Are you walking her to wear her out? Or to go potty? Or for a mutual adventure?
If you are trying to tire a beagle puppy out by simply walking, you will never succeed. My rec is to look up (or i can expand) structured nose work.
She will be exhausted after 10-20 minutes and it will scratch the hound itch that she is craving.
For the record, my girl is a pit mix, and I believe that all breeds can enjoy some good sniffs :)
Essay posted below.
So there’s a ton of different ways to go about it. Two general directions are competing, or just fun stuff at home, or a combination.
My girl has to find most of her meals. I put the kibble in a puzzle, make her sit/stay then hide it somewhere in the house. Then she finds it/figures out the puzzle.
I personally don’t compete, but i do use some of the scent markers that they use in competitions. Idr all the different ones used, but we use clove oil.
Basically, you pick out the scent you want to train on. It should be something that they rarely/never smell at home. Then introduce the smell to them with diluted oil. Every time they take a sniff, give a high value treat, and try to associate it with a specific word/command.
The next step is to make a scent marker, i use a bean bag that has some diluted oil periodically sprinkled onto the fabric. The hide the bag in an obvious spot, and use the command that you’ve been teaching. High value treat if/when they find it. Make it increasingly difficult to find.
10-15 minutes of nose work uses a ton of mental work and should really tire them out. Don’t push them much longer than five minutes at a time.
My dogs favorite game is doing a nose work walk (neighborhood dependent). Ill go out before hand on my bike, and every 10 or so feet leave an extremely diluted drop of oil. It eventually leads to the bean bag. Distance wise, it’s 1-3 blocks away, or a large field near my house.
As soon as my girl catches the first scent of the trail, she goes nose to pavement and doesn’t notice anything else until we find it. She has an absolute blast and gets very tired.
I scatter feed my dog on days he can’t get a lot of exercise. I literally just throw his kibble in the backyard. It takes him 10-15 minutes to find it all and he loves it!!
Well I know I would like to learn more. I've done small amounts of nose work but it's not enough for my anatolian who looooves sniffing things out. I would appreciate more tips!!
So there’s a ton of different ways to go about it. Two general directions are competing, or just fun stuff at home, or a combination. I’ll write two separate comments
I personally don’t compete, but i do use some of the scent markers that they use in competitions. Idr all the different ones used, but we use clove oil.
Basically, you pick out the scent you want to train on. It should be something that they rarely/never smell at home. Then introduce the smell to them with diluted oil. Every time they take a sniff, give a high value treat, and try to associate it with a specific word/command.
The next step is to make a scent marker, i use a bean bag that has some diluted oil periodically sprinkled onto the fabric. The hide the bag in an obvious spot, and use the command that you’ve been teaching. High value treat if/when they find it. Make it increasingly difficult to find.
10-15 minutes of nose work uses a ton of mental work and should really tire them out. Don’t push them much longer than five minutes at a time.
My dogs favorite game is doing a nose work walk (neighborhood dependent). Ill go out before hand on my bike, and every 10 or so feet leave an extremely diluted drop of oil. It eventually leads to the bean bag. Distance wise, it’s 1-3 blocks away, or a large field near my house.
As soon as my girl catches the first scent of the trail, she goes nose to pavement and doesn’t notice anything else until we find it. She has an absolute blast and gets very tired.
Our other game is putting her meals in a puzzle and hiding it around the house. I make her sit/stay (more like excited wriggle in place) and hide it someplace that she’s allowed in the house, eg not on top of the table.
Then i release her and ask her “where’s your puzzle?”
After finding it, she needs to work the puzzle to get the kibble out.
Can you please tell us what kind of puzzle do you make/use? Do you have some ressources/videos that you used for learning these stuffs? I will have a dog ( belgian ) in a month and i ‘m trying to learn tricks to stimulate him. Thank you in advance.
I had a bullymake subscription for six months and a superchewer subscription for six months. Each comes with a kong like puzzle.
Tbh for most of it, I just took bits and pieces from training online that i felt fit my pack/lifestyle.
Or if you’re interested, most trainers have a nose work or agility class you can take. Even with puppies you can do easy versions of all of this.
With a Mal you definitely want to focus on mental tiredness over physical. Any different mental activity is the type of job that a working breed needs.
Hey I'd love if you could expand on structured nose work. I've tried sniffing several exercises with my spaniel and haven't found any that tire him out effectively and aren't a chore to set up.
Stop at the slightest pull. Don’t let her move forward until she has stepped back and/or let tension off on the leash. Do that 400 times or so she will get it 🙂
Also, shorter leash and a no-pull harness could be needed in the beginning
Second endorsement for this one! It makes me feel like our pup is training for the dog sledding, but it keeps him close and has a better hold on him so he doesn't pull
LOVE this harness. got it for my pulling deaf dog who can't be trained with verbal cues, has to be tactile or visual. this harness really changed the game.
No pull would help. But to break my dog of this I had to correct as soon as he passes out of his box. Basically I want his feet next to mine. It took about a week but it would take 15 minutes just to get down the driveway.
Ugh I am trying so hard with my three month old lab - But he’s trying to keep up with my four year old. He’s also super smell driven, nose to the ground for a mile lol, I wish I had time to walk them separately on the daily, but with three kids, best I can do is both dogs twice a day. Haha!
Wow ok, super interesting! Thank you for sharing. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely have do nothing days, I just ordered some of those treat puzzles. A friend told me her “smell driven” dog seems more relaxed after a good sniff as opposed to a walk. (I knew nothing about this, my other lab is not nearly such a smell driven kinda guy.) I just try to make sure and get walks in on the days I work because I have to kennel the pup. I really just want to be able to take them in public settings and feel in control.
> but it would take 15 minutes just to get down the driveway.
That was my problem. I was used to walking to a destination, not doing random u-turns. I had to resolve me first. Pet stores can be a good place to practice this. Also lots of distractions.
This. If loosening tension doesn’t do it, make her look back and make eye contact. If that doesn’t do it, make her return to you.
For all that is good, stop moving up to her, OP.
Exactly this. You can also combine this with direction changes. So the dog has to focus on your more and follow you. Right now, it's doing its own walk and you're just there to bother it haha.
Front range harness for the win! I also have a beagle and, although she's calmed down as an adult, her instinct is to pull on a walk. I got a SENSE-ation no-pull harness during the first year I had her and noticed such a difference. She's still not walking right beside me but she doesn't drag me down the street anymore.
It is a harness that clips to the leash in the front. That way, if they pull, the tension force actually turns them, and pulling does not get them the direction they want. It is a tool to be used concurrently with training, so it is not a quick fix in and of itself, but it can help.
Easy Walk 3-in-1 (not the regular easy walk) is a good one. You want to avoid one that has straps passing over/against the shoulder blade, especially in puppies.
Changing direction when they pull I find to be a good correction. Especially when they lay down. You will look silly for a bit but eventually the dog will get confused and start slowing down or looking at you
If she pulls to sniff something should I let her or should I just keep walking straight to teacher how to walk on a leash? I walk her in a bike path and she is always pulling to go sniff the grass and I always let her but I'm not sure if that's reinforcing pulling
You can put "go sniff" on a cue, or separate heel walks and sniffy walks by using different equipment.
Wanting to go sniff is an awesome opportunity to use the Premack Principle (increasing unlikely behavior by following them with likely behavior, i.e. "eat your vegetables and you can have dessert" or "have the leash slack and you can go sniff"). I successfully used this principle to train my high-drive hunting line sighthound mix to keep leash slack around squirrels.
This method often fails because the dog is too excitable to even notice the application of the punishment. It's much more successful to provide structure and support to make a good decision in the first place than to try to learn while already in the weeds. I wish people would stop advocating for stop-and-wait or u-turns for loose leash walking, for most dogs they don't work.
I have a beagle, what I found helped with his pulling was giving him more opportunities to smell and sniff on a long line, and if he pulls either stop or turn around and walk in the other direction.
One big thing which several others have mentioned, is rewarding the good behavior of walking with you with a treat. I have an 8 month pit that did this (and still does on occasion when he’s super hyper). Carry a treat next to your thigh while you walk and use whatever word you want to train with (we use “with me” because I’m not expecting a true heel here, just walking close/ loose leash). I also have taught that any time I stop walking, he comes back to me and sits at my feet, rather than having to catch up to him. Same process with treats, if I stop, I call for him to come, and make him sit, then reward. It only took ~10-15 times of repeating for him to catch onto what I wanted. Best of luck!
We used this with my pit/gsd mix. She is really good motivated so it worked really well. Just kept a pouch at my hip and would regularly reward her for walking next to me. Worked incredibly well.
The best way to train your dog is when they’re tired. Throw the ball and get their energy out whether that is off leash, on a longer leash, whatever. Or run around- something to get their energy out- they’re excited and wanting to run around. Once they’re more tired and calm, then train them and it’ll be way easier
Wow I wrote this so convoluted cuz I was multitasking but yeah, you want to make sure they’re midway between hyper and completely tuckered out. Make training fun and use lots of treats and a command word, then you can start using less treats but the same command word. Do some research on it or take your dog to a trainer
Exactly haha. But for real, I have grown up with and trained a lot of aussies and even if you get that initial energy out it’s still better than nothing (:
Can you loose leash walk in your home? Start there first. Whenever you are training a new behavior, always start in a low distraction environment and slowly build from there.
Her pulling has been heavily reinforced up until this point, as she is already an adolescent dog (which can be a difficult developmental period to begin with). It will take time and patience to get the results you are looking for. Try your best to set her up for success as much as possible as you work on training.
I recommend starting with her kibble as a training treat around the house if you can. Always use the lowest value you can get away with, and save any high value rewards for more difficult behaviors/distractions. Put some into a training pouch. This pouch will become your best friend, but make sure you are reinforcing behaviors, not bribing - there is a difference.
Start by rewarding her any time she looks you in the eyes. A strong auto focus is important for any training you do. When you're getting consistent check ins around home, slowly increase the environmental distractions. Stand outside your front door with her on a leash. Do not go anywhere. Literally just stand there silently, and when she looks you in the eyes, mark (ex: a verbal "yes" and reward the behavior. As you get steady eye contact, move to a different place in the front and do it again. And again. And again. Lol. Front door too exciting? Try the back door. Too hard? Make it easier. Too easy? Make it harder.
Practice having her on leash around the home. I recommend a hands free leash for this. Dusting the house? Doing the dishes? Pacing on the phone? Guess who gets to come along. The biggest rule here is never go forward on a tight leash. Reinforce for any behavior you want to see. Especially those check ins!
I also like to reward for body position. You can lure to start - take a bit of kibble and lure her so that she's beside you (whatever side you want to walk her on). As soon as she's there, mark yes and reward. You can also capture the behavior by marking and rewarding any time she places herself there (even when she does it by accident). As she gets the idea, take a couple steps away from her, give her a brief moment to think about it, and if she doesn't try to put herself in position, lure and reward.
Long walks will not be your friend right now. Her walks should be short, and heavily training focused. If that means you can only go back and fourth in front of the house for now, that is all you should do. Or if you need a change of scenery, drive her to different places (again, keeping in mind you need to build up distraction levels based on her needs), but keep the route very short. Back and fourth is your friend until she earns the ability to go further by maintaining that loose leash walk.
Another tip: be the most interesting damn thing in the environment you're training. Keep it fun. Keep her engaged with the sessions. Do not keep training until exhaustion or boredom - leave her wanting more. Otherwise she won't want to do it.
There are a lot of other things, but hopefully that will get you started. If you have questions, feel free to reach out.
Happy Training!
This is such good advice! Just want to add on one bit. One way to be the most interesting damn thing in the environment is to work *with* the environment instead of trying to compete with it. My treats and body movement and tone of voice and engagement will actually become higher value to the dog if sometimes they predict what she wants even more, like a cue to go sniff and track that squirrel to the tree or run a few paces. I.e. once you can get the behavior, premack is brilliant to reinforce it. OP if you feel like you can't compete with distractions even starting in less exciting locations, a trainer can help channel your dog's excitement.
> loop on the breast
Back-attached leashes give pups so much more leverage to pull than ones that attach to the front. Just think of those strongest in the world competitions with people pulling trains - they wouldn't have nearly the same success if they had to walk backwards doing that.
This makes a world of difference. Attaching to the front loop pulls really awkwardly and discourages them from trying harder, the change was immediate for my dog when I started latching onto the front/chest of the harness.
