Generally, when the dogs are let out in the morning, Lacie runs straight off the porch, makes it perhaps ten feet, and frantically does her thing. Riley typically trots proudly out onto the porch and, with his tail held high, snorts, sniffs, and gruts into the morning air before hustling down the steps into the yard.

Today lacked the typical ceremony. As Lacie reached the edge of the porch, she let out a muffled WUFF and charged towards the back of the yard. Heeding Lacie's warning, Riley pounded down the steps right after her, anxious for battle.

The dogs made it no further than halfway down the yard when the horrific call of The Beagle rang out from the neighbor's yard. Both Lacie and Riley hit the side fence running and barking with their back hair standing tall. In response, The Beagle strained at its lead, howling and barking in that typical beagle way.

If you've never heard a beagle's call, consider yourself lucky. Unfortunately for the breed, the ever-popular Snoopy has done more for sales of beagles to unsuitable homes than any well-targeted direct marketing campaign could have ever achieved. While I'm certain that somewhere there lives a responsible family with a lovely little beagle, most of the breed that I've encountered have been chained in back yards, howling at the top of their little lungs.

The breed was designed and bred to be a loud hunting dog. Over the years, they've been designed to run and howl in packs while following the scent of prey. They have a lot of energy so they can keep up with the mounted hunters and they make a lot of noise so the hunters know where they are. Unfortunately, when these dogs get chained out in back yards, they generally get fat from lack of exercise and they continue to make a lot of noise.

The house at the back corner of our property was finally bought and the new owner moved in last weekend. This morning was our first encounter with The Beagle and it was quite an ear opener. Riley and Lacie barked through the fence for a few minutes before finally tiring of the game. Unfortunately, The Beagle did not bore quite as easily and howled the entire time we were outside.

At this point, considering the dog was only outside for a few hours in the morning and since we haven't seen the dog earlier in the week, I can only hope the new owner of the house decides not to leave The Beagle tied outside all day everyday. But it sure was a wake up call this morning.