How do you train a beagle at home? Step-By-Step Guide for Beagle Owner

Beagles are very intelligent, but they are stubborn. Derived from a hound family, they follow their nose; you can say they live on their nose. They will do whatever you ask, but they will do it on their terms. Therefore, you have to be tricky and patient to train them on several things. Let us look at some basic training to train a beagle at home like swimming, potty, not to bite, chewing habit, and off the leash. 

Teaching a beagle how to swim

Beagle does not like swimming that much, but as it is derived from a hound family and needs many activities to be healthy, swimming is the best option.

It is not that simple to bring your beagle to water and let him swim. The doggy needs some training, or else it may drown.

• Did you ever notice that human babies could learn to swim faster than adults could? In the same way, you should start teaching your beagle from an early age.
• To prevent your dog from drenching, use a customized flotation device for dogs. Even it helps an experienced and strong swimmer in the flowing water. It also makes it comfortable to control the dogs with handles
• Bring some other dogs to teach your beagle together. If your beagle is unwilling or afraid of water, when it will see other puppies in water, it will follow them by instinct and get encouraged to water without much pushing
• At home, get a small poll and let your puppy play. It will get familiar with water and will not hesitate later to swim in floating water.
• Try to teach swimming in low deep water with a sloping shoreline. Because in deep water, there may be strong current or alligators or any other dangers, which may hamper even its life. 
• Swim together with your beagle for the first few days. This will let your dog follow you and will make it confident. However, remember you must be relaxed this time. Otherwise, your dog may feel you are getting sinker, and the incident will turn the other way.
• Bring your dog’s favorite toy that floats in water, and it may be a duck toy, plastic bone. Throw or keep toys in the water and encourage the beagle to grab them.
• Doggies generally do not use their rear legs to kick or jump as they have little running activities, jumping in small apartments. Teach your dog to start kicking by its rear feet. Touch or tickle its paws, and it will kick, and later it will discover that using all four paws can run and drive faster. In addition, kicking their rear paws will help them in swimming while paddling with front paws.
• Teach your beagle some water words, like swim, paddle, ashore, etc. You may throw a toy into the deeper water and ask him to bring it back to the shore and shout a specific word. Gradually it will get familiar with the activities
• It is important to teach how to get out of the water. This may start in the pool.
• Be patient; do not rush, as beagles get frightened in water, as they do not know how to float. When they try to act in water, they try to jump as they do the same on the ground, but as rear feet do not have support, the rear body sinks, and your dog became frightened.

Train beagle puppy or adult dog to live in a crate

The crate is important for your beagle for several reasons. It secured not only a living place but also kept from other pets and kids. I can spend a few hours comfortably during travel. 

When you first put your beagle in a crate, it may scream, as it is not familiar with the detained space. So you have to teach your puppy how to cope with crate living gradually.

Training for this includes several steps. You can follow the stages to avoid unavoidable circumstances. As you know, beagles are stubborn by nature.

