Beagle won't use side yard

[jbegan]

Hi.. Wonder if someone can advise me.

I adopted what I believe is a rescue beagle which used to live in a home, but the owner moved to a condo which didn't allow pets.

It's very sweet, not at all aggressive and for the longest time didn't pee or poop in the home. I had a dog door out to the back deck (16 foot by 70 foot) and walked it etc. Eventually, it began finding corners and unused rooms to pee in and would wait till I wasn't in the room to mark a corner or furniture etc. (I do understand this is normal dog behavior), but after losing $2500 worth of carpet and incurring a lot of cleaning bills, I decided it would be better to keep him in a dog house outside and let him in when I could keep an eye on him.

Everything worked pretty well. To vary his activity, I installed a 100 foot zipline in the front yard and would hook him up to that. And finally, I built a 24 foot by 12 foot fenced area that connects to the deck by means of a short staircase. And I take him to a large fenced dog park locally to mix with other dogs.

If he breaks free, he's gone for days till someone calls me. We have wild animals up here and cars that should be watching for animals, but don't (the deer massacre is in full swing right now). So I try to be careful of him breaking loose as he pays no attention to anything but whatever scent he's following.

His behavior baffles me. On the zipline, he pulls as close as possible to the house and sits down. He runs around the deck but will not go into the side yard (even when tempted with treats). When we go to the dog park, he just sniffs around a bit and comes back to where I'm reading. But boy! If he breaks free, he's gone!

Why does he not enjoy any of the 'outside' environment like the zipline, side yard or dog run if he's that thrilled to go chase deer when he breaks free?

Thx in advance!

[Barkingdog]

Originally Posted by jbegan

Hi.. Wonder if someone can advise me.

I adopted what I believe is a rescue beagle which used to live in a home, but the owner moved to a condo which didn't allow pets.

It's very sweet, not at all aggressive and for the longest time didn't pee or poop in the home. I had a dog door out to the back deck (16 foot by 70 foot) and walked it etc. Eventually, it began finding corners and unused rooms to pee in and would wait till I wasn't in the room to mark a corner or furniture etc. (I do understand this is normal dog behavior), but after losing $2500 worth of carpet and incurring a lot of cleaning bills, I decided it would be better to keep him in a dog house outside and let him in when I could keep an eye on him.

Everything worked pretty well. To vary his activity, I installed a 100 foot zipline in the front yard and would hook him up to that. And finally, I built a 24 foot by 12 foot fenced area that connects to the deck by means of a short staircase. And I take him to a large fenced dog park locally to mix with other dogs.

If he breaks free, he's gone for days till someone calls me. We have wild animals up here and cars that should be watching for animals, but don't (the deer massacre is in full swing right now). So I try to be careful of him breaking loose as he pays no attention to anything but whatever scent he's following.

His behavior baffles me. On the zipline, he pulls as close as possible to the house and sits down. He runs around the deck but will not go into the side yard (even when tempted with treats). When we go to the dog park, he just sniffs around a bit and comes back to where I'm reading. But boy! If he breaks free, he's gone!

Why does he not enjoy any of the 'outside' environment like the zipline, side yard or dog run if he's that thrilled to go chase deer when he breaks free?

Thx in advance!

You have a hunting dog and heis bred to hunt . We had a beagle growing up and when went to our summer camp in NH our beagle would be gone all day and when he came back home he would eat then sleep and do it all over again the next day. Have you tried getting him for long walks in a park or woods and let just follow his nose for a hour so he will at least think he is hunting? I do this with my dog and he think he is 'hunting' and when he get home he will be tried from using his mind and take a nap and some 'talk in his sleep. I guess he is dreaming of being a big game hunter! LOL!!

[tenderfoot]

Start doing some scent work with him. Take some string cheese and tie it to a long string. Drag it all over your yard, deck etc in a fun pattern, end the trail with a piece of the cheese. Then ask him to find it and teach him to track. Yes, there are lots of details to teaching a dog to track (you can google it) but even the simplest components can be entertaining.

You can create all kinds of fun scent games. Take 8 small/med. cardboard boxes and hide a treat in one and have him pick the right box.

Take a muffin tin and put a little treat in one cup and cover the cups with a appropriately sized rock in each cup. Then have him scent out the treat.

Take a favorite toy or new bone and hide it in the house. Help him the first few times but then have him hunt out his own bones/toys.

Use your imagination and start creating games that involve his talents and give you both fun games to play together.