# Do all Beagles bark constantly?



## jaxmagicman (Dec 13, 2010)

I have a 4 month old Beagle. He is my first puppy ever. First dog really. My parents had dogs when I was growing up, but they were not mine. After carefully picking out which breed I thought would be best for me, I decided on a Beagle. I liked that they were smaller dogs, but not under 10 pounds. I liked that they could learn quickly. I liked that they were scent dogs. I was really worried about the constant barking I read about in numerous books.

Well, I have now had Bailey in my home for 2 months, and it seems that he really doesn't bark that much. He barks when he wants out of his kennel. He barks when we are playing and I hold his toy away from him. He also barks when we are walking and he is trying to get somewhere that I won't let him. Other than that, he doesn't bark.

People knock on the door, no bark. Other dogs come by the house, or we pass by them while we walk, no bark. I love his little bark, especially when he gets his BAROO out. But I heardly hear it.

Should I be worried? Or just count my blessings?


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## hulkamaniac (Feb 11, 2009)

I wouldn't worry about it. Some dogs are barkers and some aren't.


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## jaxmagicman (Dec 13, 2010)

hulkamaniac said:


> I wouldn't worry about it. Some dogs are barkers and some aren't.


Thanks. I had read about them being very vocal, and since he isn't very vocal, I was wondering if something was wrong. Like maybe he doesn't have good hearing. Sometimes it seems he can't hear me at all, but I think that may be his nose. As in he his following his nose and nothing is going to get in the way.


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## hulkamaniac (Feb 11, 2009)

jaxmagicman said:


> Thanks. I had read about them being very vocal, and since he isn't very vocal, I was wondering if something was wrong. Like maybe he doesn't have good hearing. Sometimes it seems he can't hear me at all, but I think that may be his nose. As in he his following his nose and nothing is going to get in the way.


That's a combination of being a puppy and being a beagle both. Dogs have to be trained to pay attention and beagles are no different. They're a breed that's easily distracted by something smelly.


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## jaxmagicman (Dec 13, 2010)

hulkamaniac said:


> That's a combination of being a puppy and being a beagle both. Dogs have to be trained to pay attention and beagles are no different. They're a breed that's easily distracted by something smelly.


Yeah, I've noticed that.

He learns any type of tricks really quickly.

So far he has learned, "sit", "down", "Leave it", "Take it", "Watch Me", "Stay", "Come", "Drop it" and "Roll Over". He has also learned to walk on the right side of me and not pull as much. He still pulls, but he is getting better. I am sure that after a couple of weeks I will be able to walk with him, without him pulling the leash tight.

But with all the commands, he only listens when we are alone in the back yard. In the house, he will sit and lay and stay. But he will not do anything else. Outside the house, when other people or animals are around, he won't do anything I ask him to do. And sometimes he pulls and pulls trying to get to them, no matter what I do. I stomp my feet to get his attention, I clap my hands, I pull on the leash. He just ignores all of it if someone is around.

I am sure that constantly working with him will help. I am just happy to have him around. He is filling a void I had.


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## hulkamaniac (Feb 11, 2009)

Dogs don't generalize well. The dog may have an ironclad "sit" outside, but not sit at all in the house. The best way to train is to train everywhere. We humans learn not to put out feet on the table during dinner in the house. If we're outside at a picnic we know that it's also not good manners to put our feet on the table there. Dogs don't usually make the same kind of connection.


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## Independent George (Mar 26, 2009)

jaxmagicman said:


> He learns any type of tricks really quickly.
> 
> So far he has learned, "sit", "down", "Leave it", "Take it", "Watch Me", "Stay", "Come", "Drop it" and "Roll Over". He has also learned to walk on the right side of me and not pull as much. He still pulls, but he is getting better. I am sure that after a couple of weeks I will be able to walk with him, without him pulling the leash tight.


You're new here, so I don't think you realize just how jealous Hulk is probably feeling right now... :bounce:


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## yappypappymom (Oct 22, 2009)

@ jax...one thing to keep in mind right now is the fact that your little boy is still just a young'un, &, maybe has not "found his voice" as of yet. My boy used to care less if someone was going or coming, but,...once he hit a certain age, well, I will now just politely say that he is VERRRRYYY interested as to ANYTHING that happens as far as the front door in concerned!! *miss those puppy ignorance days* - hence, I now have a living, breathing doorbell!


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## jaxmagicman (Dec 13, 2010)

yappypappymom said:


> @ jax...one thing to keep in mind right now is the fact that your little boy is still just a young'un, &, maybe has not "found his voice" as of yet. My boy used to care less if someone was going or coming, but,...once he hit a certain age, well, I will now just politely say that he is VERRRRYYY interested as to ANYTHING that happens as far as the front door in concerned!! *miss those puppy ignorance days* - hence, I now have a living, breathing doorbell!


Just as I was praising him for his not barking all the time, he decided last night would be the perfect night to prove me wrong. We usually let him sleep in the bed with us. We started this for 2 reasons. One our heater was broken and we bought a little space heater to heat our room and when it was getting cold, we didn't want him to freeze out in the living room with his kennel, and two we were potty training him and he was good at letting us know when he had to go by licking our faces while we slept. 

Anyway, last night he decided to just pee in the bed. He has been in the bed for 2 months and never had an accident. So I thought that maybe he was just acting up a little bit because I gave him a bath last night, and he isn't too fond of them. Anyway, I put him out in the crate after I took him outside. Well I guess I spoiled him too much because he spent the next hour howling and barooing. He always acts that way when I first put him in the crate. But he has learned that he is not getting let out when he is making noise, so while his intial reaction is to howl in the crate, he usually quits after about 2 minutes. It was a surprise for him to howl for an hour. Anyway, he stopped and I went to sleep and this morning he seemed back to normal. 

Also, I have decided to start to add tiny distractions when we are training to work him up to being able to listen every where. This morning while we were playing/training, I turned on my MP3 player to play over its built-in speakers and he still responded to me. I am wondering if there are some MP3's out there that mimic dog noises so I can try to distract him more.


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

There are tons of videos on Youtube of dogs barking and howling, you can turn up your computer speakers while training inside the house.

And I'd start putting him back in his crate at night for potty training purposes until he is a little older. You can keep the crate in your room though so he still feels close to you (and is warmer if that's where the heater is).


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## jaxmagicman (Dec 13, 2010)

The heater is fixed now. So he can be out in it. I thought he was done with his potty training too. This is the first accident he has had since about November 9th.


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

4 months old is not old enough to be reliably potty trained.


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## jaxmagicman (Dec 13, 2010)

Ok. What age do you think would be reliable? This is my first puppy, so potty training was a surprise for me at first. I thought all dogs just had the instinct to go outside. Then I started doing research before I got Bailey and was like "what?" I have to teach him to go outside. It seemed like it worked. I took him out after every meal, every two hours, any time he woke up and after he was done chewing. He began to love to get on his leash. Then I started to move it back to 4 hours and right after we woke up. He now goes on a schedule and usually can make it through the night.

You know, now that I think about it. It was probably my fault he peed last night. He went to bed much earlier than he normally does. I thought it was because of the bath. He really really hates it. But I know that he usually doesn't go to sleep right after. When he went to sleep at 8 last night, I should have forced him to get up and go. I was expecting him to wake me up if he had to go. I should have just got him up at 2 (he usually goes to bed for the night around 10 or 11, and he gets me up around 3 to take him out). Since he went to sleep so early I should have set an alarm and made him get up and go around 2. We got off schedule and it was my fault.


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