We need doggie behavior help

[u2bonogirl]

Okay, heres the pickle for all you doge experts out there:
We have a beagle who has been prominently featured in quite a few of my past journal entries for his psychotic barking and whining while Im trying to sleep, and peeing on the floor while we're away from the house (he's house trained too)

He knows peeing on the floor is bad, and he knows that he's going to get punished for it. Whenever he does it, which is sometimes when Im away from the house for 30 minutes or so, he acts all guilty and tries to hide.
We've decided that he does it for attention or something like that because he gets walked a lot. He whines at our door all the time in the early hours of the morning and my husband has been getting up to walk him just to avoid having Fritz pee on the floor. When hes whining then he doesnt really need to go out, he just wants attention. But if he doesnt get it when he wants it he's likely to pee on the floor.
He used to go from the time Tim went to work to when he got off and nothing inbetween just fine and now it seems like he just does it on the floor whenever he feels like it.

Soooo, since we cant get him to stop and he knows that its wrong we decided to get a doggie gate to keep him in the kitchen instead of putting him in his crate when we're away or sleeping. We figured he would like that better since its a wide open space and he could have his bed and toys and food with him.
Well, apparently not. While we were away last night he destroyed the plaster on the walls in the kitchen near where we put the dog gate, completely ripped out the carpet from underneath it down to the plywood underneath, slammed into the gate hard enough to move it and then peed on the carpet again
It just seems like theres no other option but putting him in his crate, because the barking and whining at the door is getting very tiresome, the carpet in the livingroom is spotted everywhere, and we cant even gate him in a part of the house because he'll go fricking psychotic and tear the walls and floor apart.

He's a high strung dog ( I hear thats common in beagles) and he just gets worked up over practically nothing all the time. Hes not a young dog so its not that he doesnt know how to behave, he does and he just disregards it anyway.

Does anybody have advice? Any methods we can use to train him better, block him off in an area, or disciplinary actions that we could take?

Its just so frustraing feeling like theres no solutions other than crating him every time we're not watching him.
If we could let him be outside during the day we would but we cant because we dont have a gated area in the back and if he sees anything move he'll piss the neighbors off by howling for hours on end

What do we do?

 

[For Honor]

I would defer you to my cousin, who is an animal goddess.....

but I have nothing of use to tell you. Talk to the people at Petsmart (mart or smart??) ah, I've no idea

Most of them are well qualified, like my cousin.......

hmm, I guess that doesn't help at all. Oh well...
good luck

 

[Liesje]

I'd say crate him or put a baby diaper on him. Maybe he needs a friend?

 

[clarityat3am]

Punishing him might be doing more harm than good. That might make him more fearful and he may be waiting til you leave before he does it again. (I'm not sure what you're using to clean up after him, but Nature's Miracle, while expensive, works wonders) It's possible that he's confused about the living situation and just doesn't know what to make of it and it's causing him stress. I would say crate him while you're away and check out a qualified behaviorist. Check out this link and do some research on your own too. Let me know what happens.

http://www.petbehaviorist.com/

 

[She Is Raging]

when I took my dog to training, they said that when they showed bad behavior like whining, or barking etc... what you should do and is leash them, and tie them to a doorknob in a room by themselves until they stop the behavior. Then, when they dont do it anymore, let them come out and reward them, not necessarily with treats, but positive reinforcement. It's never really has been a problem with Harry, but good luck still!

 

[u2bonogirl]

thanks guys
we'll try to reinforce him with treats for good behavior. When he obeys or hasnt done anything naughty lately Tim gives him a snausage.

We have natures miracle

The dog has been through dog training at petco or somewhere like that but it doesnt show

He just spent the night in his crate and whined so much that by morning he was really thirsty

 

[Angela Harlem]

you are the owner of a gun dog. you can't lock him up in a crate at night, especially without water. what is a crate anyway? we dont have them/use them/refer to them here, but it doesn't sound very large and for a dog who's instinct is to hunt, i'm not bloody suprised he cries all night. if he wakes up thirsty, then he's not been left enough water.

ring your beagle association as they will help you. you do know the difficulties associated with a type of breed like this yeah?


http://www.dto.com/hunting/article.jsp?articleid=747

good luck. and for what it's worth, if you ever lose patience with him, try to never pat/tap/smack him no matter how lightly on the nose. not only is his nose more sensitive than many breeds, to any dog it is extremely painful and he will become agressive and you will find an even harder uphill battle ever training that out of him. anyway, you said in the first post that he is not a young dog, but knows how to behave. dear, you're mistaken. if he is not young then you have a more difficult battle ahead of you. he doesn't know how to behave. he is a dog. if he knew how to behave, he would. he wants to obey you, but cannot control himself and doesn't know how. you guys have to learn how to control him so he can obey you. and he wont be easy because he has such highly strung instincts.

please contact your beagle association and ask them for guidance. you and he cant live like that.

good luck.

 

[u2bonogirl]

I do realize the difficulties with these dogs, however I also didnt choose to own him, I married into having him. He's like a stepchild

The reason Tim took him is because he was going to be put down for attacking somebody when he was a young dog. He's always been very high strung.

