Why are beagles so hard to train
Are Beagles Hard to Train?
Due to their friendly, social, and affectionate personality, beagles are a popular choice among families. However, you might have heard or read that beagles are challenging to train. But is it true? Are beagles hard to train?
Due to their independent and stubborn personality trait, beagles are a little hard to train. However, with positive motivation and consistent training, this loving breed can be trained to follow all your commands.
Further, we will look into some reasons that make beagles hard to train and understand the correct way of training them.
Reasons why Beagles are Hard to Train
As adorable and playful beagles can be, they can be equally annoying when it comes to training. When you get down to training a beagle with simple tricks such as sit, shake hands, and fetch the ball, you might realize that Beagles are one of the most stubborn breeds.
Indeed, Beagles are an independent and proud breed. Every time you command your pet, chances are youll get the Why should I? look from them. And trust me, getting down on your knees and begging them to listen to you doesnt help either.
1. They are Independent
Beagles are lovable and highly energetic. But coming from a family of hound dogs, they can be annoyingly independent and self-centered. You cannot expect a Beagle to be as co-operative as a Golden Retriever, whose sole mission is to hear good boy from its owner.
2. They are Hounds
Hounds were bred to hunt along with their human companion. They were used to chase down small animals by their scent for their owners.
Belonging to the hound category, beagles are driven by their sense of smell. Once an exciting scent reaches the nostrils of a beagle dog, rest assured, they will become deaf to your commands. This can happen even in the case of well-trained dogs.
3. They are an Energetic Breed
Beagles were bred to hunt small animals. And hunting requires a lot of energy.
Beagles are an active breed, and owners often neglect their daily exercising needs. Having lots of energy in them makes it difficult for them to focus on training.
It then narrows down to how well you can command your beagle. However, this does not mean that they are entirely untrainable. It comes down to efforts, consistency, and patience, and training a beagle requires a lot of patience.
Here are some useful tips for new beagle owners.
Training a Beagle
There are quite a few methods for training dogs, but not all are effective on beagles. After a lot of trial and error, I find the following method the best for training beagles.
Beagles are known to be:
- Foodie
- Smell-driven
- Energetic
- Stubborn
To effectively train your beagle, we need to leverage all these qualities. Lets have a look.
1. Foodie
Beagles may not be big fans of following commands, but they do love food. Using treats as positive reinforcements is the best way to train them and teach discipline.
Every time your beagle does something that you want, give them a treat as a reward. Its that simple. Here are some useful tips for this type of training:
- Treat-oriented training can be very effective. However, beagles are prone to obesity. Use small pieces of treats while training and make sure they dont accumulate more than 10% of their daily diet. You can refer to this Beagle feeding guide for more info.
- Once they learn the cue word for the command, decrease the frequency of giving treats. For instance, after he learns the command, start giving treats every second time he follows the command, and then make it once every three commands, gradually not using the treats.
- Dont meltdown by their soulful eyes and give away treats when they dont follow your commands. It will encourage bad behavior.
- Get different types of treats, and keep switching them to keep things interesting. Here are some of the best treats for beagles.
- Use clicker for training.
- Use these vegetables and fruits as high-value treats while teaching new commands/tricks.
2. Smell-Driven
Beagles are scent hounds. They were bred to follow scents. They are infamous for catching a new scent out in the open and running away chasing it.
When beagles catch a scent, all their senses shut down except their nose. No matter how obedient your beagle is in the house, they would ignore all your commands when they catch a scent.
Thats why you need to train them to listen to you outside. Start with teaching the command indoor. After some practice, take the training to the backyard.
Ensure to bring some healthy treats along. Start with simple tricks such as sit, shake hands, and fetch.
Teaching your beagle to follow your commands indoor as well as outdoor will ensure utmost obedience.
3. Energetic
Being an energetic breed, beagles require a lot of exercise. Failing to give them enough exercise can cause various behavioral problems.
Experts suggest that majority of behavioal issues in beagles are caused due to lack of daily exercise.
Trust me, the key to an obedient beagle is daily exercise. Take them out for walks twice a day, play with them, give them some space where they can run.
