Don’t we all adore receiving love from our little fur babies when we pamper them? But at the same time, if the pampering goes out of hand, your Beagle can become stubborn and naughty. Hence they need to be disciplined. So let’s get into how you can discipline your Beagle?
You can discipline your beagle by using non-violent methods like timeouts and ignorance to make them understand that a particular type of behavior won’t be tolerated. This teaches them to avoid unneeded behaviors. At the same time, promote your beagle’s good behaviors with praises and treats. Beagles are intelligent and capable enough to learn that certain behaviors will result in affection and reward.
Discipling your Beagle needs consistency, being firm, giving timeouts, giving rewards, using distraction, and avoiding stare-downs or physical punishments.
The general idea of how to discipline a Beagle
The general idea here is to make it clear to your Beagle which activities are regarded as good behavior and which are regarded as bad behaviors. For this, you will need to promote the right actions with praises and treats and demotivate bad behaviors with non-violent punishments.
The right kind of Punishments to use
Punishment is necessary to discipline your Beagle. But you have to make sure that the punishment you use is adequate and appropriate. Never use any kind of physical punishment on your Beagle; this will do more harm than good.
There are two types of obedience training:
- Positive Obedience Training: In positive obedience training humane ways are used to demotivate a bad behavior.
- Aversive Obedience Training: In an aversive obedience training, aggressive ways are used that causes pain. This way is cruel, inhuman, and ineffective. This will do more harm than good on your pooch.
Positive obedience training is far more effective to make a pooch understand bad behaviors than aversive obedience. This method includes punishments like:
- Ignorance
- Timeouts
- Taking away a dog’s toy
- Using voice modulation to stop unwanted actions
Whereas using aversive methods for punishment could severely damage the bond between you and your pooch.
So now that you know, the general process let’s get into how to teach discipline to your Beagle.
Basics of Discipline
Make the rule clear
You need to teach your Beagle the most crucial rule for Discipline, the NO rule. You should start establishing this rule from day one. Every time your pooch does something unneeded, gently say ‘no’ and make him stop doing it.
For instance, if you don’t want your Beagle to climb on the couch, say ‘no’ whenever he jumps on it and put him down. And then try to stop him before he tries to get on the couch.
Well, it will take time, but eventually, your pooch will understand that NO means NO. Be firm and consistent with this training.
Ninja Advice: Make sure all the family members know the things that your pooch is not allowed to do. You can make a note of it and stick it on your fridge so that everyone, including you, remembers it.
Fixing wrong behavior
Correct wrong behavior as soon as you notice it. Divert his negative behavior and motive a positive one. For instance, if your Beagle chews on your shoes, say no, take the shoe and give him some chew toys. In this way, you are correcting the wrong behavior in a positive way.
Negative Response
When things go out of hand, and your pooch starts behaving poorly, it’s time to teach him that bad behavior would end up in no fun for him. For some situations, consider responding negatively.
For instance, if your Beagle behaves aggressively, stop playing with him, ignore him, take away his toys, and put him in a room. This is just an example, but if you think your Beagle is aggressive more often, consider going through this guide of How to stop the aggressive behavior of a Beagle.
How to Discipline your Beagle
- The Food Training
- Teaching Basic Commands
- Crate Training
- Potty Training
- Teaching the No command
1. The Food Training
Beagles love food. No wait, I should say, Beagles love to Eat. A beagle puppy would eat anything and everything that he can fit in his mouth. I am not even kidding. Yesterday my 5-month-old Beagle was trying to swallow a stone.
Their love for food is on another level. You might have already noticed your beagle jumping on you with excitement when you have food in your hands. Well, this might seem cute in the beginning, but later on, when your pooch grows up, it could be dangerous for you as well as your four-legged pal.
It is vital to Food-train your Beagle. The general idea here is to make him eat food only on your commands. This will not only bring discipline with regards to eating but also make you the alpha figure to your dog.
Step 1: Hold your puppy by his collar and ask someone to keep the bowl filled with food 2 feet away.
Step 2: While you are holding your Beagle, say the command “wait.”
Step 3: Once your pooch has calmed down, say “eat” and release your pooch and let him enjoy his food.
Step 4: Repeat this every time you feed your Beagle. Consistency is the key.
Step 5: After repeating this for a week, now it’s time to make him wait without holding his collar. Make your pooch sit, put the food bowl in front of him but cover the bowl with your hand. Ask him to wait until he calms down. Say ‘Eat’ and remove your hand and let him eat.
Step 6: Gradually, you would not even need to cover the food; your Beagle would wait until you tell him to eat.
Here’s why beagles eat everything they see.
2. Teaching Basic Commands
Puppies are no different than any toddlers in the house. And you would want him to be a well-behaved dog when he grows up. So you must start teaching him good manners as soon as possible.
While you cannot expect your Beagle to grasp all the rules of your house, you can still teach him a few basic but necessary commands.
You can go through this list of 7 Necessary commands that you need to teach your beagle puppy. The list will show you how exactly you can teach the following commands:
- Teach your puppy his name.
- The ‘Sit’ Command
- The ‘Stay’ command
- ‘Tug of war’ to drain his energy.
- Making your beagle bark only on your command
- ‘Go Home’ command.
One by one, teach your dog all these commands and see how disciplined he becomes.
3. Crate Training
Beagles are notorious for getting themself into trouble. It is just not possible to look after your beagle 24×7. So it becomes necessary to provide your Beagle a safe place where he can rest when left alone. Additionally, crates will also help to house train your Beagle.
