Beagle Training Videos

Training Clifford the beagle has been interesting, easy and fun. Eager to learn, he sits and waits for my command and responds in anticipation of food. Watch these 2 videos and be inspired! It is possible to train a beagle to be obedient!

Watch as Clifford jumps through the hoop!




See how Clifford fetches the ball, rolls over, stay and come when I ask him to!

Claire's home stay in December 2007

Claire's owners put her up for boarding at our home for several days in December 2007. It was fun having her around! She made herself at home almost immediately, and loved the company of the other dogs.

Murfee was a little vary at first - she probably didn't understand why there was another puppy in the house! ("Oh no! Another puppy? Clifford is already driving me crazy!!!") Clifford was overly friendly, and just wanted to play the entire time. We tied him to the grill, and let Claire stay in his cage. But I think he didn't sleep the entire night (he has never slept anywhere else other than his beloved cage)

So, the next night, we placed both of them in the cage. Even though a little cramped, they enjoyed each other's company a great deal. Here's a picture of Clifford and Claire together again.

When her owner came to pick her up, Claire was thrilled. She recognized the whistle her owner used to catch her attention almost immediately!

Clifford looked a little sad after Claire left. After all, she's the other other puppy he has known that WANTS to play with him. The other dogs just find him an utter nuisance, and avoid him whenever they can. I guess we will bring him to visit Fritz later, and see how his brother has grown!

More pictures of Claire during her stay:

Claire biting a shoe. Clifford does that too - A LOT!

Dog greetings - that's how they get to know one another :)

Visiting Claire

Our next visit was to Claire's home. Upon special request, we brought Clifford along. He seems to be less enthusiastic about car rides - maybe he tends to get car sick. But he's a darling while in the car and does not fidget as much as his mother did. Here's a picture of our friend Clifford, being really sweet and clingy in the car. Notice how he leans on my arm ;)


Claire, of course, was happy to see Clifford. They played for a while, and Claire chased Clifford around. He was as usual, in his cool demeanor, and let everyone pat him. We showed Claire's family what we had taught Clifford, and he performed everything well, just like when he's at home. Of course, the trick was that we had to have puppy food giblets as reward. (Clifford wants to be paid before he does what you say ;) )

Look how Claire has grown. She is now 8 kg, and is still as active as ever. She loves her new home, loves to bite socks and lately has been biting a whole lot of stuff (including her new owner's car). She goes for a walk each day, and runs alongside her master's bicycle. We are glad that she has gone to such a good home, and that she has a family that loves her lots and lots.

However, she has lately become a little picky about her food. I think that's because there's no competition, and she's trying to get her masters to feed her treats instead of dog food. Hmmm, smart puppy.

Anyways, one of the things we learnt at dog obedience training class was to keep the food if the dog does not eat it. It's alright to let the dog go hungry for one meal. We tried this on Murfee and Tobie a few years back. They were shocked and surprised that we could ACTUALLY keep what we had given, and thereafter ate their food enthusiastically till this day!

Back to Claire. Here's a lovely picture of her, taking a short rest after running after Clifford:

Here's another picture of Claire. You can see her tail wagging!

Visiting Emily

The MKA Pedigree certificates are finally here. This is our opportunity to visit the homes of the puppies we have sold, at the same time pass the certificates to the new owners.

The first puppy we visited was Emily. She's as active as ever, extremely friendly, and very hyperactive. Oh, and we brought Clifford Doo along too. Emily seems to be petite, and weighed only a mere 6 kg (At the same time, Clifford was already 10 kg).

Anyways, she was a little vary at first - and wanted to sniff out Clifford from within her cage. However, once she was let out, she was really excited that another dog was visiting. (I don't really know if she remembers her brother). Anyway, she was ecstatic and ran round and round Clifford, trying hard to capture his attention.

Of course, Clifford is as steady and as cool as ever. After all, this was NOT his house, and he wouldn't want to seem like he was intruding. Nevertheless, Emily took Clifford for a tour around her compound. She took him to the back of the house, where there was some water he could drink.

Then she showed him the garden she usually plays in. Clifford had a good time sniffing around her house too.

Her owners love her a great deal, and we are really glad that she has gone to a new home. They say that Emily is still a picky eater (her food was left untouched in her cage). Maybe that's why she's smaller in size. I think she's really too active, and have spent all her energy playing and running around.

