Inka3095

I'm trying to toilet train my foster atm; just about yell the neighborhood down with excitement whenever she pees on the grass lol. My previous girl flat out refused to walk or pee on wet grass. She could hold on for days in preference to walking on wet ground... We would pick her up and place her on the grass whereupon her ears would flatten against her head, tail between legs, fix her beseeching eyes on us and then would whimper quietly until we gave up and brought her back inside, all three of us soaked to the bone on many occasions.... sigh!

Op shops are the best! I clean my local ones out so I have to wait until they get more lol. Abby seems to only like to chew things she's not allowed to... all the rubber plugs in the house were victims within days so I'd agree that she seems to enjoy chewing rubber lol. She gets a bone every couple of days, but seems to prefer to dig holes and bury them (perhaps to resurrect at a later date?) which would be ok if I owned this house, however, the landlord, whilst agreeing I could have a dog, specified it MUST NOT DIG HIS IRRIGATION SYSTEM UP! So far there has been no damage, but I think this is a matter of time... while I'm here... any ideas on how to stop digging!? I feel I just go around finding ways to stop all her fun, but she's destructive as anything if you take your eyes off her for a second lol!

Evening all I'm quite sure this has been done before but couldn't find anything with a quick search What do you creative people use for cheapo dog toys using stuff around your house you'll just throw out? So far I've been having a great time hiding treats in cardboard rolls with their ends rolled over (though it takes my foster beagle about oh... 10 seconds to find it), and she's currently having a go at a plastic bottle with the (label and ring removed) with a bit of peanut butter smeared along the inside of the neck, and a few treats inside. She rips the eyes/noses/whiskers off soft toys in a minute or two and then ignores them, but keeps trying to steal socks (a sock being ON your foot is no deterrent either lol), laptop bag straps, bags, paper, whatever-is-in-the-bin etc, so I know she wants to chew on things! What are other good ideas!?

GREAT photos of a gorgeous dog

My beagle has been reading this thread I believe.. and it has given her bad ideas.... We leave her in the spare bathroom when we're out because I'm too nervous she'll escape in the backyard unsupervised (she likes a good dig). So far this hasn't been a problem. Came home this afternoon, opened the front door saying her name, looking forward to seeing her, yay! Went to open the door to the bathroom but the handle wouldn't open... stood there stupidly for a few good seconds, trying the door over and over before it sank in that she had locked herself into the room. We have push locks on the inside of our bathrooms which I gather she had pushed in whilst attacking the door from the inside. She was most unimpressed as I tried to explain to her what was going on. Could only push a strap under the door as a small measure of solace while I waited for my bf to get home. Half an hour later, an amused bf and a very disgruntled beagle waged war upon this innocent door. Eventually, after dismantling the entire handle, we sprung miss Abby out. First thing I saw was a sodden hand towel on the ground with a chunk of it lying next to the towel proper. "BOTHER" exclaimed I, "I forgot to put that away this morning." Then my eyes roamed to the destroyed rubber plug. "BOTHER" says I once more. Didn't even know that was out. Then I hear a quiet "what the hell" from the bf. It takes a little while, but I soon realise the chunk of towel is not a chunk of towel. It's a chunk of the wall. Then my horrified eyes find the scene of the damage. In a 95% tiled room she has found the only wooden section and chewed and scratched a large chunk out of the moulded door frame/arcatrave and left long gouge marks from her claws up the sides of the wall and a part of the door. Bf no longer amused. I am no longer amused. This is a rental property. =( Crate training is now of utmost priority....

Kirty I'm currently feeling very cheesed off with my foster beagle as I accidently left the spare room door open for about.. oh... 3 seconds while I took some rubbish outside. Came back, she was ensconced on the spare bed, and had already removed a nose and an eye from a stuffed toy I've owned for years and was quite attached to However, that was my fault, not hers, the opportunity was there and she took it. You just can't turn your back for a second with some dogs. Others are little angels. You must be so frustrated... Not only does he destroy your stuff, but then goes and gets sick from munching on it all. Hope the vet doesn't cost you too much. Wish we could send them to work off their debts sometimes lol. Good luck.

Welcome back Jed!!! DOL feels better now somehow... something has been missing all this time

Yep, Tam from Beagle Rescue Victoria (crazy beagle lady) has been amazing, giving me all sorts of advice and help. This isn't even one of her rescues, so I'm so lucky she's been around to help out. I just don't want to bug her with every little question, so came to bug DOL instead hehe. I think I'll have a look at this NILIF, sounds interesting. I don't want to come down hard on her at all, I really just want her to be happy.