As an instinct, beagles usually don’t like to poop and pee where they sleep, and this makes it so much easy to house train them.
Well, crate training could take weeks, even months, depending on your pooch’s age, temperament, and past experiences. You must crate train your pal correctly. One bad experience with the crate and your dog would not agree to go inside. So let’s get started with crate training your pooch:
Step 1: Create a pleasant environment inside the crate for your puppy.
Put a friendly, comfortable bed, throw some of your puppy’s favorite toys. Create a space your puppy would enjoy being in.
Step 2: Encourage your Beagle to go inside.
Keep the door open and let your pooch examine the crate. Put a treat inside the crate; this will motivate him to go inside.
Step 3: Create a positive association with the crate.
Your pooch needs to associate positive things with the crate. For this, you can do a few things like:
- Randomly put some treats inside the crate and let him find it out.
- Every time you see your pooch going inside the crate, reward him, and praise him.
- If your pal knows to play fetch, then throw a ball inside and ask him to get it.
Step 4: Start closing the door
Start feeding him inside the crate and close the door when he is busy eating and open it when he is done. Let him get used to closing doors. Slowly and gradually increase the time.
NOTE: Well, this was just a general idea of crate training, for detailed and step by step guide go through how you can crate train your Beagle.
4. Potty Training
Potty training means teaching your dog where he can soil and where he cannot. To teach this, initially, you will need your doggy to poop and pee at the same spot until he understands that this is where he is supposed to do his business. It would require time, patience, and lots of effort. So let’s get started:
- Make a proper feeding schedule for your pooch and make sure you stick to it. Feed him at the same time and intervals every day.
- Note down the time when he poops for a week. I remember when I was potty training Groot, he used to poop after every 2nd meal.
- Once you know when he poops take him out of the house at that particular time.
- Whenever he poops outside, praise him and give him a treat. Giving him treat will help him understand that this is something you want to promote.
- Puppies usually poop more than twice in a day, so it might get exhausting, but it is necessary and something which you cannot procrastinate.
- Very soon, your puppy will know where and when he is supposed to poop.
5. Teaching the ‘NO’ command
If you don’t know this already, then let me tell you that beagles are mischievous dogs. So you would wanna teach your puppy the ‘NO’ or ‘leave it’ command to stop them from doing unwanted things.
With the help of this command, you will be able to teach your puppy what not to do and make him more disciplined. So let’s get started with how to teach your Beagle the ‘NO’ command.
- Get some treats so that you can reward him when he obeys you.
- Put a treat on the ground and let him notice it.
- As soon as your puppy dashes to get the treat, put your hand over it and say ‘NO.’
- Being a beagle who are known for being food lovers, your dog will try his best to get the treat.
- Keep saying NO until he gives up.
- As soon as he stops trying, give him a treat, and praise him.
- Do this multiple times until he stops on your first NO.
- Now try the same with different things, like his favorite toy or an old shoe that he loves to chew.
Many dog trainers believe that shouting at your pooch will just make him more aggressive, so make sure that you don’t yell at him or show anger while saying ‘NO.’ On the other hand, don’t be too polite, say it in a firm tone.
Do’s for Discipling your Beagle
Be Firm and consistent
Being firm and consistent about your instructions would ensure that he gets used to it and eventually gets the hang of it.
For example, if your dog starts peeing in the room, immediately pick him up and keep him in the very spot where you would want your Beagle to pee. This might take a few days, but don’t give up until he himself starts peeing on that spot.
Use the Timeout Strategy
When your pup doesn’t listen to you, you can use the timeout strategy. Put him in a room and take all of his toys. Let him think about what he has done.
Use Distractions
Apart from giving timeouts, you can also use ‘Distraction and Redirection’ to discipline your Beagle. If your dog is nibbling on you, you can distract him by making a loud noise or clapping.
Due to the distraction, the dog stops nibbling or even biting, and you can distract him by giving him a toy to chew.
Keep your Beagle on a routine
Having a routine for your Beagle is the best thing you could do. He gets used to waking up, pooping, and eating at certain intervals of time, which makes it easy for you to take care of him.
Reassert Authority
Your dog will respect you more if you are successful to show your authority. Failing to do so can lead to your Beagle taking over the dominance, and this would result in your pooch ignoring your commands, excessive barking, and being possessive of his toys.
We don’t want that. To show your authority, you can do the following things:
- Eat first and then feed your Beagle.
- Teach tricks to your Beagle.
- Be on higher grounds. Your sleeping space should be higher than your pooch’s.
- Teach your pooch commands and treat him only when he obeys it.
Don’ts for Discipling your Beagle
Never use any form of Physical or Cruel Punishments
Never use any kind of physical punishment. Similarly, you should never punish your pooch by keeping him hungry and not, giving him meals.
These types of punishments could traumatize your dog and could forever ruin the bond between you two.
Don’t reward Negative behavior
Suppose you are eating your meal and your Beagle just jumps at you, don’t give him your food. This will only motivate the negative behavior, and next time he will try harder.
So make sure you do not reward your dog’s negative behavior.
Don’t yell or scream at your Beagle.
You can understand the difference between your pooch’s bark and whining. Similarly, your Beagle can also understand the difference between your normal voice and your yelling voice. Yelling could have a negative effect on your pooch.
Your dog most probably will try to match your tone and get into the habit of barking aggressively. It’s better to avoid this.
