I want to be brutally honest with you. Beagles are not the dog for everyone. They may look super cute as puppies and adults, but at the end of the day, they are hunters. Most people have herders, retrievers or guarding dogs who behave very different to a beagle.
The two big differences to other breeds are:
1) They were NOT bred to listen to humans. They were taken out to follow the scent, track and catch the prey. They yip and bark as they are doing this to let the hunter know where they are. This means that instructions or using cue words to get a beagle to do something you want rarely work especially when they are under 18 months old.
They have to be shown what is expected of them multiple times. It isn’t that they aren’t intelligent which is why training has to be repeated, they are too intelligent for their own good! They will test you. They will see if you are consistent or if they can wear you down enough that you give in to what they want.
Adolescence is a testing time for all beagle parents. Training is massively inconsistent and your buttons will be pushed on numerous occasions. Their need to hunt is all consuming and if you don’t fulfil this need, they will find their own entertainment and this could be them chewing your furniture, tearing up the carpet and gnawing on walls!
But, if you follow my awake and sleep structure you have a chance of saving your furniture, walls and sanity!
2) When beagles hunted and caught the prey they called us to them. This is why recall training can be challenging. They are not genetically programmed to recall, unlike a Labrador or spaniel.
Standard recall rarely works. It may seem like it is working in puppyhood (under 6 months old) but that’s because they don’t want to lose you. But as soon as they hit adolescence at 6 months old, the real beagle appears, and recall can go right out the window.
But, if you follow my three-stage recall training, you will have your beagle off the lead more than not. You’ll also learn when to let them off and when not to (hunting season is when we rarely let them off lead or at all).
You’ll never have recall with a beagle. They will learn to recall to the person that trains them, but this skill is rarely transferred to other people.
Beagles come in all shapes and sizes. Some are super confident, and others can be anxious. Some will be able to let their beagles off the lead and others won’t, especially if they have a hunting background or their lineage is mostly hunting beagles.
They are not a breed that heels. They definitely won’t do this off lead and if you try to get them to heel on a lead you are just going to cause yourself a lot of stress. Don’t get me wrong, you can teach a beagle to walk on a short lead when needed, but the majority of their walk needs to be with them walking out in front of you, which they are genetically programmed to do.
They are tough puppies and require a strict sleep and awake routine. They are great with children, but this tends to be more so when the beagle is an adult. They can be terrible nippers which is why the bond between child and beagle may not be cemented straight away.
They are a tenacious and strong-willed breed, which are two traits that make them amazing hunters. But they will use this behaviour with us in our homes. Beagles are overt communicators. Many will growl and air snap at their humans. This can be scary first of all especially if you believe this is aggression, which isn’t always the case.
Beagles lived in packs until we domesticated them so they had to get their likes and dislikes across as quickly as possible and that may be a growl, air snap, or a nip. Most beagles will use this behaviour with us as well and you need to know how to manage it correctly or you can make it worse. Using aggression to address this usually results in the beagle matching your behaviour.
I don’t mean to scare you or put you off, but I’m afraid most of the information online is misleading and incorrect. Instead, I want you to know exactly what you are getting yourself into.
There are many beagles who end up with multiple homes or are in re-homing facilities because their previous humans couldn’t handle their behaviour. If you are unsure if a beagle is for you, please contact me and ask me as many questions as you need.
I also speak with people who want to know if a beagle will fit in with their life. I ask a multitude of questions and will help you conclude whether a beagle is the right fit for you and your family.
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