Hello Everyone

I bought My 8 week old Puppy Beagle on the 31st January 2003, her name is Jessica,since the 2nd week she started biting, we put it down to teething, but now she is nearly 7 months and the biting is still there though not as bad, she is fine round my house though i cannot sit down, round my mums house she is even worse, she showed her teeth to my mum yesterday, i just dont know what to do, i have had dogs in the past and they have never bitten any one, is this common in a beagle, i dont spoil her. She even trys to bite when she is being stoked, she starts of fine and starts to turn her head to bite. Please help i love her to bits but my family are starting to turn against her with her biting, Help is much apprecaiated.
Regards,

Stephen Arundel

Anyone?

The only thing I can suggest is talking to the breeder as Beagles can be a difficult breed.

Pam n the boys

Can't really help,all i can say is my staffie is 6 months old and very very excitable,i can't stroke him without being bitten(only in play not a nasty bite) I thought he may have grown out of it by now but looks like he's going to be a late learner when it comes to this.Hope all goes well for you and your pup.

Have you thought about getting some 1 to 1 behavioural training from someone who has experience in this?

Stephen,
Whilst I always go on about creating good and bad associations for your dog, in this case this might not be enough. You have a real problem on your hands and need to do some proper research before something unpleasant happens. I also strongly advise you contact a good dog behaviouralist, even if only for one session (he would in fact be teaching you how to deal with the issue, not trying to sort the dog out in one session.....)
Anyway, in the meantime, a few comments I hope will help:
1. you seem to have provided a partial answer to the root of the problem - your puppy got the message that it was OK to bite since you let it go on and put it down to teething...
2. biting and bearing of teeth often is due to fear and not to aggression; this doesn't make it acceptable at all but it does mean you need to identify the cause of the fear and act accordingly
3. you mention that stroking of the head seems to end up in her turning and trying to bite.... beagles are often not keen on their heads being touched.
In other words... you need to do a lot of reading about your breed, their likes and dislikes. You also need to carefully observe how and when the biting happens so that you can preempt trouble and "train" people to behave correctly around your dog as well as training your dog to behave properly around humans!
While you are doing all that learning I would definitely go the "associations" route: when the dog bites or behaves in an antisocial way push her away, ignore her, stop feeding her or doing any "nice" things you might be doing at the time. If o the other hand she allows your mum or anybody else to stroke her (NOT on the head) nicely, then reward her in ways SHE likes (food, playing?... whatever she likes best!).
Hope you manage to work your way through this one but remember.... although beagles can be the best pets in the world, they are not typical "strokeable" lap puppies.
All the best!
Pia