Hello everyone,
Our family is having problems with our pet Staff and Beagle bitches - Our staffy lives with me and my parents and the Beagle lives with my brother - to begin with, our Staff is 1 and a half and the Beagle is a few weeks younger, Staffy is spayed, Beagle is not. Right, here are the problems and any help would be appreciated. When the Beagle comes to stay she will not settle at night or during the day - when my brother leaves her here it starts from then. If we leave her alone in the house she starts barking and doesn't stop. The same happens at night if my brother has left her with us while on holiday. She just barks and barks, my mum ended up walking around the garden with her at 3 in the morning to try and settle her. Also the Beagle toilets all over the house, wees and poos which my mum is really not happy about. She has easy access to go to the toilet at all times and is taken on regular walks throughout the day but is still messing in the house. The next problem we have is that the Beagle is food protective and if my Staff goes near any food she thinks is hers, she snaps and they nearly had a terrible fight the other day. My Staff has been bitten by another dog a while ago and since then has not tolerated being snapped at near the face by any dog. The Beagle stays in my mum's house and I have a flat next door with my Staff, When i let my dog out she goes to the patio door to see my mum and the Beagle stands at the door and growls and snaps at her even though my Staff is the dog that lives here. We are really worried that these dogs are going to hurt each other, all my Staff wants to do is play, but since the Beagle keeps snapping Im concerned that if it comes to a fight my Staff will seriously hurt my brother's dog. I want to keep the dogs separated when the Beagle visits but this still doesn't solve the problem of the Beagle mesing in the house and not settling. She's stayed here on some occasions for 10 days at a time and still doesn't seem to have improved. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I wouldn't have her as she isn't happy being there she may as well be put into boarding kennels
she might be happier

It sounds to me as if you are frankly letting this beagle get away with anything it wants, you have to be firm. Im not a beagle owner but do have a staffie and i no for a fact that if they were to fight the staff would suffer more becuase of the aggresive reputation they have, you will be well aware of this and will obviously not want this to happen. What you need to do is install into the Beagles mind that the staff has priority because she lives there, its her home more than the beagles and that the beagle is to behave. Taking the beagle out at 3 in the morning is just satisfying it, you need to be firm, really shout if you need too and dont let it growl, when it does really say NO loudly, look at it straight in the eye and tell the dog NO, the beagle will quickly learn and will in the end make for a better realationship between the two dogs, but i assure you, you will get nowhere if you continue to allow this dog to behave in the manour it currently is, i wish you the best of luck,

BullBoy