Beagle issues..help please!!
 

I have a three year old 13' Beagle. She is a real sweetie but she EATS
EVERYTHING!!! I don't mean she has a chewing problem...I mean she eats things.
She ate our TV remote once, she eats cardboard, she eats the other dogs poop
often. This time she ate a plastic clothes hamper. Chews it up into small pieces and
swallows them. I am very worried about this. She vomited up a bunch of pieces of
the hamper but is now very very lethargic and not eating supper. (if you have a
beagle...you know they NEVER skip a meal!) Another 20 mins or so and if she doesn't
start looking better we will be calling an after hours vet clinic. Any input on how to
stop this behavior? PLEASE and THANKS
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The only way to get it under control is with a kennel. If the dog isn't with you, it goes into the kennel. Of course this means that you have to spend quality time with her when you are home and also arrange for a good size outdoor kennel for when you are away longer, where the dog may need to go potty. After getting the dog kennel trained, this will be the most normal thing in the world for your dog.

I used to have a beagle we rescued and hosted until we could find her a new home. She also ate everything. We had her in a kennel and it wasn't a problem. This was a great experience - now I know what dog NOT to get. ;)

HTH

G (who has 2 kennel trained dogs)

Don't mess around, a quick x ray should show anything she ate if it wasn't food......
Could it wait til morning? I'm not a vet, so I can't say.....trust you're gut......
In the worse case scenario it'd be better to act immediately....

Holy crap, a 13-foot beagle!

Hope she feels better.

Hahahahahaha. That was my first thought as well.

I can understand your intense concern - big time problem.
Sounds like anxiety, cubed.
Keep us current.

LMFAO!!! I needed a good laugh!!!! I meant 13" Beagle!!! The old Japanese movie makers would have a heyday with a 13 foot garbage truck like this hound!!!

She has vomited and had a couple loose BM's now seems way better.

My blue healer mix is so very different from this little girl.

I think the Kennel might solve OUR problems with her destruction but is it really solving the dogs issues?

A beagle that my dawg and I team up with for our morning walks was a real porker. The owner, Ben, got him onto better low fat, low this and that, but slightly expensive vet quality dog food. The pounds fell off him. Ben said it is a lot cheaper than vet bills to keep him at a healthy weight and he is NOT hungry scroungering everything in the park. I think your beagle is just hungry and needs filling up so he doesn't sniff out and eat everything.
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You think of it as "prison". It really isn't. You should look up kennel training on the web and read a little more about it. Dogs adjust well to being confined in a kennel for limited time every day. It also helps their attention to you when they are out. The problem may still get a little better with age, but at 3 she should have outgrown the puppy stuff.

I do like Bill's suggestion on buying some low calorie air food and see if you can fill her up a little better. That said, beagles are black holes when it comes to food, so YMMV!

G

I had to LOL on this one. GREAT! Thanks for sharing.

G

My friend had a beagle that are everything too. One time, she ate gravel. Like big pieces of landscaping gravel. She had to have surgery to get it out. Expensive dog after the several times she had to bring the dog to a vet for the same issue.

Good luck to you but it kind of sounds like a common theme with beagles.

Tweezers. Hate to be a know all smarty pants... But please tell your friend Beagle is lacking minerals.

That used to be the "old wive's tale" regarding dogs who liked to "munch on a turd"...ain't true. They can be "smart as can be", but they are still dumbazz dawgs when you get down to it :D. G is correct about crates, etc. I use them only for the first six months or so, but the dogs don't see them as a prison at all...it's their "den" and would seem to be the ticket for an insatiable beagle...poor dawgy...hope all is well now.

The first dog the wife and I got after we were married was a beagle. He was dumb as dirt and ate everything. Came home one day after work he had eaten 1/4 of the couch fabric including metal zipper ! He pooped that out and I gave him quite the scolding. Later that week he decided to eat some of the matching chair......... I wanted to kill him !!! We kept the dog and eventually he got over eating everything but he never got over being as dumb as dirt. Last beagle we have ever owned.

We used to have beagles, at one point we had three of them... which is technically an infestation.