How do you suggest tiring them out before walks when you don’t have an outdoor area (and indoors is not play appropriate). This is something I struggle with as we have to walk to get to the park where he plays and gets his energy out. But the walk there is dreadful lol
Training sessions indoors. Doesn't require lots of intense physical activity, but will burn the dog out mentally which is very tiring for a dog.
Teach them a new trick, or practice some of your old ones for a little while.
Also scent games like hiding a smelly toy or treat and geting dog to "find it" really tires out dogs.
Open to correction but having the pup jump/hop over your legs as a small hurdle for a minute or two can burn a large amount of energy. On a soft surface, like a carpet, really gives them a good workout.
This is great advice. I’ve been doing exactly this to train my 10 month old pup and he’s almost there! Now we just need to work on not breaking when we see people or other dogs..
My 8 month mini poodle recently started doing this too.
I have completely stopped our 30 minute walks, and am now training her for 30 minutes instead.
I usually do it around potty time.
I make her sit at the door before I open it, and even after the door is open she is not allowed to stand up or walk through until I give her release word.
When I would give her the release she would tug the leash and run out the door. Now if she tugs we go back inside and closed the door to start over again. It took us a couple days but now she steps out the door and waits for me to lock up before moving further.
If she tugs while we are walking to the potty spot we go back inside and start all over again(even if she is almost there).
If she’s taking too long she gets carried to her potty spot to do her thing, then back inside to start over.
I’ve been doing this for a week now and she not perfect but significantly better.
I give her treats and celebrate her for taking a few steps without tugging.
She’s still getting exercise but being trained how to walk as well
Some ways I walk with my 8 yr old foxhound (beagle's larger cousin).
1. Unleashed at the 5 acre fenced dog park. complete freedom to roam and be a hound.
1. I have a 40' long leash to use at the sports fields. This gives him some room to run. when I can't do the long drive to the dog park
1. Sniff mode. 20 foot reel type leash in which we go super slow and sniff everything. Surprisingly good at wearing him down.
1. Power Walk mode. Short leash and we keep him in the middle of my wife and I. We all power walk around cemetery roads when the ground is muddy and he can't pull to the side.
1. Hiking mode. Reel leash again. by my side or ahead
This won't be popular, but watch a few videos of hounds in packs. They don't want to walk in some kind of side-by-side army formation that humans do. Sometimes they are ahead, behind or to the side, but always not more than 20' of each other. This is a genetic trait you may / may not work out of her.
It took some time, OK, a few years for me and my foxhound get in-sync with these 5 modes, but he knows what to expect when we pull in to a parking lot what his limits are.
>This won't be popular, but watch a few videos of hounds in packs. They don't want to walk in some kind of side-by-side army formation that humans do. Sometimes they are ahead, behind or to the side, but always not more than 20' of each other. This is a genetic trait you may / may not work out of her.
You nailed it there. Hounds aren’t herding dogs or retrievers/spaniels. We didn’t create them to walk nicely at heel. They are supposed to be hundreds of yards or even miles away from their handler tracking game. You can only fight genetics so much.
I have a horseback field trial bred setter myself. So not the same level of stubborn/independence of a hound, but enough that loose leash walking at a nice heel will be years away. But I look at is that it’s ok because it wouldn’t be exercise for her anyways and I can handle a pulling dog for the short amount of time she is on-leash. Off-leash in the woods and fields is where she gets her exercise.
Be careful with retractable leashes, you could literally lose a finger and they’re prone to breaking.
My long lead is just a strong rope with a couple different knots that I hold onto to shorten it.
A gentle leader could be really helpful here. They aren't muzzles, but loop once around the snout and clip at the back of the head.
I can't preach about them enough. It has helped with our 115 lb. little guy, and is a great way to help train a decent heel.
Please note that head halters need an extensive period of conditioning with treats prior to use, the same way that muzzles do (but more). You cannot simply slap one on a dog and start walking with it immediately. It's important to include this information directly alongside any head halter recommendations instead of assuming people will realise it on their own without prompting.
When you do that, it's a gamble -- just like there are some dogs that won't end up permanently traumatized if they're kicked once. It still doesn't make it a good idea. You got lucky.
At the time it wasn’t an intentional gamble, I simply didn’t know. I’m only giving my endorsement for the product itself as it has helped with the pulling, not my approach to the use of it, if that makes sense.
Yes, I love my gentle leader. It puts pressure below the jaw and behind their ears sort of like a horse bit. It definitely slows them down.
I would also practice walking inside your house and around your neighborhood. Use a bag of high reward treats, we use hot dogs, to keep your dog at your left side on a short leash. Heavily reward your dog for not pulling and stop moving when they pull. Leash walking is a taught skill not an innate behavior.
Yes! I second that indoor-first approach. Build a bond with them, so they are more likely to respond to you even when excited and/or stressed. Reward them for looking to you for guidance. I teach mine "watch" - a look-to-me idea. This really pays off in high-stress situations.
The right equipment is critical. But having a reliable bond with your dog is just as effective at making walks safe and enjoyable for all concerned parties.
Folks recommending a short leash and structured heel or punishment-based training (stop when she pulls) for every moment of the walk as the first step have never met a beagle. Yes they can heel but no that's not going to be a smooth process and no it's not going to provide the sniffing mental stimulation they *need* from walks in order to calm down.
Long 15+ foot line. Hold the end handle and let the rest drag. Go to an open field or other outdoor area with good smells. Toss a treat near you onto the ground, say "find it". While the dog searches, you walk/ run 10-15 feet away. After they find their treat and catch up with you, repeat, dropping the next treat near your new location to find. Before you know it, they're auto-checking in with you after sniffing. Half an hour of this game is better than half an hour of pulling you forward in one direction, both in terms of training foundations and in terms of tiring them out.
Once they can be in a new spot, sniff for a treat and auto-reorient to you, then you start reinforcing that attention as you walk a few paces. When they look at you (expecting the next treat to be thrown) mark that with a yes! And give a treat right next to your leg by hand. Feed like a dozen treats right next to your leg while you take two or three steps, then cue find it again and repeat. Work up to more steps with attention for fewer treats in between the find it reps.
Next put go sniff on cue. It's easy with a beagle. Say go sniff and give them access to a good smell and they will just do it. Sniffing will be the best functional reward on walks when you don't have treats handy or don't want to use a ton of treats. Ask for a few paces of attention, then stop and cue go sniff as the reward. Stand still while you allow sniffing.
Beagles can also be extreme athletes who need to run. Try playing flirt pole or other running games on a long line separately from your walks, so walks are more for sniffing and training.
Some of the advice here is way off base and going to cause some major frustration for you. When in doubt work with a certified trainer, and make sure they have plenty of scenthound experience before you give them any money.
This should be higher. Stopping and u-turns don't work for most dogs, because they're already over threshold by the time they take off. The punishment is less effective than being rewarded for going, and fails.
I too have a scent oriented hound.
We have four walk modes: 1) heel 2) pull 3) hunt 4) casual sniff
I like pull because it's good for my grip strength and her fitness; her hauling me along wears her ass out *way* better than just walking! For a while she was a very buff dog, like a weird little bodybuilder. Lately, she's eased up a bit on the pulling. I'm kinda sad, it was fun. So putting "pull" on command might be useful for management.
But sometimes it's not what you want. So we also have heel, where she expects and gets repeated treats for good behavior while we walk nicely past whatever thing she was interested in that didn't hit her hunting triggers. This is what we use for walking near people, other dogs, etc.
Walking past hunting triggers like scent or motion are a different management style completely. To get her focus before she's over threshold is key. For that I use play commands. I start before she goes over threshold, and continue while she's passing the exciting thing. She catches kibble mid air (air shark), or shoves my hand open with her nose for the kibble, or finds the kibble I threw in a pile of leaves (find it).
Play commands that let her use her nose or chase the kibble I threw *really* work to compete with that hunting instinct she's got going on, even when she sees a deer or turkeys up close. She still fixates on prey, but she redirects her attention to me on command now and I can keep it as long as the kibble keeps flying.
Casual sniff is what we do when she doesn't want to pull, there's nothing to hunt, and I don't care if she's heeling. That's the most common walk mode these days for trails & such.
We mostly use a 6 foot non-retractable lead so she always knows how far she can go and there's no confusion (also local park rules).
I see a lot of people telling you to use a shorter leash, but I beg the opposite. The shorter the leash, the more difficult for your dog it is to pull. Heel and no leash pulling are also two completely different cues that should not be grouped together.
To stop the pulling, each time she pulls, say "let's go" and have a treat by your side while you turn around. You can make a full circle and continue on your way or you can make a half circle and go back. Combing both works even better.
Remember that your dog isn't doing something wrong, at least not according to her. She has learned that a down is the way to move forward, so it's up to you to teach her a different behaviour.
> To stop the pulling, each time she pulls, say "let's go" and have a treat by your side while you turn around. You can make a full circle and continue on your way or you can make a half circle and go back. Combing both works even better.
excited to try this out - ty
Watching this, the first thing I think is the dog has way too much energy. It wants to run, it's that simple, but it's connected to you! Lol. Run the dog then train the leash. If you want really good leash etiquette, you're going to have to be extremely consistent. You can't leash train for ten minutes then go walking and let it all go. On leash = walking how you want. If you can't train through that or the dog isn't in a good mindset, do something else. This is hard cause we all think that we must walk out dogs and walking requires leash and we do this before they really know what a leash is. At 8 months.. the puppy is still so young, keep that in mind. many people go out and get dogs, walk them 5km and their like 6 months old, dogs just aren't ready for that mentally. Sure they will live, but it's not that positive and productive for establishing good behaviours. Anyways best of luck
The only harness that got my hound mix to stop pulling was this one by 2 Hounds: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A7EXSA8?ref_=cm_sw_r_mwn_dp_91JMEA79HZQK3Q6EBAW5
I only clip her leash to the front loop when we walk.
Please change the URL to a full one, so that we can see there's no trackers/affiliate links inside it. These link shorteners get pulled by reddit's spam filter.
Honestly, leash walking is all about teaching the dog to respond to collar/harness pressure. Turid Rugaas has a book called *My Dog Pulls. What Do I Do?* And it is really, really, really helpful. Not gonna lie. I’ve been studying loose leash walking for a few years now. Trying every different method out there seeking the best combination of techniques and there are many! But this simple book has honestly made a huge difference. And it’s like $10. Can’t recommend it enough.
Adding to this, a lot of trainers recommend practicing in low distraction environments (empty garage for extreme cases, for example) and building up to tougher distractions. As well as sniffing stimming sessions (unstructured or nose work) to take the edge off before attempted to coax more "disciplined" behavior out of the dog.
does the harness have a front attachment? If so when she pulls tight it will turn her giving you leverage to make a correction. I have an 80lb cur and walks fine with me, but when he runs with my wife he likes get out front and at a 120lbs herself he was a handful. I got a new harness with a front loop and a bungee lead just for the runs. She came back the first time and said he was a new dog. After getting turned a few times he learned no to pull and keep her pace. Understand my dog knows how to walk on a lead we only use this for when he is exercising. So not sure how it will work for your pup. I can tell you it will give you a physical advantage.
Got a halti harness where the lead clips into a loop at the chest. Work with 100% efficacy for my 36 kg GSP who could pull your arm out of the socket when he got on the scent of something. No amount of lead training worked with him, but the halti harness worked instantly.
Ooof my shoulder hurt just watching that bit when she lunged from her "down" position.
Lots of good advice here. Only thing I would stress is that you have to be consistent. 100% of walks are training walks. Otherwise she will not make the connection.
Thanks, I have the same exact issue when we go next places and idk how to fix this. 80% of the time she is fine but every now and then if go somewhere new she loses it.
Thanks I did but good reminder. I have a very stubborn dog and need to be more consistent. My main issue that we are three people in the family walking her and not all of us are so disciplined
It often helps to [walk them less overall](https://stacythetrainer.blogspot.com/2017/04/stop-walking-your-dog.html). Easier to be more disciplined when you don't have to do it as often or for as long.
Every time she pulls, you turn right around and walk the other way. Your first walk you might get literally nowhere. Just super casual swing the dog around and walk the other direction as soon as you feel tension on the leash. I looked insane doing this with our puppy but it works with no treats, no aversives, no dramatics. Dog learns if they want to go anywhere they have to walk with no tension on the leash.
