Is Snoopy a Beagle? Snoopy, the Easter Beagle and Other Famous Beagles

Yes — Snoopy is a beagle. Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts introduced him in 1950, and he has been the world's most famous beagle ever since. Here's Snoopy's story, his most famous moments, and other beagles who've made history.

Snoopy: the world's most famous beagle

Snoopy first appeared in Peanuts in October 1950, just days after the strip began. In the story, Charlie Brown got him from the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm, and Snoopy has a big beagle family, including his siblings Spike, Belle, Marbles, Olaf, Andy and Rerun.

Early Snoopy looked more like a real puppy. Over the years he began walking on two legs, sleeping on top of his doghouse and living a rich imaginary life — as a writer, a tennis star, "Joe Cool" and, most famously, a World War I flying ace.

The flying beagle: Snoopy the Flying Ace

From the mid-1960s, Snoopy took to the skies. Sitting on his doghouse — which he imagines is a Sopwith Camel fighter plane — the Flying Ace battles his arch-enemy, the Red Baron. The "flying beagle" became one of the most loved images in comics. Snoopy also flew higher than any cartoon dog: NASA named the Apollo 10 lunar module "Snoopy" in 1969 (the command module was "Charlie Brown"), and Snoopy has long been a NASA safety mascot.

It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown

It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown is the 1974 Peanuts TV special in which Linus insists the Easter Beagle will bring eggs to all the good children — and Snoopy, of course, saves the day. It remains a springtime favorite for families.

Is Snoopy really a beagle?

Schulz always described Snoopy as a beagle, even though cartoon Snoopy — white with a black ear — doesn't look much like a real tricolor beagle. Real beagles come in many colors; see our beagle colors guide.

Other famous beagles

• Queen Elizabeth I's glove beagles: tiny hunting beagles small enough to sit in a glove. Read about pocket beagles.
• Him and Her: President Lyndon B. Johnson's beagles, famous for a 1964 photo of the President lifting Him by the ears.
• Uno: in 2008 he became the first beagle to win Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
• Shiloh: the beagle in Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Newbery Medal–winning novel Shiloh (1991).
• Porthos: Captain Archer's beagle in Star Trek: Enterprise.
• Gromit: of Wallace & Gromit, usually described by his creator as a beagle.
• The Beagle Brigade: the USDA's real-life detector beagles who sniff out banned foods at airports.

Beagles in name only

Some famous "beagles" aren't dogs at all:

• HMS Beagle, the ship that carried Charles Darwin around the world — see our page on HMS Beagle.
• The Beagle Boys, the masked gang of crooks who keep trying to rob Scrooge McDuck in Disney comics and DuckTales.
• The Regal Beagle, the neighborhood bar in the sitcom Three's Company (and the name of several real bars and restaurants).

Want your own Snoopy?

Every beagle has a little Snoopy in them: imaginative, food-loving and convinced they're the star of the show. See our beagle puppies for sale.