The beagle breed has witnessed a steady growth in popularity over the last several years, and as more and more dog owners choose to add a beagle to their home, we have observed an increase in the number of individuals contacting us with a variety of concerns about the breed.These range from what food to feed a beagle to how to exercise them, but in the last month or so, we’ve observed an increase in the number of individuals expressly asking, “Do beagles shed?”
Because we are seeing a rise in the regularity with which these questions are being asked, we have chosen to dedicate this post to the subject in order to assist any of our readers who own a beagle. The simple answer is yes, your beagle will shed. Unfortunately, this is a typical error that people make when they see a beagle’s short silky coat and assume that the breed will not shed much.
Beagles are moderate shedders and will shed a consistent quantity of their coat throughout year, although depending on where you live, some beagles will increase their shedding in the spring.
A beagle’s short coat might make shedding more controllable because the hair is typically less apparent, but if you suffer from allergies, this could be a concern.
Although there is a widespread belief that some dog breeds are hypoallergenic and would not aggravate your allergies, this is merely a fallacy; nevertheless, some breeds are less triggering than others.
Because the beagle breed is somewhat shredded, we would rank it between the bottom and center of any list of dogs that are likely to cause your allergies.
However, depending on the severity of your allergies, you can typically keep your beagle’s shedding under control and, with the help of an antihistamine, go about your life as usual with a beagle in your family.
If your allergies are moderate, merely controlling your beagle’s shedding may be sufficient, and you may not need to take an antihistamine at all.
We will not look at how you may reduce the impact of your beagle losing its coat and keep your home from getting covered with your dog’s abandoned shed.
How to Handle Your Beagle’s Shedding
Although there are a variety of techniques and tactics available to help you keep your beagle’s shedding under control, nothing beats just brushing your beagle on a regular basis using a proper de-shedding brush in our opinion.
We are aware that there are several fancy shampoos on the market that promise to assist, but in our opinion, they are a waste of money, and many beagles dislike bath time, whereas they will typically allow you groom them for home without complaint.
When it comes to frequent brushing, the beagle breed is one of the healthier breeds, and you can generally brush your beagle two or three times a week to help keep their shedding under control.
Each session should last five to ten minutes as you brush their coat with an appropriate brush to capture shed and reduce it randomly dropping around your home as your beagle goes about its daily activity.
Despite the fact that the beagle coat is short and shorter hair breeds may typically be handled more frequently, we would not advocate brushing your beagle more than three times per week.
The beagle breed is also double-coated, which means that a good de-shedding brush that is particularly intended for de-shedding a dog is almost required.
Although most single coat breeds can typically get away with regular brushing, the under coat of the beagle can sometimes go un-touched by a regular brush, enabling shed to build up and be deposited throughout your house, perhaps triggering allergies or requiring a lot of clean up time.
Although most beagles love being brushed and combed, others will definitely want to make the procedure as unpleasant as possible.
Even though your beagle generally enables you to brush it on a regular basis, there may be days when it is simply not in the mood to be brushed.
If this is the case for you, one of the best and cheapest techniques that we have seen owners of all breeds report having a high success rate with is to use a Kong dog toy and stuff it with treat paste to keep your beagle engaged.
The treat paste has a good reputation among dog owners for functioning as a high-value treat and keeping your dog engaged long enough for you to groom it, cut its nails, or do any other job that your dog may not want to undertake.
Essentially, you fold your legs, place the Kong toy between them to let it can move about but keep it in a confined space, and then allow your beagle to have fun trying to get the treat paste out of the toy while you brush it without it knowing.
Getting Your Beagle’s Hair Cut
Despite the fact that beagles have a short coat, some owners may take their pets to a professional dog groomer to have their coats properly trimmed and groomed. Although this is a matter of personal choice, it does not assist to lessen the quantity of shedding your beagle may experience during the year. Your beagle sheds because hormones in its blood urge it to, not because of the length of its coat or because it is too hot, as some people believe.
