Anyone have experience training beagles?

[ok_cpu]

I know the subject begs for a copycat thread but, I'm looking for suggestions on training what I believe to be the most stubborn animal on the planet: a two year old beagle.

She's housebroken and has sit, stay, down, etc. under control but has two problems I cannot break her of.

1) She takes food from the little ok_cpu's. They'll be carrying breakfast from kitchen to dining room table and she'll snatch it from them. I'm betting it's an issue of where she places herself in the pack but I can't fix it.

2) She's always getting her front paws up on the table and snooping around. There's no food there and we're not sitting there when she does it but I'm not down with a dog rummaging all over the table where I eat.

Any suggestions from someone with a similar experience? She knows not to do it so she sneaks... and she's so "dog-gone" stubborn...

[hippiechick]

1. Old fashioned mouse traps

Have the little one carry one on his plate a few times - when cpu_beagle is thinking its food and goes for it, surprise !

Same for snooping on the table ... set a few mousetraps just out of reach so that when cpu_beagle gets up to the table and starts sniffing around, its going to get an unpleasant surprise.

Reverse conditioning.

HippiedogHank - part beagle, part Australian Cattle Dog - used to dig in the garbage, until I left him some surprises. Now he knows better.

And unless they get their 'toes' in the traps, they really aren't harmful - just the shock of the sudden noise and the 'snap' is enough to chase them away.


:hippie:

[ok_cpu]

7. Garbage

Had to move garbage can inside the pantry. She learned quickly to step on the pedal and open the lid.

[China_cat]

2. For #2

Snappy trainers. http://www.scottsdog.com/snappytrainer.html They work with Bouviers which, I've found from experience (my mother raised and trained hunting beagles) are even more hard headed.

For #1 you may just have to decide that it's time to put the dog in another room, baby gate a space for her or crate her while the kids are carrying food. Yes, it's a pack order thing. Kids are littermates, not masters. So it's time to let her know that she ISN'T dominant in that situation. Not allowing her access will get that across.

[ok_cpu]

9. Thank you

for your reply. Going to try both suggestions.

[jsascj]

3. We are going through EXACTLY

The same thing. We 'rescued' this little beagle who had been through a couple of months of neglect and we thought her food obsession may come from this.

Unfortunately, we learned too late that she may never get over this. Beagles are, by nature, obsesses with food.It's appears that it's a characteristic of the breed. Does not look promising

[RB Proud-Marylander]

6. I thought it was Just Me

I had same experience. We acquired an 18 month old beagle from a couple who claims they could keep the dog because of rent restrictions. Now, we think they were just trying to get rid of her. She lives in the garbage and eats everything in sight. She's gained about 5 lbs since we got her 6 months ago. Our other beagle has lost 5lbs because he's a slow eater. While he's sniffing the food, she's wolfing it down.

[mopinko]

4. my condolences

don't have much advise to offer. more comiseration. i have 3 little terriers. the oldest is agood little dog, but i have a pair of sisters who are 2 1/2 and a pack unto themsleves.
ok, i do have one thing to offer. use down stay pratice to work on this problem. practice the downs in the area where the kids eat, have them drop food, place some food around before hand. give her an extra strength correction when she breaks.
you can also work on letting her know just exactly where she falls in the pack. this is a really deep subject. for starters, tho, make sure she is fed shortly after the rest of the family eats. long enough for her to know she is last to eat, but soon enough so that she knows it is coming.

but this is about the hardest thing to break a dog of. mooching off of people is how they got to be dogs, instead of wolves.

[RB Proud-Marylander]

5. They are not trainable

I have two 2-year old beagles..they aren't trainable. Of course, I haven't tried mouse traps.

:-)

[ok_cpu]

8. Great

That's what I was afraid of... next you'll tell me there's no hope for the kids either.

:evilgrin:

[jsascj]

10. Not to worry...

Not one of my three kids...

Jumps on the counter or kitchen table to steal food

Compulsively rummages through the trash can for scraps

Bites at you when you try to remove the above mentioned trash from their mouths

tears up rolls of toilet paper, boxes of tissue or newspapers or their notebooks...

No, there's hope for the kids...just not for the Beagle

[Hans Delbrook]

11. It's funny

Our beagle will steal food too and we don't think she's so bad. That's because she doesn't hold a candle greed-wise to the dachshund! Compared to them (I've had dachshunds my whole life) I find beagles rather reasonable when it comes to food. Amazing what perspective will do for you, isn't it?

P.S. We've trained her not to put her paws up on the table (at least when she could get caught) with the squirter but we still scrupulously guard all food from both her and the dachshund.

