Hi All,

Just looking for a bit of advice regarding our wee beagle Molly.

Molly is well and truly in her adolescent phase at the moment (she's 10 months old), although we're being strict with the training and we're starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. However, there seems to be a bit of a habit she has picked and I am hoping you can help us.

In the evening, Molly usually falls asleep alongside us on the couch. Then, when it's time for bed we try to coax her down to her crate in the kitchen. I've been working hard on her 'place' command, using plenty of treats to tempt her into her crate on demand. Problem is she is quite selective and when commanded at night she usually doesn't respond and just looks at us. So, we try to gently coax her gently taking her and leading her by the collar. However, recently, she has started to snap at us when we try to coax her, as she obviously does not want to be moved from the couch. We've been trying to be firm with her, but tonight she snapped again and this time drew blood from my wife.

Just wondering if anyone has any advice on how we can try and stop this snapping?

Thanks in advance.

Dene

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Molly - 10 month old beagle

Victims to date - garden trowel, Sky+ remote control, 2 cardigans, 1 pair of trousers, skirting board, telephone cable, laptop cable, camera....and counting!

Hi Dene, i've not really got any ideas, Lennie started this about 3 or 4 weeks ago and i put it down to a few pals often toy fighting with him. I just gave him a stern no and led him off by the collar. I had trained him using treats off and on the couch and turned it into a bit of a game and that seems to have helped.

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Do you wake her up suddenly then try to move her straight away? it might be if she is in a deep sleep, and hasnt a chance to "come too" properly she is startled awake so snaps.

Have you tried instead of forceibly moving her, trying to call her and reward with high value treats, you can even make it a game of find it by throwing them and getting her to seek them out and follow the trail. and get her off and moving that way. Other wise try clipping on a lead and gently leading her off the sofa, some dogs can become collar shy from grabbing or holding their collars and being moved by it.

If she persists though, it might be an idea to remove the priviledge of the sofa for a while, getting her to sleep in a crate or a bed in the living room instead.

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I think I would wander off, take dog out in garden for chance to do biz, then sit by the crate ignoring it if it tried to do something else, just be boring.

Then reward the bedtime "place" when it looked like there'd be no problem.

I am a bit concerned by an actual snap and also the emphasis on "strict training", I wonder if she might need more fun and less confrontation in training?

Then dogs just seem to follow one about and any physical steering can be very gentle. There's been advice in past if you use "collar grabs" to practice and reward those, to avoid such problems, bite is apparently common.

So it could be that you need to add accepting collar hold, or leading by the collar into your training and reward acceptance of it. As is, I'm sure she prefers the couch, so you're training pasively (by accident) her to dislike it.

Hi All,

Thanks so much for the quick response. Firstly, I guess I better clarify - when I say strict training, what I actually meant to say was consistent training. My wife and I make sure she gets loads of fun time and she gets to socialise loads with our dog walker and her dogs - she is generally a happy-go-lucky dog who is always wagging her tail and quite happily plays on her own as much as she plays with us.

She doesn't tend to be 'flat-out' asleep on the couch, usually dozing. I always try to coax her first with a few commands to get her to come down to the kitchen, but one thing Molly has developed is an excellent sense of selective hearing! Based on your suggestions, I will try to continue the coaxing, rather than physically moving her, using some of her favourite toys (her squeeky tennis ball is like cat-nip to her) and, as you say, turn it into a game.

My wife and I talked last night and we do think that we let her get away with too much sometimes. We are expecting our first baby in October, so we want to make sure that Molly's training and behaviour is sorted for then. So, taking on your advice Sled Dog, we are going to try and encourage her down on her bed, rather than sitting on the couch with us in the evening. We won't prevent her from coming up, but we'll just work on encouraging to enjoy sitting in her bed in the living room more.

I'll let you know how we get on. Thanks again for all of your feedback.

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Molly - 10 month old beagle

Victims to date - garden trowel, Sky+ remote control, 2 cardigans, 1 pair of trousers, skirting board, telephone cable, laptop cable, camera....and counting!

That makes the collar grab issue more important, a todler is likely to fall and clutch the dog at some point, so you do not want her reacting to it.

ahh yes the "im not going to bed routine when i can happily sleep where im at"!
lexie is 14mths (today!) and we dont let her on the sofa-well its a constant battle of wills-we too expecting 1st baby in mid september so also trying to do as much as we can to have a well mannered not mental beagle by then!
every night when we manage to get her sleeping in her living room bed while we lie on sofa we praise her (last night she was sleeping on the pouffe(sp?) but it was a compromise!) and then come bedtime (when its not cold she sleeps in her kennel in her run) we start proceedings with "lexie bedtime"-she ignores us so we start making more movements and say it a little louder-one eye opens and then we get her wakened usually very begrudgingly and we put her lead on and then its out the door, pee and straight to her run. but its the same routine every night-she knows what the end result will be but it doesnt change the fact that she tries to ignore it, we always make sure she is awake and conscious of us if we do have to lift her-there are times she is awake but its like her legs are still asleep!!! the snapping issue isnt something we have faced at bedtime-at 10mths old she would be a bit snappy about other things-blooming teenagers! but a stern "ah" like we did when she was a very nippy puppy is what was used then and if she is snappy at any point now thats what we do. good luck

Dont know if she has them already, but I found with mine chews help at night.
It keeps them busy, and also chewsing is a great de-stresser for dogs. Maybe to encourage her to lie on her bed wind down and maybe fall asleep there rather than the sofa, give her a chew at night you can get Think they are called 8 in 1 they are good quality hide chews but inbetween the hide there is dried chicken. pets at home also do their own version or used to called chicken toppers. It really gets and keeps their interest trying to get the dried chicken out so something like that might be worth trying. Still havent tried them yet, but Stag Bars got really good reviews on here too so thats something else she might like.

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lexie will chew on her nylabone forever, just before i gave her a new one as she had "mislaid" the old one i was tempted to live it a lick to see if it really did taste of chicken like the label says! she actually keeps it in her living room bed as if she knows it will always be there when she wants a wee lie down and a chew

My personal and proffession advice would to make sure Molly is of the sofa before it is time for you to go to bed. Either that you can use a lead and put the lead on Molly first befor you try to coax her of the sofa. The lead her to her bed.