If you are fortunate enough to possess a beagle, you already know that they are calm, friendly, and gentle, with a fondness for attention. Summer is an excellent season to spend time outside with your Beagle. You may go on a trek with your Beagle, take your beagle boating, or have a picnic with your dog. There are several indoor games that you may play with your Beagle too. Some need equipment, while others are as simple as a ball or some delectable snacks. Consider your Beagle’s activity level, overall health, and personality before pursuing our list of dog-friendly backyard games. Beagles playing and spending time with the owner has proved to be wonderful to establish a friendly relationship.
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Games to play with your Beagle
There are several games you can play with your Beagle. These games are centered around your Beagle running and finding you. This guide below will help you play some interesting games with your Beagle, and you are guaranteed to have a delightful time!
1. Play Hide-and-Seek
While it would be quite the feat if your Beagle could close their eyes and count to 10, this does not exclude you from playing hide-and-seek together. If your dog is the seeker and you or your children are hiding, your dog can discover your hiding location using their strong nose.
First, conceal yourself in plain sight and call your dog’s name to help them get the swing of things. Then, when they come across you, make a big deal out of it and give them some snacks. For an added difficulty, you may play in a park or forests. Then, simply keep your dog on a leash and accompany them on a stroll.
Below is a step by step guide for this game:
- Have a helper hold your Beagle while you hide in an easily accessible place.
- Exuberantly summon your Beagle.
- Allow your assistant to release your dog.
- Praise freely and immediately reward your Beagle with wonderful goodies.
2. Scent Games for your Beagle
To play this game, you will need essential oils such as lavender or anise. Use only these oils to play this game as certain essential oils, notably tea tree oil, can be toxic to dogs. In addition, the Beagle is a scent hound, and providing your pup with the opportunity to check out new scents will give excellent cerebral stimulation.
This sport is ideal for indoors, and you may play with your pet at any time of day. Your dog must already be comfortable playing fetch. You can add a favorite toy, and it may take many days of fetch to get your dog enthused about locating the favorite toy.
While some preparation and training will be required to teach your Beagle this game, Scent Trail will tap into the Beagle’s inherent scent hound instincts.
How to play this game:
Introduce the game:
Choose a favorite toy of your Beagle’s (a ball often works best). Drop a few non-toxic essential oils onto the ball and let them absorb into the substance. With the ball, play a few games of fetch. It is always a pleasure to watch running beagles! When you are finished, give your dog a treat.
Disguise the ball:
Ascertain that your dog is not around while you do this, and then conceal the ball. Take a sheet of paper and sprinkle a few drops of the same smell of oil on it. Tear the sheet into little pieces and arrange them in a trail-like fashion, leading from a starting point to the ball’s location. Bring your dog to the trailhead and instruct him to “find your ball.” When they successfully follow the path, please treat them with a reward.
3. Canine Nosework Game
For various legitimate reasons, beagles are used to smell out illegal food entering the country through airports and other points of entry. These canines possess a highly developed nose equipped with about 220 million smell receptors. Due to their amiable appearance, they are less scary to people than other breeds. Your Beagle may be trained to detect scent in certain cardboard boxes.
How to teach it is as follows:
- As he sees you, conceal the strongly scented food in a cardboard box, have someone hold your Beagle.
- Insert the box into a stack of other empty cardboard boxes.
- Allow your Beagle to hunt for the food box.
- Reward your Beagle lavishly when it locates the correct box.
- Increase the difficulty of the game progressively by not letting it see where you hide the food.
4. Kibble Hunt Game
Rather than following a trail of rabbit droppings, this game requires your Beagle to use its nose to locate the kibble. You may play this game indoors or outdoors if the area is securely enclosed. Once your dog learns this cognitively challenging activity, feeding on a dish becomes obsolete.
How to teach it:
- Keep your Beagle in another room out of sight so it cannot see you.
- Create a trail with its kibble or conceal it in difficult-to-reach areas like behind carpets, table legs, or corners.
- Allow your hound to go free and see your Beagle go on a kibble-hunting rampage.
5. Entertain a Beagle Indoors
This game is easy to play with your Beagle indoors. You will need numerous assistants, who might be family members, friends, or neighbors. Frequently, dogs have poor memory abilities. This game improves your Beagle’s recall. Anyone who adores your dog will suffice!
The purpose of this game is to educate your Beagle to recognize their name. Then, provide a treat for your assistants. All they must do is take turns calling your dog’s name and then handing the dog the reward when the dog approaches them. You may choose to begin playing this game outdoors in a fenced-in area before bringing it indoors.
