I recently (4 months ago) rescued a beagle puppy with my wife. We have a huge yard, another smaller dog, and spend tons of time with them both. The dogs get along wonderfully and the 9 month old beagle started off great, but now is in jeapardy of becoming homeless if she won't start behaving.

We crate and reward trained her to housebreak and are working hard with reward based training with her. I try not to yell or get too angry with her, but the last month has been a nightmare.

She is completely housebroken...so we thought. She will not go in her crate so we have started to give her more freedoms. We can't leave for a half an hour without her peeing somewhere in the house. Even if we are home, she will squat even with the door wide open for her from time to time. I had to instal a 1500 dollar underground fence because she is a beagle and wanders...which I expected. She chews up every shoe in the house, slippers, jacket zippers, anything and everything she can get her mouth on. Turn your back for a second and she's on the coffee table dragging everything in the world down and chewing on it. (Even though she's been reprimanded over and over and has 8 million toys laying around) My new couch and cushions are destroyed.....I fell asleep with her on the couch one day and woke up to it.

I know she's 9 months, but I have NEVER in my life had a dog this disobedient. She will get yelled at and reprimanded and 30 seconds later, right in front of you will do it again. Today I went to get a glass of water to drink with my lunch. In the time it took to walk to the kitchen and back, she had jumped up on the table and was enjoying my steak. I hit the ceiling and crated her for a bit....10 minutes later she was allowed back out and ran right to the table and jumped up again to see where the meal went....with me standing there! I can't take it anymore.

Why is she peeing when she can freely go out and not listening at all to anything? Even when she knows it's wrong! This dog is on her last leg in my house. It's costing me a fortune and I really don't wish to keep her crated all day every day just because I need to get some work done or can't watch her for 20 minutes.

Beagles are naughty, but thats extreme I've found mine exhibited similar behaviours. I rescued her also and she is 11 months.

Sounds like she thinks she has run of the house and for that reason is not respecting the house training rules or you. Sounds like a dominance issue, she challenges for pack leader position and is not losing, in her mind at least. Is she the dominant one out of her and your other dog???

My little beagle lady tried the same rubbish with me for a few weeks. I started with soft reprimands, just saying NO and yelling etc but she kept at it. In the end my problems subsided when I asserted my absolute dominance as pack leader.

When she urinated inside she was booted quite roughly (but not violently) outside. She was not allowed in until the next morning while my other dog could stay in. Overnight I would clean her mess with white vinegar so that it smelt awful to her the next day, not like her scent. Vinegar is powerfully negative to a dogs sensitive nose. This only happened twice so I guess it worked.

If she misbehaved I would use one of three techniques. First a loud and authoritive "Ahhhh" coupled with raising my hand. This is a simple distraction technique best used before they start to do the wrong thing, just as they are about to do it. For example if she started to chew the leg of the table I would use this and provide a chew toy in its place. This is still my best technique.

If she ignored me however I would tell her to "come" and to "sit" by my feet. This way the behaviour is stopped and she is forced to obey me. It takes her away from the problem behaviour and asserts my dominance over her at the same time. After she sat for 20 seconds she was told that she was a "good girl", very calmly and allowed to go.

If all else failed I would approach her quickly but calmly, place a hand around the back of her neck and press her firmly to the floor. This immobilised the behaviour and asserted my dominance again. After a short period of me being dominant she was let go. If she returned to the problem behaviour I would step through again, "AHHHH", "Come" and immobilise if needed.

I have a very well behaved beagle now. I only need the "AHHHH" technique now and will still demand she come and sit periodically because it maintains my dominance. She does bark sometimes but that is a different problem because I am not there with her. She will stop when I say so, but I'm not always home! I have a bark collar for that.

Shes still a bit naughty, but in a cute way not a nightmare way (shes still a young beagle after all). She will still try to eat my sock when I'm getting dressed or help me look in the fridge but I let her get away with that. If I ever needed to stop it I have the techniques to do so, and she knows them too. My wife not have as much experience with dogs and the beagle dominates her in similar ways to your problem. If I step in however it ceases.

The most important thing is DO NOT yell and jump up and down. Remain calm, be dominant and make her do what you say. I tried treat training too but she would do only enough to get the food, and if you didn't have food you were nobody!

Try these or similar techniques for a few weeks. She has learnt a behaviour pattern, and it will not change overnight. Be patient and even a beagle can be well behaved :mrgreen:Any questions.... please just ask. I love to help people with these problems if I can, I find dog/ pack behaviour fascinating. Sorry for the long post!