New Training Ideas and a Beagle Pen-Pal

Despite all our recent efforts, Beanie's recall hit a new low in the park today, and when we got home Susan started hunting around for new training ideas. She found this article on a so-called "natural" dog training blog. It's all about tapping into a dog's prey instinct to make owners more interesting than other dogs, squirrels etc. and advocates games and training exercises that seem to go completely against the "humans as leaders of the pack" theories. For example, it encourages you to play tug of war games in which the dog always wins. It makes for very interesting reading and might be particularly applicable to dogs with a strong hunting drive like Beagles. We're going to give it a shot, and I'll record how it goes in future posts.

Another Internet resource that's proving useful is the Dogsey site: http://www.dogsey.com/. It's got a really active, friendly forum that's a great place to bounce ideas off other dog owners.

And talking of dog owners, I was contacted yesterday by a fellow Beagle owner who lives near Edinburgh. She's got a lovely Norcis pup called Chester, and was kind enough to send in some piccies:

He's slightly older than Beanie, and apparently has just perfected his technique for nicking food out of the kitchen bin. He seems to be pretty good at putting Bagpuss in his place too!

Smackdown!

After her bitter defeat in the boxing ring, Beanie has switched to professional wrestling. Her first bout - against Mowgli, a 4 month old St. Bernard with a huge weight advantage - could not have gone better:

L-L-L-Let's Get Ready To RUMBLE!

Although she's young (around 4 months) and still quite small, Beanie has a very strong personality and regularly gets the better of other dogs. For example, not long after we got Beanie we took her round to a friend's house to meet their dog Sophie. Sophie's a medium sized, adult mongrel with a lovely nature and plenty of confidence when in her own territory. However, within two minutes our little madam had claimed Sophie's bed as her own and chewed a hole in it.

But it's not easy being top dog. Everyone's after your title and sooner or later some cocky young punk is going to catch you with a lucky shot. And that's exactly what happened at the park today. We met up with a Spaniel cross pup called Ruby, and after the usual pre-fight negotiations and weigh-in, the action started. Since Sky Sports own the TV rights to the fight, I'm afraid you'll have to make do with my blow-by-blow account and some ringside stills.

In the first round, there was lots of eye contact, with each fighter trying to psyche out her opponent.

The second round saw some superb head shots from the reigning champ. Check out this stunning left hook:

In the third round, things got messy. Unlike the the pampered champ, Ruby didn't have a pedigree. She'd come up from the streets and wasn't afraid to get down and dirty to get the win. When the opportunity presented itself, she snook in a "Tyson" special

The ref quickly stopped the round and ordered both fighters back to their corners for treats (cheese and pieces of apple in this case). However, Beanie never seemed to recover and in round four she was on the receiving end of some punishing blows:

Eventually, the red furred upstart landed the finishing blow and Beanie lost her crown by TKO:

Just in case you're thinking the ear-biting incident looked a bit vicious, don't worry! Both pups had a whale of a time playing with each other, and we headed back to the car assuming that we'd have a nice quiet afternoon while our ex-champ got her beauty sleep. How wrong we were, because Beanie was still full of beans. She saw an older dog running with a stick and decided that it should be hers. After several laps of the course, it was!

By the time we finally left the park, we had a very muddy pup!

Spoon Training, and some sad news

When we first got Beanie, she walked well on a loose lead without any training. The only problem we had was that when she heard a new noise or came across a new smell, she would stop for a moment and we'd have to encourage her forward. Lately however her confidence and sniffing ability have increased, with the result that she now pulls on the lead for the biggest part of the walk and always on the return home.

We've been trying all the standard techniques to rectify this: stopping dead and waiting until the lead goes slack, suddenly reversing direction, and giving treats to hold her attention and to reward every couple of good steps. Unfortunately none of these methods have been particularly successful so far.

• The first one - stopping dead - makes even the shortest walk take forever, and Beanie's quite happy to sit each time we stop, before launching into a forward thrust the second we start to move again.
• The quick 180 method doesn't seem to work with our beagle either. As soon as we turn, she happily starts pulling in the new direction. It's her developing nose that makes her want to pull, and I guess she's perfectly happy to perform multiple sniffings of the same spot.
• The treat dispenser approach is very difficult to do - you've got to deliver the treats at the right time and keep 'em coming, and all the while your lower back is screaming at you to stand up straight.

Eventually Susan stumbled on an easier solution: a long handled wooden spoon coated with Kong Stuff or cream cheese.

This works great as you can see - we can walk upright and Beanie stays almost glued to the spoon. Every step is a good one! It's virtually a self-dispensing treat. If you coat both sides of the spoon you can just swivel it around as the first side is licked clean, doubling the distance you can go before a "reload". Over time, Beanie will hopefully get so used to walking smartly that it'll be second nature. Of course there is still a drawback - you get some funny looks from passers by, and the urge to explain yourself is almost overpowering. If you care about street cred, this approach is probably not for you.

Finally, some sad news. One of Beanie's sisters, Ruby, has been hit and killed by a car. Apparently she was wearing a harness with a plastic fastening. The fastening broke open and the poor little pup ran out into the road. I can only imagine how her owners must feel. The news has certainly made us even more determined to work hard on Beanie's recall and obedience, and we certainly won't be going near any collars or harnesses that rely on plastic.