When you own Beagles a big part of your life tends to focus on how to keep your dogs safe and close whilst still getting the off-lead exercise that they need to thrive. With our two it really is a full time job!
We’re quite proud of the fact that we have a reliable emergency recall which is powerful enough to pull them off a scent. However, if we use it routinely to keep them close to us it looses it’s power as they begin to associate it with curtailing of fun adventures. This has happened in the past with more casual recall commands such as ‘come’. Trainers frequently advise not to use ‘come’ to do something unpleasant to your dog – that makes sense. But what’s the point in training a recall command if your dog stops responding if you expect him to break off doing something it likes more than once in a blue moon? Clearly we need to make our dogs want to stay close rather than relying on recall all the time. But earlier attempts at being more exciting than the environment often proved disastrous.
In agility classes Beanie’s teacher had given me a few excellent tips that really kept Beanie’s attention on me during classes. She has a Parsons Terrier (another tricky breed) that she’s trained to a high level in agility, so she’s no stranger to working with hard-to-train breeds. Her approach has some subtle variations from typical rewards-based training but these make all the difference with dogs that have been bred to work independently from their owners (read that as dogs that bugger off and do their own thing no matter how hard you work at keeping their attention). It’s astonishing how easily you can turn an apparently obstinate, stubborn, strong-willed, independent beagle into an eager to please velcro dog! So we asked her if she had any ideas that might help us whilst out in the park. She agreed to help and is confident that we can have excellent off-lead control of our dogs with a bit of work.
One exercise that she gave us was to go out into the garden with a few treats and just walk around ignoring the dog. Eventually the dog comes over to see what you’re doing and gets a treat. You keep ignoring, walking, changing direction frequently and rewarding the dog for staying close. Gradually you build up lots of tricks into the routine and make the dogs work harder for each treat – so a bit like a cross between a walk and a heelwork to music routine without the music! We also throw in some games of ‘fetch’ to help ensure that they’re getting enough exercise. The subtle but important difference is that you completely ignore the dog until it starts offering behaviors – and then you give it ‘work’ to do. I’m not sure why it works so well, but if we try and get our dogs’ attention they’ll invariably choose to ignore us. But if we ignore them then they are absolutely DESPARATE to do things for us!
As the dogs get more and more attentive the idea is to start taking the routine out to safe, quiet areas of the park. Over time we build in more distractions and field test it in lots of new places.
We’ve been doing this for a couple of weeks now and have progressed to the dog enclosure at one of our local parks. We also practice the drill pretty much everywhere we go, but with the dogs on a training line. Once we get started (which I have to admit can take a bit of effort with Biggles who’s going through a difficult stage!) we can spend a whole hour in the park enjoying our dogs undivided attention. About 20 minutes of that time is spent doing the drill described. First with the dogs working individually, then with the dogs off-lead together but each working with their own handler. Then we let both off-lead together for 10 minutes but still doing the drill with just one of us. Biggles would still quite like to play chases with Beanie and ignore us but she’s having none of it. With practice Biggles will be equally attentive. But in the meantime, without Beanie’s cooperation he settles for giving us his undivided attention. I guess we’re better than nothing! Finally we clip on the leads and take the dogs for a long walk around the park. They walk on a loose lead the whole time watching us constantly. We throw in the odd trick as we walk – which they thoroughly enjoy!
Here are some little clips showing some of the tricks that they’ve been practicing during our walks. They’re learning fast!
First Beanie:
Then Biggles:
If it’s dry tomorrow we’ll video our actual training session at the park so we can build up a record of their progress. For a chanage I’ll try and wear something that’s not full of holes!
Hello! I’ve just read through a lot of your posts and have enojyed reading about Beanie and Biggles so much! I live in Troon and have been saving and hoping and wishing for a beagle for about 10 years. The time has finally come! I’ve finally gotten a job that will allow me to have the time to spend with a dog. Yahoo!!
It was really interesting to hear what you’ve been doing in an effort to gain some ‘off the lead control’. This was something I was a bit concerned about, everyone keeps telling me how difficult beagles are and trying to put me off them. I do a lot of walking and want a breed that will be able to do all the walking with me. I also have a horse so am looking for something sturdy that will withstand a day at the stables too. And I figure, if I’d managed to train a huge unruly beast of a horse into the wonderful patient girl she is today – surely I can manage a beagle??! I’m hoping so! I’m trying to find a local, family breeder but not having much luck. I need all the advice I can get, I want to get it right!
Hope to meet you on the beach some day!!
Amy x
Hi Amy,
For me there is no other breed – I love Beagles. However, I will be very honest with you, based upon my short experience with the breed.
1. If you like to walk with a dog off-lead then *maybe* a Beagle isn’t the best breed for you. They do have a strong tendency to go off sniffing and you have to work VERY hard to keep their attention on you. Although they need lots of exercise they could cramp your style. As you’ve seen from our blog, ours do run off-lead, but it’s hard work. We can’t just stroll along – we have to work to keep the dogs with us.
2. If when you say you want the dog to spend a day at the stables you mean you want it to just ‘hang-out’ while you work with the horses then you *might* have problems. Left to it’s own devices it’ll probably work hard to find ways to get into open countryside for great adventures. That’s the kind of habit you don’t want it to learn!
I’m not trying to put you off. But these are the things that have surprised us most. We’re quite active, but we’ve found that there’s a lot we can’t do with our Beagles simply because if you want to have good control of them you must keep them well contained….while they are young at least.
On a positive note, if you have a secure field they can run in while you’re training them then you’ve got it made. We’d love that and we’ve been trying very hard to buy or rent one (without success).
And yes, they most definitely can be trained very well. We’ve made mistakes but we’re new to dogs. As you say, if you’ve trained a horse….
But my feeling is that if you want a well controlled Beagle you mustn’t make the mistake of letting them run wild. Teach them to run off-lead from day one, but train, train, train so that by the time the ‘independence’ kicks in along with the desire to wander (around 5 months!!!) they already think you are the center of the universe and want nothing more than to be close to you. We let our oldest make her own decisions too much at this stage and that’s why we’re struggling a bit now!
As for where to buy. Make sure you pick one of the breeders here:
http://www.scottishbeagleclub.org.uk/html/beagle_breeders.html
Good luck!