Beagles-exactly how hard are they to train?!

[sammysam]

Dh and I would love to get a Beagle. Everywhere says how hard they are to train-several places saying that they are the hardest dog to train!
If you've got experience of beagles would you say that that was true?
I've only ever had gun dogs before who have all trained easily, and dh's previous dogs have been well trained.

[wildfig]

Very?

Hounds generally are differently motivated when it comes to training. They don't have a desire to please you, like gundogs, or a great love of tuggy-things, like terriers, but they do have a desire to eat, and you have make the most of it. If what you want, and what they want coincides, then great. If it doesn't... then you might find it a bit frustrating. My hounds walk well on the lead (which you'll need, because recall is never completely perfect, esp in fox country), sit, stay (a bit), come (usually), heel, get off sofas, drop (half the time), and bring toy ducks back. But that's about it, and I've tried pretty hard, with a variety of stinky delicious food stuffs (and yes, a clicker).

On the other hand, if you've always had well-trained dogs and are an experienced owner, and you start as you mean to go on, then there's no reason why you couldn't make it work with a clicker and some treats; it just might take a bit longer than with a spaniel. All the beagles I know are friendly, gentle and ridiculously cute.

[Jaynerae]

I have an 11 month old Beagle. I took her to training classes as soon as vaccinations allowed. She is very motivated by food, so obviously I used that. She is very intelligent and very quick to learn, she can do down, sit, stay, wait, take it. All this was very easy to teach because she wanted the ham, sausage, cheese whatever titbits I had. She pulls like mad so I have to use a gentle leader, which works well.
She is very dog friendly, but this means recall was difficult to teach, we had it down to a T until I adopted a CKCS, a month a so ago and then her recall went hay wire. she ran off and wouldn't come back. We are now back on long line training recall. But this is common with lots of dogs.
CKCS is the same,

She steals anything she can reach, chews everything she can reach, destroys anything she can run off with. We have to use a crate as you can not leave her for a minute without her doing something naughty. It is like having toddler in the house again.

She is very hard work, have to keep her very busy as when she gets bored she gets naughty. I can leave her in her crate but don't leave her more than 4 hours, that's maybe once a week. She jumps up a lot, on people to say hello, not always easy to get other people trained,

Beagles are lovely dogs, and I wouldn't swap her for the world. I have had dogs for over twenty years, usually more than one at a time, so am an experienced dog owner, but she is very hard work compared to shelties which I had in the past, and to my CKCS.

So if you think you can live with a lovable, cute, mischievous out and out theif - go for it.

It's not so much the training that was hard, it's having to think like a beagle all the time! Making sure we move anything she could grab or eat.

[Joolyjoolyjoo]

They are very very difficult to train, IME!

I have two. Old boy is 15 1/2 and has gone directly from being young and wilful to old, deaf and senile, with no ground in between! He has never been able to be walked off the lead- he runs up to dogs, which don't seem to share his enthusiasm and often snap at him, which still doesn't put him off. He is completely scent-orientated- much as he loves food, when he or witchy dog, (my other beagle) get a scent in their noses I could be standing waving a pound of sausages and they would still be off and away.

They say don't walk a beagle off the lead unless you have a few hours to spare- this is true. Witchy boo is walked off the lead, but has done a runner a few times. Can take hours to get her back- she will not come back until she is finished with whatever she has been doing, can be incredibly stressful and frustrating.

They eat anything and everything. Can't allow them within any distance of a bin, or near any toys belonging to the kids. I know all pups are a bit like this, but witchy dog is 11 and no better! They will steal food- that is a given.

