Pain in the butt Beagle!

[pam4611]

Hi guys,

I am a newbie to the forum and also a relatively newbie owner of a 6 month old beagle pup called Rocky.

We rescued him when he was 3 months old as he had just been bred on a puppy farm and the poor thing was what they described as the "runt of the litter" and the breeder couldn't sell him.

So anyway, we had him vaccinated, wormed, flead and he also needed treating for ear mites. Our vet sorted him out and he was a picture of health.

After a couple of weeks, we were able to take him out and he was very friendly with other dogs, just liked to jump all over them and play. He was great with my daughter Olivia who is 7.

I was keen on crate however my husband didn't like the idea as he thought it looked cruel. So he was basically given free run of the kitchen. We initially tried to train him on puppy pads but our vet advised against this, so we started over and now take him out. He still isn't completely trained. This frustrates my husband to no end as the kitchen smells of urine, despite us using the proper sprays etc. He urinates in his bed constantly and I am forever washing it.

Also he chews EVERYTHING, he has two Kongs, plus various other toys and he just isn't interested in them at all. He tends to chew wires, the sofa, the carpet, the banister on the stairs, doorframes, doors, wallpaper and he has gone through x5 leads at £20 a pop! What can I do apart from chain him up? I am at my wits end.

I have registered him for puppy training classes but there is quite a long waiting list so is there anything I can be doing in the meantime?

He was neutered last week and he completely chewed off his buster collar, I was hoping it would calm him down but if anything he has gotten worse.

He only listens and sits when he is getting something like a treat but otherwise he compleyely ignores us.

Also he started to growl at my daughter the other day after playing and this has made me frightened as to whether he is getting aggressive or not

Not really sure what to do but as he is six months old now is it too late???

Please help, any advice really appreciated.

Thanks

Pam xxx

[Dawna]

I have a 13 month old Feist X and a 10 month old Beagle. They are both potty trained, but they BOTH chew like your dog does! IF you find out how to stop that, let me know! I often wonder if my dogs are part goat!

[LAD85]

This is why a crate is so important. Maybe now your husband will relize this. if you cant supervise a puppy, put it in a safe area. which is a crate, not a kitchen, not a bathroom, not a laundry room echose are puppy proffed. which they are not, since he is destroying things.

What kind of excerise and amount do you give him daily? what training do you do daily? how do you "punish" him? How often do you take him out? what was your daughter doing that made him growl? you know a dogs growl doesnt mean agression. Its a warning signal to leave me alone. and most people dont listen to it, and continue doing as they please, which is why dogs bite. Dogs have no way to communicate, but through growling, snarling, ect.
Hes not being a pain in the butt. he is being a puppy. who doesnt sound well excersised, trained or mentally stimulated. with no directions given

Its never to late for a dog, be it 6 months or 13 years old.

[pam4611]

Originally Posted by LAD85

This is why a crate is so important. Maybe now your husband will relize this. if you cant supervise a puppy, put it in a safe area. which is a crate, not a kitchen, not a bathroom, not a laundry room echose are puppy proffed. which they are not, since he is destroying things.

What kind of excerise and amount do you give him daily? what training do you do daily? how do you "punish" him? How often do you take him out? what was your daughter doing that made him growl? you know a dogs growl doesnt mean agression. Its a warning signal to leave me alone. and most people dont listen to it, and continue doing as they please, which is why dogs bite. Dogs have no way to communicate, but through growling, snarling, ect.

Its never to late for a dog, be it 6 months or 13 years old.

He goes out at least five times per day (x5-10 mins) for a wee then he has a 15 walk in the morning and a longer walk at teatime when he has a poo. At the moment he is confined to the garden due to his op, so we should be able to take him on a walk again in a few days.

We have taught him to sit, stay, circle and lie down and he does these no problem as long as he gets a treat, otherwise he doesn't listen or do the act. We have tried "no, off" etc etc and he ignores us. If he pinches something he isn't supposed to and I catch him at it I say drop it and he does then he runs off, as if he knows he has been naughty but continues to do it anyway!!