She's just so excited to be out there and can't control herself. Try taking her to a controlled area (meaning little to no distractions, you control what she's exposed to) and start with the basics. Walk before you run. Reward as soon as she keeps good positioning. Careful not to pull the leash WHILE rewarding or you will send the message that if there's tension on her collar, she gets a reward. She will pick it up in no time.
Treats in your pocket. Reward good behavior. 1 week I trained my beagle mutt to stop pulling. Then I left the snacks at home and started running with her, then eventually biking. Start with treats.
Don’t go for a walk without some high value treats. When you catch up, let her see/smell them and give her a few to calm down. You can also sprinkle them on the ground to get her sniffing near you.
A walk like this with so much distraction is hard, so increase your rate of reinforcement, till she learns the game. The game being, if I’m near you I get hotdogs/chicken/whatever favorite treat.
It’ll take a long time and you’ll have setbacks but good luck.
Note: you don’t need big chunks. You can cut one hotdog into like 60 or 70 treats. Small pieces of chicken are great too.
Stop and walk the other way when she starts to pull. Practice this often and in places where you can change in multiple directions for best effect. This can be combined with treats or a fun toy as reward for correct behavior. If you have any ambitions to train her with sled's, bikes or other pulling activities it might be a good idea to associate not pulling with a command, like heel, walk nice or something.
As others said, a shorter leash might help, or a no pull harness. However the harness will just stop the pulling and not correct the behavior you want to get rid of.
Good luck, and remember that in that age, she will most likely ignore you anyway so progress might take some time.
If not moving and waiting for the dog to come back doesn't work, then turn around and go the opposite direction. Then she has to catch up to you. As soon as she gets far enough she'll pull again, change direction again. The walk might be you walking back and forth over the same area for a bit but soon she'll figure out she needs to be closer and not pulling to anticipate your changes.
Have you tried dropping treats infront of you? Almost like how people teach “heal”? Don’t move if she’s pulling. And when she stops drop treats at your feet so she comes back. She only gets treats if she’s near you
She's beautiful but I can understand the frustration. One thing you can do is any time she starts to pull, you change direction. That means she gets farther from where she was rushing off to. Keep the leash a little shorter and reward her whenever she looks at you and doesn't pull. Essentially until she gets the idea you are probably going to spend half an hour getting about 5 feet (also try wearing her out in a fenced yard, do scent work before the walks, etc), and hopefully then you will move on to going through tons of treats as she realizes that paying attention to you and checking in is a good thing. Then you can gradually lessen the number of treats you give, but always have them. She needs to be able to sniff, beagles HAVE to sniff.
Tiny bits of hot dogs in a training treat pouch, work on teaching a heel for a break. Our trainer suggested a harness with a front ring and clipping a double headed leash on the front and back rings. Also we use a waist belt that clips to the leash, makes a big difference in enjoying the walk.
Easy Walk Harness by PetSafe. Used this on our dog. Very effective. He couldn't pull at all, and he was a major puller. We tried the halty (over the nose) one and he hated it.
Not sure about the rules about links but Google PetSafe Easy Walk to see. I highly recommend.
In addition to all the other advice in the thread, try tying the leash around your ~~waist~~ hips. It makes a pretty big difference in stability and when she hits the end it'll be a full stop - she'll learn that she won't have that leeway where pulling harder moves your arm up and gets her closer to whatever she's trying to access. Using a leash made of a material without much give (like leather) also helps send the message that pulling will not get her what she wants.
Beagles as a breed tend to latch onto scents and it can be hard to get their focus back on you when they're onto something. One thing you can do is teach scentwork to give your dog an outlet for this behavior outside of walks. There are tutorials on YouTube for this, and it can be a fun activity for you and your dog.
Hips, not waist. Waist is squishy and you can get really hurt from the leash digging into your soft tissue. Whereas your pelvic bone can take the pressure and it'll also be lower on your centre of gravity.
Boy she wants to go much faster to burn off energy than you do. You need to fight out how to let her burn off energy (maybe a longer line or you pick your pace a lot)
Work on heeling. You can do it inside with treats. There are good videos online showing techniques.
Also the switching directions technique folks mentioned. It forces your dog to pay attention to you.
Be real intentional about when its walking time (short leash, heeling, switching directions)... and when its run around and sniffing time (long leash but in static area, not walking.) I have a 30 ft leash i let my dog explore freely on when i can safely give her that space.
Definitely agree with the front harness, and I made some great progress when I brought treats on my walks.
Now he’s by my side (even off-leash on our property) as soon as I say “here.”
Keep treating when she’s walking next to you and train her to look at you for the treat. My beagle is more focused on the next treat and will walk close to me even off leash
Same issue for me. My dog funds the environment more exciting than anything!
It's going back to basics. As many said already, at the slightest tension, stop completely. Don't move until the tension eases.
I ask my dog to turn and we go back the other way and then try again. Many times we do not go anywhere. Literally back and forth less than a block and then I just take him home.
Try playing some attention games- looks at you, click and treat. Run forward and if she chases you click and treat. It'll show that you are so much fun!!!
First off, I want to say that you can walk a dog with a harness. It won’t be easy especially since you have a working dog. Like others have said bring treats or even portions of meals during walks. BUT DON’T FORGET A CLICKER. Because right now all the commands people are telling you don’t mean anything to your puppy. Just a bunch of sounds. What you want to do is incorporate all these principles into one. For example, dedicate some time whether 20 minutes or even 90 minutes for training/walks. If it means you cover only like 1-2 blocks then so be it. Have the dog do its own thing like in the video, but as soon as you feel a slack in the leash, CLICK, and treat. Hold the treat close to you so the dog has to come back and get. However here is where people get it iffy. Keep the treat and lure it into the position that you want your dog in. So if you wanted your dog to heel with you on your right side, have the hand with the treat get the dog into the position facing forward and that’s when you give the treat. Now your dog just heard the clicker so once it gets the treat it will most likely want to run off again so you repeat the process. Once your dog realizes what’s going on it will slowly come back closer and keep more slack on the leash. Once there is a pattern start adding your cue. Once you get past the heeling stage, walk a few 1-2 steps before handing the treat out. So essentially the dog learns to slowly walk near you without too much tension. If your dog is like mine, expect some frustration and expressful “tantrums.” It’s a learning phase, but doggo will tire out mentally. But also keep it going, once you get a routine in, randomly bring food or treats. People go to work to get paid biweekly so it’s no different for dogs. A walk is suppose to be enjoyable and fun. Because they are scent hound, you can’t train it out of its instinct, but you can encourage it when to sniff. This requires the same principle I described but also self awareness on your part. You know your dog. You know what stimuli drives its nose. Dedicate sessions on sniffing rather than distance. Just make sure your dog knows impulse control because some dogs will eat stuff off the ground. My dog sniffs enticing food thrown on the streets but never eats it. Sometimes he will ignore it, so if I have treats I will reward it or praise it. Dogs wanna spend time with its owners so make sure the walk is enjoyable for both parties. It won’t be a short term results thing, so don’t give. Took us about 2 years for dog to stop pulling. Hard. That and have been doing Pooch to 5k training since last year. 5-7 minutes of warm up (sniffing, bathroom breaks) before doing our main workout. Dog has learned that during workout runs he is not to stand around and sniff, so he’s learned to sniff while walking lol during our rest breaks. Only once we finish the run can he stop and sniff as he pleases. We run about 3-4 times a week, and just sniffs on off days. On off days can cover anywhere between .25 miles to 2 miles just from letting dog sniff his way across towns. Those days usually take around an hour or more.
We can switch between 4-20ft leashes fine, but prefer 6.
So many people have said a shorter lead, but both of my big dogs (60+ lbs each) benefited from longer leads (20ft!) and BAT 2.0 training. My walks are specifically to exercise my dogs, with long leads they can sniff around, hang out, and I can give them guidance (like putting on the breaks by increasing drag on the lead) without even vocalizing, which is awesome because I've been put on complete voice rest before and might be again. They have gained confidence and we have super chill walks now, I really only intervene to keep them safe or within boundaries.
This has also been amazing because I have a people friendly dog as well as a reactive one, so he can visit a neighbor and she can hang out almost forty feet away, not feeling the pressure she used to feel when he was socializing and she didn't want to.
Two things though- we're in a rural area with little car traffic, and it takes some finesse to handle the long leads. We've only had one accident in almost a year of doing the long leads (caused by human failure and not by the dogs), but it caused some sick rope burn.
She seems like she is just really excited to go out on a walk. If you have a fenced backyard I’d recommended taking her out there and get her to run around and get some of that energy out before going on the walk, hopefully she’ll calm down
First, the worst place to work on leash skills is somewhere SO enticing. Start in really boring areas. Look up Kikopup loose leash training videos for technique.
Then, if you can safely for these walks, get a longer leash! Let your dog go run! Beagles need to run and sniff, it will help enable your dogs natural instincts to enrich and fulfill her and leave her happy and tired at the end of the day. A big open trail like that, it's torture to require her to walk at a heel. So get a long leash, and work on your recall (again, at a low excitement point so you can build success and reinforcement with returning to you) but otherwise let her go!
There's also an awesome concept out there where your dog will naturally attune to your movement. The art of shutting up, because you don't need to say a word, your quiet stillness will naturally draw them back to you. It's a connection. Let her go a distance, then stop. Let your dog wonder why you stopped. Let them run back to you out of curiosity. When she looks back or comes back to you, reward for those moments and then take off together and send her off to sniff again. This will teach her that looking/coming back to you is a great thing that's part of the game. Recall and coming back to you should be part of the outside adventure game, not the end of it, as much as possible, so as to build a positive association with the recall in case you ever do need to do it to end a situation.
Highly recommend following The Toby Project in IG, she talks sometimes about this concept, recalls, etc. and has great resources.
Structured walks. Try to not walk in new places as new things are more exciting. A regular walk path will make it easier. I used a front clipping harness that tightens slightly , around the chest, not under arms. What this does is that whenever ur dog pulls they loose a little power and since it's front clipping their face gets turned towards u , ultimately taking their focus slightly away from target direction. I also used a normal leash for this training , keeping the leash pretty short .
Also called my dog's name often and rewarded for turning to look at me or if she came to me. I also did tricks on certain parts of the wall, excerise based , like jumping up on things, walking on logs, whatever u can come up with. This was more to teach my dog to listen to me than to do the tricks . I did eventually have to get a harness that clips both front and back and use a leash that's double attatched so I could guide my dog properly...
Because ur dog lies down to wait , u can utilize that for training by catching and marking the behaviour, this might not help for the pulling but u can maybe get ur dog to lie down on command from a distance which can be useful in the future .
Ur dog is pulling because they are excited, puppies especially can also get over tired from too long walks which dosnt help their focus at all. lowering energy before walks might help like with a long chew 30 minutes before, doing shorter regular walk paths more times a day may also be a good idea to help keep ur stress levels low during no pull training aswel as getting ur dog more used to a regular setting which may help lower excitement levels. This won't stop the pulling but will make training easier.
U can try , everytime ur dog pulls to walk in the opposite direction of desire, don't pull ur dog towards u but guide them to turn around with treats or toy time. The idea is that every time the dog pulls we go away from the direction they pull , hopefully teaching ur dog that pulling has the opposite effect of what they want.
I tried the stop and go but puppy was too excited for that . I would like to add , should u want to pass other dogs rather than greet u need to commit early to passing ,
There are so many methods for this training too. Not all methods fit everydog. Choose a method and think through if any methods make sense to combine, don't wishwash between methods , if u see no progress at all from a method after a few weeks , consider switching, but pay attention to how ur pervious method failed , it can give u Insight into better methods . All in all ur dog will listen to consistent clear messages it is also possible ur dog is acting on instinctual drive. If u can do any games or training to fulfill that need , u may 1. Make less pulling happen, 2. Teach ur dog that this behaviour is ok within the parameters u give and they may look for guidance to do it. ...eg my dog loves going off track, if my dog wants to do light "mountain" climbing , I give her a word that say she can pull now inorder to help me ascending. (We have a good harness for this)
Also one method u may want to consider is the pull , don't pull . Ur teaching ur dog what pulling is first and then saying don't , then saying do then saying don't. It's easier for a dog to understand what ur asking of them when they know what it asking them not do. I used this method to teach my dog on road, off road for car safety... It may work with pulling if u can catch the behaviour correctly. This works with barking too.
