My husband and I have been preparing for a beagle for about three years. We read about the breed, met beagles, researched training methods, prepared to pay for huge vet bills and obedience training. We even began studying up on agility and other things that beagles tend to be quite good at. We knew about the stubborn streak and the characteristic “nose-iness.” We understood that our beagle would never be off-lead outside in an unfenced area, and we understood the need beagles have for closeness with their pack ( ie. They need to live in the house with the family and they don’t tolerate long stretches of alone time).Kioko came to us from dubious circumstances. We do not know, and have no way of finding out, how she was raised from whelping box to pet store. She was 7 months old when we brought her home, and we suspect that there were a LOT of problematic circumstances for Kioko during those months because she has a few training issues that are proving very difficult to deal with. There is one in particular that we are finding impossible to overcome, and if we can’t find a way to make some progress soon, it will be the reason she loses what we wanted to be her forever home with us. That reason is: Kioko will not house train.
I am a stay-home wife and mother, so I am at home with Kioko almost every waking hour. Kioko is taken out for potty to the same spot about once per hour throughout the day, and that has been consistent for every day of the four weeks we’ve had her home. It is exhausting, and it is also largely unsuccessful. She receives regular and very thorough veterinary care. She is not sick, and that is not the cause of her aversion to potty training. After a month of excitement followed by patience which dissolved into disappointment that turned into frustration which became anger that melted into tearful hurt and despair…I know exactly why my beagle won’t potty train.
Kioko has no “den instinct,” which is that tendency most dogs have to keep their sleeping and eating areas clean. It is almost universal that dogs will not poop or pee where they sleep. Kioko has no qualms about urinating or defecating in her crate and then lying down in it. For this reason, my husband and I can only assume that she was put in a crate and left there the majority of her toddler hood without any guidance about potty training whatsoever. When this happens to dogs (which it nearly universally does in puppy mill breeding situations), it makes crate training a guaranteed failure. Kioko does not see her crate as a den or as any other comforting analogy to a home in the wild. She is 7 months old and perfectly physically capable of holding her bowels and bladder for an overnight sleep, and she has never been left, during waking hours, for more than 3 hours at a time in her crate. She soils her crate almost every single time she is put into it. She eliminates totally without discrimination…wherever and whenever it occurs to her to do so. In addition, the concept of going outside and eliminating on grass or soil is totally foreign to her. She does not view an outdoor substrate any more favorably than an inside surface…in fact, the opposite is true. Kioko PREFERS soiling her crate to eliminating outside, and she will hold it for over an hour outside only to come in and soil her crate within moments of returning to the house.
There are other methods by which people potty train dogs, and this blog is going to be the place that I share with whoever cares to read about it, the mechanics and results of our efforts to housebreak our beagle. In all my searching online and in books, and after all my inquiries to forums and dog professionals, the ONLY useful information about house training problems like Kioko's was located here: http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1713 In all my searching, that was the one and only article I found that would admit dogs like mine even exist. If you are feeling the same frustrations with your own dog, please have a look at this article and know that you are not imagining things. Sometimes..."sticking with it" with regard to crate training is never going to help a dog. In my case, it was counter-productive at best and harmful to Kioko's bonding with us at worst.
We love this dog, and we want her to be happy and live as a member of our family for the rest of her natural life. I certainly hope we can make that happen.
God bless the beagles.
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