Ginger has been adopted!
Sponsored by Heather B in memory of her beloved Buster who left way too soon on December 31, 2013
LEMON-DROP BEAGLE LOOKING FOR SOMEONE SPECIAL!
Meet Ginger (a.k.a. Gi-Gi). She is a gorgeous and unique beagle. She is 22 pounds which makes her small for a beagle. Don’t let her size fool you – she is everything that you would expect from a beagle.
She is super sweet and needs an active family who can balance daily walks, back-yard games involving sniffing and exploring, and some long, adventurous hikes.
She is smart and loves to use her nose. Everything you would expect from a beagle. She needs a home where her family will take time to challenge her brain every day with games that make her think and use her nose.
Ginger loves to play. Inside she’ll play with toys. She will play on her own if no one is available to play with her. Outside at her foster home she has a large yard and she loves to explore all of the smells. Each morning she is on the hunt for the creatures who visited our yard during the night – so far, unfortunately, no luck.
We feel that Ginger would prefer to be an only dog in the home. She, like many dogs, doesn’t like to share the affection of her humans. That alone doesn’t make her a bad fur-sibling. She is still learning to respect the messages from other dogs telling her they aren’t interested in playing or sharing their space with her. She can be quite insistent and some dogs won’t tolerate this kind of pushy behaviour. That said, Gi-Gi does love to play with other dogs so it would be nice if she had some dog friends to play with on a regular basis. She is an energetic and spirited playmate and would do best with a playmate who can match her play style – even a dog who is bigger than she.
Ginger sleeps well in her crate with the door open. In the morning she loves to come up onto the bed for a few minutes of snuggles. She is the best snuggler and she will lay quietly until it’s time to get up. If you love that kind of thing (like her foster mama) then I’m sure Ginger would love to continue this routine with her new family.
She can be left free in the house while her family is out for short periods of time. If she needs to be left alone longer she should be crated as beagles tend to get bored easily and that can turn into destructive behaviour (Ginger hasn’t shown this destructive behaviour, but if left for too long she may). She does exhibit some separation anxiety when her foster family leaves. She will sit at the front window and bark – because of this we feel that Ginger would NOT be good in an apartment/townhouse setting where the neighbours could be bothered (beagles generally are not good apartment dogs).
Ginger is relatively quiet. She does bark at times, but she is really good at being quiet when asked to do so.
Ginger has been very good at learning basic manners and obedience. She is a very smart girl and very much wants to please her humans – she just needs to learn how. It’s obvious she hadn’t been taught boundaries (e.g. jumping on foster mom while dinner is being prepared). We would be looking for a family who are familiar with the intelligence of a beagle and who will be dedicated to working on improving her basic manners.
Ginger has the potential to become the best dog you’ve ever had! Not much work is needed to achieve this – just some know-how of positive-based dog training and consistency and reinforcement of house-rules. We recommend that her forever family take her to obedience classes which are very effective in creating a strong bond between dog and human; not to mention teaching the humans how to teach the dog.
Ginger loves to go for walks and hikes. When beagles use their nose, they engage the part of their brain that controls their nose, it seems the rest of their brain shuts off. If you’re familiar with beagles you’ll know what I mean…recall and leash manners aren’t the greatest. Ginger loves to investigate every scent she comes across while on walks – so walking on a loose leash beside you isn’t going to happen right away, but it’s not impossible. She isn’t a puller, so that’s a plus, but she does like to explore and needs to be encouraged to keep walking so that she actually exercises more than just her nose.
When meeting new adults Ginger is so polite. She is calm and quiet when meeting people – even on the other side of our fence. It’s really quite amazing. She loves meeting other dogs and immediately wants to play and chase. Ginger has not been tested with cats, but due to her love for the chase we feel she should not go to a home with cats (unless the family is willing to put in the time for training that would mostly likely be required to teach her how to be around cats).
Ginger hasn’t been tested with small children and we have no reason to believe that she would not be good with small kids. However, as Ginger does need a family who will continue her basic obedience training we are recommending that any children in the family be old enough to join in the obedience training classes and training at home; and that they understand and respect the boundaries that a dog, of any breed, needs to be a wonderful family pet.
Ginger has been so good at letting me touch her anywhere, including bathing, clipping nails, inspecting ears, inspecting her teeth, etc. She even let me take out the stitches from her spay incision (which wasn’t easy and I really struggled with that but she was a champ!).
In summary, Ginger is an adorable, energetic, smart, sweet dog who will make an amazing family pet. Will you be her forever family?
Ginger was lovingly fostered by Cynthia
