Teach Your Beagle to Recognize His Name With These Dog Obedience Training Tips

Video Transcript

"Hi! I’m Melanie McLeroy with Taurus Training for Expert Village and it’s the time to talk about Beagles. Bailey the beagle here is now going to learn how to pay attention. Now, when I was talking about breed characteristics of beagles, I mentioned that they love food. Well, little bailey here for the last 20 seconds, has been offering me all sorts of behaviors, putting on the food pouch made all the difference in the world. Remember as you are training your beagle that you want to use food as a reward, not a bribe, it’s especially important with dogs who are so intent on food. You don’t want them to be more intent on the food than on you. You should be the source of food, not a pest dispenser. So, I’m going to move around a little bit, try to hide my treats. So, I can get a little more success. Bailey obviously had a little training because he knows what the treat noises are. He’s looking away, so I’m going to say his name and mark exactly when he looks at me to show him what I want him to do. In other words, I’m using his name to teach him to pay attention. Bailey, good, excellent, I hope you could see that on the camera, because he made really nice sustained eye contact, which is something that he did not do until he knew I have the food. Bailey, good, he looked away, good, excellent. This little beagle is adorable and very bright. Bailey, good. Now after they make eye contact, you can also release them before you give them the treat that teaches them that looking away is on your terms, not theirs, Bailey, good, good, okay. Now he’s looking away a little bit. So, I want to encourage some sustained eye contact. That is why I’m waiting longer and longer before I give him the treat. Bailey, good, okay, that one was much better, good boy. Now, if your dog has a good response to their name, then you can use that in lieu of other commands, you can use it as a come command, stop, pay attention, look at you, drop it, lead it, all sorts of things. The reason we really like to reinforce our dogs’ responding to their name is that a dog will look brilliant and pay attention to you if you reinforce them looking at you when you say their names from a very young age. It can be especially helpful when you have the beagle at the dog park, good boy, now there I just rewarded, this beagle paying attention. "