Dog Health Questions: Dog Training Question...?

We've had a one year old beagle girl for about a month now. We're really trying to work with sit, stay, down, ect. When we're around the house and have a treat in our hand, her butt is firmly planted on the ground. She also knows sit when it comes to being by the door to get her leash on to walk. Other than those two times, she won't acknowledge sit. If we're not giving her a treat or walking, she acts like she has never heard of sit.

Any advice?

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STOP training with treats!!! I know its harder, but in the end, you will end up with a better trained animal that responds to your praise, and not your food. Use LOTS of animated praise every time she follows a command, don't worry if the neighbors think your crazy. It will take longer..but it will work. Also, you've only had her for a month,and beagles tend to be a bit aloof, give her time to bond to you. Once she does, she'll do anything for praise.

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• make her sit.. if you don't make her sit when you ask then she will think that she can get away with it and continue doing the wrong thing! =D hope I helped!


• yeah my dog does that too.
  he automatically sits everytime he sees a treat in my hand, because he knows that i want him to sit.
  
  i think the trick is to teach different tricks and not sticking with one for a long period of time, because then he will associate treats with automatically sitting, and thats it.
  
  also, don't say "sit" after he sat, because then he'll think sit is a praise word. maybe that might be your problem.
  
  and also how are you teaching him?
  
  maybe your teaching him in a way thats confusing to the beagle?
  
  i'd go to www.loveyourdog.com and look at some of the obedience tips there, yeah i know its a kiddish site, but the obedience lessons actually seem to work for me, and plus a lot of the lessons come with videos.
  
  good luck!


• dont teach ur dog


• haha...you certainly have a beagle!!! Beagles are VERY motivated by food, she now associates sitting with getting a treat, so of course, you have a treat, she wants it, she's going to sit without really realizing that is a command...how I taught my beagle to sit was I would tell him to sit, push his butt to the floor (gently) and give a SMALL treat half the time and give lots and lots of praise, hugs, kisses, etc the other half, then try to wean off of the treats.
  Also, an obedience class does WONDERS for beagles, but you have to work on your commands outside of class too.
  Good luck, beagles are a lot of work, but soo worth it!!


• Treats are a good start, but as her training advances, you need to start weaning her from them. Every time you tell her to sit, make it LOOK like you have a treat- sometimes you do and other times you don't. If you don't, you can simply reward her with praise or a pat...


• Keep going with asking her to sit in those situations and in other situations where you have control over what she does like when she is on the lead. That way you can make sure she doesn't run away from you when you ask her to sit because it will just make her think she can get away with it! Dont try making her sit if she is running off after a bird or somthing else because you know she won't listen! Start with giving her a treat everytime you ask her to sit when you have her on the leash then gradually reduce this to every second time and every third utnil she only get the treat randomly,its the thought she might get a reward if she sits for you that will work in your favour and get her to respond. Eventually she will become so used to it that she will learn to respond when she is off the leash, start by asking her to sit when she is close to you but off the leash so that if she doesn't listen you are able to get a hold of her and ask her again so she can't wander off.
  Hope this helps :-)
  And if you are still having trouble,take her to obedience classes which are a great way to socialise your dog and fun aswell for the both of you


• Beagles are scent hounds and some tend to find training a bit boring. Remember that she is only young and don't forget to practice, practice, practice.
  
  You simply cannot go from giving her a treat to NOT giving her a treat. You need to wean them gradually.
  
  Start to practice sitting outside as well. When training in a new environment, go back to the first lesson. Have her standing and, with a treat in your hand, move it over her head and ask for a sit. Treat her when she sits. Treat her every single time she sits for the first week. In the second week, try treating her not as often. Maybe one treat every two sits but throw in a curve ball and treat her occasionally every sit. Keep her guessing.
  
  By the third week, she should be getting pretty darn good at sitting. Here's where you need to start including a game such as Go Wild and Sit. HAve her on a loose lead and start bouncing around like a mad thing, talk to her in a wild funny voice and then suddenly ask for a sit. When you treat her in this game, it has to be higher value. By that I mean a small square of cheese, or cooked chicken. I have been told that a small jar of beef flavoured baby food is excellent and she gets a lick the second she sits.
  
  Once she has these down pat, start to move around your neighbourhood playing the sitting game with her and also playing Go Wild and Sit. My catchphrase in training is this "If you don't look like an idiot, you aren't doing it right." It has to be fun, fun, fun.
  
  With a harder to train breed like a beagle, I also highly recommend going to your local Obedience club. They can help you to iron out any niggles you may have with her.
  
  Good luck and have fun.


• I feel your pain. I had that EXACT problem with my Min Pin. I asked some of my dog training savvy friends for tips and learned of clickers. When I first tried a clicker with Daisy, the results were immediate. She learned tricks much quicker and actually seemed to pay more attention to me OUTSIDE of my home. She now does her older commands (sit, stay, down, come, and shake paw) for me regardless of where I am or if I have treats. She's still catching on to some of the new tricks.
  
  PetCo sells clickers. :) If you do decide to try clickers, I suggest using the site I referred to in my sources. I learned the basics of clicker training from that website and have excellent results.
  
  Good luck with the training!


• I agree with not using treats!! Treats are for bribing, not training. If you in the LA area, check out superdog.com
  They use "relationship based obedience". Also check out the book, by the "monks of New sket". It's a must read.