I'll tell Tim about the beagle association.
He's so frustrated because he wants to give the dog a good life but its hard when he act like he does. He goes through cycles of being good and then being really really bad

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

Beagles are soooooooooo hard to train. Trust me; my mom got one two years ago and she's been very high strung and difficult. She's calmed down a bit, but not by much.

She also still pees in the house. All I can say is, I'm glad I don't live with her anymore. Good luck, guys.

 

[youtooellen]

our dog used to do all of that. but when we disciplined her, we just leashed her up until she became tiresome. she basically wore herself out from barking nonstop and trying to bite through the leash . she hasn't improved much behavior wise but she's completely toilet trained now though

geez, it was hectic. good luck to the both of you

 

[u2bonogirl]

gee thanks april and youtooelen
I have such hope now

 

[Liesje]

Along with what Angela was saying...perhaps he needs something to do that's more specific to his breed and his purpose, so to speak? I don't know much about beagles or what they like to do (challenges using scent? agility courses?), but maybe he just needs a better outlet for his drive and his energy and he's not getting that by being a regular house dog with a daily walk. My uncle's new retriever is also VERY high strung. She runs 5 miles every morning and still goes crazy all day long, so my sis and I started working with her 4-5 times a day giving her retrieving challenges and doing lots of swimming. Both my uncle and the dog were very appreciative!

 

[bonosloveslave]

I think you guys may be at a point where you need to think about behavior meds if there is no medical cause for his signs. It really is best to have a thorough check-up with your vet - even though YOU may be certain it is a behavior problem. If he checks out ok and there is nothing abnormal in his urine, they would probably recommend a behavior medication. Another option to ask about is whether there is a veterinary behaviorist in your area, they can be the most helpful resource for getting things back on track the quickest. Us regular docs don't get a whole lot of education in behavior things, whereas a veterinary behaviorist is a vet who has had extra training specially in behavior. They can often pick up on things that we might have overlooked in the history, home environment, etc. that can make all the difference in resolving the problem. Hope you'll at least check into it....

 

[u2bonogirl]

Ive considered that he probably needs to expel more energy but we really dont have the time and energy to walk him 5 miles a day, and we have no gated area. And if we let him run around the back yard on a leash while we're gone he would annoy the neighbors to death because he barks at everything.
It looks like unless we have more $ to spend on dealing with this we will be dealing with pee stains, torn up carpets and walls, and whining.

 

[Liesje]

Ive considered that he probably needs to expel more energy but we really dont have the time and energy to walk him 5 miles a day, and we have no gated area. And if we let him run around the back yard on a leash while we're gone he would annoy the neighbors to death because he barks at everything.
It looks like unless we have more $ to spend on dealing with this we will be dealing with pee stains, torn up carpets and walls, and whining.

Unfortunately, I think you're right. Part of it is just the way beagles are, they're hunting dogs, very high strung, very driven, and people often have problems with them b/c from far away, they look like a cute little family dog when in reality, they are bursting with energy. I'm also reading just now that they were intended for pack hunting so are better off not left alone during the day unless there are other dogs. I guess I would put some pressure on your hubby to consider more drastic options since you said he was the one that decided to adopt the dog. I'm not a behavior expert or anything, but it sounds like the dog already had a temperment problem and now it's being compounded. I wouldn't put him down over this, but if it continues, I would consider finding him a new home w/ someone who has more space and time to deal with his issues or put him to work.

 

[MissVelvetDress_75]

and as you can tell by my signature beagles are pretty lazy.

My beagle trained our family. We installed a doggie door so that it would allow him to let himself out. He learned fast to let himself out to use the bathroom. That was pretty much the only thing we could train him on. Stubborn dogs they are but they are so damn cute.

my old dog.

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

Sexy beagle!


They are the cutest dogs... I think that's more to save their hides when they get their asses in trouble.

Here's Nikki Knuckles (yes, doing something she's not supposed to be doing):

 

[MissVelvetDress_75]

 

[u2bonogirl]

yep, beagles were given the gift of cuteness to make up for how annoying they are

I really do think this has something to do with his natural temperament because his sister beagle lives down the road at Tim's brothers house and shes not nearly as obnoxious as him. she doesnt howl loudly at things or pee all over the place. She gets into the trash which is a problem that we dont have but thats easier to fix than the pee/ruining the house situation

And you know, he's situationally energetic. He lays around the house ALL day long, never moving practically except to howl at the neighbors pulling into their own driveways
A lot of the time he wont even lift his head, he'll just howl from a reclined position.
When he does get excited over something a lot of the time he will come over by me and shake his ears really fast and hard and emit a cloud of dog hair because he sheds like a poodle...and Im also allergic to dogs
But then when we take him outside he gets all excited over the smells and its a wrestling match some of the time to get him to do anything we want him to do.
He'll get down in a crouched position and pull to try and take his collar off, which works sometimes. Like yesterday!

We'll I suppose Tim will come around and read all of this and come to his own conclusions of the situation