With regards to punishing, if he has been naughty then he gets tapped on the bottom as nothign else works!

Olivia was playing with Rocky in the front room whilst her dad had nipped out of the room for 5 mins, then he heard her shout and Rocky had her on the floor and wouldn't let her get up but he was growling at her, but of course tail wagging! Is this aggression or was he playing? I would never forgive myself if anything happened to her because i misread the signals.

[LAD85]

Id deffiently up his excersise. beagles are bred to be working out in fields on hunts for hours on end. they need lots of excersise.

Id take him out on a good 30mins walk atleast 3 times a day. after the 30 mins walk, id do a training session or 10 mins tops. a dog who has got lots of his energy out is going to focus much more.

I cant tell you what your dog was doing with your daughter, as I was not there, nore was any one else. children and pets should never be left alone, not even for a min, un supervised. As children tend to push most dogs beyond their limits and dont listen to their "words", thus why so many children get bite by family dogs.

Id get a crate, and crate him when he cant be supervised. and id leash him to me if I can supervise him, but cant keep my eyes on him the whole time. that way he cant go and get in to things or use the washroom, with out your noticing.

[BUDDYTHEBEAGLE]

I also thought before I got Buddy that the crate was cruel and I tried to move him into the kitchen a couple of weeks ago but after 4 nights of howling and chewing at the end of my tether i put him back in his crate. He is happy again..
I am so worried about bad behavior starting with Buddy that I work hard with him all the time, I also work 30 hours a week and have 5 kids. I would say these few things have been my godsend but every dog and owner has different views but these are my personal tips.
1. Watch as many episodes of Victoria Stillwells "its me or the dog" I have picked up some ace tips. Her book is good too. £8 from Amazon.
2. Fill his kong with beef stock stick some bits of ham in there. Seal the bottom with foil and freeze. Buddy just loves his beef ice lollies.
3. Keep any plastic drink bottles, take lid off and put some of his dried dog food in there and he will spend ages chasing the bottle trying to get the food out.
4. Lots of tasty treats like tinned hot dogs chopped small instead of shop bought treats. That will get Bud to do whatever I want him to.
5. I hide food so he sniffs it out.
Buddy can still be a pickle but he obviously feels secure in his crate and when he is among the family have strategies to amuse when he gets bored.
I also have a 7 year old and him and buddy are best friends because I have made him top trainer. Sammy spends a couple of minutes each day with tasty treats getting him to sit, wait down etc. The relationship is becoming so beautiful.
This is my 1st Beagle and I know very little about traing and dog behaviour but I found the more I read the more confused i got thats why I use a mixture of Victoria Stillwell teaching and a mothers common sense.
Good Luck.. I seen crates cheap on ebay.

[charlies mom]

im also not an experienced beagle owner but i can tell you my experience. charlie was a little nightmare for a few months. had him in our kitchen too and couldnt toilet train him. he ignored every thing i said, chewed everything very same as your dog. growled at me all the time if i tried to remove MY stuff outta his mouth.
here is wat i did. i moved him outta the kitchen into a small area of my hall which i blocked off with a baby gate. not a thing he can damage there only his own bed bowls etc. when i used to try and get him out for a wee he would never go so now i force him out the door if i have to. since i moved him outta the kitchen he doesnt go in the house. ive gone from 2 poops and a few wees a morning to clean to the very rare wee. im convinced he thought his patch in the kitchen was where he had to go and moving him was the only way to break it. i have a one year old baby who is crawling and having to clean the dogs mess every morning was begining to really stress me.
second big thing i did with him was to properly secure 3 acres that we have access to off our back garden and now he has free reign of this all day. he is like a different dog i used walk him every day but now that he runs arnd for the day he is wrecked when he comes in. i know that not every one has the space that i have but it just shows that they need a lot more exersise than some web sites will tell you. if you can burn off there energy you wll have such a different dog.
they need to know whos boss. i feel that charlie is always fighting me like a bold child but i will fight him all the way to show him who is boss. i posted on here when i first got charlie too there are some good links from other people you shud check it out.

