Beagle is 19 months old. I take her training every week, she is really good when we are out. I can let her off, she will come back, I am mindful of who is about as she will jump up people, but I manage that ok.
It's at home we are struggling with her. She is always trying to escape from the garden, have just replaced fencing and because I was working in dinning room today which overlooks garden I let her go free in garden. Just managed to grab her rear end as her head disappeared under the fence! Massive escape hole dig in minutes!
So back to chaining her up in garden. I give her bones, pigs ears, raw hide to chew but she is bored within 10 minutes and will then bark until I bring her back in.
Inside house is as bad, she steals stuff all the time. You think you have cleared everything away but she finds something to steal.
In the evening we go into front room to watch tv and I have to take her in on a lead as she will not settle, jumps over furniture and climbs over us, and is generally a pain in the butt.
If dc's are on settee and she jumps up on them, if they try to get her off them, she snaps the air right by them, but does not do it if dh or I get her off. She has not Hurt them, but I am worried that this is a warning.
She gets 3 walks a day, 2 off lead in park having a good run and sniff, and a shorter road walk mid evening. Either I or dh are at home during day.
I just don't know what to do to keep her occupied. If you try and play fetch or tuggy she just takes toys and goes of to destroy
them
Feeling down that her quality of life is not as good as it could be
She has to be crated if left for even a minute. She has to be crated if food is around as she will take it off your plate whilst your eating.
Any one any ideas or suggestions that can improves things for us?
If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.
The doghouse
Struggling with beagle, need some practical advice!
Jaynerae · 07/10/2011 19:54
Well, it sounds as if you're doing everything right!
Definitely look into clicker training - if she's as bright as you say, she'll pick it up in no time and once you understand the principle, there's pretty much NOTHING you can't teach them to do. It's fun (for trainer and dog) and actually rather addictive I find; when you realise how quickly they can learn you start finding more and more things to teach them. Both my dogs ADORE it; even my rather sedate 11 year old girl goes bananas with excitement when the clicker comes out. In fact they both go all giddy and it's like they're going "Me! Me! Choose meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!" 
Best of all, as I said, 15 minutes working on a trick/behaviour with a clicker KNACKERS them. Because they have to think, in a way that the more traditional "push their bum down to make them sit" methods don't.
Jayne, I don't have any great advice for you, just wanted to add some empathy/ sympathy!! I have 2 beagles (now 11 and 16) and I genuinely believe they are different to other dogs. (I'm a vet, so I get to meet lots and lots of breeds!) People don't believe you when you try to explain how hard work they are. One of mine never had any recall, although the other one wasn't too bad. I had one guy at the park harangue me every day about how I must be a "bad owner" as Beagle1 was on the lead, and told me repeatedly how if he had my dog it would be trained in a week 
I put up withit politely for a while, then I am afraid I told him to go boil his head 
I have had clients come to talk to me about getting a beagle. they never believe what I tell them about beagles until they have one. Some are more biddable than others, but clicker training was a dead loss for mine- they were always more interested in a remote scent, sometimes I don't think they even remember I am there. I've seen behaviourists (mainly out of curiosity, as I have long resigned myself to the beagle nature!) to no avail.
So I do feel your pain. they are NOT easy dogs. Wish I had more advice, but it sounds like you are doing everything right, and she is just being a typical beagle, sorry!
Jayne, I try to put people off them too! the problem is they are such gorgeous happy friendly little dogs that people refuse to believe us! Wish I had a pound, however,for every time someone has come up to me and said "Oh- we used to have a beagle but we had to get rid of it. It kept " 
You're right when you say that scent is a huge thing for beaglies. Yes, they are very food orientated too, but when they get a scent, you could be standing there waving a pound of sausages and still they'd be off!
It is hard, but eventually you just get used to living your life around beagles. Sadly, ours are now pretty much confined to the tiled hall/ porch and their outside run in the front garden, as oldboy is completely incontinent and senile, and if brought into the living room etc he gets distressed and paces and paces (while witchydog is meanwhile off raiding the bins/ trashing the sky box/ breaking into the food cupboard/ stealing the childrens toys) Sigh. I feel bad about it, but they now spend most of their time here sleeping. They come to work with me (but have to go in a kennel, unlike other staff dogs I have known- they were allowed to roam the kennel room one day and they ate all the wee packets of trial food in the puppy packs!) and they get walked every day (although oldboy is starting to struggle a bit ) but they really don't always make good house dogs, unfortunately.
I love them to bits, but I think I will go for a nice low maintenance cross-breed next time round!
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