Their house-training is not always great. Mine think nothing of peeing and pooing in their own bed, then lying in it (bleurgh) Have spoken to behaviouralists about it several times, but never found an answer. To be fair, Old boy used to be fine, but now he is old and incontinent I am just used to cleaning up poo at least once a day and pee 4 or 5 times, despite the fact they are well walked, have an outdoor run, and are let out frequently. Sigh

They are in many ways lovely happy little dogs, with a fun personality, but it's ALL about fun with them. I had a friend who wanted one and who agreed to borrow mine (I only had old boy, he was about 3) overnight. She was soo looking forward to having him, but she phoned me at the crack of dawn the next day to get me to take him back as he was "exhausting"!

I have been astounded by the number of people who come up to me when I am out with the beaglies and say "Oh- what lovely dogs! We used to have a beagle, but we had to get rid of it " In fact, the reason I have them at all is that when I was a child my parents bought me a beagle, which I loved to bits, then they rehomed him after a year because they couldn't manage him Apparently the people they rehomed him to phoned them the next week to ask if they wanted him back (I only found this out a couple of weeks ago!)

Don't get me wrong- I love my dogs, they have fabulous wee personalities, but, I have to be honest, I don't think they are a great breed to be pets. They live for the outside, scents and food. Although I love them both dearly (although you wouldn't always guess it when I'm cursing under my breath at their latest misdemeanour!), when they go we will not be getting beagles again- too much like hard work! HTH

[wildfig]

I act as housekeeper to own a pair of basset hounds, and although sometimes I think it would be nice to have a dog I could actually pick up when it's heading towards fox poo, I don't think I've got the mental wherewithal for a beagle. They are a handful. My dogsitter, who has twelve bassets of her own, sometimes looks after a young show beagle, and it chewed the roof of her puppies' kennel. In one day. When I went round, all the big bassets were sitting in a huddle with 'wtf?' expressions, while this beautiful beagle pranced around looking like butter wouldn't melt.

But having said that, hounds are lovely. They smell like biscuits, and they really love you. You just have to put a combination lock on the fridge - unlike a collie, they'll never work out how to open it.

[Jaynerae]

I agree with jooly on her points about Beagles being incredibly hard work in as much as stealing and having a mind of their own, my Beagle is crap at recall as I said and I don't think it will ever be 100%. I will never let her off in unfamiliar territory as her nose would lead her too far away.

mine was easy to train for general obedience, but as I said she is thief, and I know she will never grow out of that as friends a breed club have same problem at 5 plus years with their Beagles.

My dc's are 7 and 11 and find her very bouncy, and difficult to control. They have learnt some hard lessons in not leaving things lying around.

I have a baby dan in the room divider formation to keep Beagle in kitchen and diner which is tiled as she would eat carpet.
If she wants to stay in the garden she will not come in no matter what. If she doesn't want to go out in garden she will run and hide. She is very intelligent, knows what I am going to do and if she doesn't want to co-operate she won't.

Having had other breeds, I would say Beagles are not first time dogs, not dogs for people who work, and not for people not prepared to walk at least an hour a day.

I can honestly say as much as I love her, I will never have another Beagle. She is with me for life, I knew she would be hard work, I did am lot of research before I had her, I love her to bits but I won't have another.

Think long and hard if the breed is for you and your family, seriously, as you wouldn't want to be in a situation in 12 months time when you were thinking whether you made the right decision.

[Joolyjoolyjoo]

Jaynerae- we think alike! (love our crazy beagles, but wouldn't get another!)

I think my unruly beggars have put all the other dog walkers I know off the breed for life! I sigh when I see their dogs off the lead and NOT heading for a roll in the nearest pile of fox shit. I look longingly at them walking easily and chatting, safe in the knowledge their dogs are close at hand, while I keep up a constant anxious vigil, interspersed with much bellowing and cursing ("get out of that swamp!" "DON'T eat that mouldy sandwich!" etc etc)

Almost looking forward to a time when I will be sauntering along with a well-behaved dog, smiling sympathetically at beagle owners I meet...

[Jaynerae]

Jolly - know exactly what you mean!

Even with gentle leader on she still has head down sniffing for anything she fancies eating, notice I didn't say looking for food-as she seriously doesn't care if it's food or not!

