A popular dog breed for a family pet is a Beagle as they are intelligent, keen to please their owners and have a very affectionate nature. Beagles are medium sized and this is a consideration when choosing a family pet. Beagles come from the hound family and were originally bred for hunting rabbits and hares etc due to their well developed sense of smell. Having a well developed sense of smell can make training both challenging and rewarding.
Beagles can be headstrong and to make training time productive you will need to be creative so your dog does not become distracted. Beagles are a good choice especially if you have a young family. They have a large tolerance for noise and activity about the house. Beagles are happiest when they are with company and don't like to spend large amounts of time alone. Consider a second Beagle as company for the first.
Teaching Yourself
There is a lot of training material available for those of you who like the challenge of going it alone. Access materials that have been written and developed by experienced, expert trainers. By chosing to train your dog yourself you'll have the advantage of being able to fit training times in with your busy schedule. A disadvantage of training alone means you won't be exposing your dog to distractions such as other people and dogs. Important experiences for a well adjusted dog. For further information about training your dog check out this review of Dove Cresswell's 'Puppy and Dog Training Online':This is packed full of useful information from one of Los Angeles' most experienced dog trainers.
Puppy training classes
For training your Beagle, with its well developed sense of smell, it is very helpful to get used to being in environments where there are many distractions. Keeping your Beagle interested when there are new patches of grass to smell and other dogs to sniff, will be challenging. You don't want to spend the whole training class with your dogs nose in the ground! Beagles can be stubborn and won't bend too easily if they find something more interesting to do. You will have to be firm and consistent with your commands. The more exciting you make training, the more your Beagle will want to participate and it will easily learn from your commands. Training a Beagle is very gratifying.
by Alvin W Roy