Oh, and her new name is now Jessie - here's a good picture of her we took:

Our camera does not have the steady shot feature, and it was quite difficult to take good shots with Emily running around. Here is another picture of Emily:


For comparison, this is how Emily looked like when she first went to her new home. Look how she has grown!

Clifford's Cherry Eye

It's been a while since my last post. I've been busy at work and stuff, and did not have time to blog. The other thing was.... Clifford had a cherry eye since a few weeks ago, and we thought we'd wait till it healed before we took any more pictures.

Although we applied ointment from the vet, there was hardly any improvement. The vet had not been overly concerned though. She said that it wouldn't hurt him, although it would seem like part of his vision is blocked. You see, cherry eye is a condition where the tear duct protrudes from beneath the eyelid. Usually, this is common for basset hounds, due to their droopy skin. But we asked the vet - "But he's NOT a basset hound!". They were dumbfounded.

Yesterday, we decided to send him for surgery to get his cherry eye fixed. The RM 250 surgery took a few hours, but Clifford stayed overnight at the vet. He even got bathed to rid him of that soury smell. Being the active puppy he was, he had been running around in the yard and had gotten really dirty.

Upon his return today, he was again his usual bubbly self. I don't think he felt much pain. There is still a little bit of the cherry eye left beneath the eyelid (if one were to look carefully). It should subside within a few days, according to the vet.

Here's a picture of Clifford. He's really sleepy and tired after his ordeal (and of course, after letting him roam around for 2 hours!). Watch out for my next post as I write about the latest in Clifford's training classes!

Clifford Fetches the Ball

We had been terribly busy the last couple of weeks, and did not have the time to take videos of Clifford. Nevertheless, his trainings still went on and he has now learnt to jump over the hoop, and paw on my arm. His favorite game would "Fetch" and he would always enthusiastically get the ball back to me - in exchange for a treat (this is mandatory, else Clifford wouldn't do it!)

Anyhow, I've managed to capture a video of Clifford fetching. It's not that clear, but it does show how interesting he finds the "Fetch" game!



In my next post, I'll put up pictures of Clifford's brothers and sisters. Let's see what they have been up too!

Clifford's early puppy days

Clifford posing for a picture (He responded to the command "Stay") :)

The largest in the litter when he was born, Clifford was immediately distinguished from the rest of the puppies. I guess his prominence was accentuated by his sleek black fur, much darker than the rest of the puppies. He obviously had an ideal location in his mummy's womb, even before he was born.

Hence, the name Clifford. His demeanor was silent, steady and watchful. He looked us eye to eye when we carried him, unlike the rest who usually wiggled. For all we knew, he was observing all the hustle and bustle around the home, the other puppies, and of course Murfee and Tobie. All the information he collected and processed through, leading to his obvious superiority in behavior.

He didn't play as hard as the other puppies, he learnt to poo at the right place after meals when he was only 3 weeks old, and he came over when we called him when he was 5 weeks old. Clifford followed me at my heels, as I walked in and out of the porch. He didn't run haphazardly around like his brothers and sisters. He would sit down and look up at me when he knew it was meal time.

Again, responding to a command. This time it's "Down" and "Stay"

Standing out from the crowd, Clifford was never overly playful or bashful. He did play, was not too lazy, but he has his limits. This was probably why he didn't mingle that well with the rest of the puppies - they were always wrestling or biting one another. Sometimes, Clifford got caught in the crossfire and he fought back. Nevertheless, his cool demeanor was always kept. At 6 weeks old, he already learnt to sit and come. We thought he was brilliant and have decided to keep him as our third dog.

At 8 weeks, he started to get a little vocal. In fact, he started to display signs of being able to make the Beagling howl - a half bark and half howl sound that only Beagles can make. Tobie had never made such sounds, and has never been overly noisy. Clifford would now bark whenever it was time to eat. Sometimes, he would bark after dinner when we placed him back in his cage. Our discipline came in the form of a rolled up newspaper which made a loud noise but was not hurtful to the puppy. He usually stopped his complaints after one session of discipline. That's good for a beagle.

We have decided to train him regularly and now he knows: Sit, Down, Come, Stay, Roll over, Shake and Beg, although not perfectly. This book we bought - 101 Dog Tricks - has shown us great methods to train dogs that we would never have thought of. It's amazing how the right approach in dog training can speed things up. Our target is to teach Clifford at least 20 tricks. I think he will be able to do it. I will upload videos on this once Clifford gets them right!