The best time to train dogs is after exercise when they are exhausted. They will be less distracted and much more focused on the training. Apart from that, daily exercise keeps them healthy.
Here are 12 ways to exercise your beagle.
4. Stubborn
Beagles may be hard to train, but this doesnt mean they are dumb. Beagles are too smart to follow commands all the time.
Thats why it is essential to start their train from puppyhood. They need to learn to be obedient from an early age.
The last and perhaps the best thing you can do to train your beagle is, setting up a routine. Much like humans, dogs tend to follow a pattern as well if they become accustomed to it.
Final Thoughts
At times, the dream of training your beagle might seem like a lost cause. However, the critical thing is not to lose hope. It can be challenging, we understand. But its not impossible!
It just requires a little effort from you and a little from your pup. If worse comes to worst, you could always take your beagle to a professional trainer.
How to Potty Train a Beagle Puppy in 9 Easy Steps
Bringing home your Beagle puppy for the first time is an exciting experience, but it will come with a lot of challenges some of which new owners are never truly prepared for!
A huge part of adapting your puppy to domesticated life will be the toilet and potty training. Youll need to teach them to distinguish when and where is appropriate to go to the bathroom. But be aware that all puppies are different, so it could take more time to housebreak and train than you expect.
You will need lots of patience, positivity and preparation, and there will definitely be bumps along the way. Its important to not get disheartened at the first hurdle. Just keep persevering with your new friend and soon theyll be fully toilet trained and one step closer to feeling at home with you.
How to potty train a Beagle puppy
As dog owners ourselves, I remember saying to my wife that having a puppy was like having a baby all over again it really is that challenging, and you need to adopt a strict potty-training routine heres how we did it.
What you will need:
You wont need much in the way of gear if you want to house train a Beagle
1. Build a potty-training routine
When you first start house training your Beagle puppy, you should aim to build a routine around their toileting needs.
Luckily, their bladders and bowels are fairly predictable, as they are determined by not only their sleeping pattern, but also what they eat and drink.
- You should always take your puppy out to the toilet first thing as soon as they wake up and this goes for whenever they wake up from naps too!
- As well as taking them out first thing in the morning, you should also take them out last thing at night or before you are going to leave them alone for an extended period of time: this is to prevent any accidents overnight or whilst you are gone!
- On top of this, you should also aim to take your puppy out to the toilet every thirty minutes to an hour. If theyre new to training, it is best to start off taking them out every half-hour before building up to a whole hour.
We actually started up a diary of what our puppy had eaten and and how often and what times he tended to urinate and defecate. This really helped us to adapt our routine in accordance with our puppys habits.
2. Diet control
As mentioned, food and drink are a huge indication as to when you should take your Beagle puppy out for potty breaks, with mealtimes integrating into a puppys toileting routine alongside the guidelines set out above.
All puppies have immature diet systems, which means that each meal tends to stimulate their digestive system faster than it would in adult dogs. Generally, puppies need to urinate within fifteen minutes of eating and then do a poop within half an hour of eating.
Handy Hint: Dont overfeed your Beagle as they will eat what you put in front of them. Heres a guide to their daily feeding schedule.
The nature of a puppys digestive system also means that they can handle less food at once, so it is best to give them three smaller meals three times a day rather than two bigger ones twice a day. Once your dog has finished eating, take away the food bowl until the next scheduled mealtime. This will prevent your puppy from overindulging.
You should also ensure that the food you give your puppy is of the higher possible quality this means avoiding dog food with artificial colours and preservatives and ensuring that real meat is the primary ingredient.
3. Confinement and consistency
When your Beagle puppy is in the early stages of potty training, it is good to confine to a small area such as a room, a crate or via a lead until you are confident that they can roam the house freely without accidents.
Furthermore, consistency goes hand-in-hand with confinement, and it involves introducing your dogs to select areas to toilet in so that, over time, they will learn to associate going to the toilet with that area of the house or outside.
A good way to ease your dog into this component of toilet training is via puppy pad training or crate training.
