I agree with pretty much everything has been said so far. You have been given great advice!!! Just a couple of things that I wanted to add that have worked for me and some of the people whose dogs I have trained:
Exercise is GREAT!!! It drains energy BUT your dog dragging you all over the place defies the purpose of the exercise. Having the "death grip" on your leash and dragging your heels in the dust in an attempt to hold your dog back is counterproductive. All it does is the dog pulling more forward. Aside, as you said, it is not a lot of fun, it will tire you more out than your dog.
I would recommend that you get either a "Gentle Leader"
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...ubref=AA&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=001311900300P or what is technically a show collar
http://www.ryanspet.com/ryanspet/productList.asp?categoryCode=283&startItemCnt=1
With both of them the collar stays right behind the dog's ears which is a pressure point and gives you more control without going into a pulling match which you - as you probably know - will inevitably lose. Moreover, the way most conventional collars sit on the neck it may hurt your dog's trachea.
Be prepared, when you put the gentle leader on your dog probably will start protesting and possibly start bucking like a horse. Ignore it, give a quick pull on the leash - don't jank, say ahah or no and keep walking. He will eventually submit.
If you walk have the dog walk on your left side (if you are right-handed), take the leash in your right hand, put the loop of the leash on your thumb and fold up the leash and hold it in your right hand. The reasons being, for one you hold it in your stronger arm, second, it is across, so when your dog takes off your arm doesn't get janked straight out of the socket and third, you still have the other arm/hand to be able to grab onto the leash.
Now, if you start walking, have your dog stand or sit next to you, tap your left hand on your left thigh, step out with your left foot and say "<<your dog's name>>, heel". If at any time he takes off, give a little pull on the leash (pull him towards you) and say ahah, no, hey or whatever word you chose. If you have done that a few times and he still keeps pulling, stop, turn around and go in the other direction, away from where he wants to pull you. Going in a different direction or walking in a circle usually helps because they have redirect their attention to you and it takes them away from wherever THEY want to go, that way he learns that YOU are in control!
As to the sit, stay, down commands, that is a longer process, you will have to train with him EVERY day, preferrably 10 to 15 minutes twice a day. Two of my 5 dogs are 11-months old puppies, I started training with them very early on and it still is a working progress.
Now, there are two schools of thought, I have worked with both of them successfully.
One is positive reinforcement / treats / clicker training. I think it works very well on sit and even more effectively on down. It does NOT work well with the stay command. The clicker is used to mark a desired behavior, like sit or down where you use the treat to "trick" them into the desired movement - i.e for sit, you give the command, hold the treat above their nose until their bottom moves to the ground, you click and then treat. With down, you have them in a sit position, hold the treat right underneath their nose and then start moving the treat forward, click when they reach the desired position and give them the treat. "Stay" is a little different because you don't reward the action immediately because it is a length of stay and it is hard to treat them, in fact, I think in that case, the treat and clicker is counter productive.
One of my dogs, Pepper, I had tried and tried with treats and clicker to get her to sit, to no avail. As submissive and easy to train as she is otherwise, she would NOT sit, so I changed it, put her on a leash, said SIT, she would just look at me, I would keep the leash tight in my hand and move towards her until she sat and sometimes even push her behind down. It took over a year, 9 months of clicker training without results, then I changed it and now she sits without fail every time. Which just proves, every dog is different.
There really is no right or wrong, you just work with whatever you are more comfortable with, if it doesn't work change to the other method. I am VERY reluctant to give a treat every time they do something right, I use treats VERY sparingly. So I don't do much clicker training anymore BUT they do get lots of praise everytime they do what I ask them to do.
Whatever method you chose for your dog, NEVER EVER repeat a command. Say SIT once, he doesn't sit, depending on the method you chose, either push his behind down or keep the treat in front of his nose until he sits. Many dog owners will repeat and repeat, what the dog will learn, she says sit 5 or 6 times, I will wait until she has said sit for 5 times or I sit whenever I want to, this will send the wrong message. Your goal is to have their little bottoms hit the ground the very first time you give the command.
On the stay, it is a VERY hard command for dogs. You have to start very slow but consistently, work on it every day. Give the sit or down command, then say, STAY, at the same time put your hand up in front of them, basically giving a STOP signal, keep the leash in your hand and step back one step, at first count to 3 and then give the release command (either okay, release, free, whatever you chose), then give a treat or just praise. Increase the time you ask your dog to sit/stay by one second every couple of days. After a week, take two steps back, keep increasing the distance over weeks. If your dog breaks the stay without you giving the release command, give a correction, no, ahah, hey, pstst ...... start it over again. It's a lot of work, it won't happen overnight!
