We have screwed up big time!

[Lucas Judd]

Hi everyone! My wife and I have two beagles. One is a middle aged female that we adopted from the humane society and she is an angel! The second is a 13 month old boy that we purchased at 8-9 weeks old. He is a handful and is running us ragged. However, he has gotten better with each new week. I guess that is the normal progression with puppies! Now we have only two problems at the moment. When on lead he is awful when we see other dogs. He turns into a wild man and barks and pulls. I have tried the gentle leader which he manages to get the nose strap off all the time. Everyone tells me that it is because it is not on right but if I put that nose strap on any tighter it will definitely be considered a muzzle. And yes, the neck strap is placed right behind the ears. he just pitches a fit when I get it on him. We also tried a pinch collar but it did nothing to curb the barking at other dogs and it seemed a bit nasty to me. Would obedience training do any thing to stop this or is it a primal thing that will not be stopped. Are the traing classes offered at pet smart any good?
Secondly, we used to have both of the mutts sleep with us in bed but now that Brady is full grown it has become too much dog in our bed. Maggie (the older one) is content to sleep on the couch but Brady is being difficult. He will go right to sleep in his crate and be fine until about 3 am and then cry and cry and cry. We try to ignore him but he is relentless! My wife and I are expecting the arrival of our 1st child in early July. This needs to get fixed. He is fine in his crate when we are at work. He just wants to be with us so bad it drives him crazy

[Rebekah Hartman]

I can relate to being run ragged - we have a 6 m.o. Rottie/Shepherd mix who's been a handful as well. We started a great obedience class only a week ago (one class) and we already see a difference. Our trainer keeps the classes very small (only 3-4 dogs), enough to socialize but not overwhelm the dogs or make aggression issues worse.

Our pup loves other dogs, people, moving cars, etc. We've been working a lot on loose leash walking (in which I make like a lamppost if he pulls and we don't go again until he sits or looks back loosening the leash). It can be slow, so it's hard to get far on some days. We've noticed a big difference with this - we're now working on "heel" actually which is even more tricky. We are using a British-style training lead which goes right behind the ears and stays above his head (not below like the Gentle Leader). Apparently you have to order them on the internet because most stores in the US don't carry them. It took about 4-5 minutes for all three of the dogs in our class to adjust to them and then they all heeled, sat, stayed and came like angels.

If you do sign up for a class, though - make sure it takes a positive approach (so glad our class does - it's actually fun and not frustrating!) I "interviewed" four different trainers and tried to find a class that worked with our schedules. I probably wouldn't buy any other "equipment" until you start the class because the trainer may recommend something different, as ours did with the British-style lead. We've also tried the Premier Martingale collar, but it slides down and puts pressure on his trachea when he pulls.

Try www.apdt.com or www.nadoi.org as a starting point to look for a trainer and then interview to see which is best. There is also some information on finding a trainer on the thread about "Choke collars on a Shih Tzu?" - it evolved into a discussion about training, etc.

[Jody Hayes]

I feel your frustration Lucas. I have an 8 1/2 month old Beagle...we use a Sporn Halter. It works great. He cant pull me when we walk. we have always let Ace sleep in our bed so I have no advice on that. I feel like I am constantly running after him and have yet to trust him longer than 5 minutes alone. He will take glasses, hats, clothes, brushes. You name it. I wish it would stop, but like you said every week seems to get better. I am buying a no-jump collar for him. It goes on his whole body and I hope that helps to teach him not to jump on people or objects. Everytime that Ace starts barking at dogs or people or whatever when we are walking I pull him close to me pet him and quitely tell him "Settle" I work on it at home when he is laying nicely or is quiet...I tell him"good settle" good boy. I definately think the Sporn Halter will work though. Good Luck.

[Nella Stevens]

Good morning everybody! The jumping (on me, on the furniture, jumping just for the chance to see how high they can go.....) is a big problem for me, too. Jody, is the Sporn halter a no jump thing? How does it work? I am so paranoid that these doxies will jump, twist, and then we'll be in a real pickle. And Lucas, many wonderful blessings on your new baby, I can understand how you need to get this under control before she/he arrives. I have heard that there are training devices that you can use to break bad habits, like pulling and barking (the ones where you squeeze a handpiece and it emits an ultrasonic screech that is supposed to stop the dog in the middle of the bad behavior). However, I'm not sure if this would be good when he's on leash and zeroing in on the other dogs--is he really aggressive towards them?

[Jody Hayes]

Hi Nella. The sporn Halter is a halter that somehow stops the dog from pullling during a walk. It goes around the neck like a regular collar but also has to spots for his front legs to go into. There is a website where you can view/order it... www.sporn.com There is a different halter that goes around the head, and the front and hind legs to control jumping. A friend at the pet store is going to order it for me to try it out. I will let you know if it works well. I have thought about the remote collar also...not sure if it is a good thing or bad thing. I am looking for opinions on that. Good Luck w/ the jumping

[Amber]

Depending on the trainers that the Petsmart has, yes, the training classes can be potentially good. One of the Petsmart trainers in the store in my city is wonderful. She is very knowledgeable and she is willing to take on my terribly shy, multiple issue adopted dog Sally. I may take her up on that soon. Talk to the trainers before you enroll in their class (I talked to the trainer for 45 minutes) and ask if you can watch a couple of their classes to make sure their method is something that you are comfortable with...no leash corrections...positi ve training is what you want. All the Petsmart training I have ever seen has been using treats and positive reinforcement, but that has only been in one city. That may be different in other places.