Even after being properly groomed, your beagle will continue to shed at the same pace, although the shedding may appear to worsen after grooming. This is due to your beagle’s longer coat being able to collect and trap its shed until there is direct friction with anything, therefore the shorter the coat, the more shed will be deposited around your home. Because the friction helps to release the shed from the coat, a beagle with a regular length coat that has not been clipped would appear to exclusively deposit its shed on its bed or locations where it lays down.
Although some dog breeds should have their hair cut on a regular basis if you live in a warmer climate, the short coat of a beagle makes this unnecessary, and the majority of people who do take their beagles to a professional groomer do so to make their dog’s coat look neater rather than to help with overheating or shedding. However, we have lost count of the number of people who have told us that they took their dog to a groomer only for the shedding to continue or worsen, so we wanted to swiftly address it in our post.
Limit the amount of time your dog spends outside.
Although there is little scientific evidence to support this and it may vary by breed, the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) has released research indicating that a dog’s shedding may rise if it spends more time outside. Again, we are in the early phases of study, but we have seen a few instances of people letting their dogs sleep outside and then bringing them inside and reporting a minor decrease in shedding, but correlation is not causation.
To be clear, this does not mean that you should lock your beagle indoors and never allow it out again; you can still take your dog for regular walks and let it play in the yard; the first research is mostly focused on dogs who sleep or are left outside for extended periods of time. Depending on your situation, this may be something you can utilize to aid, however the beagle breed is often kept indoors the most of the time.
What Causes Beagles to Shed?
As we said earlier in the article, your beagle does not shed because its coat is too long or it is too warm; instead, your beagle sheds when a hormone in its blood tells it to, however there are a few health issues that also include shedding as a symptom. If you believe that your beagle’s shedding is caused by a medical issue rather than normal shedding, we strongly advise you to seek the counsel of your local veterinarian and seek expert treatment as soon as possible.
When it comes to your dog’s natural shedding, though, there is little you can do to avoid it; all you can do is try to control it as best you can. As previously said, your beagle may begin to shed more in the spring owing to an increase in the quantity of the shedding hormone in your dog’s blood, although this does not occur in all beagles. However, even outside of the spring months, all healthy beagles will shed all year owing to the shedding hormone having a residual flow in your dog’s blood, which leads us to our next point.
Will My Beagle’s Shedding Stop?
We’ve seen a plethora of statements online from dog owners claiming that their pets have ceased shedding when this is just not the case. As previously stated, many dog breeds, including the beagle, shed all year with periodic surges at certain periods of the year. This is why you may hear people remark that their beagle has ceased shedding in the summer when, in reality, it has just exited its seasonal shedding period and reverted to its regular, year-round shedding, which is generally a considerably lower proportion of its coat.
The dog is still losing its coat naturally, but at a considerably slower rate, creating the illusion that shedding has ceased when it has not. We just wanted to briefly clarify this to our readers in case you have allergies to dogs and are thinking about getting a beagle because you heard elsewhere that they only shed for two to three months out of the year. This is not the case, and there will be shed deposits around your home all year, even if you brush on a regular basis as indicated above, but brushing on a regular basis may significantly minimize the quantity of shed you have around your home.
About the Beagle Dog Breed
Gentle, lively, energetic, courageous and loving are all words that describe the beagle dog breed. Beagles have a regal, strong stature for their size and are known for their big, beautiful eyes. The beagle is actually considered a miniature version of the much larger fox hound hunting dog. The beagles hunting heritage makes them innate wanderers and also gives them a tendency to bark quite a bit. As hunters, beagles may pose a danger to cats and multiple dog-cat households should use caution when considering a beagle for a new pet. Also as hunters, they are pack animals and do not like to be left alone. Energetic by nature, they will do best when allowed to have daily exercise, either outside in a fenced in yard or on daily on-the-leash walks with their owner.