Am i doing something wrong? my 9 month old beagle is doing really well at training, going of her lead and coming back and her general behaviour in the house is excellent. The problem is when we take her out to new places or busy situations, she really plays up crying and howling (very high pitched !) and diving around with excitement, especially when she sees other dogs.
I have tried prompting her using my voice but she just ignores me, i have also used food to distract her treating her when she behaves and i have used training discs which worked twice but then had no effect. Whatever she is barking at is more interesting and i just can't distract her. I feel so embarassed as when we are out and she starts playing up people glare at me and not the dog. We take her to lots of different places to get her used to dogs and people but there is no sign of improvement. Everyone says that she is a hound, they are very vocal but i have been to many beagle shows and none of them behave like her. People told me i would never be able to let her off the lead and i can. Does anyone know what the collars are like that are supposed to help irritational barking ? When she is off her lead she is much better if we see dogs and people, but she obviously can't go off her lead all the time. I feel like it is my fault as i seem to have no authority over her at all and when we are out in public i don't want it to look like i'm constantly telling her off. Lastly, i have tried turning her away from the thing she is barking at checking her with the lead. She has a training lead at the moment which is canvas with a tiny piece of chain on to check her, which again doesn't have any effect as she spins back round. Are there other leads that would be better to check her ?
We go to 2 training classes and she is excellent there but she has been since she was 14week old so she has grown up with the dogs and the people. Please help me as we are going on holiday with her in summer and i want to visit places without such a performance.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Am interested to hear your replies. I have a 15 week Dobie and he is constantly barking at other dogs to get them to play with them, or if we are in training classes he barks at me because he doesnt want to sit still ( i do try to ignore him most of the time when barking). He doesnt bark at dogs who are not interested in playing just those wagging their tails. Hoping he grows out of it, as he is embarassing to be with especially when non doggy people around, luckley everybody just laughs it off because he is a pup, but when he gets bigger it could be frightening.

Hello,

I think your pup is getting completely overtired and over excited by everything she sees, when puppies become overtired, they loose what little power of reasoning they have and nothing will get through, the adrenalin takes over and you might as well be speaking in duck!!! :D

We have a beardie who has quite bad mental problems and is very unpredictable in her behaviour, resulting in bursts of aggression towards whatever is nearest!! She goes into these mad fits when she is scared or over excited and the only thing that will stop her is to hold her head, very, very firmly say in a loud voice NO, LOOK, holding round the cheeks firmly is the best place and try to keep her still, just for a few seconds until she regains her self control and then she will listen.

This maybe because she has problems anyway, or she may just be like this, similar to yours.

I would suggest trying to control her by restraining her very firmly and if necessary try to cover her eyes until she calms down and starts to listen, then using a very tasty treat (something like livercake - please e-mail me for the recipe of you want to) and quietly show her what she is barking at and reward her for being good. Don't push her into getting too close, or staying for too long.

Our Working Beardie pup does this sometimes when she meets new things that are a bit scary, we just hold her still by the collar and firmly say no, offer her a treat and evenually she will calm down and be sensible.

Don't forget that at 9 months there are hormones raging around and they are entering their teenage stage....you know what teenagers are like!! :D This is when they will try and test you out and sometimes because their hormones are going mad, they don't always have good control of themselves, therefore they seem to regress badly in their training.

Don't worry, work through it and by about 18 months to 2 years, they will calm down again, as long as you are firm but fair during this stage and don't let them get away with anything naughty.

Good luck and most importantly, don't get angry or harrassed, this will pass down the lead and will either tell your dog there is something to worry about, or will fire them on to getting rid of what is upsetting you!!

manda
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