• Never force your puppy to stay inside the crate, rather by proper training, make it love the crate as his house.
• Bring a crate well made, spacious enough. It’s better to use a metal crate instead of plastic.
• Spread a soft bed inside the crate. Also, put in a few favorite toys. In addition, the dinner bowl is a must.
• Cover crate with a thick cloth or blanket so that your beagle feels safe in a dark space.
• If it does not go inside, do not push it; rather, try to keep it around the crate for a longer time and give him some favorite meals.
• Then put its favorite toys or meals inside the crate. It may lead the beagle to think that a crate is a rewarding place.
• Let your puppy inside whatever the duration every time. Do not lock the door. Praise him with the word he is already familiar with.
• Let him play with his toys inside and come out whenever he wants. In this way, the crate will be part of his familiar environment
• After a few go inside and come out of the crate, then lock the door and observe its behavior. Start with 5-10 seconds and close only when it takes a meal. Increase the duration and close the door during the whole meal session.
• If your dog notices the closed door and tries to howl or come out, let him. It takes time to feel comfortable inside the crate. They will like to stay inside when he wants to play.
• During the first few days, stay beside the crate to make the beagle feel not alone inside the cage. You can put and move your fingers on metal bars and utters some praising words to keep it calm.
• When your dog starts to stay 5 minutes without shouting or fear, you can now start keeping it inside the crate in your absence. Act like you are walking away, but after a few steps, stop and wait to see the beagle’s behavior. If it howls, come close and make it calm by praising and a treat. Increase the duration of absence. Remember, try this when your puppy already has played enough and is tired.
• Do not bring out a doggie when it screams; rather, make him understand that he can come out only when he is calm.
• Keep a treat inside the crate when he returns home after a walk so that he will start thinking of the carte as a rewarding place, not a punishment.
• Potty training is important during the crate experience. After a long duration, take your beagle outside and let his stool.
• Take off the collar or harness when you put him inside the cage, do not make him realize the crate as a punishment. Also, inside the cage, those can be attached to the crate’s bar and make trouble for him.

Train your beagle from chewing everything

Chewing is normal behavior for little beagles, and sometimes it is because either for their teething or they are bored enough. However, it creates a problem when the little pet chews your favorite shoes, and you discover them at the last minute before going to the office! He can chew everything he finds- house mats, pillows, sofa-cushion, shoes all.

You cannot restrain a beagle puppy from chewing just shouting at him, do not hurt them or tell them so that they get confused. Do not use the muzzle; rather, he needs to train as well. Beagles need to understand which objects they can chew, you cannot fully control them from chewing, and it is not even a healthy decision for them.

• Teach him to chew certain objects: If you see your puppy like your shoes and often chew it, exchange it with a chew toy. Give him plenty of chew toys, so he will not get bored.
• Observe him: When he is roaming around inside the home, keep an eye on him. Whenever he is going to take something to chew, give him a chew toy. Gradually the drive of chew will go away.
• Making busy: Sometimes puppy chews when he does not get things to do, or he is bored. Keep your doggie busy, take him for a walk, play with him, and allow him many outside activities.
• Crate training: When you see beagles chewing everything and controlling him a little much tiresome, you can educate him with a crate. Give many chew toys inside the crate, so when he is out of the crate, he will think to chew the toys inside.

Train your beagle to jump on your command

You become amazed when you see the beagles jumping at the dog show, sometimes over a high bar or a narrow ring. It may seem hard to train, but it is really smoother than swimming. Jumping is a full-body activity that keeps your beagle’s muscles strong.

Remember that you have to teach your beagle to jump only when you command. You can use general words like jump, leap, etc., but it will be easy with a one-syllable word. If your beagle jumps on you or on any other bar or obstacles, demotivate him to do this.

To teach a new skill or trick, always give him a special treat, like potato, cheese, or calcium bone. He will start noticing this practice, and every time when he will get a special treat, he will try more to learn new tricks to get more treats as they are just fond of eating. But don’t give extra treats, it will make him overweight and will lead to health problems.

Jump movement can be divided into three steps- sit, jump, sit.