One of them was like yours... would literally eat & digest socks, books, whatever. But food... wow, that dog loved food. I was bringing groceries in one day and accidentally left some within reach between trips back & forth to the car. In 30 seconds, she ate a WHOLE LOAF OF BREAD, bag and all. Seriously, I couldn't eat a loaf of bread in an hour, but that 35lb dog did in 30 secs

Mike:

What G says is the best advice I can offer as well. My girls are crate-trained and as a result they have their own little spaces they can retreat to when they desire. They sleep in their crates all the time. I never shut the crate doors except on rare occasions such as when the floor is mopped or when I really need to keep them restrained. This was more often when they were puppies than now. The crates are not prisons but rather "dog houses" which serve a purpose for both dog and man.

When Winkipop was young she went through a period where everything in sight was subject to being chewed. During that period I tried to keep everything chewable put out of reach and made sure she had a few toys available at all times. I also used her crate when necessary.

You can find crate-training info all over the net as well as in books.

Also there are many breed-specific talk forums nowadays that might be worth subscribing to. Facebook probably has one too.

Good luck!
Baz and the girls ;)

They're den animals. A kennel may take a week or two to settle with her, but it will be come her "home" once she's used to it.

Thanks Guys and Girls,

She seems to have gotten thru this episode OK. (there have been vet bills in the past, for eating a large rib bone whole, stolen of the patio table, a tree branch once as well!!!)

Yes, very cute, very loving but VERY stupid!! And very difficult to train...she doesn't seem to understand praise or scolding. (I prefer to train with praise, but at some point you end up yelling when your possessions keep getting destroyed)

I will change her food this weekend, any ideas what to look for?

Also, I will try more kennel time. Perhaps the kennel idea hurts me more than it hurts her :rolleyes: .

Thanks for your concern and your ideas folks.

Exactly, I'm not a vet, but I am married to a vet tech. And we have had a beagle.

Crate training is your best solution. I had a husky who was a great dog, but couldn't be trusted around food or an escape to the outside.

One thanksgiving, there were eight of us and we had a real feast. I always made sure the dog ate when we ate so he felt like he was eating with his pack. We were too full for desert, but my wife made a beautiful over stuffed apple pie. The thing had to be twice the size of a normal pie. We took a break before dessert and sat in the family room digesting, leaving the pie in the middle of the dining room table.

You guessed it. Old Ringo jumped onto the table and helped himself! He came into the family room and plopped on the floor on his side, so fat that his upside legs couldn't touch the floor. I looked at him, then remembered the pie. I went into the dining room and there was the pie tin with 80% of the pie missing. The funny part was he got full and couldn't finish! I yelled his name and he bolted into his crate. You see his crate is his den, his safe place.

my Choco Lab was like that at first, he was a rescue pup - got him when he was 3. Some one tried to make him a bird dog but he is more interested in play and other dogs. He would eat everything. He must have chewed through 14 pairs of Yellowbox sandals, a remote a month, various items that escape memory. A true PITA

I as told they chew / eat due to anxiety - some breeds are more anxious than others. Makes no difference - the behavior was unacceptable and had to stop.

Now I know everyone has different techniques, I shall share mine. Dogs are pack animals and respond to a leaders direction. They do want to fit in and want to be lead. Thats a good basis so when you train them you have to respond to some basic level of correction - not punishment. In the pack the leader doesn't punish he corrects He does so to indicate disapproval of behavior - this doesn't mean a swat or in a dogs case a bite. A nip is severe correction if it is coupled with a growl. Keep that in mind.

So - step one, establish Alpha. Easy to do at first. Take him for a walk, use a correction lead (choke collar), keep him on your left, about 3 feet out - not ahead of you (that means your giving up Alpha to be lead), keep him to your side. Now walk him. He will stray and or try to lead. Correct him. No Verbals! Pull on his lead sharply to the side as to create imbalance - dogs hate being off balance. You don't have to keep pulling merely enough to throw him off balance. He will associate his action with that action and won't like it. He will know that his place is not to lead. When you stop he must stop and be in a sit. If not - correct. This has to be done for at least 15 minutes a day. When he does good - love on him. He has to know.