Thanks so much everyone Photos! I only have iphone ones at the moment! I will definitely take some tomorrow, she is absolutely stunning in my opinion!!! We had a training session today with 'sit' and 'come' where I tried to remember everything the dog trainers taught me many, many years ago. Abby will do anything for chicken! She's now sitting at every opportunity lol. When I'm in the kitchen cooking, every time I look at her, she sits. Every time we carry something in our hands, she'll run in front of us then sit. It's hilarious! She either already knew sit from her previous life, or she's a really fast learner. I've been given the advice that you really must be firm with beagles, and never let them get away with stuff even as a once off, because as you guys pointed out, they can be stubborn creatures. So now I'm not sure whether I should go soft on her because she is new here and doesn't know my rules and my phrases/terms, or whether I should just go hard right from the start and hope she picks it up. I definitely got the feeling she was asking 'what's in it for me' a few times today... though, once chicken was involved, all her questions were answered! Thanks for your help everyone, I promise some photos tomorrow

Hi everyone I have a new foster girl, a 3yo beagle. I've never owned beagles before, so I'm a little out of my depth trying to work out how her mind works. I'm just wondering about the best way to discipline her. We have a no dogs allowed on beds or couches rule at my place, which I'm trying to teach her. I just walked into the loungeroom before to find her snuggled up on our good couch. I yelled 'Uh UH!!!' and said 'GET DOWN' and pointed at the ground. Obviously after only 2 days here, she can't know everything I'm saying to her, or know what I wanted, so I picked her up (gently, as she's just been desexed) and put her on the ground saying 'NO COUCH!!'. She stood for a second looking at me, then jumped straight back onto the couch. I firmly said 'NO, DOWN' again, and pointed at the floor, but she just snuggled deeper! Repeated above steps. She looked at me again, and jumped straight back onto the couch. Am I incorrect in thinking she was being deliberately disobedient? She refused to get down by voice alone. I don't hit my dogs, so I won't hit her, but I've never had a dog like this before! On the third attempt, I think I sounded a bit more mad, because she became all cringy and submissive as she rolled over onto her back (still on my couch!). I've just had to put her outside for a bit because I don't know what to do regarding punishment! I don't want to lock her away because she sleeps in the spare bathroom at night and I don't want her to associate her bedroom with a naughty corner! Do beagles respond better to positive or negative reinforcement? Should I have tempted her off the couch with a treat and then praised her? Or should I negatively reinforce that the couch is not ok? This may be the first of many questions hehe. I've only owned staffies and kelpies before really, this beagle is another kettle of fish!

Hmm, very interesting Thanks all

Apologies if this has been asked before: How can you tell if a dog is growling and carrying on because it's fear aggressive, compared to a dog who's just plain mean...? I visited my local pound yesterday, and as I was walking past a pen with a SWF maltese x, I noticed a big red 'Caution' sign stuck over her cage. So, as advised, I cautiously approached her, very slowly, talking to her as I walked up. She came to the front of the pen but was growling as ferociously as a bundle of fluff can growl as she came up. I wasn't being threatening (I don't think), I wasn't carrying anything, I didn't have another dog with me, I just crouched down a bit of a distance away to talk to her. She didn't let up at all, and after about a minute, was trembling all over. Not sure if it was the effort of it all, or if she was just really scared... I'm asking out of curiosity only, I'm not intending on putting my name on her, but how do you guys decide if a pound dog will relax and become lovely with time and patience, or if it's just a mean, nasty little dog?

hahahahahah! he looks so disgruntled!

omgggggggg that is the cutest puppy ever! Thanks for sharing

Thanks for your help everyone <3 I think I'll attempt to do the face-to-face thing first, but trying to decide if I should get my bf to come with me, or would that look like I was trying to threaten them? (He's not very scary looking, I just wonder if 2 ppl is overkill!). I'd love to do the letter, but then if it doesn't work, and I have to do the face-to-face thing later, it will be very obvious who wrote the letter.... If they do turn out to be horrible people, I guess I'll go the council route. It's just so frustrating! I wish they hadn't bought the poor dog, he's obviously not happy if he's barking all day long. Although, I went to the fence to talk to him a while ago, and he growled menacingly at me even though I was calling him nice names... maybe he's not very nice either lol!