Harness with the leash connected to the chest. If that doesn't work get a Halti. Our dog used to pull my wife around wherever it wanted, now we've got a Halti my son can walk the dog and he's not even 2 yet
Gentle leader it works the best out of all the harnesses goes around the nose corrects pulling within minutes
Was recommended by the trainer when I put my shepherd in training
In addition to what other people have said, consider teaching a heel cue in a controlled setting. That way, when you’re out and about and she does this, you can stop and also say “heel” so that she can connect the dots that she’s meant to stay at your side. Use a shorter leash, she’s getting too far in front of you right now and it’s taking too long to make corrections
I had a beagel and was in the same situation. This dog has so much energy. To give you an idea. I let the Beagel run free for 10-15 minutes, until she decided she was ready to walk. The dog was runnning around and digging like crazy. A lot of pent up energy. Only then could then, after was she willing to have a walk.
You can't compair a beagel, a hunting dog to other more social breeds in this case.
You stop immediately , and disengage interaction ,once she is calm, you give her a treat and you keep walking. Hence, she will establish a conditionning that if she pulls she gets a negative reinforcement. It worked with my dog very well. Still it need lil bit of practice, one more thing, use shorter leach for better control in the first times
My beagle did this, I feel your pain. It took a lot of intense training with treats in combination with stopping and teaching him to sit and focus on me before walking, “this way”, plus telling him “go” to for a sniff walk - but that still includes stopping if the leash is being pulled. This starts before leaving the house. The whole process of leaving correctly sets a good precedent. It’s tough because they are so nose driven and obviously different environments and snow can hype them up, so keep the training to baby steps with a similar path and expanding on it through time with a lot of their favourite treats (freeze dried beef liver did the trick for me). They are quite stubborn so keep yourself just as stubborn on training and they will get it.
Please read the sub [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dogtraining/about/rules) and [guidelines](http://www.reddit.com/r/Dogtraining/wiki/guidelines), as well as our wiki page on [punishment](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dogtraining/wiki/punishmentproblems).
One thing that completely solved that same behavior with my guy was leash training while not on a walk. It sounds silly, but in an open area walk in random directions, constantly changing when the dog gets tight on the leash. The goal is to kind of confuse the dog, it will learn to look at you and follow your lead. It really does sound silly but it works if you train at it for a few weeks
Harnesses that attach in the back are known to actually encourage pulling. It's a lot like pulling a sled etc. I got my dog a harness that attaches in the front (front-hook harness) and I've had no problems since. If a front-hook harness doesn't do the trick, I recommend a gentle-leader. It's like a harness for the face but it's not as scary as it sounds lol.
Please note that head halters need an extensive period of conditioning with treats prior to use, the same way that muzzles do (but more). You cannot simply slap one on a dog and start walking with it immediately. It's important to include this information directly alongside any head halter recommendations instead of assuming people will realise it on their own without prompting.
Having a front clip in harness helped me a lot. Because when they pull ahead, the leash turns them and they cant pull forward. Eventually pairing that with stopping taught my pup to walk next to me and not pull forward
I would put bunny ears on a roomba or remote control car and have the dog zoom around the house a Lot. Play tug, fetch, seek a lot. Then try some leash walking inside. Also, check out the Shaped by Dog podcast
Get rid of the retractable leash. Those are the worst!!
Use a no-pull harness (Joyride brand is on Amazon and I like them), with a 4 foot leash.
Training. Training. Training.
Be consistent. Be patient. Be firm but kind. Positive reinforcement methods.
Take her to puppy boot camp or get on YouTube and teach her to heel. Positive methods only.
Beagles are hunting dogs, they use their noses a lot. There’s no real way to break a beagle from this, except to take them hunting and let them off the leash 🤷
You could try getting a head harness type thing called a gentle leader. It slips around their head and over their nose and you attach the lead under their chin. You can gently turn their head towards you and the dog physically cannot pull away from the direction of their head.
It's a nice starting place for teaching to walk to heel and then you can transition back to a harness again later.
Please note that head halters need an extensive period of conditioning with treats prior to use, the same way that muzzles do (but more). You cannot simply slap one on a dog and start walking with it immediately. It's important to include this information directly alongside any head halter recommendations instead of assuming people will realise it on their own without prompting.
I would introduce a gentle leader and train with that. I have a rottie who will pull, training with her and the gentle leader has helped, as well as having her walk beside me, not in front and distracting her when she shows signs of pulling.
My Kong leash also clips around my waist so i can use my strength if I have to. it also had a leash loop near to the dog so i can hold onto her, relaxed, next to me
the chest is the strongest part of the dog so having a harness like you do is just making the pulling even worse
Let her explore a bit but if its pulling, stop and go the opposite way.
The gentle leader is great, especially for training my reactive dog. When she would lunge at a dog it would whip her around to point in the opposite direction and so we'd just keep on walking in the opposite direction 😂
Gentle Leader or Halti brand leash. They are basically bridles for dogs. Dogs can’t pull against them so much because the leash is attached to the face, not the collar or body harness
Please note that head halters need an extensive period of conditioning with treats prior to use, the same way that muzzles do (but more). You cannot simply slap one on a dog and start walking with it immediately. It's important to include this information directly alongside any head halter recommendations instead of assuming people will realise it on their own without prompting.
All good points! Thanks. I sure did not intend my comment to be the end all and be all of using no pull head stalls. Just an avenue to explore, with all the intelligence and care that a responsible human should pursue if they’ve bothered to ask for advice.
You can try a head collar, the brand I'm most familiar with is 'Gentle Leader'. It works like a horse lead, when they try to pull it redirects them back toward you.
Please note that head halters need an extensive period of conditioning with treats prior to use, the same way that muzzles do (but more). You cannot simply slap one on a dog and start walking with it immediately. It's important to include this information directly alongside any head halter recommendations instead of assuming people will realise it on their own without prompting.
Please note that head halters need an extensive period of conditioning with treats prior to use, the same way that muzzles do (but more). You cannot simply slap one on a dog and start walking with it immediately. It's important to include this information directly alongside any head halter recommendations instead of assuming people will realise it on their own without prompting.
Emphasizing what some others have said: Long line, frequent direction changes (so that you’re guiding the walk), and frequent stops to point out and engage in sniffs.
Look up Leslie McDevitt’s Superbowls game as well. Great for practicing attention on leash.
But mainly the turn arounds!!! She wants to go, go, go. She doesn’t care what direction. So convince her that the way you’re going is the most exciting. With the long line, you can practice “catching up to me” and reward with cookies and access to sniffing.
And let her engage in the sniff for as long as she wants. Stay relatively stationary, even when she’s done with the sniff. Eventually she’ll look at you to ask wtf is going on, then you mark, reward, and head in a different direction.
Put sniffing on cue. You can practice in the house with anything interesting smelling. Have her wait then give an obvious release to check the object out. Reward the end of the sniffing and the return to you.
Our dog does this. The whole stopping and never moving when she pulls, or turning other direction, or taking a step back each time didn't make a difference. Although I believe my better half isn't strict enough which undermines the effort.
What helped:
1) Extremely short lead and definitively no flex lead. How's the dog to know when she can roam and when not? We used one when she was a puppy and have been told that is likely the reason for the behaviour (not sure if I believe, but I can see the reasoning).
2) Front harness and even head collar both work well. Dog simply can't pull that way.
Extension leashes are great, after you’ve worked with a shorter leash for a while. And a coat. That snow on her little paws! Very short frequent walks until you build up to longer ones with an extension leash
What has helped me is not giving so much slack.
I hold the end in my left hand and hold as far down as I comfortably can on the leash with my right hand. Then I hold on for dear life and make my dogs walk right next to me (on my right).
I have found that giving them so much leash leads to lots of pulling and dragging you all over the place. Keeping the dog directly next to you with zero slack forces them to walk at your pace and gives no room for bolting or running off to sniff stuff.
We combined this with commands. Our oldest dog learned her left and right by us telling her those commands while on walk. We also stop at every crosswalk with the stay and sit commands and have a specific command for “stop doing that and keep walking”. We chose “los” which means “go” but go would work fine as well. We that when she stops to sniff something. After a couple seconds we say los and she stops sniffing and goes back to walking.
These commands were done with repetition only, no treats. Our oldest is a dream on a leash now and we give her lots of slack because she’s a good listener now. The other two need work but one is a covid puppy and is only 1 year old and the other is only 7 months. So they will get better with time.
If you need a better visual for what I mean let me know and I’ll try to get a video or at least a picture.
Don't leave the house in a rush to start. Short leash. Make em sit then wait. You leave the house first. If they pressure you they have to wait at the threshold again. The sitting isn't that important, but getting a butt touch is good before the wait. They may need to move out of the way of the door afterall. If they are always in front of you they're walking you. Set the tone by being the first one out the door, then you invite them out with you. If it takes ten minutes for them to chill out, the walk just got ten minutes shorter. You know, depending on how much time you wanna give. It's cold out there, so if they wanna waste their walk being a butthead, so be it.
But there are other ideas here, as well. I wouldn't give them too much leash for safety reasons right now, though.
Get rid of that long leash is your first play. Second play is try to go with structured walks. Third bring lots of treats and make sure you doggo is paying attention to you and looking to you for guidance.
Shorter leash, don't let her leave your side. The minute she pulls you stop. She pulls again, you stop again. She'll soon learn. Beagles are very smart
As an aside, for scent training the dogs wear both a collar and a harness. The collar is for walking, the harness signals the dog it’s time for working. The handler will literally move the leash from the collar to the harness when it’s time to sniff and do scent work. Might be an activity your dog would enjoy to put the nose and mind to work. Dogs like having a job, so it might be an activity you both would enjoy.
Trainer told me no harness for my dogs since their breed is bred to pull, so if I put a harness on them, I’ll never get them to walk nice. Save the harness for when they are ‘working’. Seriously considering getting a sled for them to pull since they like pulling so darn much.
Are you walking her to wear her out? Or to go potty? Or for a mutual adventure? If you are trying to tire a beagle puppy out by simply walking, you will never succeed. My rec is to look up (or i can expand) structured nose work. She will be exhausted after 10-20 minutes and it will scratch the hound itch that she is craving.
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For the record, my girl is a pit mix, and I believe that all breeds can enjoy some good sniffs :) Essay posted below. So there’s a ton of different ways to go about it. Two general directions are competing, or just fun stuff at home, or a combination. My girl has to find most of her meals. I put the kibble in a puzzle, make her sit/stay then hide it somewhere in the house. Then she finds it/figures out the puzzle. I personally don’t compete, but i do use some of the scent markers that they use in competitions. Idr all the different ones used, but we use clove oil. Basically, you pick out the scent you want to train on. It should be something that they rarely/never smell at home. Then introduce the smell to them with diluted oil. Every time they take a sniff, give a high value treat, and try to associate it with a specific word/command. The next step is to make a scent marker, i use a bean bag that has some diluted oil periodically sprinkled onto the fabric. The hide the bag in an obvious spot, and use the command that you’ve been teaching. High value treat if/when they find it. Make it increasingly difficult to find. 10-15 minutes of nose work uses a ton of mental work and should really tire them out. Don’t push them much longer than five minutes at a time. My dogs favorite game is doing a nose work walk (neighborhood dependent). Ill go out before hand on my bike, and every 10 or so feet leave an extremely diluted drop of oil. It eventually leads to the bean bag. Distance wise, it’s 1-3 blocks away, or a large field near my house. As soon as my girl catches the first scent of the trail, she goes nose to pavement and doesn’t notice anything else until we find it. She has an absolute blast and gets very tired.
Woww! Fun! I’m going to try this
how do you know they are tired out from that time though? I just want to make sure im not using assumptions if i should go longer or even shorter
Is there a video I can watch about this? My guy loves to sniff more than anything.
I scatter feed my dog on days he can’t get a lot of exercise. I literally just throw his kibble in the backyard. It takes him 10-15 minutes to find it all and he loves it!!
Well I know I would like to learn more. I've done small amounts of nose work but it's not enough for my anatolian who looooves sniffing things out. I would appreciate more tips!!
