Q&A with ‘The Paw Man’ (262) – Beagle Intervention Kimberlene Ann Weston I have a 9 mth. Beagle male. He has not been trained at all....& we the new owners and are struggling to teach him. He is also very antisocial, we had friends over last nite...& he never stopped barking no matter what we did to calm him down. He was outside & inside with no change....help me please...as I luv having friends over but feel I can’t with him as part of our family...can we win & how long will it take????? Desprite Kimbo.. Paw Man Hi Kim. Have you considered taking him to obedience classes? At 9 months of age he is ready for formal training. Most dog courses these days are 8 weeks long at 1 hour per week. Where you take him is up to you, ie if you decide on positive-only or balanced training. However he will need some kind of formal training just to ensure you have the ability to control the dog when needed. The next time you have visitors over make sure that you have the dog on leash and do not allow the dog to do the escape behaviors that it has shown in the past. You could even tie the dogs leash to your belt so the dog has no choice but to stay with you. Do not soothe or calm the dog if it gets stressed and if it starts playing up then deliver a very short and sharp correction (no yelling or body language threat). Only praise the dog when it is in a calm state… and make that praise slow and gentle, not excited patting, more like long slow strokes. Only when the dog is in this calm state can you offer treats or a little 1:1 playful interaction. Beagles are notorious for scavenging and typically respond well to food related training so I would strongly suggest that if you are not going to take the dog to dog obedience training that you Google ‘NILIF Dog Training’ as that method will rectify several of the dog’s behavioral issues. NILIF will refocus the dog back on the human members of the pack and you can even use NILIF to get the dog to interact with your guests. There are two basic key elements with this dog…. keeping it on leash more and reinforcing a calmer physical state.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 10:58:18 +0000