by Jason Carne

Created on: November 20, 2008   Last Updated: August 05, 2010

Training a beagle - two of those words don't make sense together in a sentence. Beagles are an extremely friendly and amiable breed until it comes to training. The first thing you can do to make your life a tiny bit easier is start training your beagle as a puppy.

Beginning training as soon as you get him home ensures that you train him before he trains you. Beagles have a very narrow mind when it comes to training and you must make them follow your guidelines if you are to have any success. Being firm but not aggressive is important but you must be patient and open to mistakes.

A beagle is stubborn but very easy to love so it is not as hard as it sounds. It is important to start by teaching your beagle ground rules. If you don't want him up on your couch you have to stick to that. If he is up on your couch and you reward him he will come to think it is OK and won't understand when you tell him no later. If you catch him getting on your couch distract him with a loud sharp noise and he will understand that you do not want him on your couch.

This technique may take some time, but he will begin to understand and will stop doing it. An important part of this is to catch him in the act and not scold him if you catch him just sitting on the couch. This technique works for most things that you don't want your puppy doing. The next step is training you puppy to come to his name. This will ensure responsiveness later in training. The easiest way to do this is by heating and cutting up a chicken hot dog into small pieces.

Next, you should repeat your dog's name over and over and each time give him a chicken hot dog piece. This reinforces the idea that his name means something good. Then, you should go into another room and call your dog to you. If he comes to you feed him another hot dog piece. Try this again and again in different rooms until he comes to you every time. In time you should be able to do this without the hot dog and just give him praise and affection.

The next thing that is very helpful to train your puppy to do is sitting. To do his it is best to get another chicken hot dog again. Kneel beside your puppy with your hand outstretched in front of your puppy's nose. Tilt your wrist upward so that your puppy has to look up to see the hot dog. If this doesn't work the first time try it again until your puppy sits. As soon as he sits feed him the hot dog and say sit. Try this over and over until your puppy sits on just the command sit or just the hand motion.

Next, you need to show him his place. This comes most when eating and walking. When feeding your beagle make sure you have him sit down and wait before you give him his food. Allowing him to rush straight into his food says that he is in control and you have no say over him. Also, before walking out the door before a walk make sure you walk out before him. This shows that you are the leader and he is the follower.

While walking make sure that you walk in front of him. Also, give him very little slack, but the slack should be loose. Every time he pulls away simply stop and pull him back to you. If this is not working simply turn the other direction and walk the other way. This may seem like a huge amount of things to remember for a small little puppy but it is definitely worth it in the end.

A well trained beagle is a happy beagle which leads to a happy trainer. Beagles may be a hard breed to train but it is one of the friendliest breeds to have as a companion and you couldn't ask for a better friend.

Learn more about this author, Jason Carne.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.