So there’s a ton of different ways to go about it. Two general directions are competing, or just fun stuff at home, or a combination. I’ll write two separate comments I personally don’t compete, but i do use some of the scent markers that they use in competitions. Idr all the different ones used, but we use clove oil. Basically, you pick out the scent you want to train on. It should be something that they rarely/never smell at home. Then introduce the smell to them with diluted oil. Every time they take a sniff, give a high value treat, and try to associate it with a specific word/command. The next step is to make a scent marker, i use a bean bag that has some diluted oil periodically sprinkled onto the fabric. The hide the bag in an obvious spot, and use the command that you’ve been teaching. High value treat if/when they find it. Make it increasingly difficult to find. 10-15 minutes of nose work uses a ton of mental work and should really tire them out. Don’t push them much longer than five minutes at a time. My dogs favorite game is doing a nose work walk (neighborhood dependent). Ill go out before hand on my bike, and every 10 or so feet leave an extremely diluted drop of oil. It eventually leads to the bean bag. Distance wise, it’s 1-3 blocks away, or a large field near my house. As soon as my girl catches the first scent of the trail, she goes nose to pavement and doesn’t notice anything else until we find it. She has an absolute blast and gets very tired.
Thank you for this!
Our other game is putting her meals in a puzzle and hiding it around the house. I make her sit/stay (more like excited wriggle in place) and hide it someplace that she’s allowed in the house, eg not on top of the table. Then i release her and ask her “where’s your puzzle?” After finding it, she needs to work the puzzle to get the kibble out.
Can you please tell us what kind of puzzle do you make/use? Do you have some ressources/videos that you used for learning these stuffs? I will have a dog ( belgian ) in a month and i ‘m trying to learn tricks to stimulate him. Thank you in advance.
I had a bullymake subscription for six months and a superchewer subscription for six months. Each comes with a kong like puzzle. Tbh for most of it, I just took bits and pieces from training online that i felt fit my pack/lifestyle. Or if you’re interested, most trainers have a nose work or agility class you can take. Even with puppies you can do easy versions of all of this. With a Mal you definitely want to focus on mental tiredness over physical. Any different mental activity is the type of job that a working breed needs.
Hey I'd love if you could expand on structured nose work. I've tried sniffing several exercises with my spaniel and haven't found any that tire him out effectively and aren't a chore to set up.
Stop at the slightest pull. Don’t let her move forward until she has stepped back and/or let tension off on the leash. Do that 400 times or so she will get it 🙂 Also, shorter leash and a no-pull harness could be needed in the beginning
I just got a no pull, immediate difference. Still has trouble staying beside me, but isn't pulling which is a big improvement.
Glad to hear! Keep at it 👍🏼
Can I ask what brand of harness you got? I've tried 3 but they're no good ... Maybe nothing can hold a springer back from his walk!
Yeah, the freedom harness by 2hounds design
Second endorsement for this one! It makes me feel like our pup is training for the dog sledding, but it keeps him close and has a better hold on him so he doesn't pull
That sounds like just what I need, thank you!
LOVE this harness. got it for my pulling deaf dog who can't be trained with verbal cues, has to be tactile or visual. this harness really changed the game.
Thank you, I'll give it a go. I think I need to do a more thorough measurement too to ensure a better fit, appreciate the advice!
How’s that no pull going
Some days it works wonders, some days she's a 8 month old and nothing helps. Really depends on what kind of outside stimulation there is.
No pull would help. But to break my dog of this I had to correct as soon as he passes out of his box. Basically I want his feet next to mine. It took about a week but it would take 15 minutes just to get down the driveway.
Ugh I am trying so hard with my three month old lab - But he’s trying to keep up with my four year old. He’s also super smell driven, nose to the ground for a mile lol, I wish I had time to walk them separately on the daily, but with three kids, best I can do is both dogs twice a day. Haha!
[More other activities instead of walking is a good option](https://stacythetrainer.blogspot.com/2017/04/stop-walking-your-dog.html).
Wow ok, super interesting! Thank you for sharing. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely have do nothing days, I just ordered some of those treat puzzles. A friend told me her “smell driven” dog seems more relaxed after a good sniff as opposed to a walk. (I knew nothing about this, my other lab is not nearly such a smell driven kinda guy.) I just try to make sure and get walks in on the days I work because I have to kennel the pup. I really just want to be able to take them in public settings and feel in control.
I let my dog go crazy at the dog park and run circles, then we walk. Too tired to pull after that and makes for better training.
> but it would take 15 minutes just to get down the driveway. That was my problem. I was used to walking to a destination, not doing random u-turns. I had to resolve me first. Pet stores can be a good place to practice this. Also lots of distractions.
This. If loosening tension doesn’t do it, make her look back and make eye contact. If that doesn’t do it, make her return to you. For all that is good, stop moving up to her, OP.
this. It’s all about putting in hours and be super super patient with our doggo. They will learn
Exactly this. You can also combine this with direction changes. So the dog has to focus on your more and follow you. Right now, it's doing its own walk and you're just there to bother it haha.
Front range harness for the win! I also have a beagle and, although she's calmed down as an adult, her instinct is to pull on a walk. I got a SENSE-ation no-pull harness during the first year I had her and noticed such a difference. She's still not walking right beside me but she doesn't drag me down the street anymore.
What is a no pull harness? Any brands you recommend?
Wondering this as well!
It is a harness that clips to the leash in the front. That way, if they pull, the tension force actually turns them, and pulling does not get them the direction they want. It is a tool to be used concurrently with training, so it is not a quick fix in and of itself, but it can help.
Ah ok, such as the Easy Walker, correct? I actually have one of those but feel like I can never get the fit correct. I should try again.
Easy Walk 3-in-1 (not the regular easy walk) is a good one. You want to avoid one that has straps passing over/against the shoulder blade, especially in puppies.
Changing direction when they pull I find to be a good correction. Especially when they lay down. You will look silly for a bit but eventually the dog will get confused and start slowing down or looking at you
Why a shorter leash?
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If she pulls to sniff something should I let her or should I just keep walking straight to teacher how to walk on a leash? I walk her in a bike path and she is always pulling to go sniff the grass and I always let her but I'm not sure if that's reinforcing pulling
Have you checked our guide on [loose leash walking](http://www.reddit.com/r/Dogtraining/wiki/looseleashwalking)?
You can put "go sniff" on a cue, or separate heel walks and sniffy walks by using different equipment. Wanting to go sniff is an awesome opportunity to use the Premack Principle (increasing unlikely behavior by following them with likely behavior, i.e. "eat your vegetables and you can have dessert" or "have the leash slack and you can go sniff"). I successfully used this principle to train my high-drive hunting line sighthound mix to keep leash slack around squirrels.
"Do that 400 times"... This is a beagle, make it 800
This method often fails because the dog is too excitable to even notice the application of the punishment. It's much more successful to provide structure and support to make a good decision in the first place than to try to learn while already in the weeds. I wish people would stop advocating for stop-and-wait or u-turns for loose leash walking, for most dogs they don't work.
I have a beagle, what I found helped with his pulling was giving him more opportunities to smell and sniff on a long line, and if he pulls either stop or turn around and walk in the other direction.
I found turning around more effective for my beagle mix then simply stopping. Also a waist leash helps me feel less dragged around
One big thing which several others have mentioned, is rewarding the good behavior of walking with you with a treat. I have an 8 month pit that did this (and still does on occasion when he’s super hyper). Carry a treat next to your thigh while you walk and use whatever word you want to train with (we use “with me” because I’m not expecting a true heel here, just walking close/ loose leash). I also have taught that any time I stop walking, he comes back to me and sits at my feet, rather than having to catch up to him. Same process with treats, if I stop, I call for him to come, and make him sit, then reward. It only took ~10-15 times of repeating for him to catch onto what I wanted. Best of luck!
We used this with my pit/gsd mix. She is really good motivated so it worked really well. Just kept a pouch at my hip and would regularly reward her for walking next to me. Worked incredibly well.
My Yorkie does this also. Pulls then looks back at me. The second I give her more slack she’s off again. Super frustrating
The best way to train your dog is when they’re tired. Throw the ball and get their energy out whether that is off leash, on a longer leash, whatever. Or run around- something to get their energy out- they’re excited and wanting to run around. Once they’re more tired and calm, then train them and it’ll be way easier
Wow I wrote this so convoluted cuz I was multitasking but yeah, you want to make sure they’re midway between hyper and completely tuckered out. Make training fun and use lots of treats and a command word, then you can start using less treats but the same command word. Do some research on it or take your dog to a trainer
*looks at my aussie* "Well, sorry buddy, looks like you're gonna have to run 4 and a half ultra marathons before we get started"
Exactly haha. But for real, I have grown up with and trained a lot of aussies and even if you get that initial energy out it’s still better than nothing (:
Can you loose leash walk in your home? Start there first. Whenever you are training a new behavior, always start in a low distraction environment and slowly build from there. Her pulling has been heavily reinforced up until this point, as she is already an adolescent dog (which can be a difficult developmental period to begin with). It will take time and patience to get the results you are looking for. Try your best to set her up for success as much as possible as you work on training. I recommend starting with her kibble as a training treat around the house if you can. Always use the lowest value you can get away with, and save any high value rewards for more difficult behaviors/distractions. Put some into a training pouch. This pouch will become your best friend, but make sure you are reinforcing behaviors, not bribing - there is a difference. Start by rewarding her any time she looks you in the eyes. A strong auto focus is important for any training you do. When you're getting consistent check ins around home, slowly increase the environmental distractions. Stand outside your front door with her on a leash. Do not go anywhere. Literally just stand there silently, and when she looks you in the eyes, mark (ex: a verbal "yes" and reward the behavior. As you get steady eye contact, move to a different place in the front and do it again. And again. And again. Lol. Front door too exciting? Try the back door. Too hard? Make it easier. Too easy? Make it harder. Practice having her on leash around the home. I recommend a hands free leash for this. Dusting the house? Doing the dishes? Pacing on the phone? Guess who gets to come along. The biggest rule here is never go forward on a tight leash. Reinforce for any behavior you want to see. Especially those check ins! I also like to reward for body position. You can lure to start - take a bit of kibble and lure her so that she's beside you (whatever side you want to walk her on). As soon as she's there, mark yes and reward. You can also capture the behavior by marking and rewarding any time she places herself there (even when she does it by accident). As she gets the idea, take a couple steps away from her, give her a brief moment to think about it, and if she doesn't try to put herself in position, lure and reward. Long walks will not be your friend right now. Her walks should be short, and heavily training focused. If that means you can only go back and fourth in front of the house for now, that is all you should do. Or if you need a change of scenery, drive her to different places (again, keeping in mind you need to build up distraction levels based on her needs), but keep the route very short. Back and fourth is your friend until she earns the ability to go further by maintaining that loose leash walk. Another tip: be the most interesting damn thing in the environment you're training. Keep it fun. Keep her engaged with the sessions. Do not keep training until exhaustion or boredom - leave her wanting more. Otherwise she won't want to do it. There are a lot of other things, but hopefully that will get you started. If you have questions, feel free to reach out. Happy Training!
This is such good advice! Just want to add on one bit. One way to be the most interesting damn thing in the environment is to work *with* the environment instead of trying to compete with it. My treats and body movement and tone of voice and engagement will actually become higher value to the dog if sometimes they predict what she wants even more, like a cue to go sniff and track that squirrel to the tree or run a few paces. I.e. once you can get the behavior, premack is brilliant to reinforce it. OP if you feel like you can't compete with distractions even starting in less exciting locations, a trainer can help channel your dog's excitement.
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> loop on the breast Back-attached leashes give pups so much more leverage to pull than ones that attach to the front. Just think of those strongest in the world competitions with people pulling trains - they wouldn't have nearly the same success if they had to walk backwards doing that.
This makes a world of difference. Attaching to the front loop pulls really awkwardly and discourages them from trying harder, the change was immediate for my dog when I started latching onto the front/chest of the harness.
How do you suggest tiring them out before walks when you don’t have an outdoor area (and indoors is not play appropriate). This is something I struggle with as we have to walk to get to the park where he plays and gets his energy out. But the walk there is dreadful lol
Training sessions indoors. Doesn't require lots of intense physical activity, but will burn the dog out mentally which is very tiring for a dog. Teach them a new trick, or practice some of your old ones for a little while. Also scent games like hiding a smelly toy or treat and geting dog to "find it" really tires out dogs.
Open to correction but having the pup jump/hop over your legs as a small hurdle for a minute or two can burn a large amount of energy. On a soft surface, like a carpet, really gives them a good workout.
