The current AKC Beagle standard makes no mention of coat texture beyond a soft, thin coat being a defect, and a hard, close coat being preferred, but did you know that once upon a time, there was such a thing as a rough-coated Beagle?
In his Manual of British Sports (1861), the author, Stonehenge, described the medium Beagle, the dwarf or lap-dog Beagle, and the Fox Beagle, but there was a fourth dog – a rough or Terrier Beagle.
The author Beckford also mentioned Rough-Coated Beagles and Wire-Haired Beagles in 1750, and they may actually have been the same dog. Both were found in the South of England and in nearby Wales, and later, someone named William Youatt claimed that Wire-Haired Beagle was the stronger, stouter and better variety. And that leads to current day conjecture. Some people believe that Fox Terrier blood exists in present-day Beagles, and point to the Beagle’s epic stubbornness, though we are inclined to believe that this trait is a scent hound “thing.”
When these men wrote about rough coats in the Beagle, did they regard it the same way we regard a rough coat today? We don’t know. Double coats with coarse textured outer coat have been called “rough.” So have wiry coats, and rough coats have been called “broken.” Suffice to say that any coat other than today’s “close” coat would be noticed in a Beagle.
The rough-coated Beagle survived until the beginning of the 20th century, and there were even records of one making an appearance at a dog show as late as 1969, but this variety is now extinct.
Image of Rough Coated Beagle by Thomas Earl
Well I have a rough or coarse coat beagle. There is nothing soft about her hair. Ive had her for 15 years. I live in Michigan.
Fascinating, Mary, we’d love to see her picture!
I adopted a beagle from a shelter with a wiry coats. They told me that she was likely a beagle terrier mix. She’s had a lot of puppies. Turns out that she is in fact a purebred wire coated beagle who was overbred for the puppies. Now she’s spayed and happy with us.
We’d love to see her picture, Lisa, if you ever have a chance. We do love a happy ending and are happy for your little lady at having found a wonderful home!
I definitely have a rough coat beagle. In fact I thought we were feeding her too much table food and ruining not only her waist line but her coat but apparently this is her breed!! I’ll never get another dog though. She is the most loyal, love able and stubborn lil girl that you can’t help but love her when she does something wrong and gives ya those I’m sorry mommy eyes lol.
That is not a rough coated beagle in the pic supplied here. That’s the usual coat. Undercoat, hard top coat. Rough is wiry or terrier-like. That is a regular beagle coat as we know it today.
I have a registered beagle I got at 6 weeks old and her hair has just got more and more of a rough coat as she has grown. She is the 10″ beagle, chocolate in color with the speckled spots on her. We also got a red tick pup as well but she has the softest coat ever but much larger .
We adopted a beagle from a rescue in Alabama sight unseen and he was brought up on a transport and when he got here we observed that he had a rough coat. We know he was bred by a hunter and then it was discovered he was gun shy. We are not hunters and all of our 3 hound dogs are rescued. We are in love with this guy, his name is Grayson, as with all of the others now and in the past and he is very happy here. We have a Red Tick Beagle as well and then we have one we are not sure about; her daddy was a rolling stone. They all are from the same rescue. They all bring us much joy.