Read About Beagle Training

ImageBeagle training depends on proper motivation and consistent practice. The extent of training you do can involve house training and simple obedience training common to any breed of dog, or specialized training for using your beagle as a hunting dog. Highly intelligent dogs, beagles are sometimes described as being willful or stubborn. Determining what motivates your particular dog and consistently using these motivational keys will result in a successfully trained beagle.

Generally speaking, dogs of any breed between seven and twelve weeks of age are most likely to take to training. Younger puppies are likely to be too immature to retain any beagle training. Waiting until after your dog is more than twelve weeks old to begin even basic training often means that you will need to first "un-train" any unwanted behaviors. Basics of socialization and obedience, commonly referred to as "Puppy Kindergarten," or other very basic training is the best way to begin training your beagle. Wait until around six months of age to start formal obedience training, after your beagle has successfully learned basic commands such as "sit" and "stay."

Beagles learn best when training is consistent. Using the exact same command or signal helps reinforce the proper response. Even the difference between the commands "Sit" and Sit down" can be very confusing and therefore frustrating for a beagle. Overly praise your beagle's good behavior and simply ignore the bad behavior; you will soon see the unwanted behaviors stop because they do not garner a reaction, while the good behaviors are repeated. Beagles respond much better to positive reinforcement than punishment or negative reinforcement.

Beagles, by nature, pick up scent trails and follow them. Therefore, you may find the most difficult command to teach your beagle is "come." No matter how loudly or insistently his human companion may be trying to call him back, once on a scent, a beagle's nature is to pursue the scent to its source. This is true whether you have trained your beagle to hunt or not. Because of this, even well trained beagles should not be let off a leash except in an enclosed area.

ImageTraining beagles for hunting generally involves bringing out the dog's innate ability to pick up and track a scent trail. Start by teaching the beagle to fetch something indoors, starting at around 6-8 weeks of age. Gradually move your training outdoors and begin adding rabbit scent to the object the dog is retrieving. After your beagle is successful at retrieving a familiar item with rabbit scent, start to transition the beagle to retrieving an actual frozen rabbit. This will prepare him to learn to follow the scent of a live rabbit. By around 14-16 weeks of age, you can begin working with your dog and live, tame rabbits, teaching him to chase them on sight. Before long in your beagle training, your dog will be able to follow the scent of the rabbit, regardless of whether or not he has seen the quarry.