“Nearly.” “Not quite.” “Almost.”

These descriptive words for the length of a Beagle’s ears are at odds with the description of the “auris externa” found in the book,  Hounds Hunting by Scent, by respected author, David Hancock. Published in 2014, a bit of text from the Scenthound Provenance reads, “In the standard of the Beagle, for example, the ears are required to extend to the nose tip.” As Colonel Hancock lives in the UK, we checked the Kennel Club’s Beagle standard and it reads: “Long, with rounded tip, reaching nearly to end of nose when drawn out.” 

The FCI standard is identical to the Kennel Club’s. The AKC’s standard isn’t much different, and the United Kennel Club standard reads, “They are long reaching when drawn out, extending nearly to the end of the nose.” We’re not sure where it’s written in ink that the ears are required to extend to the nose, but that they are important isn’t in question.

Remember, now, this is a scent hound, and the AKC standard’s Scale of Points make ears worth a significant ten points, the same value given to the breed’s all important “running gear, ” his feet. The standard reads, “Ears set on moderately low, long, reaching when drawn out nearly, if not quite, to the end of the nose; fine in texture, fairly broad-with almost entire absence of erectile power-setting close to the head, with the forward edge slightly inturning to the cheek-rounded at tip.”

Ears so long that the dog steps on it are as unhelpful to the dog as ears that are too short and don’t trap scent molecules around his nose, and we know most readers “get that.” Others may be thinking that such specificity to ear length is being nit-picky, if not downright picayune;  to those readers,  we use a conformation ring at a dog show to make a point.

If would be easier to be a show judge if every entry before them was wildly different from the dog next to them, but very often, dogs of similar quality are in the line up. It is often the little things that help a judge determine their winners and placements, and everything being equal, the dog whose ears meet the standard better than another dog tips the scales in their favor.