Hello Everyone

Just looking for a bit of advice or pointers. My little Beagle Boy is an absolute delight, just as mischeivous and naughty as you would expect for a beagle but with training he's doing great.

I just wondered whether anyone had any advice on the drop command. When we are at home in the house, we practice the drop command and he has it off pat as long as there is a tasty reward in it for him. If he has a toy in his mouth, or the post, or my slipper we say drop and he knows he will get a tasty treat and so obeys the command.

The problem i have is when he is out on walks. i don't know if any other Beagle owners have this problem or it is part of the puppy phase but Zeus likes to eat everything whether it's plastic cups, crisp packets chicken bones, (I HATE LITTER!) and usually I am able to say drop in exchange for a treat or we have to have a wrestle because obviously I don't want these horrible things in his tummy. However, lately he has completely been ignoring the drop command and this morning he picked up something so i said "Zeus Drop" and had a tasty bit of chicken in my hand to do the "swap", and he wasn't having any of it and so i tried to get a look inside his mouth talking calmly and he really growled at me and did become quite aggressive. The worst thing was he managed to swallow whatever it was in his mouth! This is really unlike him and I'm sure you can understand I want to nip this behaviour in the bud before he thinks that's the way he can eat everything off the street by behaving like that! Any pointers and handy tips?

Oh and just in case you were worried I have kept an eye on him today to make sure he is still himself after swallowing whatever he did, and he is still eating, drinking, peeing and his bouncy self. So i'm keeping everything crossed it will pass through tomorrow lol!

Thanks guys

lexie is 10mth old beagle, she is shocking for lifting rubbish on walks so i say "leave it" and she usually does, if i see her getting excited when she sees something in the distance that she wants it make her sit and then focus her attention on me (using command "close" )and hold a treat on my thigh that she stares at until we pass the offending item and then she gets the treat. still there are times when i have had to prise her mouth open to remove things (2 days ago it was chewing gum that she found on pavement!!). usually when i say leave it and she does i say good girl and then she looks at me as if to say "and this is when you give me a treat"! it is very frustrating the amount of litter that people throw on the side of the road.

I also Taught mine the leave command, by first teaching a reliable sit wait, then stepping a couple of steps back, putting a treat on the ground, covering it with my hand saying leave, repeating the leave. then uncovering it and give the take it command. You can then progress to sit, wait, leave, uncovering it, wait again, then stepping back and making them wait until you give the take it. It also builds up their impulse control.

This way once learnt reliably you have two chances, leave when they go for something and then treat quickly if they do, if they dont then you also have a 2nd chance with the drop command.

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we started off teaching the leave it command with kibble,by getting him into a lie down and placing the kibble on his paws an saying wait or leave it whichever you want to use and then rewarding,we can now do it with all kinds of treats including blackpudding!We also progressed onto Alfies other favourite thing-sockswhilst he was in a lie down or sit we would drop socks in front of him and say leave it and then reward with a treat,we can now drop anything on the floor and he is great and won't touch it,

I wish you all the luck in the world,we too have had walks where he has picked up all kinds,he had the starfish that he ate that made him really ill,the pigeon wing I never knew he had in his mouth,and don't know how long he had it!he seatbelt that he sicked up the other week that I didn't know he had chewed in the car,but it does honestly get better,you will look back this time next year and wonder how you got there

These are all great tips thank you very much, Zeus is just coming up to 6 months so still lots to learn, but like you said i'm sure we will get there :-) he is good at the leave command when i have a treat in my hand so love the idea of putting a treat on his paw so might have fun with that one tonight.

Been having fun in the woods today trying to do recall - now that's a whole other obstacle - but i'm sure that will come with time.

Have a great weekend guys

What we did with the woods and recall was use a long line,and say this way,if he doesn't come give a tug and bring him towards you and treat,its got to the point now where Alf can be on a flexi and I can direct him around trees without getting tangled,its a great game for concentration and gets him to listen to you.Also hiding treats and shouting whats this come see,always means hidden treasure to Alf,so if I feel he is going a bit out of reach we shout that and the greedy b****r always comes back

Yeah we have a 10 metre long line which we use and have been doing what you do and using chicken as a treat. He is getting there, but we got a bit too confident last week and let him off the lead and he was off in a shot (cannot believe how fast he is!) and he made it half way across the woods before we caught up with him (he runs until he finds more dogs to play with!!). So that was a big enough sign that he wasn't quite there yet.

It's hard because we meet lots of other puppies on our walks (yet to meet any other beagles ) and they are already off lead so we feel we are a bit behind, and feel Zeus cannot be as free as other dogs, but we also know that beagles are renowned for bad recall so i think it's best to wait and persevere with training till he is a bit more reliable. Best to be safe than sorry.

He is really good off lead if we meet other dogs to run around with because he stays with them. it was great the other week i met this nice old guy who decided to walk with us with his dogs and Zeus was great. I need more friends with dogs lol!

I think out on walks it can be an age thing. I have a golden retriever who is a right greedy sod. Quite simply I kept him away from things like that until I knew he stood a reasonable chance of obeying, and by about 18 months old he would leave every single thing no matter what it was on a walk if I told him too. Dead animals offlead was a different thing!

I wouldn't worry if he takes a while to get it, as long as he shows progress here and there

We ended up with a second dog because everyone here already has two dogs and seldom wants your dog to play with theirs, made it very hard and Rupert wasn't ever that happy about it

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kody is the worst for scavenging on walks. just a few weeks ago he was very poorly after sicking up a hard piece of leather (we think). in the house he is much better at his leave command, but outside, absolute zilch. i feel like i need more eyes so i can watch everything thats going on.

i had much better success with bailey, he had a fairly solid leave command both in and outside. il just need to keep working on kody.

he so good with most other things, sits, stays etc brilliant. and hes very patient his recall however, not a chance. he is on lead ALL THE TIME. except in the enclosed dog park. im not prepared to risk it again anyway. he still leads a happy and fulfilled life

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6th Jan 2008 - 22nd July 2009