Didn't bother rescuing the used t bag from her mouth last week, decided effort wasn't worth it as wouldn't harm her. I do wrestle the empty crisp packets, sweet wrappers, chip wrappers etc from her, don't bother with the pizza she finds on the pavement. I baulk at whatever it is she licks of pavement. I have to walk looking at least 100 paces in front of me scouring vicinity for stuff she will try and eat.

DH took her took park one sunday morning, recall was good then so she was off lead, unfortunately I didn't tell DH to avoid skatepark, it is full of rubbish teenagers have left on Saturday night, she dissapeared and it took him ages to get her back.

I know it sounds funny OP, but it's a constant worry that she will eat something that will cause her insides damage.

[Jaynerae]

Beagle is currently trying to eat CKSC's ears, sigh.

[BeenBeta]

Mad. Completely mad. Thats how I would describe beagles.

The only dog my Dad ever failed to train was a beagle. Sheepdogs trained to trial standard, dual champion springer spaniels, labradors that would pick up an egg without breaking it. He even trained a wolfhound not to chase rabbits.

The beagle was the only one he couldn't train. It just ate everything, including its kennel and barked and howled. They have to live in packs and run ten miles a day. Then they are happy.

[sammysam]

Thank you so much for all your fantastic candid replies. They really do sound like fantastic dogs-I love dogs with character.....however it does sound like they wouldn't be the right dog for us at the moment
It wouldn't be our first dog (although first as a family), i'm a sahm, and we'd be very happy to walk at least an hour a day, but having young children the food and the recall issues would be a problem.

So now to work out which breed is right for us.
If anyone has any suggestions we'd love to hear them!
Ideally we'd like a similar sized dog to a beagle, short hair, inteligent, quite easy to train, good with children, energetic, good with other dogs.

In the future i'd love a pointer but I think we'd need a bit more space at home first, and dd's a bit older.

A friend suggested a border terrier, i've read quite a lot about them online and they sound perfect. I have no experience of terriers at all though. Reading about them it does say that they are less terrier like than a lot of the others in the group.
Does anyone have any experience of border terriers?

[BooyFuckingHoo]

@ this.

i took my beagle X to puupy classes and the trainer said she would give me a medal jsut for attempting to train him!!

[Jaynerae]

We also have a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel - wonderful dogs to have with children, they are calm, loving dogs that easy going. Ours is 12 months old and we only adopted him 4 weeks ago, but neighbours have one and they have children aswell and he's fab with them. Ours doesn't chew, has never stolen anything, even though Bragle is trying to teach him bad habits. I know lots of people would recomend CKCS.

Have previously had Shelties - but one of mine tried to herd children by nipping at ankles!

[Jaynerae]

that's Beagle trying to teach bad habits!

[FruitSaladIsNotPudding]

Seriously, don't do it. My parents have a beagle and while he is a lovely dog in lots of ways, he is hard hard work. Completely single minded when it comes to food especially.

And he is well trained - my parents are able to let him off the lead when on walks and he will come, but they have been approached by other beagle owners who have been amazed by this.

[BCBG]

probably bit late but DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!!!! I had a wonderful beagle for 9 years who spent most of his time escaping to race around the valley howling after imaginary foxes, when he wasn't escaping to raid dustbins or pretend to be a badger so that he could snaffle food from the mad animal lovers the other side of our wood .... spent a fortune on training him to no avail, and there is no such thing as effective recall with a beagle who likes a scent. his record absence from home was two days, but an 18hour escape was pretty standard. I miss him, but I am older and wiser now..... He died of bladder cancer by the way

[Joolyjoolyjoo]

Borders are fab. My vet nurse has one who is so sweet and cheeky, and I have completely fallen in love with her (the dog, not my vet nurse!) She is absolutely adorable! Lots of vets have borders, so that says something for the breed!