4. Puppy pad training
Puppy-pad training is good to introduce the idea of your dog going to the toilet in a select area, but isnt useful as a long-term solution. You dont really want your Beagle puppy going to the bathroom indoors rather than outdoors.
Overtime, your puppy will learn to associate the pad itself with areas where it is okay to toilet, and at this stage it is good to move the mad outside to help them adapt.
You can buy puppy pads on Amazon. Here are the ones we used which also have very good Amazon reviews.
5. Crate training
Crates are an effective and approved way of toilet training your Beagle puppy at the beginning. It helps to avoid mess, helps you keep a closer eye for signs he needs to go and, most crucially, teaches the pup to hold it until they are let outside to go toilet.
You can find a suitably-sized crate on Amazon which work well with the Beagle breed.
6. Learn to pick up on the signs
To avoid accidents in the home, it is good to learn to recognise signs that your Beagle needs the toilet. Commons signs include:
- Sniffing the floor.
- Circling around the room.
- Looking restless and anxious.
- Going into an area they have previously toileted in.
If your puppy shows any of these signs, take them out to your chosen toileting spot immediately.
However, if accidents do happen, it is best to stay calm and not get angry at your puppy, as this will just make them fearful and cause them stress, which will actually result in more random accidents.
7. Use a phrase they will learn to understand
One of the most important aspects that goes a long with in potty training your Beagle puppy to use a phrase they learn to identify with.
With our own puppy, we would say go pee pee as soon as we had taken him outdoors or to his puppy pad. By doing so, he would learn to identify the phrase and location with the action.
After using this tactic long enough, whenever you say the magic words of go pee pee, your puppy will immediately know what they need to do.
Handy Hint: Rather than shouting at your Beagle, learn how to discipline them to get good behavior instead.
8. Reward the puppy for a good job
When your Beagle puppy has finished his pee or poop in the right place, you should give them a reward or positive reinforcement with praise.
By rewarding good behavior you will start a pattern of success which can lead to far faster house breaking and training.
9. Never scold them
Accidents are going to happen a lot, and whilst this can be frustrating, never shout at or scold the puppy.
I remember countless times where I would have just cleaned a pee up from the kitchen floor, only for our puppy to crouch and pee again just seconds later.
Hold your tongue, and dont react negatively because this can lead to anxiety and fear which will only make them pee or poop more when they arent meant to.
When should I start potty training my Beaglepuppy?
It is generally recommended to start house training your Beagle puppy once they are between 12 weeks and 16 weeks old.
This is a good age to start because whilst it means that your puppy is still young enough to learn life-long skills and have their behavior moulded, at this stage your puppy should have enough control over their bladder and bowels to hold it when necessary making the potty training process easier for them, and cleaner for you!
How long does it take to potty train a Beagle puppy?
I wont sugar coat this at all; it could between 4 and 6 months for your puppy to get fully house trained. There are other factors which come into play though, such as individual temperament and environmental factors.
However, its not unheard of for it taking up to a year until a Beagle puppy is properly potty trained.
For example, you bring your Beagle puppy home once its over twelve weeks old, it might be the case that it hasnt been housetrained by their previous owners, and certain behaviours theyve picked up need to be unlearned.
Be prepared for accidents, but above all, have some wipes and tissue paper on hand all the time as you will get through a lot of this stuff!
Conclusion
Now you know how we advise you housebreak a Beaglepuppy, I would love to know how you got on. Get in touch via social media and leave a comment.
Similarly, if you have better ideas on how to potty train a Beagle puppy, please share those in the community too.
The bottom line is this; do not underestimate to the work that goes into taking care of a new puppy. Theyll need to learn everything from where to eat, going for walks and how to interact with people by scratch, so you need to be prepared to put the work in so as to ensure that this incredibly formative period in your puppys life is successful.
Toilet training your puppy might feel a bit difficult at times, but with the right attitude, attentiveness and patience, they will learn this life-long skill.
However, if you have any concerns about their ability to toilet train, always contact a vet or a professional trainer. As unlikely as this is, there are some Beagleswho will need expert help.
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Here are some more Beagle guides Ive written in recent months.
Image in header via https://unsplash.com/photos/4zfacTKyZ7w