• Start with asking him to sit. Before teaching new tricks, you have to teach him some basic commands like sit, run, and stop. You must use praising words when he follows your command or grabs a new skill.
• After a few days of training to sit on your command, jump practice. For this, hold a toy or food and ask him to Jump. He may not realize what to do when you say jump; to make it easier, you can also jump and high and low the treat, so he will spontaneously follow you and make a jump. Once he makes a few little jumps, reward him with treats, do not overdo on the very first day. Gradually increase the height of the treat, but not more than 10-15 inches above his nose.
• Continue only free jump for two weeks, so your beagle will be familiar with jumping on your command.
• Now we can start practicing jumping and sit on an obstacle like a low height table, chair, tool, or couches. Make sure it’s heavy enough not to slip or move when the beagle sits on it. In addition, it should be a little higher. This time, before starting jumping, let your beagle sit on the thing and give him a toy, so he will get familiar with the object. Now keep the treat on the object and command him to jump. You can try this other way, grab the treat over the object and encourage him to grasp it. When the doggie jumps and sits on the object, praise him, and give him some special food.
• Increase to jump on a higher object. Within weeks, he will become skilled and confident to jump.
• At a later stage, we will start jumping over a bar, similar to the amusing show you saw. This time grab the treat or toy on the other side of the bar and ask him to jump and get it. You can set a stick on two pillows and start the process. Increase the height little by little every day. You can use an adjustable agility bar, this way, you can measure the progress sharply. You must keep the treat on the floor, so the beagle will not miss the flight to land on the floor.
• When a beagle jumps over a good height bar, he has to run to get the momentum. To practice this, you also run with him on the other side of the treat, ask him to sit, then start to run and shout jump; the beagle will succeed to jump spontaneously.
• Jumping through a hoop requires the same training as jumping over a high bar.
• Jumping puts a lot of pressure on the leg and hips joint. For that reason, do not start practicing jumping at an early age; it is not safe. You have to wait until the baby is around 12 to 14 months old. Start on a soft landing like grass, and you can use a rubber mat inside the home.

Off-leash practice for beagle

We enjoy beagle walks, jumps, and running happily around us. However, what to do if it is always needed to tie within a chain? Unlike most other hound breeds, beagles are much stubborn and hard to train. They originated from a real hound family. They love to chase, following the scent that makes them curious.

Yet, it is not hard to practice your beagle off the leash.

It is their basic instinct to find the source of the scent of the prey and chase it freely; even being grown up as an apartment pet, this still works. Therefore, you have to train hard to teach them to walk by side without the chain.

• As beagle puppies are more inquisitive than adults, you have to start with a chain. In the beginning, allow a long leash at least for six months. This will make him understand how far he can go from you.
• They love to chase and easily become distracted by cats, other dogs, or rabbits in the park. When they pull the chain, do not allow them to go free; rather, hold the chain until they stop forcing.
• Make familiar your dogs with humans and other dogs, so they will become socialized and will not often barking and pulling their leash.
• The reward technique always works while walking through the park; your dog can be distracted and disobey or forget your commands. To make him center his attention on you, you have to treat him from time to time. Therefore, he will habituate not to go far away from you or forget you or your commands. Praise him when he comes to you. Repeating this process will make you friendly to him, and he will love to stay around you.
• After a year-long training with a chain, we can start off leash training. Start from the backyard of the small park that is well secured with a fence; your beagle cannot run away long, far. Command him and see if he returns. If he follows the command, praise him, sometimes reward him.
• After a few weeks, you can start for a walk from the backyard to a less crowded park or a neighbor’s home. Always observe if he follows your commands; if not, then try in the backyard again
• As we saw earlier, beagles are fond of finding the source of scent; sometimes, they will run away from you and may forget your command. This may create a problem, so never off-leash the doggie in a crowded park or during walking by the street.

Potty training of beagle puppy

Like all pets, beagle babies cannot hold their pee or poop for long. You have to teach them, as usual, how to express the desire to free their bladder. Alternatively, you will get astounded when you see they are very normal even after they have released their bladder on your costly carpet.

Let us see what we can do to educate your little puppy to use the dedicated toilet.