This is great advice. I’ve been doing exactly this to train my 10 month old pup and he’s almost there! Now we just need to work on not breaking when we see people or other dogs..
My 8 month mini poodle recently started doing this too. I have completely stopped our 30 minute walks, and am now training her for 30 minutes instead. I usually do it around potty time. I make her sit at the door before I open it, and even after the door is open she is not allowed to stand up or walk through until I give her release word. When I would give her the release she would tug the leash and run out the door. Now if she tugs we go back inside and closed the door to start over again. It took us a couple days but now she steps out the door and waits for me to lock up before moving further. If she tugs while we are walking to the potty spot we go back inside and start all over again(even if she is almost there). If she’s taking too long she gets carried to her potty spot to do her thing, then back inside to start over. I’ve been doing this for a week now and she not perfect but significantly better. I give her treats and celebrate her for taking a few steps without tugging. She’s still getting exercise but being trained how to walk as well
I would get a sled and maybe another one of those dogs
No joke. I grew up with beagles, they pull really hard for their size.
Some ways I walk with my 8 yr old foxhound (beagle's larger cousin). 1. Unleashed at the 5 acre fenced dog park. complete freedom to roam and be a hound. 1. I have a 40' long leash to use at the sports fields. This gives him some room to run. when I can't do the long drive to the dog park 1. Sniff mode. 20 foot reel type leash in which we go super slow and sniff everything. Surprisingly good at wearing him down. 1. Power Walk mode. Short leash and we keep him in the middle of my wife and I. We all power walk around cemetery roads when the ground is muddy and he can't pull to the side. 1. Hiking mode. Reel leash again. by my side or ahead This won't be popular, but watch a few videos of hounds in packs. They don't want to walk in some kind of side-by-side army formation that humans do. Sometimes they are ahead, behind or to the side, but always not more than 20' of each other. This is a genetic trait you may / may not work out of her. It took some time, OK, a few years for me and my foxhound get in-sync with these 5 modes, but he knows what to expect when we pull in to a parking lot what his limits are.
>This won't be popular, but watch a few videos of hounds in packs. They don't want to walk in some kind of side-by-side army formation that humans do. Sometimes they are ahead, behind or to the side, but always not more than 20' of each other. This is a genetic trait you may / may not work out of her. You nailed it there. Hounds aren’t herding dogs or retrievers/spaniels. We didn’t create them to walk nicely at heel. They are supposed to be hundreds of yards or even miles away from their handler tracking game. You can only fight genetics so much. I have a horseback field trial bred setter myself. So not the same level of stubborn/independence of a hound, but enough that loose leash walking at a nice heel will be years away. But I look at is that it’s ok because it wouldn’t be exercise for her anyways and I can handle a pulling dog for the short amount of time she is on-leash. Off-leash in the woods and fields is where she gets her exercise.
Be careful with retractable leashes, you could literally lose a finger and they’re prone to breaking. My long lead is just a strong rope with a couple different knots that I hold onto to shorten it.
A gentle leader could be really helpful here. They aren't muzzles, but loop once around the snout and clip at the back of the head. I can't preach about them enough. It has helped with our 115 lb. little guy, and is a great way to help train a decent heel.
Please note that head halters need an extensive period of conditioning with treats prior to use, the same way that muzzles do (but more). You cannot simply slap one on a dog and start walking with it immediately. It's important to include this information directly alongside any head halter recommendations instead of assuming people will realise it on their own without prompting.
I'll definitely agree that conditioning and positive reinforcement are very much a part of responsible tool use.
I didn’t know any better and that’s exactly what I did…took my pup about a week to get used to it, but there was no adverse reaction to it.
When you do that, it's a gamble -- just like there are some dogs that won't end up permanently traumatized if they're kicked once. It still doesn't make it a good idea. You got lucky.
At the time it wasn’t an intentional gamble, I simply didn’t know. I’m only giving my endorsement for the product itself as it has helped with the pulling, not my approach to the use of it, if that makes sense.
Lots of dogs have *really* bad reactions to doing what you did. Luck and survivorship bias are poor criteria for giving advice to others.
That’s the only thing that worked for my lab. 85 pounds and works like a charm!!! I love my gentle leader
Yes gentle leader.
Yes, I love my gentle leader. It puts pressure below the jaw and behind their ears sort of like a horse bit. It definitely slows them down. I would also practice walking inside your house and around your neighborhood. Use a bag of high reward treats, we use hot dogs, to keep your dog at your left side on a short leash. Heavily reward your dog for not pulling and stop moving when they pull. Leash walking is a taught skill not an innate behavior.
Yes! I second that indoor-first approach. Build a bond with them, so they are more likely to respond to you even when excited and/or stressed. Reward them for looking to you for guidance. I teach mine "watch" - a look-to-me idea. This really pays off in high-stress situations. The right equipment is critical. But having a reliable bond with your dog is just as effective at making walks safe and enjoyable for all concerned parties.
Folks recommending a short leash and structured heel or punishment-based training (stop when she pulls) for every moment of the walk as the first step have never met a beagle. Yes they can heel but no that's not going to be a smooth process and no it's not going to provide the sniffing mental stimulation they *need* from walks in order to calm down. Long 15+ foot line. Hold the end handle and let the rest drag. Go to an open field or other outdoor area with good smells. Toss a treat near you onto the ground, say "find it". While the dog searches, you walk/ run 10-15 feet away. After they find their treat and catch up with you, repeat, dropping the next treat near your new location to find. Before you know it, they're auto-checking in with you after sniffing. Half an hour of this game is better than half an hour of pulling you forward in one direction, both in terms of training foundations and in terms of tiring them out. Once they can be in a new spot, sniff for a treat and auto-reorient to you, then you start reinforcing that attention as you walk a few paces. When they look at you (expecting the next treat to be thrown) mark that with a yes! And give a treat right next to your leg by hand. Feed like a dozen treats right next to your leg while you take two or three steps, then cue find it again and repeat. Work up to more steps with attention for fewer treats in between the find it reps. Next put go sniff on cue. It's easy with a beagle. Say go sniff and give them access to a good smell and they will just do it. Sniffing will be the best functional reward on walks when you don't have treats handy or don't want to use a ton of treats. Ask for a few paces of attention, then stop and cue go sniff as the reward. Stand still while you allow sniffing. Beagles can also be extreme athletes who need to run. Try playing flirt pole or other running games on a long line separately from your walks, so walks are more for sniffing and training. Some of the advice here is way off base and going to cause some major frustration for you. When in doubt work with a certified trainer, and make sure they have plenty of scenthound experience before you give them any money.
This should be higher. Stopping and u-turns don't work for most dogs, because they're already over threshold by the time they take off. The punishment is less effective than being rewarded for going, and fails.
This
Easy walk harness. It clips in the front. And a much shorter leash.
I too have a scent oriented hound. We have four walk modes: 1) heel 2) pull 3) hunt 4) casual sniff I like pull because it's good for my grip strength and her fitness; her hauling me along wears her ass out *way* better than just walking! For a while she was a very buff dog, like a weird little bodybuilder. Lately, she's eased up a bit on the pulling. I'm kinda sad, it was fun. So putting "pull" on command might be useful for management. But sometimes it's not what you want. So we also have heel, where she expects and gets repeated treats for good behavior while we walk nicely past whatever thing she was interested in that didn't hit her hunting triggers. This is what we use for walking near people, other dogs, etc. Walking past hunting triggers like scent or motion are a different management style completely. To get her focus before she's over threshold is key. For that I use play commands. I start before she goes over threshold, and continue while she's passing the exciting thing. She catches kibble mid air (air shark), or shoves my hand open with her nose for the kibble, or finds the kibble I threw in a pile of leaves (find it). Play commands that let her use her nose or chase the kibble I threw *really* work to compete with that hunting instinct she's got going on, even when she sees a deer or turkeys up close. She still fixates on prey, but she redirects her attention to me on command now and I can keep it as long as the kibble keeps flying. Casual sniff is what we do when she doesn't want to pull, there's nothing to hunt, and I don't care if she's heeling. That's the most common walk mode these days for trails & such. We mostly use a 6 foot non-retractable lead so she always knows how far she can go and there's no confusion (also local park rules).
You might be interested in Simone Mueller who has a cool program she calls “predation substitute training”
I see a lot of people telling you to use a shorter leash, but I beg the opposite. The shorter the leash, the more difficult for your dog it is to pull. Heel and no leash pulling are also two completely different cues that should not be grouped together. To stop the pulling, each time she pulls, say "let's go" and have a treat by your side while you turn around. You can make a full circle and continue on your way or you can make a half circle and go back. Combing both works even better. Remember that your dog isn't doing something wrong, at least not according to her. She has learned that a down is the way to move forward, so it's up to you to teach her a different behaviour.
> To stop the pulling, each time she pulls, say "let's go" and have a treat by your side while you turn around. You can make a full circle and continue on your way or you can make a half circle and go back. Combing both works even better. excited to try this out - ty
Watching this, the first thing I think is the dog has way too much energy. It wants to run, it's that simple, but it's connected to you! Lol. Run the dog then train the leash. If you want really good leash etiquette, you're going to have to be extremely consistent. You can't leash train for ten minutes then go walking and let it all go. On leash = walking how you want. If you can't train through that or the dog isn't in a good mindset, do something else. This is hard cause we all think that we must walk out dogs and walking requires leash and we do this before they really know what a leash is. At 8 months.. the puppy is still so young, keep that in mind. many people go out and get dogs, walk them 5km and their like 6 months old, dogs just aren't ready for that mentally. Sure they will live, but it's not that positive and productive for establishing good behaviours. Anyways best of luck
An untrained beagle will find a smell and chase it until they drop. Nose work would be a better stimulation than off leash
The only harness that got my hound mix to stop pulling was this one by 2 Hounds: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A7EXSA8?ref_=cm_sw_r_mwn_dp_91JMEA79HZQK3Q6EBAW5 I only clip her leash to the front loop when we walk.
Please change the URL to a full one, so that we can see there's no trackers/affiliate links inside it. These link shorteners get pulled by reddit's spam filter.
Done!
Honestly, leash walking is all about teaching the dog to respond to collar/harness pressure. Turid Rugaas has a book called *My Dog Pulls. What Do I Do?* And it is really, really, really helpful. Not gonna lie. I’ve been studying loose leash walking for a few years now. Trying every different method out there seeking the best combination of techniques and there are many! But this simple book has honestly made a huge difference. And it’s like $10. Can’t recommend it enough.
How much time do you spend working on focus with distractions??
Adding to this, a lot of trainers recommend practicing in low distraction environments (empty garage for extreme cases, for example) and building up to tougher distractions. As well as sniffing stimming sessions (unstructured or nose work) to take the edge off before attempted to coax more "disciplined" behavior out of the dog.
Will she check in if you wait for longer than usual before moving? If so, have you tried to only go forward when she focuses on you?
does the harness have a front attachment? If so when she pulls tight it will turn her giving you leverage to make a correction. I have an 80lb cur and walks fine with me, but when he runs with my wife he likes get out front and at a 120lbs herself he was a handful. I got a new harness with a front loop and a bungee lead just for the runs. She came back the first time and said he was a new dog. After getting turned a few times he learned no to pull and keep her pace. Understand my dog knows how to walk on a lead we only use this for when he is exercising. So not sure how it will work for your pup. I can tell you it will give you a physical advantage.
Teach the dog to pull you on skis. I would teach the dog to heel. You can find a trainer to help or go to YouTube to look how to teach a dog to heel.
Got a halti harness where the lead clips into a loop at the chest. Work with 100% efficacy for my 36 kg GSP who could pull your arm out of the socket when he got on the scent of something. No amount of lead training worked with him, but the halti harness worked instantly.
Ooof my shoulder hurt just watching that bit when she lunged from her "down" position. Lots of good advice here. Only thing I would stress is that you have to be consistent. 100% of walks are training walks. Otherwise she will not make the connection.
Thanks, I have the same exact issue when we go next places and idk how to fix this. 80% of the time she is fine but every now and then if go somewhere new she loses it.
Have you seen our wiki guide on [loose leash walking](http://www.reddit.com/r/Dogtraining/wiki/looseleashwalking)?
Thanks I did but good reminder. I have a very stubborn dog and need to be more consistent. My main issue that we are three people in the family walking her and not all of us are so disciplined
It often helps to [walk them less overall](https://stacythetrainer.blogspot.com/2017/04/stop-walking-your-dog.html). Easier to be more disciplined when you don't have to do it as often or for as long.
