Beagle Dog
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Beagle Barking
How to Stop “Beagle Barking”
First Things First
While constant barking should be controlled, it is important to understand that a Beagle usually has a very good reason for barking. While their reason may not seem extremely important to you...barking is your dog’s way of communicating with you. If your dog is barking for a valid reason, there is no need to “scold” or try to train your Beagle to stop barking.
There will be other instances where you will want to implement training, such as barking due to Separation Anxiety and other causes.
Let’s Look at the Reasons a Beagle May Bark
Your dog may be trying to convey one of the following things to you, via their bark:
- They are bored or lonely
- They are hungry – perhaps dinner is a bit late? Dogs have an amazing internal clock and know exactly when it is meal time
- Something is unusual or someone's approaching the house – This can be good or bad. Most owners do appreciate being notified when a stranger is coming too close to the home. In other cases, if your Beagle is barking at friends and neighbors, training for those specific instances should be done.
- They want to play – Most dogs are not happy just “sitting around all day”. The Beagle, no matter what the age, will want interaction with its family members.
- Needs to go out – An owner should be pleased to hear this bark! Once house trained, your Beagle will find a way of showing you that they must go outside. This may be physical actions such as pawing at the door or it may be a bark to let you know. This type of bark should be praised; not seen as a negative.
- They see another dog or animal – Just about any dog will bark when seeing another. Of course, there is a major difference between barking to say “hello” and Aggressive Barking. Aggressive Barking should be dealt with by implementing proper training specifically for this situation.
When Barking Not a Good Thing
Sometimes your Beagle may show excessive barking behavior which is not wanted and is not for a valid reason. For example, repeated baying and barking in order to get your attention at an unwanted time.
It is a good sign that your Beagle wants to interact with you! However, sometimes it can be used as a tool of manipulation in order to get extra food, extra pats, etc. If you give in to this type of barking and give your dog what he or she wants, you will be reinforcing the barking behavior. In your attempt to stop the barking, you will actually be doing the exact opposite…and teaching your Beagle that barking = getting what they want. Intense, strict training must then be implemented to stop what has become a learned habit.
Tip: While a human may moan if they have an injury, a dog will usually have a low tone moan when they are feeling happy. A Beagle will most often moan if they are having their tummy rubbed, having their ears touched or another spot on their body that is ticklish. When injured, a Beagle will have a "Yelp" type bark.Example of Training for Specific Bark
There are 9 types of barks and many behavioral issues which may cause a Beagle to bark. All of this is covered in the BeaglePro Book. With limited space on a website, let's look at 1 example of a barking issue. For this example, we will look at:
Disturbance Barking
With disturbance Barking, a certain noise is disturbing your dog. For this example, we will use the element of a siren (car alarms, fire trucks and so forth).
Since a dog's hearing is so heightened, when your Beagle can feel severe aggravation and unrest when there is a sudden, high pitched noise.
Envision if without warning, someone blew a whistle directly into your ear and continued doing it for a while! This is how your Beagle most likely feels when hear a siren.
If a siren is just a very occasional event, perhaps 1 time per month, you can use simply calming techniques.
If you are outside, bring your dog inside. Whether outside or inside, do not scold your Beagle. This reaction is not due to "bad" behavior. Reassure your dog that everything is alright. Talk in a calm voice and gently pat them. Your tone of voice and your actions will be your dog’s cue to know if he or she should be “on alert”. If you remain very calm and act as if all is fine, your dog will learn to mimic you. If you run around closing windows, covering your dog’s ears, etc…this is signaling to your dog that something is indeed “wrong”, thus causing them to bark even more.
If you live in an area that is very noisy with car alarms and sirens always going off, you may wish to attempt to train your dog to cope by desensitizing him or her.
You would obtain a small siren. We have found that using a smoke alarm works well. Duct tape is put over the siren where the noise emits. Use as much as you need so that the end result is that the sound is 1/5 of the normal noise volume when you press the button. Test this before you begin. This training will not end with the maximum noise being emitted. A certain amount of duct tape will always be used.
You would sit down with your dog and press the alarm. The tone of your voice and your actions must show your Beagle that there is nothing to be afraid of. If the dog responds well to the low level siren, you should reward him or her with tons of praise and a doggie treat.
Work with your dog each day. Slowly raise the noise level every 2 weeks by taking away a layer of the tape. As time goes by, be in a different room and do not allow your dog to know when you will be implementing the training. NOTE: Do not have the siren at full noise capacity and hold it up to your dog’s ears! This could cause injury to the ear drum. Once you have worked your way up to turning on the siren at unexpected times, your Beagle will have become adjusted.
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