Beagles good or bad?

my beagle was a great house dog! She only howled in her sleep or when she was in the backyard. She was always so friendly and outgoing. I think a beagle would be a decent apartment dog as long as he got plenty of exercise!

PM RWBeagles, she breeds and shows her beagles and has some great insight as to the do's and don'ts of the breed.

I think beagles are great all around dogs, but need alot (ALOT) of exercise.  Remember that they were originally used to run tirelessly in pursuit of game.  So you'd have to do alot of walking. 

I live with a hound in an apartment and I can tell you that I do several miles of walking a day.  JMO.

So, for two years I lived in a duplex where my neighbors owned a beagle. I am a dog-lover and have a coonhound myself, not the most silent of breeds by any stretch, so I was okay with the beagle. But believe me, there were times defiantely where it was 2 AM and none of our neighbors were home (they were college kids) and their dog was howling to beat the band when I really really really wanted him to please shut up. Beagles as a general rule like to be with their people, so a beagle left alone for long periods is generally not a happy beagle, and a beagle who is not a happy beagle can be a very very loud beagle.
 
Dogs in apartments is always a dicey affair. Any dog of any breed can turn out to be a barker or a howler, and any dog of any breed can turn out to be silent as the grave. And you never know until you're sort of in the thick of it.

For your other needs, a beagle is great. They're friendly and non-aggressive and generally happy little critters. They do need a lot of excerise and generally don't turn out to be obedience champions (it takes a speical kind of person to train a hound for obedience). But the baying.... Yeah. Talk to your neighbors, seriously. I would have told my own neighbors to go for it, get a beagle, I love dogs, I don't mind hearing the howling--and 95% of the time I didn't, it just became background noise that I didn't even notice. But if you live next to someone who really likes their peace and quiet, or just doesn't like dogs in general and looks for excuses to hate them, perhaps a beagle is not the best choice.

For the most part, nooooooo- not in apartment! [] Since living in apartments several different neighbors have had a Beagle; I knew where each and every one of them lived because of the racket their dogs made. [&:] The problem is that Beagles have a very LOUD hound bay which they use liberally when they hear or see anything of interest. I think the main problem is that people leave the dog with the run of the apartment while they're gone and the dog ends sitting by the front door and looking out windows barking at everything they see or hear.

What I do with my dogs (and what I'd especially recommend for a Beagle in an apartment) is to tire them out before leaving. Keep them in a crate or room with no windows. Leave a radio on an easy listening station to help relax them and drown out any outside noises and leave a Kong stuffed with peanut butter or treats to keep them busy for awhile. With the suggestions above they end up sleeping while your gone and not being a nuisance or getting stressed out by all sights and sounds outside.

Of course, all that is only when you're not home. When you're home and your dog is free in the apartment you still have to worry about them sounding the alarm every time they hear someone outside. One of my dogs, Fudge, is barkier than most Shih Tzus. I'm having to work hard to teach him not to bark. What I do is let him bark one or two times and then I say "that's enough" in a stern voice. If he's quiet I praise him. If he lets out one more peep then I say "no" and put him in the other room for a time out. He's quickly learning to zip it because praise is better than being in the other room by himself. Sometimes he can't seem to help himself though and insists on still barking- so off to timeout he goes. The thing is, with some dogs like Shelties and hounds, barking comes almost as naturally as breathing. So it can be REALLY hard to teach them not to. It's something that you would probably always have to work on.

Also keep in mind that Beagles are high energy, hunting dogs. They're going to need lots of exercise and toys and games to keep their mind busy or they're going to be REALLY destructive- chewing up everything.

So what I'm saying is, normally I don't think Beagles are a great match for apartment living, but with a lot of commitment it could work.

I placed a puppy of mine with an apt couple. He's doing great...they've now moved into a home tho. They do need exercise (tho mine don't need as much as some folks seem to think!) and IMO the hardest time will be the first year or two. After that? Mine are lazy critters that do one good run with each other daily and sleep the rest of the time! LOL...
 
Vocality varies hound to hound. Feeding time is a prime example of when most any Beagle will sing....so bear that in mind! Boredom equals a naughty dog..of ANY breed...
 
Crating is good...exercise is good...obedience classes are good. The less time the dog is alone per day is also good. That's true no matter what breed you get tho!

I have a beagle and we live in a duplex (two family home).  As Gina said barking/baying varies from hound to hound.  I do know that beagles are very socialable dogs and the more they are alone the more likely they are to bay.  Charlie only barks when someone comes onto our front porch, when we come home from being gone, or when DH gets him all riled up playing etc.  However, someone is always home with Charlie and he is rarely alone for extended periods of time and we do crate him when we are gone.
 
Charlie gets a good amount of exercise in the form of 3 - 4 walks each day.  We don't have a fenced in yard so he is not allowed to run around freely outside.  We do play catch with him for about 1/2 each day.  Other than that, he lays around and sleeps most of the rest of the time.
 
Beagles are a very lovable breed and at least mine is a huge snuggler.  He is wonderful with our new baby, very gentle and sweet.  Personally I like beagles because they are small enough to be very portable and easy to deal with yet sturdy enough to play rough with.

Beagles are hard to housebreak!

My beagle has been the best dog I could ever imagine.  Not hard to housebreak at all.  I know it depends on the dog, but mine is not a barker/howler at all.  He will rarely bark when he sees a critter in the yard.  He NEVER barks in the house which everyone thinks is weird but we are not complaining.  He sits and looks out the window at people walking by, etc and never barks at them.  He doesn't even bark when someone knocks.  We just never made a big deal about people knocking, coming and going and he doesn't make a big deal about it. 

Beagles will do ok in an apartment if they are sufficiently excercised 3-4 times a day . But in most cases beagles will do best in a house with a yard . Kind of a indoor - outdoor dog . They also may howl and have a very loud bark due to them being a hunting dog and having hound dog in them . Beagles pretty much need a yard to run around in and have freedom to whatever they want in the yard and come in as they please . So yeah Beagles will do ok in an apartment but must be willing to excercise it alot .