How to play?
- Arm yourself with goodies. Collect three or four friends (or family members) and distribute a few sweets among them. Instruct them to explore the fenced-in area’s various regions.
- Begin by joyfully shouting the name of your pet. Reward them with nice food when they approach you. Following that, a friend – preferably not nearby – should begin calling the dog until they react.
- Reward the puppy for a job well done with a reward. Repeat until each person has successfully gotten the dog to come to them.
6. Play Fetch with your Beagle
Summer heat is brutal on beagles, which is why fetching in the sprinkler is the ideal activity because it keeps your dog cool as they play. Aim your tosses so that your dog must traverse the fan of water to retrieve to give this traditional activity a new dimension. While not all beagles are born with the ability to recover, the majority can learn to love it. First, teach fetch to your Beagle by teaching him some simple cues such as take it and dump it.
How to teach your Beagle to fetch?
- Hold the toy out to your Beagle in your outstretched palm and ask it to “hold.” If it does, click/praise and reward her with goodies. It is acceptable if she does not take the toy; practice the above-mentioned “hold” abilities a bit more.
- When your Beagle successfully retrieves the toy from your outstretched hand, place it in front of her on the floor. Request that your beagle “hold” the toy and instantly praise/click when she does. This is where progressing slowly with your “hold” signal will pay off in terms of your dog being able to generalize the ability to a new place. At this stage, you may begin using your new vocal cues such as “get it” or “fetch.”
- When your Beagle regularly picks up and holds the toy, begin gradually moving the toy away from you. Begin with the toy directly next to you.
- Increase the difficulty/distance away from you. The toy begins extremely slowly, barely a few inches at a time. Instead of starting with the toy next to you and instantly moving it across your yard, the aim is to break the retrieval down into tiny little behaviors that allow your dog to succeed (which will be too much for a dog just learning the skill.)
- Increase the distance your Beagle must go to get the toy. As your Beagle acquires comprehension of the game, you may alternate between asking your Beagle to retrieve a toy you have put away from you and throw the item. It is a good idea to change the type of item you want your Beagle to fetch, so practice with balls, plush toys, and rope toys, among others.
7. Play Keep Away with your Running Beagle
As an alternative to fetch, you can engage in a game of keep-away with your Beagle. For example, a ball may be tossed back and forth between several persons, and your Beagle only gets it when someone misses their catch. Additionally, you may try this with a soccer ball. While your Beagle tries to take the ball, you can practice your footwork.
Alternatively, get a bunch of pals and challenge your dog to a soccer game. Each time your Beagle catches the ball, you lose a point. Ensure that your Beagle is having a good time and is not irritated.
To Wrap Up
The Beagle is a cheerful and loving dog. They are hunters, which must be considered while selecting activities for them. Not only would tapping into their inherent need to pursue prey with smell provide them with physical exercise, but it will also help keep them intellectually alert. Apart from their numerous advantages and quirks, beagles are, above all, excellent friends. If you are seeking a perfect relationship with your dog, a beagle is an excellent choice.
FAQs
Here is some more information about beagles and their loving nature to guide you further.
1. Is Beagle a play dog?
Ans: Beagles are kind, affectionate, and amusing. They will make you laugh, but only when they are not making you cry with their frequently mischievous antics. Beagles are fun to play with, and you will realize that once you try the games mentioned above with your Beagle!
As with any dog, the Beagle needs early socialization — exposure to various people, sights, noises, and experiences — throughout their formative years. Socialization enables your Beagle puppy to develop into a well-rounded canine.
2. What do beagles do for fun?
Ans Beagles like having fun (with a purpose), and their hunting inclinations are ingrained into their bones. These dogs are hunting hounds bred to track scents and run great distances, and they thrive when taken on lengthy walks (or several walks) and allowed to run and explore their environment via scent.
Additionally, these scent dogs are obstinate but are readily motivated by rewards. And, since they are so food-oriented, they will generally consume food anytime it becomes available, regardless of how much they have finished previously. Additionally, you may need to watch your waste, cat litter, and even old food found on the pavement.
3. Are the beagles good to play with?
Ans: Definitely! If you spend enough time with them, they will get along with you well and play all kinds of games.
4. How do you play with a Beagle?
Ans: There are numerous ways to play with a beagle. For example, you can play fetch with your Beagle, go for a hike, go swimming, blow bubbles and let your Beagle chase them.