Abused by dog trainer or is something wrong with my beagle puppy?
Hi! I have a four month old beagle puppy and since I got her, I talked to a lot of people. And it keeps happening: some people say, she would be problematic and doesn’t behave like a „normal“ puppy. Because she’s super super high energy and bites a lot. Of course she also has some other tendencies like pulling my pants etc. Also she barks whenever I leave for around at least 1 hour. I live alone, that’s why I do have to leave her behind to buy groceries.
Including my dog trainer, she does natural dogmanship (feel free to google) they work without treats and if the puppy doesn’t behave, you’re supposed to take the puppy hold her neck, press her whole body against you and growl. In a way, where she’s not able to move. My puppy didn’t like it at all and got more and more aggressive each time I tried it, so I stopped. Also she started biting aggressively, which for me is of course not normal for a four month old puppy. As said, after 1-3 days I stopped doing it. For me personally, this is also punishment. If you’re reading this and you’re known to natural dogmanship, please share any info below.
Last Saturday we had a traumatic experience, because as said, I didn’t do it anymore and went into positive reinforcement with treats and words. Still though visited dog school, because she was able to play with other puppy’s. Then the trainer decided, that it would be best to show everyone, that it does indeed work with Mika. My heart is broken since then, I didn’t take action and she tried it with Mika (the holding her by her neck and pushing her against her - because Mika way playfully biting). She screamed so loud and went into full aggression mode. Bites, screamed etc., that I started crying, took her and left. She tried this neck thing for 4-5 times! Everytime when Mika stopped making a fuss, she would let her down and tried to make her sit next to her. Mika tried to playfully bite her and she did the whole thing again. I had to watch with other puppy owners watching. And kept saying: it’s a good thing that you all see how other puppy’s behave.
I’m so mad at this comment from her!! What do you mean?? Because my puppy need another way of learning? Because YOUR shit techniques are not working?
Wrote her a huge message and now we have another dog trainer. Since then I’m picking up the pieces. I feel like, we’re both traumatized from this. And they say: your dog is supposed to accept the limitation that you set. They sell this under „limitation“ but for me it’s 100% punishment. I attach a picture of her after dog school. In the car she sits usually very close to me, becasuce she’s still unsure about the car.
The teacher kept saying thinks like:
- the breeder probably did something with her
- she made bad experiences with humans (YES and WE WERE those humans or YOUR techniques)
- she’s sick (because she had worms, even though she had two treatsments for that - but that indeed does happen sometimes! Besides that she is 100% healthy)
Since it happened I stopped all training and just kept having „fun“ went to see my family, where she’s all happy. She loves people and her grantparents, kisses their faces. She got a lot of treats and unusually slept a lot.
As said, my heart is broken. I’ve been crying since then and learning, how to gain her trust back. This will never happen again, no one is ever allowed again, to do any teaching towards my dog and if someone touches my dog in a way I don’t like, I’ll immestielty (at least right know) will puns… them in the face.
So everyone keeps saying, she’s problematic at dog school, but whenever I meet people that are known to beagles they say: no, she’s totally normal. THAT is a beagle, and I feel so relived after that. I feel like a huge and wonderful part of puppyhood has been taken from me, because I kept thinking something is wrong with her.
Everything that she knows: sit, paw, wait, no, she knows through me and we’re practicing everyday.
I don’t know what I’m looking for in your answers, I just felt like sharing this story with other people who are known to beagles could be the right thing.