Beagles love nothing more than getting outdoors and running around. They’re born hunters and are naturally adventurous.
Beagles are instinctively driven by their natural inclination to sniff out prey and investigate their surroundings. On occasion, this can result in them getting into trouble, including attempting to climb up trees.
With beagles and most types of dog breeds, supervision is very important, as they often can be clumsy and don’t always instinctively protect themselves from injury. When beagles get into precarious situations, they may require human help to get out of them without getting hurt.
In this article, I’ll go in depth on how beagles attempt to climb trees, and what you should do to prevent them from climbing trees to keep them safe.
How Do Beagles Climb Trees?
As instinctively-driven animals, beagles can do some pretty impressive things when they put their mind to it. This includes the ability to climb a lot of different types of trees.
They obviously can’t climb any trees straight up, but if a tree has ample branches and your beagle is hooked on a scent, it’s quite possible that they’ll do whatever they can to scale the tree, not even worrying about height.
Beagles are especially attracted to fruit trees, and can easily scale their trunks for a taste of the fruits hanging down below.
As hunters, they’ve also been known to chase animals up trees. For example, my beagle’s scaled a few types of small trees when chasing squirrels. And once they’re on the chase, there’s little that can stop them from getting as close as they can to their target.
If a squirrel runs up a tree while being chased, you better believe a beagle’s going to try to figure out how to get close to it.
Essentially, beagles can scale trees either through momentum, such as from chasing a squirrel, or through sheer stubbornness.
Ask any beagle owner and they’ll agree, beagles are one of the most stubborn breeds out there, and they won’t let something like a precarious tree stop them from getting what they want.
As dogs that are low to the ground, beagles also have a much lower center of gravity, and therefore have better balance than a lot of other dog breeds.
For this reason, beagles are able to balance on narrow objects like branches and stumps better than other types of breeds of dogs.
This gives them a bit of a predisposition to being able to climb certain types of trees over other dogs.
What Types of Trees Can Beagles Climb?
When jumping from very high tree branches to the ground, beagles can successfully jump up to about 3 to 4 feet high. They typically don’t have the ability to scale higher, as they don’t have the height or wingspan of larger dogs like Great Danes or huskies.
However, their natural balance and agility allow them to climb up trees really well.
Some of the easiest trees for beagles to climb include:
- cherry
- apple pear
- blackberry
- blueberry
- pear
Basically, any tree with a narrow trunk and small branches is perfect for a beagle to climb for a number of reasons.
If they’re out looking for squirrels or other animals, it’s easily possible for them to scale one of these trees in order to get closer to them.
Sometimes they’ll even be able to get on top of the tree and stay there.
It’s not uncommon for a beagle to climb up a tree and get stuck, as it can be much easier to scale trees than to get back down. I’ve also noticed this when my beagle tries climbing certain steep sets of stairs.
What Dog Breeds Are Best At Climbing Trees?
Obviously with big dogs, like the Golden Retriever or Great Dane, they have longer legs and more height than beagles, which allows them to scale trees a lot faster.
However, there are a few dogs that are much more predisposed to this kind of natural climbing ability. The best tree-climbing dog breeds include:
Labrador Retrievers:
Labs are a good blend of light weight, tall height, agility and balance.
If they can jump high enough, they can scale most any tree. This includes complex trees with lots of branches and foliage.
They also have the ability to spot a squirrel running up a tree from a good distance away, which allows them to chase the squirrel while building up speed, helping them scale trees with little effort.
Border Collie:
Border collies are known for being agile at scaling trees.
They are overall lighter dogs than Labs, but also more agile. This allows them to scale branches with more ease than a lot of breeds.
However, they have relatively narrow feet that are bit smaller than a Labrador’s feet, which can make balance a bit more difficult.
German Shepherds:
German Shepherds are natural climbers that aren’t too far behind border collies at scaling trees and getting where they want to be.
They don’t have as small feet as border collies, and they have very powerful hind legs that can help propel them to impressive heights. This is why they’re often used as workdogs, particularly in security and for police forces.
In fact, German shepherds have been recorded to jump as high as six feet!
How to Stop Your Beagle From Trying to Climb Trees
Even though some beagles can scale certain types of trees, they still shouldn’t.
Dogs aren’t very coordinated and have a tough time getting down from high places. Scaling trees that are too high or precarious could be very dangerous for beagles.
Some of the best ways to stop or prevent tree climbing in dogs include:
1.) Never let them near trees off-leash
This can be difficult in practice, especially if your beagle is used to roaming around in nature off leash. However, if your beagle is making a habit out of trying to scale trees regularly, it’s worth it for their own protection.
If your beagle is a puller on leashes, I highly recommending getting them a harness, which will help you have more control over them, and also prevent them from straining their neck and shoulders when they decide to get stubborn and pull.
2.) Use an ‘off’ command
Teaching your beagle the ‘off’ command can prove useful in a variety of situations.
For example, if your pup is running around and has gotten too close to a tree that is too high, you can use an ‘off’ command to try to get them to stop what they’re doing.
If they do stop the activity, be sure to reward them and give them plenty of praise.
This can easily be done in your home so that you can train in a safer environment. You can say “off” if your beagle climbs on any furniture, and quickly build the association in your beagle’s mind that “off” means stop what you’re doing and get off anything that you’re climbing.
3.) Redirect their attention
Redirecting a dog’s attention is one of the best first steps you can take to try and cut back on a negative behavior. If you have toys or treats available, you can try to redirect your beagle’s attention whenever it looks like they might be trying to climb a tree.
It’s important to use the redirection method early, before they actually start the act of climbing the tree, otherwise they may associate the action of climbing a tree directly with a reward.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to beagles, they do everything with a lot of energy. Most of the time this means that you’re going to be dealing with very excited dogs throughout the day.
However, it also means that they can be stubborn about getting certain things done their own way, including climbing trees and scaling high places. Fortunately, there are a few ways to prevent this from happening.
While most beagles won’t scale trees that are too high for them to jump down, if you have a beagle with a big personality and a lot of energy, chances are they’re going to do their best to scale trees no matter what.
If you find this habit recurring, definitely work through the strategies I laid out above in this article. Working on general obedience training is probably the best way to prevent these kinds of behaviors, as your beagle will look to you as the expert in uncertain situations, and will want to obey your commands to receive praise and treats.