A pocket beagle was a very popular breed back in the 1300s and 1400s with royalty and was prized by the royal family. They were called pocket beagles because they were measured at no more than 9 inches at the shoulders. Currently the American Kennel Club, the standard that many breeders use for determining the health and other important factors of a dog breed, only recognizes beagles that are 13 inches or 15 inches in size. So what happened?

Pocket beagles are considered to be the results of either very bad breeding or a dog that has serious health problems. In the early 1900's the line recognized by official American and British pocket beagle breeds was declared extinct and today you cannot get a pocket beagle that is officially recognized by the widely accepted breeders' standards in the world. But yet there are many breeders that maintain they are breeding pocket beagles.

Pocket Beagles may not be very healthy

• There are several reasons why people should avoid buying pocket beagles.
  First, they aren’t healthy. Their short legs make them prone to hip dysplasia, which means they will need surgery at some point in their lives.
• Second, they are not good with children. They are too small to play with kids and they tend to bark when they see strangers.
• Third, they are not good house pets. They require lots of exercise and attention and they are not good with cats.
• Fourth, they are not good for older adults. They are not big enough to protect an elderly person from falls and they are not good for those who live alone.
• Fifth, they are not good as therapy animals. They are too small and they do not provide much comfort to patients.

There are breeders who claim to be breeding a completely healthy pocket beagle called the old English pocket beagle. If you search the Internet you will find scores of these breeders and many of them belong to breeding organizations that may not be the main ones recognized by the major dog shows. There are still organizations that only promote healthy and ethical dog breeding. So it makes you wonder where the battle of words comes from when it comes to the pocket beagles.

Breeding has a big part in all of this, as breeders are the ones that can help ensure that beagle puppies are clean of any kind of health risk or any unhealthy situation. Many times a beagle marketed as a pocket beagle is a beagle, which the breeder allowed to be born with common physical ailments in beagles such as hip dysplasia and epilepsy. Be certain to ask many questions if you intend to buy a dog marketed as a pocket beagle.

For the foreseeable future, it looks like there will be people arguing that they are more than capable of breeding healthy pocket beagles, and then people on the other side claiming that pocket beagles are extinct.  However, what the breeders are selling are unhealthy dogs.

There are very specific criteria that a dog must meet when it is being classified as one breed or the other and the main breeding organizations of the world consider a dog outside these criteria to be unhealthy. Are old English pocket beagle breeders selling unhealthy dogs? I will let you decide and let you make an informed and intelligent purchase should you choose to buy a dog being presented as a pocket beagle.

It is a shame that something so cute and so small is at the center of such a large debate.  But when you have equally qualified people on both sides of the fence it is difficult to ignore a debate like this.