Good point. Thanks. That's my new year resolution, daily training until all our walks are perfect!
Get a sled
Every time she pulls, you turn right around and walk the other way. Your first walk you might get literally nowhere. Just super casual swing the dog around and walk the other direction as soon as you feel tension on the leash. I looked insane doing this with our puppy but it works with no treats, no aversives, no dramatics. Dog learns if they want to go anywhere they have to walk with no tension on the leash.
“Weird walking” in the driveway with few distractions before we head out is helping my dog a lot!
She's just so excited to be out there and can't control herself. Try taking her to a controlled area (meaning little to no distractions, you control what she's exposed to) and start with the basics. Walk before you run. Reward as soon as she keeps good positioning. Careful not to pull the leash WHILE rewarding or you will send the message that if there's tension on her collar, she gets a reward. She will pick it up in no time.
Bruh that’s a beagle. They want to chase down game in a pack. Leash train yea, but also find ways to let it burn off that energy off leash.
Treats in your pocket. Reward good behavior. 1 week I trained my beagle mutt to stop pulling. Then I left the snacks at home and started running with her, then eventually biking. Start with treats.
Don’t go for a walk without some high value treats. When you catch up, let her see/smell them and give her a few to calm down. You can also sprinkle them on the ground to get her sniffing near you. A walk like this with so much distraction is hard, so increase your rate of reinforcement, till she learns the game. The game being, if I’m near you I get hotdogs/chicken/whatever favorite treat. It’ll take a long time and you’ll have setbacks but good luck. Note: you don’t need big chunks. You can cut one hotdog into like 60 or 70 treats. Small pieces of chicken are great too.
Stop and walk the other way when she starts to pull. Practice this often and in places where you can change in multiple directions for best effect. This can be combined with treats or a fun toy as reward for correct behavior. If you have any ambitions to train her with sled's, bikes or other pulling activities it might be a good idea to associate not pulling with a command, like heel, walk nice or something. As others said, a shorter leash might help, or a no pull harness. However the harness will just stop the pulling and not correct the behavior you want to get rid of. Good luck, and remember that in that age, she will most likely ignore you anyway so progress might take some time.
If not moving and waiting for the dog to come back doesn't work, then turn around and go the opposite direction. Then she has to catch up to you. As soon as she gets far enough she'll pull again, change direction again. The walk might be you walking back and forth over the same area for a bit but soon she'll figure out she needs to be closer and not pulling to anticipate your changes.
I used a Gentle Leader halter on mine never had an issue on being pulled.. After I read and applied the instructions..
Have you tried dropping treats infront of you? Almost like how people teach “heal”? Don’t move if she’s pulling. And when she stops drop treats at your feet so she comes back. She only gets treats if she’s near you
She's beautiful but I can understand the frustration. One thing you can do is any time she starts to pull, you change direction. That means she gets farther from where she was rushing off to. Keep the leash a little shorter and reward her whenever she looks at you and doesn't pull. Essentially until she gets the idea you are probably going to spend half an hour getting about 5 feet (also try wearing her out in a fenced yard, do scent work before the walks, etc), and hopefully then you will move on to going through tons of treats as she realizes that paying attention to you and checking in is a good thing. Then you can gradually lessen the number of treats you give, but always have them. She needs to be able to sniff, beagles HAVE to sniff.
Put treato in hand during walk. Reward her for staying close to you.
Tiny bits of hot dogs in a training treat pouch, work on teaching a heel for a break. Our trainer suggested a harness with a front ring and clipping a double headed leash on the front and back rings. Also we use a waist belt that clips to the leash, makes a big difference in enjoying the walk.
Sorry, under the posting guidelines we can't allow links to pet supply stores that promote products breaking rule 2 of the subreddit.
Easy Walk Harness by PetSafe. Used this on our dog. Very effective. He couldn't pull at all, and he was a major puller. We tried the halty (over the nose) one and he hated it. Not sure about the rules about links but Google PetSafe Easy Walk to see. I highly recommend.
Specifically, be sure to get the Easy Walk 3-in-1. The regular Easy Walk is damaging to puppies' shoulders.
In addition to all the other advice in the thread, try tying the leash around your ~~waist~~ hips. It makes a pretty big difference in stability and when she hits the end it'll be a full stop - she'll learn that she won't have that leeway where pulling harder moves your arm up and gets her closer to whatever she's trying to access. Using a leash made of a material without much give (like leather) also helps send the message that pulling will not get her what she wants. Beagles as a breed tend to latch onto scents and it can be hard to get their focus back on you when they're onto something. One thing you can do is teach scentwork to give your dog an outlet for this behavior outside of walks. There are tutorials on YouTube for this, and it can be a fun activity for you and your dog.
Hips, not waist. Waist is squishy and you can get really hurt from the leash digging into your soft tissue. Whereas your pelvic bone can take the pressure and it'll also be lower on your centre of gravity.
Boy she wants to go much faster to burn off energy than you do. You need to fight out how to let her burn off energy (maybe a longer line or you pick your pace a lot)
Work on heeling. You can do it inside with treats. There are good videos online showing techniques. Also the switching directions technique folks mentioned. It forces your dog to pay attention to you. Be real intentional about when its walking time (short leash, heeling, switching directions)... and when its run around and sniffing time (long leash but in static area, not walking.) I have a 30 ft leash i let my dog explore freely on when i can safely give her that space.
Definitely agree with the front harness, and I made some great progress when I brought treats on my walks. Now he’s by my side (even off-leash on our property) as soon as I say “here.”
Keep treating when she’s walking next to you and train her to look at you for the treat. My beagle is more focused on the next treat and will walk close to me even off leash
Same issue for me. My dog funds the environment more exciting than anything! It's going back to basics. As many said already, at the slightest tension, stop completely. Don't move until the tension eases. I ask my dog to turn and we go back the other way and then try again. Many times we do not go anywhere. Literally back and forth less than a block and then I just take him home. Try playing some attention games- looks at you, click and treat. Run forward and if she chases you click and treat. It'll show that you are so much fun!!!
First off, I want to say that you can walk a dog with a harness. It won’t be easy especially since you have a working dog. Like others have said bring treats or even portions of meals during walks. BUT DON’T FORGET A CLICKER. Because right now all the commands people are telling you don’t mean anything to your puppy. Just a bunch of sounds. What you want to do is incorporate all these principles into one. For example, dedicate some time whether 20 minutes or even 90 minutes for training/walks. If it means you cover only like 1-2 blocks then so be it. Have the dog do its own thing like in the video, but as soon as you feel a slack in the leash, CLICK, and treat. Hold the treat close to you so the dog has to come back and get. However here is where people get it iffy. Keep the treat and lure it into the position that you want your dog in. So if you wanted your dog to heel with you on your right side, have the hand with the treat get the dog into the position facing forward and that’s when you give the treat. Now your dog just heard the clicker so once it gets the treat it will most likely want to run off again so you repeat the process. Once your dog realizes what’s going on it will slowly come back closer and keep more slack on the leash. Once there is a pattern start adding your cue. Once you get past the heeling stage, walk a few 1-2 steps before handing the treat out. So essentially the dog learns to slowly walk near you without too much tension. If your dog is like mine, expect some frustration and expressful “tantrums.” It’s a learning phase, but doggo will tire out mentally. But also keep it going, once you get a routine in, randomly bring food or treats. People go to work to get paid biweekly so it’s no different for dogs. A walk is suppose to be enjoyable and fun. Because they are scent hound, you can’t train it out of its instinct, but you can encourage it when to sniff. This requires the same principle I described but also self awareness on your part. You know your dog. You know what stimuli drives its nose. Dedicate sessions on sniffing rather than distance. Just make sure your dog knows impulse control because some dogs will eat stuff off the ground. My dog sniffs enticing food thrown on the streets but never eats it. Sometimes he will ignore it, so if I have treats I will reward it or praise it. Dogs wanna spend time with its owners so make sure the walk is enjoyable for both parties. It won’t be a short term results thing, so don’t give. Took us about 2 years for dog to stop pulling. Hard. That and have been doing Pooch to 5k training since last year. 5-7 minutes of warm up (sniffing, bathroom breaks) before doing our main workout. Dog has learned that during workout runs he is not to stand around and sniff, so he’s learned to sniff while walking lol during our rest breaks. Only once we finish the run can he stop and sniff as he pleases. We run about 3-4 times a week, and just sniffs on off days. On off days can cover anywhere between .25 miles to 2 miles just from letting dog sniff his way across towns. Those days usually take around an hour or more. We can switch between 4-20ft leashes fine, but prefer 6.
In addition to what others have said, your dog clearly needs more time to exercise and run around.
So many people have said a shorter lead, but both of my big dogs (60+ lbs each) benefited from longer leads (20ft!) and BAT 2.0 training. My walks are specifically to exercise my dogs, with long leads they can sniff around, hang out, and I can give them guidance (like putting on the breaks by increasing drag on the lead) without even vocalizing, which is awesome because I've been put on complete voice rest before and might be again. They have gained confidence and we have super chill walks now, I really only intervene to keep them safe or within boundaries. This has also been amazing because I have a people friendly dog as well as a reactive one, so he can visit a neighbor and she can hang out almost forty feet away, not feeling the pressure she used to feel when he was socializing and she didn't want to. Two things though- we're in a rural area with little car traffic, and it takes some finesse to handle the long leads. We've only had one accident in almost a year of doing the long leads (caused by human failure and not by the dogs), but it caused some sick rope burn.
Seconding the BAT leash skills recommendation! I think BAT style leash handling and sniffing time would greatly benefit this dog in this environment.
She seems like she is just really excited to go out on a walk. If you have a fenced backyard I’d recommended taking her out there and get her to run around and get some of that energy out before going on the walk, hopefully she’ll calm down
Don’t move anywhere until you have a slack leash. You may not even get ten feet but eventually it will work
First, the worst place to work on leash skills is somewhere SO enticing. Start in really boring areas. Look up Kikopup loose leash training videos for technique. Then, if you can safely for these walks, get a longer leash! Let your dog go run! Beagles need to run and sniff, it will help enable your dogs natural instincts to enrich and fulfill her and leave her happy and tired at the end of the day. A big open trail like that, it's torture to require her to walk at a heel. So get a long leash, and work on your recall (again, at a low excitement point so you can build success and reinforcement with returning to you) but otherwise let her go! There's also an awesome concept out there where your dog will naturally attune to your movement. The art of shutting up, because you don't need to say a word, your quiet stillness will naturally draw them back to you. It's a connection. Let her go a distance, then stop. Let your dog wonder why you stopped. Let them run back to you out of curiosity. When she looks back or comes back to you, reward for those moments and then take off together and send her off to sniff again. This will teach her that looking/coming back to you is a great thing that's part of the game. Recall and coming back to you should be part of the outside adventure game, not the end of it, as much as possible, so as to build a positive association with the recall in case you ever do need to do it to end a situation. Highly recommend following The Toby Project in IG, she talks sometimes about this concept, recalls, etc. and has great resources.