[HelenBaaBaaBlackSheep]

I love my hound but she is seriously obsessed when it comes to food - she can get the fridge door open in about 30 seconds but she only ever does this when I'm in the kitchen even though she is often in the house on her own.

I think they tend to evaluate more than other breeds, so training classes were great, she would do anything for a bit of liver-cake. But no liver-cake - no response. The same with recall, she's brilliant until she gets on a scent and then she's after that deer/rabbit/fox ears a-flapping...

The other thing is that she never seems to generalise rules, so with every new person who comes to the house she has to be taught not jump up or steal their food all over again.

They do smell nice though and are verrry friendly

[coneflower]

Schnauzer, we have a miniature, and she is great! Easy to train, loyal, obedient, good with children, non moulting. Really nice temperament, have a look, it might be the right breed for you.

[Madsometimes]

Spaniels are a good beagle compromise. Similar size and look, friendly, good with people but not as scent driven. My dog doesn't wander far from me, but does still jump. spaniels are also nuts

[ednurse]

LOVE my Beagle. She is not like most other Beagles in that she can go off the lead and she doesn't howl at all.

She goes off the lead at a big field and woody area by our house, she often goes off and will ignore you but we've learnt not to call her and just wait until she's done all the sniffing in that area, she soon returns. She does come when called (sometimes) but the good thing is she does come when you call her to put her back on the lead.

She used to be very friendly with other dogs and still mothers any dogs smaller than her (jack russells, etc) but does get a bit anxious around bigger dogs since she went into kennels for a week :(

Driven by food of course but she does not snatch food from us, she will occasionally go through the bin and try to get food off the worktops but she often can't reach it.

But she's loveable, loves cuddles, think she's a lap dog, has the funniest personality, is sooo cheeky and knows she can get away with murder. Wouldn't swap her for anything.

[ednurse]

She is so much driven by food that if she ever needs tablets for anything she will eat it out your hand....no hiding it in bits of ham for her!

[florapup]

Ednurse - I love your comment about taking tablets. We have a beagle too. We spent years messing about with those silly 'on the back of the neck' worming liquid things - expensive and messy - could never get our hound to stay still long enough to get it into the skin accurately! Then I asked the vet if they still made worming tablets (wondering why we had automatically been given the liquid things?!). Vet said that yes they were still available but not popular since most dogs won't take them easily - I (being owned by a Beagle) knew better! She wolfed it down whole and wondered why she couldn't have more!

We love our beagle - such character - like no other dog! I once read that Beagles are hounds not dogs - very true I think :)

[loler]

I'm a beagle addict too. We're on our fifth - have to admit that recall has been awful with all of them. But they do come back eventually.

The other bonus of the food thing is never having to sweep up crumbs. When ours is in the kennels I'm amazed at how dirty the kitchen floor gets!

[musicposy]

Our sheltie is lovely but is definitely not short haired! We've never had any trouble with nipping at all. He does like to keep us rounded up but I've used that to our advantage by training him to keep the girls close to us when they were small and we were out. He never, ever nipped them, just tried to nudge them towards us! He's nearly 9 now and it's only since having our Jack Russell/ spaniel x puppy that I've realised just how easy he has been! We've never had to train much - he's just done it all automatically (stuff like heelwork, recall) and is a lovely, calm, sensitive, beautiful natured dog. Oh, and although he is long haired it kind of comes out in clumps so actually sheds much less than our shorter haired JRTx who leaves white hair everywhere. You do need to groom shelties, though.

Terriers can be a handful! Ours has so much character, I wouldn't be without her, but I wouldn't have recommended her to a family with young children (mine are teens). I'd recommend my sheltie without hesitation.

Pics on my profile!

[BeenBeta]

Spaniels are bonkers but lovely and really quite bidable providing you excercise well. Their hair gets everwhere and they smell when wet.

My parents had over 30 English Springer Spaniels at one time when I was a child.