couple of months to get our house and garden ready for a dog that by all accounts is highly affectionate and fun but quite a handful…