Dogs need exercise, discipline and affection - not unlike kids!

This simple walking training session establishes a few things, it teaches him his place but it also tells him what is acceptable and what is not. Now, you can use this same method with items of chew interest around the home.

With the lead on, present something to him. He will sniff it and thats ok but the moment he opens his mouth for it you are to correct him which is a sharp pull to the side to get him off balance and release just as quickly. Again, don't say anything. He may look at you - blank stare him. You may have to repeat this for several minutes. If you do this several times a day he will quickly get the idea. Use different objects. Also, offer him one of his chew toys without correction. He may get the idea what is good to chew and what is not.

If by chance he does begin to chew something he isn't supposed to outside of this session - correct it quickly and couple it with a firm know. This means you may have to keep a short lead on him at all times for a few days. The harsh verbal coming from Alpha helps.

This technique worked on my Lab - can't say its fool proof and its not the only one

Why is it that a vegetable is like poison to a dog, but a cat turd is caviar? Seriously!

I guess it is universal with beagles. I had one as a kid. The two most memorable "snacks" were a pin cushion (yes with pins in it) and an electrical cord that was plugged in.

It would dig under our fence and chew up neighbors trash bags at night. Ended up getting rid of it.

The problem is the function of a beagle has not been breed out of the breed like many other hunting breeds.....thank God.

That is a beautiful hound that wants nothing more than to hunt rabbits....beagles are not good house dogs..or single pet dogs....they flourish outdoors and in packs. The hound is eating everything because its bored out of her mind. Do her a favor an take her to the woods...then watch the fun.

An exercised, TIRED dog is a happy dog that has a happy owner.

My thought was that she was more bored than anything. The healer can amuse herself by throwing her own ball and chasing it down!!! This one, finds something to eat and has a go at it! Last summer it was some of the exposed plumbing on the pool pump, flooded the back yard and was tricky to repair. How do you keep them amused for the full day while you are at work? I built a dog run outside that works well for summer, but winter means she spends hours cramped up in a kennel. Somebody comes home at least once per day in the winter to let them both out. The healer excels at agility training, but this darn beagle just wants to eat and sleep...maybe we gotta take up Rabbit hunting? Funny thing is, we have a rabbit in our house, left over from my grown up daughter, that the beagle couldn't care less about! The healer wants to eat it!!! Internet searches on how to keep your beagle amused and engaged are my next step....Thanks again.
Mike

Oh and I talked to our vet, changed her food up to a higher protein, less filling, no grain product suitable for weight control type of food. WOW!!! PRICEY STUFF!!! We will see if that has any effect on her "appetite". ;)

Definitely run the dog hard every day, twice a day if possible. Wearing a beagle out isn't to tough. Take the bicycle to speed it up. Split the duty in the family. Will be good for the humans too.

The dogs don't play?

Careful taking a beagle out in the field. I'd want telemetry or GPS equipment on one if I'd be serious about it. They tend to wander off on the first good track. People joke about going rabbit hunting for the first hour of the day and spending the rest of the day hunting down the beagle.

G

Wearing a beagle out isn't to tough, but take in the field you have to chase them all day?

I had beagles my whole life and half that is true. A single untrained dog in the field can wander, wearing one out....... good luck. Any untrained hunting dog is going to lose you any chance they get....beagles trained and in pairs or packs are a wonder to watch.
I wouldn't recommend a beagle as just a house pet.

/\/\/\/\HAHAHA...I've had a couple hunts like that!

They wander off. If in cover, they don't have to be more than 30 yards for you to lose them. You call them and they aren't coming back. You can hike after them and play that game all day. I am not sure if they respond well to a training collar to get them to return, like a big game hound. I never had the desire to hunt rabbits with beagles after I took out that rescue hound once. I am convinced that's how she ended up lost in the first place. Someone was sick of bailing her out at the pound. I was lucky we were able to run her down when she headed for the hills. :cool:

G