Puppy running riot

Do people still confuse trainability with intelligence?

Hope you are doing better OP. I am still quite keen on the idea of a beagle although it would have to not be a puppy now. I've met some owners who's beagles are not complete liabilities but they all agree they are better with like minded dogs-preferably other beagles.
 
I don't think you want outstanding intelligence in a pack animal. There is no benefit to being a foxhound who is more intelligent than your team, you would get bored, riot and probably not get to pass on your genes! They are an army and they have to work together.
Having walked many, many foxhounds and bassetts and had bitches here to whelp and retired hounds I would say trainable they are not and not really intelligent either in a lightbulb way. Great fun, lovely friendly dogs but they are never going to challege a collie or even a lab in the brains department.
Of course we all think our pets are the greatest and we generally work well with them, one on one but tbh thick is good in most pet dogs.
 
Clodagh said:
I don't think you want outstanding intelligence in a pack animal. There is no benefit to being a foxhound who is more intelligent than your team, you would get bored, riot and probably not get to pass on your genes! They are an army and they have to work together.
Having walked many, many foxhounds and bassetts and had bitches here to whelp and retired hounds I would say trainable they are not and not really intelligent either in a lightbulb way. Great fun, lovely friendly dogs but they are never going to challege a collie or even a lab in the brains department.
Of course we all think our pets are the greatest and we generally work well with them, one on one but tbh thick is good in most pet dogs.
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I guess everyone has different experiences. Everyone who meets my Foxhound, including trainers and behaviourists, comment on his intelligence. He picks up what I ask of him within one quick training session and he always remembers. He has figured out how to open every door cupboard and gate in the house, goes and gets his lead on command, he solves any problem solving toy or treat in a matter of minutes. It goes without saying he's fantastic at tracking and scent training too, but that's his breed and instinct. He's only been going to obedience training for two months and is going for his Kennel Club Bronze obedience training this evening, and will take silver straight after as he has picked everything up that quickly.

Anyone involved in the hunt that I've met always says Foxhounds are generally very intelligent animals.

Believe me, sometimes it would almost be easier if he wasn't so intelligent. We have two labradors in the future and he is miles more intelligent than them; one of them a former search dog.

I've also met some particularly dopey labradors and collies so sometimes it's not the breed but the dog itself. Every dog is different!
 
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huskies are pack dogs, not that easy to train for obedience, some of the most intelligent dogs I've met though but granted, not ideal pets.
I love setters, again very easy to confuse lack of trainability with lack of brains-I heard it all the time and its not true. I saw my setter run rings around my border collie in certain ways (he would shut the collie in his crate for example) but I do appreciate that when you love a breed, you are prepared to overlook/work with certain traits.
 
alfiesowner said:
Sometimes too intelligent I would dare say! I've not met a fellow Foxhound cross owner, it can be a lonely world fending off strange and sometimes rude questions about his ability to be a pet.
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I have a mostly beagle, she was an irish import, looks like a mini trail/fell hound, dna'd as a 50% beagle, 25% fox hound and 25% unknown but essentially 100% hound! She may well be Kerry Beagle.

She is probably the most intelligent dog I have ever met, and one of the hardest to reliably train. Even as a 4 month old puppy she would go all day without toileting if she was not comfortable with where she was. Her first outdoor wee other than the garden was when she was about 9 months old. House training was incredibly tough and I don't think I will ever be able to say she is 100% reliable in the house. I had her from being about 4 months and before that she was kept in a pen with a straw bed so will happily wee in her own bed!

She does not cope at all well with being an only dog and loves company, human or canine. I suspect she may be related to FrankieCobs whippet as has a similar list of naughties and yet somehow she is my dog of a lifetime.

I lost count of the number of times at training she disgraced me by doing the wall of death round the field at recall time, and yet she is brilliant at learning tricks and had her sits and downs off pat in minutes when I brought her home. Incredibly motivated by food and hunting and yet the cuddliest dog you could ask for. She honestly makes my heart sing every time I see her. (well apart from when she has just rooled in fresh poop, then it sinks)

Anyone who thinks they own the worst or best dog in the world is wrong. She is all mine!
 