Also, I second the Sporn Harness. I have never personally used it on my dogs, but the trainer I talked to said that the dog cannot pull while in this harness. I think obdience classes will definitely help in your case.

As for waking up at 3 in the morning...where is his crate? Is it in another room or is it in your bedroom? I have two crates, one in our "dining room" (it is more like the dog's room...we don't use it as a dining room, no table or anything) and one in my bedroom. Precious sleeps with me and Sally sleeps in the crate with the door open. Everyone is happy. When I first brought Sally home, she would sleep for a few hours and then about 3 or 4 in the morning she would start barking. I brought the crate in my room and put it next to my bed and now she sleeps through the night! This may be the solution to your problem also, if you have enough space in your room.

[Andre Mendizabal]

It looks like is a beagle thing, Nala will pull so hard it actually drags me to the other dog :confused: I've tried different kinds of methods, and now that Jody recommended it I will definitely give it a try... I took her to obedience training, she passed puppy and basic, but she still pulls, she listens to me more than before, but she still has the pulling thing... She's 12 months old, and you know, at that age they start to build up... and she pulls HARD!!!!

About sleeping in bed, It also happened to me, it took me a while but I taught her to go to her bed and STAY there until I told her so... I put her bed besides mine and Molly's (my other dog) and with a lot of training (pretending going to bed, then waiting for her to jump up, tell her NO, and put her back into her bed and told her to stay, gave her a treat if she stayed there) I also taught her to go to her bed.

Sometimes she still jumps up when I'm asleep but as soon as I tell her "go to your bed" she will jump down to her own bed.

Good luck

[Grace Erick]

Lucas, I must admit I know just about nothing having to do with dog behavior, but I do know that dogs will be aggressive with each other when leashed, but you can take the same two dogs and let them run free in an off-leash area, and they will be great together.

An idea might be to socialize your dog more off-leash if you can with doggie play dates with dog's of similar sizes if you can. There is a site meetup.com that puts together play dates once a month for various breeds. Sometimes if you live in a quiet area, they don't have play dates there. Another thing is I think they are starting to charge to belong to the site. Maybe you can get on there quick and join before they institute a fee if it's not too late and see where they have meet ups for your breed of dog and meet people, then plan private play dates with just you and someone you develope a liking to or that has a dog that gets along with yours. You go to meetup.com and type the breed in the topic field and take it from there. Signing up does not oblige you for anything except they send e-mails to vote to see if there are enough people to have a meet up.

If you see other beagle owners in the park or dogs of the same size, perhaps you can suggest a romp together in an off-leash area? It may help and besides it's good to do to socialize your dog.

[Lucas Judd]

the problems on leash are more of the vocal variety. When I used the pinch collar he did not pull as much but barked like a wild man. That is the real problem. Very embarassing! I am a big guy (290lbs :rolleyes: ) so the pulling is not a huge deal but I would just like him to zip it. He is fine when dogs come over to the house. We have a nice fenced in back yard and our friends bring over their animals all the time. They play and wrestle but there is never any displays like there is when he is on lead. I am going to start disguising myself to go on walks annonomously!
the sleeping thing....I think it may be that he just isn't tired enough. When we kicked them out of bed it was over spring break (my wife and I are both teachers) and the dogs were more active during the day. We were pretty optimistic because he was staying quiet until 5:30ish. This seemed great because it is when we get up for work. Well this week he woke up at 3:30 and every 1/2 hour after that. My pregnant wife may kill the poor little guy if that continues :p I am going to try to cover his crate with a blanket and put an article of clothing in tonight. I am resisting putting his crate in the bedroom because it will just make the crying that much harder to ignore.

[Marsha]

It is possible that he won't cry if his crate is in your bedroom. That was the case with our previous dog. Our current puppy started from the first night in a crate right by our bed, and he's never cried. Oh, he occasionally whimpers and pants when we first go to bed. I guess he's just not quite ready for bed when we are some nights!! But he's never barked. When our last dog was a puppy, he did ALOT of barking throughout the night, but he quit when we moved his crate to our room. He just seemed to want to be close to someone. Of course, neither of these dogs had ever slept with us.......because they weren't reliably housetrained at that time....so we weren't moving them out of our bed into a crate.

[Jennifer Hughes]

I have a similar problem with leash aggression. Tanna is wonderful off lead and unpredictable on lead. She barks like a wild woman sometimes, and snaps at other dogs, mostly smaller ones. It is embarassing and difficult to go for a walk some days.

That being said, we've made some great progress in the last month. The Halti seems to really work for us - she cannot pull to the other dog, and when she barks and pulls, the halti tightens around her mouth so she can't. It sounds like your pooch manages to wriggle his way out of there though.

The other major thing we did was seriously decrease the amount of off-leash time. Seems contradictory, but we treat it like a privelege. We started walking her more on lead to deal with the leash aggression. Everytime we passed a dog, I would tell her to sit and would click and treat her if she was quiet as the dog passed. You might have to increase the distance from the other dog at first and then work your way closer over time. If she barked and did her crazy act, I would walk in the other direction and then stop and ignore her for a minute. Then we would wordlessly continue our walk.

I also take her to the dog park on her leash. I was really worried this would frustrate her as all the other dogs were off leash and she couldn't get away from them or approach them as she pleased (which is the root of most leash aggression problems). I just let her have one or two positive encounters with other dogs while she on her leash - she never barks at them at the dog park - and I click and treat her. Her big reward at that point is time off lead.

We're not there yet, but I've noticed a big improvement in the last month. Just thought some of these suggestions might help you.