I look at those pictures in magazines of people putting food on coffee tables and decorating Christmas trees w/ cookies and I always think - well, they don't have dogs. At least not like ours!

[skygazer]

12. Beagles are so obsessed with food

That they are used in airports to sniff out contraband food items (I think on international flights). They wear a cute little vest and are known as the "Beagle Brigade". When I saw that on a documentary, I laughed until I cried because I used to have a Beagle and they are born to find food.

Good luck. I never ever got my Beagle to the point where I could keep her out of anything if I wasn't right in the room. One day, I was called away from the kitchen when I'd been baking - there was flour all over the table. When I got back, the Beagle was sitting on the floor looking innocent as an angel, and there were small floury doggy footprints all over my table.

As for the small ok_cpu's, they are just fair game to a Beagle. Food at eye (and mouth) level. To them, that constitutes an offering.

Other than that, though, they're such great dogs. Always good natured and happy and very affectionate, especially if you have food!

[MidwestMomma]

15. A beagle is a stomach surrounded by a dog

That's what someone posted on another message board. How true it is!

I have a rescued 2 year old beagle also. The first week I had her, I came home and found her ON the kitchen table in the middle of a beagle-fest. I discovered later that she had eaten a baggie full of easter candy....baggie, wrappers and all.

One good thing I will say about the breed, they appear to have a digestion system that can handle just about anything.

Don't get me started about her obession with the litter box...

[China_cat]

18. Wait till you walk in the kitchen

and find an 85 lb. dog on top of the refrigerator because that's where you put her brother's food that he didn't finish.

[shanti]

13. a bit of minituae...

(sp?) did you know that beagles are used as drug sniffing dogs in the miami airport? apparently, they CAN be trained.

[jsascj]

14. Actually, it's not drugs they sniff out

It's FOOD!

The Beagle Brigade sniffs out illegal foodstuff brought into the US illegally from other countries.

[shanti]

19. really?

i didn't know that! i just assumed it was drugs...thanks for the info!

[yewberry]

16. #1=totally fixable

though it'll take some time and consistency.

She needs to learn that, when it's people-food time, she should be in an assigned place. It doesn't have to be (and probably shouldn't be) too far from the action, but it should be HERS, like a dog-bed. Get her in a down-stay when it's time to serve and have her stay there for the duration of the meal. After eating, give her a release command and some kind of reward.

It'll be a drag at first--she'll probably get up several times, and you'll have to lead her back and get her into a down-stay (so don't try to begin this process when you're having a dinner party!) Be consistent, and she'll learn PDQ.

(My husband's a dog trainer, so am I a dog trainer-in-law?)

[Porcupine]

22. Use a clicker and a time out spot.

The clicker is to signal a reward the dog for waiting for the treat (have the kids wander past with food and then drop a bit). Use the time out spot to correct the dog when it reaches for forbidden food. The time out spot is a place on the wall where you can attach a 24 inch lead. Bad behavior gets 5 minute time outs (timed with a timer please).

If you really need to you can use a monitor or a mirror to watch food from around the corner and use a different signal such as a whistle to signal bad behavior. The dog does not understand that you can see with a mirror. As far as the dog knows you are omniscient.

Using the combination of these two methods I trained a dog (a Queensland) so that it would not take a hot dog from a kid who touched her nose with it. She would politely wait until the kid inevitably dropped said hot dog. As experience (training) taught her that she ONLY got the treat by waiting she always waited and usually was treated.

Google: "clicker training aids" for more info than you ever want.

[Aiptasia]

17. I owned a beagle for two weeks

And he was completely untrainable and hell bent on distroying everything he could get his mouth on. Beagles do not make good indoor pets. Every day with that dog elevated my blood pressure and tested my patience.

I've had a pekineese (sp?!), a cockapoo and two golden retrievers in my day and they were all responsive and eager to learn. Very easy to correct and very easy to prompt.

I have a feeling that beagles just don't respect anyone or anything.

[hippiechick]

20. Respectfully disagree n/t

:hippie:

[Roon]

23. My cousin's Beagle puppy got stolen from his backyard..

a few days later the thieves brought him back and dropped him off in the yard.

[jsascj]

25. LOL That's hilarious!

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

21. You _don't _ train beagles... you just get used to them.

or so LBJ said.

[RebelOne]

24. Get a Rottweiler. They are much easier to train.

My Rottie knows better than to try to take food that is not hers. I can leave food on my coffee table which is within her reach, but she will not touch it unless I say it is OK.