• At a very early age, a puppy can pee ten times over a day; it’s better you use puppy pads cause you will get enough time before he urinates. It will also help the pet release his bowel movement without worrying much until his training period is completed.
• Puppies need a routine for everything from meals to going out to the potty.
• First few days, you have to take your puppy more times, as their bladder is small like a human baby, you have to take him out after every meal, after every single sleep, in the morning and evening, and obviously before his bedtime. Also, sometimes, he will try to get attention and yowl weakly; you have to see if he needs to take out. Gradually you have to reduce the amount taken out.
• Maintain puppy’s mealtime strictly; do not feed him now and then; feed each day at the same time. This will also establish the same routine for bowel movements.
• Observe after each meal when he needs to take out. You will get a clear idea within a week.
• Do not throw the puppy pad after it gets wet; place it near your puppy, so when he will need to urinate, he will get the smell, and as this is familiar to him, he is likely to pee on the pad again. Do this several times, and two weeks later, place the pad outside of the home, preferably in the backyard.
• After each successful pee outside, reward and praise him.
• You can introduce a word for pee or poo; he will act as per your command.
• If a puppy pees or poops inside the home, you must wash and get rid of the smell; otherwise, next time, the puppy can do the same thing at the same spot.
• Always praise him for every single command he listens to, even when he is totally grown up.

Educate your beagle not to bite

Beagles’ bite really hurts when he grows up. He thinks it is a way of interaction. Several reasons are behind biting, including teething, play biting, or just because he has fear, distrust, pain, or anxiety.

Whatever the reason behind biting, your beagle needs to socialize.

• Milk teeth grow from 2 to 4 weeks of age, and permanent teeth start growing from 12 to 16 weeks. Teething causes pain and discomfort; you can give a chew toy, this will make him relax. Whenever he bites your finger, offer him a toy. You can also use frozen ice pieces and carrots
• To avoid play biting, make him comfortable with your touch, massage his body, touch his paws, and pull up his ears lightly.
• Keep your beagle busy with lots of activities and let him play. Whenever he tries to bite, distract him with a toy.
• Though a beagle is a friendly pet, sometimes it may bite aggressively if he is hungry or in pain, or excited. Try to realize the reason, offer him food, reward treats, and play with him.
• If he takes biting as a play, separate him and make him understood biting is not the right way to interact.

Is a beagle hard to train?

People are curious about training a beagle if it is not going to be easy, but remember, my friend, it is easier than you think. But for easy success, you have to start him from an early age; you have to teach him basic commands like sit, stand, roll, go, come, stay.

Use rewards with foods; beagles are just fond of love.

However, there may be trouble when they are adults; when he observes a command, he will expect treats like those that he has received during his childhood. He may not obey your command, hesitate, or get depressed when he sees your empty hand. You may ask him several times or even shout, but you have to be patient. However, one thing you always make him convinced, praise him every time.

Train a Beagle to Hunt

Beagles are a breed from hunting families; they have a high nose and active mind to prey. They also love to chase due to their high energy.

• Start training your beagle to hunt when he is six months old. It is important he is already obedient to you and obey the basic commands. Before the hunting season, a special command ‘come back’ needs to be practiced. Because during prayer, he can go a long way from you chasing the rabbits and may fall to danger.

• Use a hunting collar; nowadays, a collar with GPS is also available.
• Test some command practice at home before going out hunting. Ask your pet to come back to you from another room; if he obeys, he is ready.
• Start hunting practice from your backyard or in a surrounding area. Therefore, in any different case, he will not run away.
• Put some favorite food in a pot, and place the pot at a distant corner of the yard. Then let him sniff and eat some of the food and ask him to find the rest.
• If he gets success, give some rewards.
• Once he is an expert at finding hidden foods, he now starts with a pet rabbit. Let your beagle sniff it, and then tie him in a corner. Now you play to chase the rabbit and encourage the puppy to join you. Once he gets excited to play the same, untie him and let him chase the rabbit.
• Now tart training in the wood or grassy area with wild rabbits.
• Once he is an expert at hunting rabbits, then you can start to prey on deer.
• So, Hunting is a tiresome game; do not overtrain beagles.
• It requires lots of practice for hunting, be patient, teaches your beagle one prey at a time.

Final notes

To train a beagle is easy; you just need some extra patience to get him habituated with your commands. At the same time, you have to be friendly enough to meet his curiosity. Reward him always, praise him, and do not make him feel lonely. You will have one of your best moments with a lovely beagle.