You came into the thread scolding the OP, based on nothing more than an assumption you leapt upon.
You were rude. Your criticism of the OP was gratuitous, particularly since it was employed primarily as excuse to extol your own excellence.
You enjoy behaving aggressively. Your choice. This time it backfired. Live with it.
I was referring to your words, not your person. I was saying that what you were doing was not criticism. An ad hoimem attack would have said that your words were wrong because of some flaw in your person. I was saying that your words were wrong because they did not rise to the level of criticism. If you have perceived what I have said as an attack on you personally, I do apologize for the misunderstanding.
Omega Glory: Yesterday morning I was up with the puppy after ~4 hours of sleep (unfortunately because she had pooped in her crate), and then was up again with her 4 hours later, and you know what? I wasn’t nearly as much of a zombie yesterday as I thought I would be! Happily, this morning she slept for nearly 7 hours straight (I think my alarm woke her, as there was never so much as a whine before I took her out), but if we start having mid-night issues again I’d be much more willing to try your approach now. So thanks – and a thousand thanks, again, for reminding me about Kongs. This morning Bailey got a frozen one filled with Simply Jif (lower sugar and less sodium than regular peanut butter), and it’s like she was in puppy heaven. 
LOL!
So true! I’ve had plenty of experience with this phenomenon with our other Beagle. Even with her, at 5 years old, it’s sometimes frustrating to know that she has to pee, take her outside, and then have to wait 10 minutes while she sniffs the air. They are so easily distracted. But they make up for it in other ways.
Misnomer, here’s another source that comes highly regarded.
With the leash issue - I’m fostering a rescue right now and he was the same way. Having him on the leash and calling/whistling/“Come on! Let’s go!” and making it exciting broke him of his fear of the leash in two days. Lots of praise as well. If he sat stubbornly but he came if I said “Ok, let’s go!”, it was all “Good boy” and a good pet.
Misnomer, of course people will disagree about what book is best. Choose one and stick to it; there won’t be disagreement within the book.
FYI, from working in the pet industry I can tell you this is absolutely not the case. The nature of your misconceptions, as outlined in the OP, and the fact that a great number of adults whom you’d assume would know better do exactly that–get a puppy with zero preparation and are then surprised when they’re not self-training. It wasn’t meant as an insult; it was an educated guess based on the available data. You should be able to correct the guess with additional data, without taking it personally.
At any rate, I’m personally familiar with all the books recommended, and still I recommend Mother Knows Best. It’s about the most intuitive system I know of; it’s based on observations of wild dogs and wolves and how the mother dog “teaches” her pups how to get along in a pack environment.
If you already have a decent book, though, stick with that. The number one importantest thing to remember: STICK TO IT. You have to be consistent. 100% consistent; 99% consistent equals inconsistent. Consistency will make it clear to your dog what results are ALWAYS expected from what causes; if you’re inconsistent, it will take MUCH longer for him to figure out that the result is USUALLY this or that. “Usually” is too abstract for a dog: do both of yourself a favor, and focus on consistency.
Thanks, but I’d rather read several books and get varying input and then do what makes sense for me and this particular puppy. Which is what I did/am doing.
I didn’t present any conceptions – mis or otherwise – in the OP.
Perhaps “and who cares about animals” wasn’t clear enough: anyone who would get a puppy without preparation and expect training to just happen doesn’t truly care about animals, as far as I’m concerned.
It was not an educated guess, it was a fairly large presumption – and one based on hardly any data. Regardless, it wouldn’t have killed you to ask some clarifying questions before jumping to your conclusion. I only took it as personally as I’d take any minor internet insult, but don’t you think it’s rather condescending for you to tell me how I “should” feel/react?
Yes, that’s a lesson I already knew from both my previous pet and the dog that my SO and I currently have. It can be easier said than done, especially early on, but it’s worth repeating/remembering. Thanks!
That’s great. I’m glad things are going well with her.
I’ll have to see if I can find some of that healthier peanut butter for my lab puppy’s kong. Her humongous kong would probably take half the jar though. 
Word to the wise – Kongs and other toys with two openings can present a danger if one of the openings is blocked – suction can build up and trap/wound the dog’s tongue. This story is not about a Kong brand item but a similar item.
