Beagle Training: Beagle Puppy Training

House Train your Beagle! Comprehensive guide to house training and behavior training.

Who doesn’t love the sight of a little beagle puppy? Their doe-eyed innocence and expressive little faces are enough to break anyone’s heart. So now you have your beagle pup, you’ve brought him home and proceed to discover what having a puppy is really all about. To him, you and your family are just members of his pack and you’re all subject to his whims. Whenever he feels like playing with one of the members of the pack, he does it. He may come up and start biting on your fingers while you’re watching the television, fully hoping that you’ll reciprocate and chew on him for a bit. This is generally unacceptable behavior for humans, but the dog doesn’t recognize you as such. Your Beagle puppy training techniques need a different approach.

Nipping and Biting

Dogs are pack animals, and in a pack there is a wdhierarchy. If your beagle pup were to just walk up and nip the pack leader in a beagle pack, the leader would put him down quickly with a forceful growl and nip. Humans have other ways of asserting themselves over dogs, but the message is still the same as to what is acceptable behavior and what is not. Once again, prevention is the key to avoiding undesirable behaviors.

One common mistake many beagle owners make is letting the puppy get away with behaviors that would be unacceptable from an adult beagle. If you do not want your adult beagle to bite your fingers when he wants to play, you must not allow him to do it when he is but a pup. The same rule applies to where he sleeps or rests – do you want him on your furniture or not? It may be cute and comforting to hold your new beagle pup when you’re on the couch in front of the television or curled up for a nap, but the same may not be true when he weighs thirty pounds and wants to sleep on your chest!

House Train your Puppy

In the wild, dogs are free to relieve themselves whenever and wherever they like. When we bring them into our homes, however, the same cannot be said. Housetraining is an often troublesome exercise that all puppy owners must address. One easy way to housetrain your beagle is to buy a crate or cage just big enough for your beagle pup. After feeding, lock him in it if you will not be supervising him. Dogs do not like to eliminate where they sleep, and if his crate is too big, a beagle locked within may relieve himself in one corner and sleep in the other.

If you will be supervising your beagle pup, simply take him outside five to ten minutes after you feed him. Watch him go to the bathroom, and praise him for doing so. Your beagle lives for your praise and will try his best to please you.

Another common though time-consuming method of housetraining your new beagle is to isolate him in a laundry room or basement after feeding him. Before you do so however, line the floor of the room in newspaper. Do this daily for one week, then take away half the paper in the room, the half farther away from the door. Dogs are creatures of habit and your beagle pup will be looking for the paper he’s supposed to go on. The following week, take away another half of the paper, and so on until only a scrap remains. You can keep moving the scrap of paper closer and closer to the door until it’s actually outside and eventually you can actually eliminate the paper altogether.

A more advanced method that many use is to hang a bell on the knob to the door leading outside. Always ring the bell before you let your beagle outside to go to the bathroom. Eventually, the beagle may recognize that the bell must ring before he can go outside and he will start to ring it himself when he needs to go out!

Always remember that you as the owner of the beagle bear the responsibility of raising your dog right to be the beagle you want him to be. His natural instincts in many cases will conflict with what you find acceptable. Your beagle doesn’t know any better and needs you to show him what the rules are in the house.