The down/stay is more difficult, it is a submissive position for a dog and they will want to escape. If you have gotten him in the down position, step on the leash right in front of him, so he cannot move, THEN step back, one step at a time, increase the distance over time BUT don't expect too much right away.
Another thing that you may want to do, is have your dog "track" you. The way you do it, go in your driveway, backyard, around your neighborhood ...... keep your dog on a leash in front of you, you step backwards, have your dog follow you, he doesn't follow, pull the leash towards you, you stop, he stops. You are teaching him to pay attention to you and not any other distractions.
Keep his attention on you, say <<your dog's name>> look at me, snap your finger, say pst, whatever, if he looks at you give a treat (at least for the first few weeks). Don't give any sit/stay/down command without your dog's attention on you, you'll fight a losing battle.
If your dog jumps on everyone, I agree with Christine, turn around, don't pay any attention to him, like yelling at him will have him think, oh, cool, I get a response, even if it is negative, it IS attention. You will need to work on that. Have your kids, or DH, ring the door bell, put your dog on a leash, have them come in, he jumps, correct it/pull him back/move towards him and force him to retreat or sit, say ahah, no ...., have them go out again, repeat it. When you know, you will have visitors, same thing, tell them not to pet him or pay any attention to him until he behaves/submits, as Cesar says "No touch, no talk, no eye contact", keep correcting him, keep exposing him to those situations.
The chewing is a whole different situation. First off, ALL puppies chew, just like toddlers put everything in their mouth, puppies will chew everything they can find. Dogs that are not balanced through exercise, discipline, affection WILL chew, no matter what age. A couple of months ago I was out sick for a week, and their exercise and discipline lacked, well, they chewed up my shoes, socks, sweatpants, dug craters in the backyard, destroyed my herbs ....... I agree with Laura's suggestion of giving your dog their own "stuff", Kongs stuffed with treats, peanut butter, cheese ... are good, NO greenies though!!! I give my dogs raw beef marrow bones but I understand that some people are hesitant to do that.
You will need to claim your own stuff, put it in front of him, correct him and move towards him when he tries to take it, take it away BUT, it is difficult, one of my 11-months old puppies gets stressed out when I leave, he will chew up the crouch of my sweatpants, my shoes, underwear...... Usually I put the puppies in a crate but if I know I am gone for more than 4 hours, I won't crate them but I try to get everything out of their reach, however, I am not perfect and he never seizes to amaze me what else he can find that I never thought of.
It is a similar situation with kids though, we teach our kids not to do certain things, we will keep them away from cleaning stuff, medications, etc, but with toddlers, you will have to lock it up, we'll try to shelter them until they understand, same thing with puppies. Between 8 and 20 months in a dog's life is the absolutely worst!!!! Compare it to 8 years + and then puberty in kids. It is not easy and a puppy or adolescent dog is difficult to say the least, this is the reason why there ARE so many dogs in shelters. Unfortunately, they don't come in a perfect package, it is up to us to teach them, train them, keep them from harm. It is a HUGE commitment that many people don't realize when they get dogs or puppies and puppies are as cute as it gets AND that's for a reason
.
Having read through your post, I think one of the challenges is that you have not taken the leader role, I hope this is not offending to you, I have been in the same boat, I have had many of the same issues that you have. What I have learned is that most dogs are not leaders but they will take over if they are not put in their place (which does NOT imply that you have to be "mean", you just have to take control - after all, who is putting the food in their food bowl
), they don't like it and they keep sending mixed messages. Once you take control, your dog will be a much happier dog and you will be a much happier owner.
The additional advise that I can give you, when you feed your dog, have him sit and wait until YOU give him the command to eat, if you go out the door, he cannot move until you are out the door and have given him the command that he can move.
I totally agree with Christine (andtckrtoo) get a dog trainer but don't go to Petsmart or Petco, research the credentials, there is a lot of so-called dog trainers out there, there are no regulations on dog trainers. If you don't have the money or cannot find anyone reputable, a book that I can recommend is
http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail~bookid~47827.aspx
Eileen has been my dogs' agility trainer for a while and I also hired her as a dog behaviorist when I was at my wits end with one of my puppies. She is very much based on Cesar Millan's teachings BUT she also goes into more detail about training. Her book has a 5 or 6 week day-by-day training schedule.
Beagles are hard to train, they are kind of stubborn, but it is soooo worth it. Good luck to you. Sorry I was so long-winded!!! But I hope it helps, keep us posted on your baby's progress.
