We are starting to show our beagle and she is doing the standing fine but when it comes to walking she curls her body and pulls away. The only way i can describe it is crawling along the floor with her legs diagnol to us. She can do this for a while and then she walks really nicely. She is worse when there are new smells which is understandable but what can i do to prompt her and discourage her from doing it. Checking the lead doesn't seem to work. When she does walk properly she looks lovely but it doesn't last very long. Has anyone any ideas ?

Have you tried practising moving her alongside a wall or fence? If she's against that she can't pull to the side. If you practice trotting her up and down against a barrier, with a nice stinky titbit in your hand she will learn to concentrate on that and follow your hand. Then you can have her moving on a loose lead, which always looks much better.
Hope this helps.
:)

I also find that a nice tasty piece of liver usually does the trick if i'm having trouble getting a dog to move!!Just hold it just in front of their nose as you are moving to begin with.They should soon get the idea and when they do you can just show it,let them get a wiff of it and pop it into your pocket until they've completed their triangle or whatever,then give it as their reward!!!
I don't think there are many dogs that would turn their noses up at some nice liver!!!
Good luck!

Whilst training i use liver and she loves it. The only problem is that she loves it too much and i can only treat her after doing a triangle or any heel work. If she knows i am holding it she starts jumping up and down with excitement. During training i have tried doing heel work and only treating her when all four feet are on the ground that works for a second and then the moment i reward her she starts jumping up again. I would like to carry a treat to encourage her a bit but she just seems to go silly until she gets it. I think she suffering from 'i know your my mum so i can do whatever i like'. She seems to play on this as when we are at ring craft if anyone else tries to walk her she is much better.

This is the problem a friend of mine had with her Newfie.He was just so over ecitable with food around.The only thing that really worked was a good strong NO and a tug on the lead every time he went to do it.Make sure she knows you mean business........!!!
It worked for my friend......good luck!!!

I had both problems with my whippet as a pup. When she moved properly she was really nice, unfortunately she preferred to either lag behind, up ahead or roach on herself! And I couldn't bait her either as she'd then go round on 2 legs LOL. I have to be really honest and say I just kept taking her to ringcraft sometimes 2 a week and pracitcing with her until she finally 'got it'. She would always stand a dream - she would stay stacked the whole time the judge was looking at other dogs if I asked her - but walking was a mess.

When she finally clicked on walking the standing went to pot for a few weeks LOL! But now she's okay - it's come together and she knows when we walk into a ring that THIS is what we do. She can be a brat outside all she wants, but IN the ring she turns herself on.

Wendy

You could try training the move with a target stick - I've known this to work well with dogs who are reluctant to move.

It's part of clicker training but when they see the target stick, they know to keep in contact with it and a treat follows. It's more consistent and easier for them to understand so they learn more quickly. Once you have taught the "move" command (or whatever word you want to use), you fade out the target stick.

Let me know if you need anymore details.