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Walking a Beagle
Rhino
TheRhinLOLRegistered User regular
TheRhinLOLRegistered User regular
We adopted a beagle from a shelter. She is 4 years old. She has had some former training.
I've been learning (and teaching her) how to walk on loose leash. This is my first dog. I won't be able to get into training classes till summer, so just been using youtube videos.
The beagle is "lead by it's nose" and famous for "selective deafness" when it's sniffing around.
If she starts to pull, most of the time I can "call her back" and she'll slack the line, but sometimes she'll get something in her nose and just pull. If I stop, that is a "reward" to her because she's happy as could be to sniff around. I'm not sure what to do. I use treats to "bring her back", but that only works some of the time. She can just "zone" out when she has a good scent and hard to get her to response to anything. Everything I've read, says they were breed for hundreds, if not thousands of years to follow their nose, so that is the way they are; but haven't read anything on how to properly walk them. I don't want her pulling the leash.
Advice?
I've been learning (and teaching her) how to walk on loose leash. This is my first dog. I won't be able to get into training classes till summer, so just been using youtube videos.
The beagle is "lead by it's nose" and famous for "selective deafness" when it's sniffing around.
If she starts to pull, most of the time I can "call her back" and she'll slack the line, but sometimes she'll get something in her nose and just pull. If I stop, that is a "reward" to her because she's happy as could be to sniff around. I'm not sure what to do. I use treats to "bring her back", but that only works some of the time. She can just "zone" out when she has a good scent and hard to get her to response to anything. Everything I've read, says they were breed for hundreds, if not thousands of years to follow their nose, so that is the way they are; but haven't read anything on how to properly walk them. I don't want her pulling the leash.
Advice?
Rhino on
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Posts
When I took my dog through his puppy class, the trainer told us that you set the pace with the dog - even if that means walking into her or dragging her around a little - and that, if all goes well, eventually the dog will take the hint and cooperate. I was told that using treats to lure the dog back when it pulls can potentially reinforce the bad habit. Also, whenever you need to come to a stop, its probably a good idea to get your dog into the habit of sitting.
ok, good to know.
With treats, if she doesn't listen to me; what I do is let her smell the treats (right in front of her face). That usually gets her attention and breaks her out of her sniffing smell; then I start walking. Is she walks slacklined with me, then I'll give her the treat. Is that bad?
She sites well, really well; but only if she is listening.
While barbaric looking, a pinch collar can help with this. It's actually better than a choke. When doing a command, such as heel and it's lagging behind is a quick jerk of your arm from your side, outwards. This closes the loop and the dog gets a pinch around the neck, a lot like a mother would do. You don't keep constant pressure, it's just a quick correction. Same with getting too far ahead, command (Heel) and if there is no attention, a sharp correction.
We were also warned of treats because they'll learn to expect it. They only thing the class suggested to use treats for is the Come command as that is usually the most important (when there is danger, etc.).
This works for all breeds from Jack Russells to shepards to bulldogs and inbetween.
OP, you may want to read up on adversive vs.positive training methods. Anything involving pain, like the advice above is adversive. You're basically teaching your dog that if it doesn't do what you want, you'll cause it pain. Is that really the relationship you want with your pet? I also don't understand the whole idea that giving treats as a reward is bad. A dog will do things for two reasons: it's afraid of pain, or it's expecting that it will get rewarded. A dog will not do things bc it loves you or is loyal, or other human emotion.
Positive is basically rewarding the good behavior and ignoring the bad. A reward can be a treat, a good scratch, a favorite toy, or something similar. In your case the reward can also be letting the sniff since that's what he wants. For pulling dogs, that basically means a pull is ignored - you stop so the dog learns the pull will not get it anywhere. When the dog is walking nicely, you reward with a treat or a scratch or something. The dog will get the message eventually.
You can also buy no-pull harnesses that control the dog not by pinching or spikes, but by pulling the dog back. They usually buckle at the chest area.
When you walk with a dog, they will try to assert their dominance. This means they will try to walk in front of you and sniff around and get distracted by things -- squirrels, trees, smells -- and if you let them, they learn that when they go on a walk, THEY are walking YOU. As such, they learn that they call the shots and will subsequently do just that.
My girlfriend has a runty corgi that has an amazing amount of energy, and she's trained well enough to understand good walking behavior and bad walking behavior. She's a good walker, but when walking with her I need to pull her and yank a bit to get her into the proper heeling position. If she's pulling me forward, I yank her back, or stop and sternly say HEEL. Then we walk again and if she pulls, I stop, yank, and tell her to sit. When she sits, I praise her. Then, again we start and I say HEEL and if she does I say she's a good dog. The size of your dog should dictate the collar -- bigger dogs respond well to pinch collars, while little dogs can wear harness-style collars that allow you to yank them firmly without hurting them. Dogs are pretty resilient, and as long as you aren't trying to be an asshole, your training tugs and yanks will come across as training, and not aggression.
But remember -- the key point of training is to say the command when the dog is doing exactly what you want, and praising it for doing that. Even though you may think you're being mean to your dog by not letting it wander around, a dog is still a pack animal and if you assert that you're Alpha, then the dog will instead recognize that responding well to the Alpha is reward in itself.
If the dog pulls. Stop. If he keeps pulling or stays out at the end of the leash instead of coming to heel, turn around and start walking the other direction: he will follow. Keep doing that and you'll likely not have to use treats or any other encouragement, though getting a dog to heel on command is handy.
If you want to use an alternate collar, instead of a chest harness check out a head collar (there are multiple types). A chest harness gives you greater control of a pulling dog, but doesn't inhibit/correct pulling behavior.
they do make no pull harness though and those work really well, we used an e-z walk harness from the people who make gentle leaders. i would imagine the head collar is a lot easier to fit correctly on a beagle though
Which is why the pinch collar is good, it's one sharp correction and you don't let them pull and dig into the neck, it's a snap to attention and they get it.
It was a learning curve. After a week, she got it. When she's in the pinch collar, she knows it's "working/attention" time. Now it's the point of a walk is follow the leader (do 180's, 360's, sharp right / left tunrs). She enjoys doing the follow the leader.
If we're going to the dog park / off leash, don't use it. We use a harness.