I vote for beagles, too. On the small side, and good natured. I agree about the howling thing. I've had them since I was born, and I've never had one that bothered me with the barking/howling.
When I was growing up, we lived in an area that had wild rabbits, and even though none of the beagles we ever owned were ever trained or used as hunting dogs, they would instinctively chase them. We would sit outside and laugh our ass off, listening to whichever one at the time, howling and trying to track down the rabbit. Great dogs.