Roxylola said:
I lost count of the number of times at training she disgraced me by doing the wall of death round the field at recall time, and yet she is brilliant at learning tricks and had her sits and downs off pat in minutes when I brought her home. Incredibly motivated by food and hunting and yet the cuddliest dog you could ask for. She honestly makes my heart sing every time I see her. (well apart from when she has just rooled in fresh poop, then it sinks)
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She sounds absolutely gorgeous. Would love to see pics. They sound very similar in their nature! Hounds are just one big personality, a huge character all by themselves in the home.
Can't tell you how much I identify with the wall of death at recall times.
Mine's recall is about great 90% of the time outside, gets it right every time at training class especially. Until yesterday, being assessed for the Bronze Kennel Club Obedience award and he decides then is the time to come to me, then run away and proceed to say hello and wind up every dog in there. Needless to say we failed. Then went on to do everything else perfect. Massive dog, but we love him.
 
FrankieCob said:
Definitely worth looking at her stuff. My boy was a nightmare. There wasnt a day for the first 6months that I didnt cry at least once at something he had done! We were just at absolute odds with each other. I'd always had setters and springers and a young working bred whippet who had been rehomed 3 times before he was 13 weeks probably wasnt a smart move on my behalf!

Hes not an easy dog, very, very bright, total drama queen and happy to use his powers for evil! He used to watch me and weigh up the situation, I could literally hear him thinking and storing information for future use. His favourite trick was to get up on the kitchen work tops and open the cupboard doors and knock everything to the floor. Who knew a bag of flour could make quite so much mess! Cherrypiegate still brings a tear to my eye!

He once stole a kitkat out of a closed drawer in a bedside cabinet which was pushed up against a wall. He stole my nieces birthday present from the airing cupboard, where it was on a 5foot high shelf behind 2 closed doors. Knocked a fish tank over and then went mental when he was taken out of the room while I tried to deal with 80gallons of hot, salty, sandy water.

He stole a wet paintbrush and dragged it the full length of my house before settling on the the bed to play with it. Oh and he once ate a lightbulb, yes thats right an actual lightbulb :lol: He also once ran off and ran into someones house, he was wet and covered in mud and got onto their cream sofa and dried himself off. That was a very awkward moment! And believe me when I say thats just the edited highlights! Someone once asked me if I had p*ssed off a small shape shifting demon, because he really was THAT bad!

The turning point for me was realising it was my fault and I had to do something. I couldnt in good faith inflict him on someone else, sorry I meant rehome him :lol: And having him PTS was NOT an option. So I manned up, accepted I was probably to blame and called in reinforcements!

Luckily I have a friend who is a behaviourist who works with Victoria Stilwell and she turned everything around within a week. It wasnt even big changes, just little things that made a huge difference. Although even she said hes not an easy dog. Too clever and too switched on. He would have made a phenomenal worker, so I spent a lot of time doing things that made him think he was working, without me having to actually tramp about in the dark lamping :) That was the turning point for us. He'd been screaming at me and while I heard him I just didnt know what to do.

Hes now nearly 5 and I have and always will love him beyond words. Hes been the dog of a lifetime for me and is the one thing that got me through shattering my spine and thinking I wouldnt walk again, without him I would have given up when I was in HDU but I wanted to get back and have him home so badly it was all I could think about. Hes still what keeps me going. I dont regret a single minute. However, I might be a bit more careful picking the next one :lol:

Sorry for the huge essay! I can laugh about it now and I'd honestly forgotten most of it until I started typing. But dont be afraid to get help. I wish I had done it much sooner!
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sorry but this made me laugh, he sounds like such a character and very well done for not giving up on him..i have a lurcher whose dad was a coursing whippet and she has been the most challenging dog i have ever had. she is now almost 13 and can still have her 'deaf' moments but is mostly obedient...
 
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