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Beagles/Beagle tips food over

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Expert: - 9/12/2009


Question
We recently got a female beagle for our male and she is 4 years old...The problem is that everytime we go to feed them she knocks over both dog dishes with her nose and then burys them in the sand..We give them PurinaOne (for healthy weight)and the male dog has always liked it..

Answer
Hi there, thanks for writing..... this is a behavioral issue. You will have to spend some time with her working on eliminating this behavior. This means staying there while they eat and each time she attempts to knock it over saying, UnUh! and stopping her. When you go to put the bowls down make them both sit and then say OK and let them come to the food.... then watch her very carefully, you may even have to keep your hand on the bowl until she is broken of this, each time she tries, do the "UnUh!" and make her sit again and she can only come back to the food by being released by you with OK. If you do this long enough and a ton of times for a week or so she will get over this behavior. Hope this is helpful!

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Have4Paws

Expertise

I am happy to answer BEAGLE BREED SPECIFIC behavioral questions. Please DO NOT ask CRATE TRAINING OR MEDICAL questions! I am not a vet nor an expert in the use of crates.

Experience

I currently have one beagle, a male age 5, an 12 month old Pit Bull, and a 8 year old min. poodle. I have had to let go of three of my dogs, 2 beagles and 1 whippet/rat terrier mix in the past 5 years, most recently my whippet mix. The two beagles lived to 15 and the whippet mix to 13.5, it has been hard to say goodbye to them. I have done rescue work on and off for years as well as fund-raising for the local animal shelter. I worked for a dog magazine in the past (Southern California Dog Magazine). Being a psychotherapist has encouraged me to do in depth studying of animal behavior as well. I have worked with many people to help curb undesirable behaviors in their dogs (or them!) or to form good behaviors. My life is devoted to and surrounded by my dogs........The picture you see here is Zeppelin but we also call him the "miracle dog". He was hit by a car April 2010 while out with the dog walker and had very serious injuries... 4 surgeries and $17,000 later my boy is whole again and back to loving life. He is so special to me and he weathered a lot of pain and trauma yet is still the sweet boy he always was! I also work to stop Breed Specific Legislation and help to get pit bulls adopted.

Organizations
HSUS, PETA, SPCA DONT SHOP...ADOPT!!

Publications
Dog Fancy

Education/Credentials
I am a Marriage and Family Therapist licensed in the state of CA and am also credentialed as a Certified Addiction Treatment Specialist

Awards and Honors
Honored by the Agoura Animal Shelter for my volunteer work.

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