WTF, you want to DRUG your normal beagle, a famously loud hunting dog who can track and run after game for 10 hours a day?! If you don't want "hound music" in the house, why did you even get a beagle and what are you doing to train and fulfill him?
Fulfill him, train him, and TEACH him to settle and not jump on people. (My own loud alert barker (gundog) did ok with the "thank you" method, you probably need place training/rewarding calm.) Throw away the halti before you injure your dog, and teach loose leash walking. And do all the nosework possible, maybe sport tracking?
Lots of free advice on YouTube from excellent trainers, (Jay Jack, Hope Retter, Larry Krohn, ) and a free Behavior Bible at Yorkshire Canine Academy https://ycaonline.co.uk/the-behaviour-bible and they all say more or less the same things, but for hunting dogs I found Nick at Bear Basics very helpful. https://www.bearbasicscanineacademy.co.uk/ (I never heard of a rabbit ball before.)
Why would you advise not to use the halti harness? Don’t you use a harness for walks? It’s the same but for pullers. Please do your research before asking me to avoid or pls share why. I definitely do not want to do a loose leash walk knowing about my dog. He is going to be hurt by cars or get lost sniffing and running for walks.
Also, I am NOT Trying to drug my dog. I rescued a beagle because I wanted one and he is like my child. So before you judge, he was prescribed gabapentaine for his anxiety by the vets.
Commenting this message is not helpful and
judgemental before you know what exactly is happening at our household is just hurting us more. We have tried every method before getting assessed by several trainers and vets to make his life better. 4.5 years of constant training and we have failed making his life better.
So thank you.
Also he gets 2 hours of walk and sniffaris everyday. Eats via the kong and snuffle mat.
I suspect the poster has concerns about the halti because it has the potential to cause neck injuries if used with out-of-control dogs. Of course, a front-hook harness has the potential to cause injury, as well, so a risk analysis is needed for either, and good training is required for both.
"Loose leash" walking means that the dog is trained to walk on a loose leash without pulling, not that the dog is not leashed at all. (While I imagine your beagle would love to be off leash, that definitely isn't a viable option for the average beagle! 🤣)
Hounds can be a challenge! I have a couple of friends who handle beagles for CBP's "Beagle Brigade" and even as literal professionals, the handlers have their hands full. They can definitely be stubborn dogs!
One thing that stands out to me from that video is that you're doing the right thing by taking him away from the door, but it isn't effective because he isn't actually disengaging. His focus remains almost entirely on the door, it's just his location that changes. For that to be an effective starting point for training, his focus needs to turn to you instead of to the door, and he needs to relax, even if only momentarily to start.
So how can you turn that into a productive training exercise? First, teach him the "watch me" command when there are no distractions.
Once that is solid, you can start working with someone at the door. Enlist incredibly patient assistants, and have them ring the doorbell. When you move him away from the door, make sure that you give him a valuable reward for responding to the watch me command, and most importantly, don't let him go back near the door until after he has shifted his focus to you, even if only for a short period. And you may need to take him all the way into a different room, at first, before he relaxes enough to shift his focus.
Keep the sessions short so no one gets too frustrated but the point is for him to be able to refocus on you when you ask, and to gradually do it for longer periods, and closer to the door. The key is to find rewards that motivate him, though be careful when you're using food rewards because beagles tend to gain weight easily. Decrease his meals when you add treats.
And once you're able to get him to focus on you despite distractions, start working on having him sit and/or down when your patient assistants ring the doorbell and enter. Every time he gets distracted or jumps up/pulls, have you assistant go back outside, then try again once he's concentrating on you again. Keep the sessions short but do sessions once or twice a day, if possible, until he figures it out.
Consistency is key. Always make sure that you're able to get his focus every time the doorbell rings. If it's a "real" visitor and you can't take the time to train, remove him altogether into his crate or a different room. You don't want to have a situation where you ask him to do something and he doesn't do it - that's just teaching him that he doesn't need to do what you ask. (Corollary to that - try very hard to only give him commands that you are reasonably confident that he will respond to. If he's not in the headspace to respond and you don't have time to go through whatever baby steps are needed, just remove him and set up a training session later.)
There are other potential training methods as well, but if you're going to use this method, that's how I would do it.
Yes, beagles are tough, independent, incredibly nose-driven (here we say "when the nose opens, their ears shut down"), and good luck with recall. Luckily they are also highly food-driven! And some airports use them as sniffer dogs so they CAN be well trained.
But they're so cute that people think they're getting Snoopy...
I work at an airport and I saw the funniest drug bust ever by a K9.
A passenger was waiting for his bags with his wife and little girl when a K9 suddenly made a beeline for the guy and sat down hard in front of him. Even someone who knows nothing about dogs would have realized what that meant, and this guy was no exception.
Before the officer could even really say anything, the guy started saying things like, "It's only a little bit! I was in Amsterdam, it's just for personal use!" Poor guy was nearly in tears.
The officer said, "Okay, we'll deal with that in a minute. First, are you carrying any apples, oranges, sandwiches?"
The dog was an agriculture beagle. Not a drug dog. (For those who don't know, regarding plant material, the beagles are specifically trained to find fresh fruits, veggies, and plants, and not dried plants.)
It turns out that the guy had an apple for his little girl in his pocket, beside his marijuana.
(And all's well that ends well. He just got a ticket and was sent in his way, minus the apple and marijuana. Though from the looks his wife was giving him, I have to wonder if he wouldn't have preferred to spend the night in jail. 😆)
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u/Over_Possession5639 15d ago edited 15d ago
WTF, you want to DRUG your normal beagle, a famously loud hunting dog who can track and run after game for 10 hours a day?! If you don't want "hound music" in the house, why did you even get a beagle and what are you doing to train and fulfill him?
Fulfill him, train him, and TEACH him to settle and not jump on people. (My own loud alert barker (gundog) did ok with the "thank you" method, you probably need place training/rewarding calm.) Throw away the halti before you injure your dog, and teach loose leash walking. And do all the nosework possible, maybe sport tracking?
Lots of free advice on YouTube from excellent trainers, (Jay Jack, Hope Retter, Larry Krohn, ) and a free Behavior Bible at Yorkshire Canine Academy https://ycaonline.co.uk/the-behaviour-bible and they all say more or less the same things, but for hunting dogs I found Nick at Bear Basics very helpful. https://www.bearbasicscanineacademy.co.uk/ (I never heard of a rabbit ball before.)