I can understand you are feeling a little attacked . It's not meant that way, I'm hugely ridiculously protective of beagles and they respond so much better when they feel it's teamwork, and are surprisingly biddable when the most attractive and fun to do is the thing you want them to do.

I'll lay all my cards on the table. I want you to have the joy, I have with Tinker. I know a beagle that has been 'trained' with heavy handed i'm the boss tactics' She resources guards and she's pretty shutdown.

I don't want you to have him shutdown 'can't be trained' , 'can't cope', 'can't have him around kids' etc etc I'd rather put my foot in it and maybe misinterpret your posts than keep my gob shut and see him on beagle welfare rehoming list in a few months time. If that offends you i'm sorry but its a forum you posted and this is my honest opinion

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I didn't mean to sound harsh - I know loads of owners who have success with exactly the same sort of lead/headcollar.

What I meant was, if you use this to train him to walk on the lead, he will know how to walk nicely on this lead. He won't continue to walk nicely when it's removed and he's on a standard flat collar/lead/harness combination, and I wouldn't feel comfortable using one of those on a puppy, even an older one.

I have two dogs - one took to loose lead walking straight away and is brilliant, but with the other dog we still haven't cracked it. I am still walking along and stopping when he pulls, clicking and treating when he walks nicely and all that stuff, precisely because, when he didn't get it at the same time as the other dog, I used a no pull harness and cheated - before I came to my senses and thought actually, I want him to do this properly every single time on a normal collar and lead...so by then I had made a mistake, and a rod for my own back cos we could have sorted this ages ago if I hadn't decided to make my own job easier and use a tool instead of training him properly. If you would like your dog to walk nicely on a collar or harness with a lead attached, personally, I think it would be better to do this straight away.

This is not based on a scientific method or anything to do with headcollars being bad or anything... it's purely my advice based on the mistake I feel that I made by doing something similar. I also know nothing in real life about beagles, having only seen them in books.

Having said that - it's great you're putting this time into training and Benji is soo cute...

Naomi

Its interesting all of the comments on here, and yes its true that you can completely feel like you are under attack, all be it friendly fire

However, I am going to put some of the points you have all mentioned to my dog trainer tomorrow and see what she says.

I can totally understand the point regarding training via the method of this type of collar/harness and then having a nightmare on a normal lead...

Hmmm, such a flippin minefield.

I didn't start using a halti (Dogmatic) on Loki until he'd got too big to control easily. He was about 7 months old by that point, and strong. We also didn't use it for general lead walking, but for reasons around him liking to chase cars, and I did it for MY safety. If I can control him easily, I'm less likely to get the both of us killed (off topic, but it's why I'm against flexi leads too)

We didn't get him until he was 5 months anyway, so didn't have the same advantage of people having their dogs from puppies.

What I'd try is not using the halti for now, but as you have said, you've started late (don't know how late). These things take a lot more time than just going to classes.

I also know what you mean about the 'dominant' stuff, I do the same with Loki. Not coming onto chairs/bed without an invitation, we leave doors first, we go down stairs first and no charging down them(!) I don't think of this as dominance, I think of this as just plain house rules. Don't want him to do it to know his place, I want to do it so I don't have a 30kg dog on the stairs like the boulder chasing Indiana Jones! Just safer lol!!

I don't know much about your breed, but with Loki I also use a harness rather than a basic collar, which means I can hold him back easier when he freaks out, without the risk of damaging his neck. Take breed traits/risks considerations, but I'd look at this too if he's a bad puller.

He now walks nicely with or without it, but it's a nice backup to have on pavement walking through town, where he is still very nervous, and has also figured how to negate the effects (i.e. walk backwards ) so it's not always the quick fix people expect!!

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Loki - my 1yr old short hair GSD
Rosie - my 7 month old Beagle
Bolt & Moogle - my 2 rats

I used to send my 35kg dog down the stairs before for exactly that reason, it was safer for him to go first. If he decided to follow me downstairs after I'd started down them though (or we were on the bus, I always went first then) he was absolutely NOT to shove past me. I got very good at anticipating and body blocking in the early days.

where about are you from , out of interest?

West Sussex, near Worthing. Why do you ask?

sounds like a trainer near me thats all

its not lol

hope your training goes ok ,

however dominance and such doesnt sit right with me .
however like you said might just be the way it come accross as read