I posted a request for help in the members forum but no response as of yet so maybe you can give me advice. I have a 14 month old Beagle who is completely hyper. It is almost as if he has ADD or OCD. He hardly ever sits down to play with his own toys. He will for a few minutes then it is up and off to wander the house, get into the trash, keep looking to see if the neighbor dogs are outside and generally see what he can get into. He is being caged trained and typically does very well with it. My wife works from home, so unfortunately he can't be out during the day as he would disrupt her work as she would have to follow him around the house to make sure he is not getting into trouble. He gets out several times a day for potty and food breaks. He does get out for a couple walks a day (30 minutes each time or so). He loves to be outside, but not on his own. We try to leave him out but all he does is bark, even if left out for 30 to 45 minutes. He doesn't stop at all. We would love to have him out with us all the time, but we can't relax when he is out of his cage as he never sits down and he looks for things to get into or take away and hide. He will be out with us for several hours at a time, but we can't relax and it gets very tiring having to follow him all the time to make sure he's not getting into things he sholdn't. We don't know what to do. He doesn't like to cuddle which is sad. We would love to cuddle with him. When we try he growls and pulls away or he thinks it is rough housing and tries to bite. He does like to lick us....constantly. We tell him "no more" after a few licks, but he keeps going until we push him away several times. We are probably doing some things wrong but don't know what. We had a Beagle previously (for 13 years) and he was never like this. We are frustrated beyond sanity at times. We need help please. Any techniques or tips would be appreciated.
Sorry to see that you had no response yet. You haven't said anything about how he is doing with obedience training. It sounds like you might need a serious commitment to training on a daily basis to channel his energy,and maybe some longer walks might be needed to try and get the energy level down a bit. How does he settle down at night?
I am sorry but I have to say that there is a bad cycle is going on with your Beagle and your family:
Your Beagle is hyper and creates all kinds of problems - you keep him in a crate most of the day - when he is out of the crate, he is full of energy to burn - he gets into his hyper mode again - this drives you and your family crazy --- keep him in the crate again
As Alex Jones said, there is a need for a serious commitment to train him. In the mean time, give him more activities than just 2 walks a day. Are there any neighborhood dogs or friends' dogs he can play with? How about doggie daycare?
Also, put things you don't want him to get into out of his reach; trash in the cupboard, shoes in the closet, etc.
Introduce clear rules and boundaries to him and please stop comparing him with your previous Beagle. Every dog is different. Write down his problems as well as his good points. Discuss with your family and come up with one or two specific behaviors that you really want to correct and work on those for a few weeks. You cannot just expect a well-behaving dog without giving necessary trainings.
Enrolling in obedience classes is a bright idea. Dogs learn to listen to the owners, as well as some basic commands. Establish your position so that your dog will follow you, ask for guidance from. Just scolding or yelling at him would never lead you to that position. You can teach him to "Go to your bed" and stay there for one minute. Praise and reward (treats) him. You can extend the one minute to 2, 3, 4 and 10 minutes gradually. Every time you need to recognize his effort and praise him.
Good luck!
(I don't know why a couple of sentences above got striked out - it does automatically. Please just ignore the strike outs)
Is he in the same room with your wife? It would seem to be very helpful if his crate was at least close to her. We have some of the same problems with our puppy....we keep her blocked in the kitchen so at least she can't wander the whole house. But we still have to watch her all the time too. When we just can't watch her then we put her in her crate for as short a time as possible. Soometimes she is so hyper she just needs a "time out" in there. There are 2 of us and we are retired so I can see how hard it is for you. But at the same time if you can just take the time now during this stage hopefully things will slowly improve. We have always had labs and never any with problems like this golden doodle she is a handful. Maybe more short walks often would help instead of 30 min. ones further apart. Hope it is getting better.....we are very slowly seeing some success. This site has really helped us!!!!
