What breed is Snoopy?
Snoopy is a beagle, a scent hound from Great Britain. Charles M. Schulz based him on Spike, a black-and-white dog he had as a boy in the 1930s, according to the Charles M. Schulz Museum.
Would you know a real Beagle?
Three British hounds. Which one is the Beagle?
Where do Beagles come from?
What was the Beagle bred to hunt?
Its standard says the Beagle was bred down from a larger hound. Which one?
How tall is a Beagle at the shoulder, by its standard?
The real Beagle
| The Beagle, by its breed standard | |
|---|---|
| Home | Great Britain |
| Bred for | Hunting hare by scent, with hunters on foot |
| Height | 33 to 40 cm at the shoulder |
| Ears | Long, with rounded tips, reaching nearly to the end of the nose when drawn forward |
| Coat | Short, dense and weatherproof |
| Colours | Tricolour (black, tan and white), lemon and white, red and white, tan and white, black and white, all white, and pied mixes. The tip of the tail is white. |
From the Beagle breed standard (No. 161, 8 September 2026).
Where do Beagles come from, and what were they for?
Great Britain. The Beagle’s standard says it is said to have been bred down from the larger Foxhound to hunt with people on foot, preferably after the hare, and that it is still hunted in packs, often run by colleges and schools. It describes a merry, bold hound whose essential job is to hunt by following a scent.
In the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I there were wirehaired Beagles, some small enough to carry in the pocket of a hunting jacket. Beagles have grown bigger since, but small ones, called pocket Beagles, are still sometimes born.
Who was Spike?
Schulz’s boyhood dog. The Schulz Museum says that in the 1930s Schulz had a black-and-white dog named Spike, who later became the inspiration for Snoopy, and that Spike was also the dog Schulz drew for Ripley’s Believe It or Not! The museum’s “Then Came the Dog” exhibit says Spike inspired Schulz’s first cartoon, and calls Snoopy the world’s most famous beagle. The first Peanuts strip ran on 2 October 1950, and Snoopy appeared two days later, on 4 October (Wikipedia).
Other hounds people mistake for a Beagle
Another cartoon dog with a real breed behind him: what breed is Scooby-Doo?