[andyb28]

Hi Pam,

We went through exactly the same as you, but now we have a chilled out 1 year old beagle. I must say at between 6 months - 12 we came very close to giving him up as he was causing my wife and I to argue. There are some of my threads and many others on here about the same thing.

First, get a crate, straight away, we made that mistake and went from the dog going to the toilet in the house to almost none at all straight away as soon as we changed and used a crate.

Second, we had loads of problems with chewing, he was ruining our home, people will say take away what they aren't allowed to have and give them a toy. This did not work for us, in the end we got a muzzle for him that we put on him everytime he chewed something he shouldn't, or if we had to leave him un-supervised / not in his crate. This worked wonders, he doesn't chew anything anymore and we dont need to use the muzzle! (note we were very careful with our selection of muzzle, it was loose fitting and allowed him to still drink).

The only thing we noticed after getting him neutered was he stopped trying to hump things. It didn't calm him down at all.

All I wanted to say was, the last 6 months have been not pleasant, but stick with it, having been through exactly what you have, there is light at the end of the tunnel

Andy

[pam4611]

Originally Posted by andyb28

Hi Pam,

We went through exactly the same as you, but now we have a chilled out 1 year old beagle. I must say at between 6 months - 12 we came very close to giving him up as he was causing my wife and I to argue. There are some of my threads and many others on here about the same thing.

First, get a crate, straight away, we made that mistake and went from the dog going to the toilet in the house to almost none at all straight away as soon as we changed and used a crate.

Second, we had loads of problems with chewing, he was ruining our home, people will say take away what they aren't allowed to have and give them a toy. This did not work for us, in the end we got a muzzle for him that we put on him everytime he chewed something he shouldn't, or if we had to leave him un-supervised / not in his crate. This worked wonders, he doesn't chew anything anymore and we dont need to use the muzzle! (note we were very careful with our selection of muzzle, it was loose fitting and allowed him to still drink).

The only thing we noticed after getting him neutered was he stopped trying to hump things. It didn't calm him down at all.

All I wanted to say was, the last 6 months have been not pleasant, but stick with it, having been through exactly what you have, there is light at the end of the tunnel

Andy

Hi Andy,

I am so pleased it isn't just us. I thought I was doing something wrong. I willd efinitely up his exercise though, I was just taking on short walks as quite a few websites said thats all they need... Grrrr, I wish I had found this forum in the early days.
It's getting to the point where we are ready for giving up as he is just sooo hard to train lol. He's a little bugger but I love him so much.
Thanks for your advice.
Pam

[LAD85]

This is why beagles are often taken to human societys, abandoned, or just dumped.

They are stubborn breed by nature. as they are bred to basiclly work with a pack of dogs or alone. Not directly with a human such as a collie would. So they think for themselves, and thus seem to get in trouble.

Its very possible to live in harmony with a beagle. You just have to put in the work, the pay back is wonderful. (as in having a great companion)

Not sure what website you looked at. but they sure are wrong. this is a high energy active breed. Breed to run and chase and hunt with a pack for hours a day. This is why so many have issues and so many beagles you see are over weight (sad thing to see with any breed and terrible on the owners part IMO)

I just went on a 9 km offleash (love my adidas app on my phone, tracks how far i walk. I walked 9kms, Im sure that means they did 15kms or so, since they run so far ahead, chase each other and other dogs and run through the woods at top speed lol) hike with boy my boys. They are now exhausted. But Im sure will be up and ready to do something later. Which they wont get. But they will be content for the rest of the day. so they will get a bone to lay around and chew on when i get in from work.


Good luck with your puppy. Remember he is still a baby at 6 months. and now you are entering the "teen" phase soon. which you will start to see more stubborness. But be consitant and you will surley have a great dog in the end to share the next 15 or so years with.