For unsupervised time with a peanut-butter-toy we prefer a toy with “dental ridges”; you put peanut butter in the grooves and the dog gets his/her teeth cleaned while extracting the delicious elixir of joy. No holes for suction injuries. Here’s a model we give Simone in her crate – she adores it and will go sit in her crate trembling with anticipation every time we open the peanut butter jar.
Edit: we don’t freeze the PB; we just smear it into the cracks pretty thoroughly.
We started off by giving her the puppy Kong teething stick, and that’s still the preferred toy during the day/evenings (and is the only one that we don’t allow the other dog to chew on). She only gets the frozen peanut butter one in the mornings (and just once each day), when we want her to be seriously distracted in her playpen while we take turns getting dressed, taking care of the other dog, etc.
What a great idea! We use puppy Stuff’N in the teething stick, but only inside the toy and she pretty much loses interest once most of the filling is gone. Putting peanut butter between the cracks would work very well – plus, it’s cheaper than Stuff’N. Thanks!
Gotta disagree here. The Master’s person is absolutely sacrosanct. Absolutely.
Dogs are stupid, and it takes them quite a while to understand exceptions. Therefore, it is best not to have exceptions. You don’t have to be mean, you just have to make it clear that you mean business, and that you are in charge. The dog will be a lot happier and more secure if he understands that right from the start.
As far as the leash goes, you might want to play a fun game every night of “Who Wants to Put On His Leash and Have Supper?” Tempt him into it with one piece of kibble. If he doesn’t want to play the fun game, fine - wait fifteen minutes and see if he changes his mind.
The rules of the game are simple. Player A (“The Dog”) sits quietly while Player B (“The Master”) puts the leash on Player A. Then Player A wears the leash while Player B prepares the Nice Supper. If Player B is kind and consistent (especially the consistent part) Player A will decide pretty quick that this is, indeed, a fun game. Thus the association is made that Leash = Good Times Ahead.
Puppy classes are nearly always a good idea. So is paying a bit more attention to the older dog than to the puppy. Train them together, if you like, but the one who already knows the rules is the one who is second in command of the pack, if you know what I mean.
Good luck. Beagles are not the sharpest tool in the shed, but they can be nice dogs with proper handling.
For a good writeup on bite inhibition, which I used with great success on my wild little unsocialized pit bull, Google “The Bite Stops Here By Dr. Ian Dunbar” (it’s on numerous dog resource sites). Or here’s one good link to it. Even the footnotes are illuminating.
I agree. We’re not letting her nibble on us, our clothes, or anything else we don’t want her chewing on. At first my SO let her nip his hands as a way of playing with her, but I made it clear that I don’t want to allow any biting and he stopped right away. Now we both spend most of our time with her – when she’s awake – saying “no!” and putting an acceptable chew toy in her mouth. Over and over and over, but we both know that’s how puppies learn. Eventually. We hope. 
I’ve already said a few times that she’s much better with it now, but thanks for the tips! I think we just had a young puppy who’d never had a leash attached to her collar before and was suddenly having this thing pulling at her neck whenever she was outside in the cold/wet. It’s understandable that she wouldn’t love it at first, but she’s pretty used to it now. Thankfully!
Frankly I’ve been on the fence about the puppy class, because I caught part of a class at the same store and they were using a clicker – which many people swear by, including at least one person in this thread, but which neither my SO nor I are crazy about. I don’t want to pay $120 (which I’m sure is nonrefundable) just to find out that I don’t agree with their training method, you know? That said, what I saw didn’t look like a puppy class, and it seems as though basic commands are just one part of the class. My vet comes to check out Bailey tonight, and I’ll ask if she’s heard anything good/bad about this particular class. If I decide to do it I’ll have to sign up tomorrow, because classes start on Saturday! Most of me is leaning towards doing it, though, largely because I want Bailey to have the social interaction with other dogs and other people.
Oh, we’re definitely making sure that Tara (the older dog) gets plenty of attention.
Hmmm. My dog is 2 years old and we often play by allowing him to play bite my arms. “Excessively strong” biting has been admonished.
Now what? Is there harm that can come of this?