I know dogs bark, and I don't mind a bit of barking from anyone's dog.. but mindless, senseless, ongoing, high pitched, irritating barking for no reason, that goes on and on and on is just not ok in suburbia imo... Our neighbours must have bought a new dog, and from the sounds of it, it's not particularly young (I did the crazy lady peeking over the fence thing, but couldn't see him because he was under some form of shelter) which barks from about 5am till midnight, with only a few short breaks for meals, every single day of the week. I would feel sorry for him, because I assumed his owners were never home, and he must be bored, but I realised about a week ago, that the owners are very much at home, all the time, but they just don't do anything about the barking. The most sensible thing to do would be to go over and have a chat with them, but I'm being a wimp, because I actually don't think they're very nice (or normal!) people. They keep stealing our wheely bins from the front of OUR yard (with our house number clearly marked) because it's bigger than theirs I assume... and they park their spare cars on the patch of grass in front of our house, not their own, for no reason I can see, which means my bf's truck has to go around the corner somewhere. And who on earth lets their new dog bark incessently from the day they buy it! Aghhh! Is there a better way to do this? Should I do the old anonymous letter in their mailbox thing? (we're on a corner, so it wouldn't take a genius to work out who left the note, and I feel it's a bit of a cop out lol). Should I just go straight to whoever deals with this stuff? Council? Cops? Should I start a bark diary!? If I decide to stop being dumb, what should I say to these odd people? I'm used to the 'hi, your dog is barking all day while you're out' "Oh, he is? I'm so sorrry" conversation.. but they KNOW their dog is barking! I don't get it! Any advice would be great <3

Come home Magnus! Your mum needs you right now :rofl: Missing you on here already Jed, come back to us sooooooon! We <3 you!!! Steve, like everyone else, please let me know if I can help in any way beyond a simple donation. I shall hold the wallets of my fellow Gippslanders hostage if required!

Hi everyone I am seeking some good ideas on how to contain my brand new foster boy (lab x pointer) in my yard.... I picked him up from Albury on Wednesday, and by last night, he had already escaped. I think the local pound have him atm, I'll be going down to bail him out later this afternoon, but I need to find a way this will not happen again. I have a fully enclosed backyard with solid wood 6ft fences surrounding most of it, and in some parts, there are fence extensions making them even higher. There are no holes, gaps, sneaky escape spots or anything. I didn't see him escape, so I can only assume he jumped the fence; that or scaled it. I'll be trying to find out how he did it, but until then, are there any good ways to keep a dog in the backyard? I live in a rental property, so can't make any permanent modifications, and I'm relatively short on cash. Also, as he's a foster, ideally, whatever is set up would be able to be transferred/given/sold to his new owners. He's a very, very smart dog. I think he just gets bored when no one is home, and can't see a reason to stay in a yard by himself when it's easy to just jump and leave. I can give him all the usual fun things (kongs, toys, bones etc) but as we all work full time, I can't see those things entertaining him for 8-10 hours every day, enough to keep him wanting to stay. Any ideas would be welcomed

Awww Kaye... He really was a beautiful boy... even if he was an old grump at times

I've just signed up for ADT. Have my novice class on Sunday at Heidelberg centre.... Can't wait!!! Hopefully the technique suits my girl. Might see you there Haven!! Liz

Sas you poor thing. He was gorgeous, and now he'll be a beautiful memory forever. Rest in Peace Turbo

OOh, thanks for asking this O'ren... I'll watch this thread with a beady eye.... Sorry I have nothing good to add though, I'm just going to sponge off the answers you get... very useful thing you are ;p

Thanks everyone *hugs* I'm actually on holidays in sunny Mildura atm, hence my tardy reply, but coz I'm DOL addicted I'll be heading to an internet cafe for a 'coffee' every couple of days. I've spoken to my Mum about the prong collar and she's willing to give it a try, so when I get back I'll let her read everything you've said and ask her what she'd like to do. She's very unwell so I don't think she'd be able to take them to obedience classes but that can't stop my sister and I from doing it. I think borrowing one and seeing how it goes is a great option, I hear they're quite expensive, so that's probably the smart way to go, but I'll worry about details later. I hear ADT are just about the best you can get, so I'd definately be trying them first. Thanks erny I'll be sure to chase you down and pm you to death (agh!) when i get back to melbourne. Just as a final thing, I've seen those 'sporn halters' around in the shops, and they have a collar/arm band/harness-looking contraption around the two front legs... Anyone tried them? Good/bad/useless/awesome??? I think mum would like the idea of nice sherpa padding around Inka's legs.... pah! Pampered dog she is... <-- most likely half the problem Thanks heaps again everyone, you're so helpful!!

Hmm... I cannot imagine my over-protective mother letting me try one of those prong collars on her precious baby Scope... :rolleyes: Where could I buy one in Australia? I think I read that Sas uses these on her danes. Anyone have any negative experiences with these collars? I need to see both sides if I turn up with that 'torture device' at home. They look very promising IMO. Thanks very much for your responses everyone.