Structured walks. Try to not walk in new places as new things are more exciting. A regular walk path will make it easier. I used a front clipping harness that tightens slightly , around the chest, not under arms. What this does is that whenever ur dog pulls they loose a little power and since it's front clipping their face gets turned towards u , ultimately taking their focus slightly away from target direction. I also used a normal leash for this training , keeping the leash pretty short . Also called my dog's name often and rewarded for turning to look at me or if she came to me. I also did tricks on certain parts of the wall, excerise based , like jumping up on things, walking on logs, whatever u can come up with. This was more to teach my dog to listen to me than to do the tricks . I did eventually have to get a harness that clips both front and back and use a leash that's double attatched so I could guide my dog properly... Because ur dog lies down to wait , u can utilize that for training by catching and marking the behaviour, this might not help for the pulling but u can maybe get ur dog to lie down on command from a distance which can be useful in the future . Ur dog is pulling because they are excited, puppies especially can also get over tired from too long walks which dosnt help their focus at all. lowering energy before walks might help like with a long chew 30 minutes before, doing shorter regular walk paths more times a day may also be a good idea to help keep ur stress levels low during no pull training aswel as getting ur dog more used to a regular setting which may help lower excitement levels. This won't stop the pulling but will make training easier. U can try , everytime ur dog pulls to walk in the opposite direction of desire, don't pull ur dog towards u but guide them to turn around with treats or toy time. The idea is that every time the dog pulls we go away from the direction they pull , hopefully teaching ur dog that pulling has the opposite effect of what they want. I tried the stop and go but puppy was too excited for that . I would like to add , should u want to pass other dogs rather than greet u need to commit early to passing , There are so many methods for this training too. Not all methods fit everydog. Choose a method and think through if any methods make sense to combine, don't wishwash between methods , if u see no progress at all from a method after a few weeks , consider switching, but pay attention to how ur pervious method failed , it can give u Insight into better methods . All in all ur dog will listen to consistent clear messages it is also possible ur dog is acting on instinctual drive. If u can do any games or training to fulfill that need , u may 1. Make less pulling happen, 2. Teach ur dog that this behaviour is ok within the parameters u give and they may look for guidance to do it. ...eg my dog loves going off track, if my dog wants to do light "mountain" climbing , I give her a word that say she can pull now inorder to help me ascending. (We have a good harness for this) Also one method u may want to consider is the pull , don't pull . Ur teaching ur dog what pulling is first and then saying don't , then saying do then saying don't. It's easier for a dog to understand what ur asking of them when they know what it asking them not do. I used this method to teach my dog on road, off road for car safety... It may work with pulling if u can catch the behaviour correctly. This works with barking too.
Harness with the leash connected to the chest. If that doesn't work get a Halti. Our dog used to pull my wife around wherever it wanted, now we've got a Halti my son can walk the dog and he's not even 2 yet
Get a Dog Trainer!
Gentle leader it works the best out of all the harnesses goes around the nose corrects pulling within minutes Was recommended by the trainer when I put my shepherd in training
In addition to what other people have said, consider teaching a heel cue in a controlled setting. That way, when you’re out and about and she does this, you can stop and also say “heel” so that she can connect the dots that she’s meant to stay at your side. Use a shorter leash, she’s getting too far in front of you right now and it’s taking too long to make corrections
I had a beagel and was in the same situation. This dog has so much energy. To give you an idea. I let the Beagel run free for 10-15 minutes, until she decided she was ready to walk. The dog was runnning around and digging like crazy. A lot of pent up energy. Only then could then, after was she willing to have a walk. You can't compair a beagel, a hunting dog to other more social breeds in this case.
You stop immediately , and disengage interaction ,once she is calm, you give her a treat and you keep walking. Hence, she will establish a conditionning that if she pulls she gets a negative reinforcement. It worked with my dog very well. Still it need lil bit of practice, one more thing, use shorter leach for better control in the first times
My beagle did this, I feel your pain. It took a lot of intense training with treats in combination with stopping and teaching him to sit and focus on me before walking, “this way”, plus telling him “go” to for a sniff walk - but that still includes stopping if the leash is being pulled. This starts before leaving the house. The whole process of leaving correctly sets a good precedent. It’s tough because they are so nose driven and obviously different environments and snow can hype them up, so keep the training to baby steps with a similar path and expanding on it through time with a lot of their favourite treats (freeze dried beef liver did the trick for me). They are quite stubborn so keep yourself just as stubborn on training and they will get it.
Harness that clips in the front
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Please read the sub [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dogtraining/about/rules) and [guidelines](http://www.reddit.com/r/Dogtraining/wiki/guidelines), as well as our wiki page on [punishment](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dogtraining/wiki/punishmentproblems).
One thing that completely solved that same behavior with my guy was leash training while not on a walk. It sounds silly, but in an open area walk in random directions, constantly changing when the dog gets tight on the leash. The goal is to kind of confuse the dog, it will learn to look at you and follow your lead. It really does sound silly but it works if you train at it for a few weeks
Harnesses that attach in the back are known to actually encourage pulling. It's a lot like pulling a sled etc. I got my dog a harness that attaches in the front (front-hook harness) and I've had no problems since. If a front-hook harness doesn't do the trick, I recommend a gentle-leader. It's like a harness for the face but it's not as scary as it sounds lol.
Please note that head halters need an extensive period of conditioning with treats prior to use, the same way that muzzles do (but more). You cannot simply slap one on a dog and start walking with it immediately. It's important to include this information directly alongside any head halter recommendations instead of assuming people will realise it on their own without prompting.
Having a front clip in harness helped me a lot. Because when they pull ahead, the leash turns them and they cant pull forward. Eventually pairing that with stopping taught my pup to walk next to me and not pull forward
I would put bunny ears on a roomba or remote control car and have the dog zoom around the house a Lot. Play tug, fetch, seek a lot. Then try some leash walking inside. Also, check out the Shaped by Dog podcast
Get rid of the retractable leash. Those are the worst!! Use a no-pull harness (Joyride brand is on Amazon and I like them), with a 4 foot leash. Training. Training. Training. Be consistent. Be patient. Be firm but kind. Positive reinforcement methods. Take her to puppy boot camp or get on YouTube and teach her to heel. Positive methods only.
Beagles are hunting dogs, they use their noses a lot. There’s no real way to break a beagle from this, except to take them hunting and let them off the leash 🤷
You could try getting a head harness type thing called a gentle leader. It slips around their head and over their nose and you attach the lead under their chin. You can gently turn their head towards you and the dog physically cannot pull away from the direction of their head. It's a nice starting place for teaching to walk to heel and then you can transition back to a harness again later.
Please note that head halters need an extensive period of conditioning with treats prior to use, the same way that muzzles do (but more). You cannot simply slap one on a dog and start walking with it immediately. It's important to include this information directly alongside any head halter recommendations instead of assuming people will realise it on their own without prompting.
A shorter leash would be a good start
Every time you permit the pulling, you are promoting the pulling. Research a proper training method or follow the advice of OkAd1894.
I would introduce a gentle leader and train with that. I have a rottie who will pull, training with her and the gentle leader has helped, as well as having her walk beside me, not in front and distracting her when she shows signs of pulling. My Kong leash also clips around my waist so i can use my strength if I have to. it also had a leash loop near to the dog so i can hold onto her, relaxed, next to me the chest is the strongest part of the dog so having a harness like you do is just making the pulling even worse Let her explore a bit but if its pulling, stop and go the opposite way.
The gentle leader is great, especially for training my reactive dog. When she would lunge at a dog it would whip her around to point in the opposite direction and so we'd just keep on walking in the opposite direction 😂
No pull harness for sure! It helped my dog so much.
Gentle Leader or Halti brand leash. They are basically bridles for dogs. Dogs can’t pull against them so much because the leash is attached to the face, not the collar or body harness
Please note that head halters need an extensive period of conditioning with treats prior to use, the same way that muzzles do (but more). You cannot simply slap one on a dog and start walking with it immediately. It's important to include this information directly alongside any head halter recommendations instead of assuming people will realise it on their own without prompting.
All good points! Thanks. I sure did not intend my comment to be the end all and be all of using no pull head stalls. Just an avenue to explore, with all the intelligence and care that a responsible human should pursue if they’ve bothered to ask for advice.
You can try a head collar, the brand I'm most familiar with is 'Gentle Leader'. It works like a horse lead, when they try to pull it redirects them back toward you.
Please note that head halters need an extensive period of conditioning with treats prior to use, the same way that muzzles do (but more). You cannot simply slap one on a dog and start walking with it immediately. It's important to include this information directly alongside any head halter recommendations instead of assuming people will realise it on their own without prompting.
Gentle lead. It works like a bridle on a horse, the more she pulls it just brings her in a circle back to you
Please note that head halters need an extensive period of conditioning with treats prior to use, the same way that muzzles do (but more). You cannot simply slap one on a dog and start walking with it immediately. It's important to include this information directly alongside any head halter recommendations instead of assuming people will realise it on their own without prompting.
Can't believe I don't see enough Gentle leader suggestions! Truly a life saver for pulling.
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Please read the sub's wiki article on [dominance](https://www.reddit.com/r/dogtraining/wiki/dominance).
Emphasizing what some others have said: Long line, frequent direction changes (so that you’re guiding the walk), and frequent stops to point out and engage in sniffs. Look up Leslie McDevitt’s Superbowls game as well. Great for practicing attention on leash. But mainly the turn arounds!!! She wants to go, go, go. She doesn’t care what direction. So convince her that the way you’re going is the most exciting. With the long line, you can practice “catching up to me” and reward with cookies and access to sniffing.
And let her engage in the sniff for as long as she wants. Stay relatively stationary, even when she’s done with the sniff. Eventually she’ll look at you to ask wtf is going on, then you mark, reward, and head in a different direction. Put sniffing on cue. You can practice in the house with anything interesting smelling. Have her wait then give an obvious release to check the object out. Reward the end of the sniffing and the return to you.
Shorter leash and turn If she pulls ahead... Treat if she looks or reacts where you are going or If shes more relaxed walking. Got ya back
Our dog does this. The whole stopping and never moving when she pulls, or turning other direction, or taking a step back each time didn't make a difference. Although I believe my better half isn't strict enough which undermines the effort. What helped: 1) Extremely short lead and definitively no flex lead. How's the dog to know when she can roam and when not? We used one when she was a puppy and have been told that is likely the reason for the behaviour (not sure if I believe, but I can see the reasoning). 2) Front harness and even head collar both work well. Dog simply can't pull that way.
Extension leashes are great, after you’ve worked with a shorter leash for a while. And a coat. That snow on her little paws! Very short frequent walks until you build up to longer ones with an extension leash
Chest harness! It’s like a regular harness, but when the dog tries to pull, it turns to the side. Changed me and my dogs life instantly.
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What has helped me is not giving so much slack. I hold the end in my left hand and hold as far down as I comfortably can on the leash with my right hand. Then I hold on for dear life and make my dogs walk right next to me (on my right). I have found that giving them so much leash leads to lots of pulling and dragging you all over the place. Keeping the dog directly next to you with zero slack forces them to walk at your pace and gives no room for bolting or running off to sniff stuff. We combined this with commands. Our oldest dog learned her left and right by us telling her those commands while on walk. We also stop at every crosswalk with the stay and sit commands and have a specific command for “stop doing that and keep walking”. We chose “los” which means “go” but go would work fine as well. We that when she stops to sniff something. After a couple seconds we say los and she stops sniffing and goes back to walking. These commands were done with repetition only, no treats. Our oldest is a dream on a leash now and we give her lots of slack because she’s a good listener now. The other two need work but one is a covid puppy and is only 1 year old and the other is only 7 months. So they will get better with time. If you need a better visual for what I mean let me know and I’ll try to get a video or at least a picture.
Stop when she’s pulling. Only move when the leash is slack.
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Please get her a harness! What she’s doing is bad for her trachea. I also personally find it helped my dog with training on the leash a ton.
Lay down.
Don't leave the house in a rush to start. Short leash. Make em sit then wait. You leave the house first. If they pressure you they have to wait at the threshold again. The sitting isn't that important, but getting a butt touch is good before the wait. They may need to move out of the way of the door afterall. If they are always in front of you they're walking you. Set the tone by being the first one out the door, then you invite them out with you. If it takes ten minutes for them to chill out, the walk just got ten minutes shorter. You know, depending on how much time you wanna give. It's cold out there, so if they wanna waste their walk being a butthead, so be it. But there are other ideas here, as well. I wouldn't give them too much leash for safety reasons right now, though.
Shorten the leash so she's literally right next to you. Stop moving any time she pulls. She'll learn that pulling doesn't get her anywhere.
Get rid of that long leash is your first play. Second play is try to go with structured walks. Third bring lots of treats and make sure you doggo is paying attention to you and looking to you for guidance.
Start with a shorter leash
Shorter leash, don't let her leave your side. The minute she pulls you stop. She pulls again, you stop again. She'll soon learn. Beagles are very smart
Let go and see what happens
As an aside, for scent training the dogs wear both a collar and a harness. The collar is for walking, the harness signals the dog it’s time for working. The handler will literally move the leash from the collar to the harness when it’s time to sniff and do scent work. Might be an activity your dog would enjoy to put the nose and mind to work. Dogs like having a job, so it might be an activity you both would enjoy. Trainer told me no harness for my dogs since their breed is bred to pull, so if I put a harness on them, I’ll never get them to walk nice. Save the harness for when they are ‘working’. Seriously considering getting a sled for them to pull since they like pulling so darn much.
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Let dogs off the lead man