I’m not sure this is actually the best way to go … My concern is that you’re actually teaching your dog that ‘no’ means ‘I get a yummy chew toy’. I’m not an expert, by any stretch, but I have read a lot on the subject and I have several dogs so take that for what it’s worth. I’ve had success using a couple of methods (depending on the circumstance and the dog in question). Either saying ‘ow’ and stopping play, rinse and repeat, or actually grasping the dogs lower jaw and holding it for a second (thumb on the tongue, fingers around the bottom of the jaw). The theory with the second method is that the dog doesn’t like that and will associate trying to bite with the unpleasant experience. I’ve only used the second method with assertively mouthy dogs, so I wouldn’t start out there.
Re play-biting - my pittie did it when I got him, I think his previous owners allowed it. It’s hard because he loves playing that way with other pitties, it’s his favourite thing to do.
Whenever he did it to me, I would say “no bite!” and then (if he didn’t stop instantly) retract my hands and fold my arms and act all offended and turn away. (If I did anything else he considered it playing.) This did work eventually. One time I watched as he opened his mouth wide for a friendly chomp on my arm, and then he paused briefly for contemplation, and I swear I saw a light bulb go off over his head, and he turned his head away and yawned.
I never permitted any biting so he doesn’t do it any more, unless you start playing with him by sticking your hands near his mouth, in which case he’ll go for it. But then you’ve brought it on yourself. Some people even bite him back, and he loves it.
That’s a mistake, I think. There are many different systems that work, but they tend to work as a system: picking and choosing, mixing and matching random bits of different systems, is asking for trouble, IMO. I think you’ll have a better chance of staying consistent within a system if you focus on one system. I know I would, at any rate.
Well, the one that stuck out was—
For a puppy that young, at the extreme end of her holding-it time (5 hours), you don’t “let her out of the crate” to poop on the rug. You scoop her out of the crate, putting the leash on on the fly, and you don’t let her feet touch the ground till she’s outside, in legal poop territory. You’re assuming she’ll instinctively know the carpet is off limits; you’re surprised when she poops there. But the reason a crate works is that it limits her choices, reduces her likelihood of making the wrong choices and building bad habits. It divides the world into two places: her bed, and the rest of the world. There’s only ONE place she instinctively doesn’t poop; the rest of the world is open. By putting her on the carpet, as far as she was concerned, you were giving her permission to poop there. You haven’t distinguished between the carpet and the lawn; you’ve expected her to know the difference. Anyway, that’s a pretty basic point, which is why I made an educated guess about your knowledge level. Again, I’m happy to be corrected, but I still think it’s silly for you to take it as a personal insult.
I might share your concern if that were the only time the puppy hears “no.” I do appreciate your experience/opinion, but this is what more than one resource has recommended and it makes sense to me.
I respect your opinion, but I have to do what I think is best for my dog.
There you go again, making assumptions about my assumptions. Of course I didn’t assume that she’d know the carpet is off-limits, and the last thing I was when she pooped there was surprised. I gently said “no” because she needed to start hearing it, but I wasn’t surprised or mad at all: it was my own fault. It was the very first time I took her out of her crate and I’d only had 3.5 hours of sleep, and I mistakenly let her go instead of scooping her up (which I’ve done every time since, btw). But oh noes, I wasn’t immediately a perfect dog trainer, therefore I must be expecting the dog to train itself! :rolleyes:
Personally, if someone asks for advice on something I feel like I can offer advice on, I’ll just jump in and answer the question, sharing what I know, I won’t first stop to minutely analyze the likely extent of the questioner’s exact knowledge on the subject, for the sole reason of pre-emptively shielding the questioner from a paranoid defensiveness, simply because I’ve answered the question. In fact, I’ll probably err on the side of offering MORE information, rather than less–thereby increasing your sense of being insulted, I guess.
Do I know you? No, I don’t. Why would you imagine, therefore, that my answer to your question was somehow intended as a personal insult? Which it would only be if I DID, in fact, know you and your exact level of knowledge on the subject.
IOW, hon, if you’re going to go on the internet and ask for basic, 101-level advice about training your puppy, and then get defensive and huffy when people respond without first acknowledging that you must, of course, already know all there is to know about the subject, then maybe you shouldn’t ask for advice on the internet. Just sayin.
Good luck with the dog. You’ll pick up tips and experience a lot faster, to the dog’s advantage, if you don’t immediately get offensive when people offer the advice you’ve asked for.