I'm sorry. May I ask if the problems are all behavior/training related? If so, I'd recommend calling your local animal shelter and asking for a recommendation for a good dog trainer. A good trainer can make all the difference in the world and would also be able to show you and your family how to work with her.
Hope it improves for you.
Yeah...we've checked into dog training. Trouble is, there is, apparently, two types of Beagles. Those that are bred for show, and those that are bred to be field dogs. All the weeks of research I did on Beagles, you'd think THIS little detail would have come up in my many searches.
So our little Beagle is, of course, a field dog. We knew that when we got her. The irresponsible parent of the human variety showed us her parents' awards in field trials. She comes from a line of champions. We told him we weren't interested in that sort of thing. We just wanted a nice family pet for our dd to grow up with. He never said ONE WORD to us about how difficult they are to train because of centuries of breeding to heighten their hunting instincts.
This little dog is sweet, loving, friendly and adorable. She's the perfect dog EXCEPT for the fact that she can't go outside without going absolutely BONKERS at every little thing she smells. She really goes nuts. She has to track everything. She gets her nose into the ground and drives herself crazy. She won't go potty outside because she's too busy tracking *whatever* it is she's tracking (but the minute she's inside? Oh yeah.) And when she's doing this, she's yelping and barking, as if she's on a hunt.
She can't walk on a leash because every few inches there is something new to smell. She won't stay on the sidewalk because it doesn't smell as interesting as whatever is in someone's flower bed or yard.
We don't have thousands of dollars to spend attempting to domesticate her. And it probably wouldn't even work that well because her instincts are just that strong.
She just isn't a companion dog, plain and simple. What really irks me is that the irresponsible parent of the human variety had to have known we'd have this problem and he didn't tell us. I called him after two weeks and asked to return her and he said he couldn't take her back because he'd already filled her spot in the kennel. Oh, and no refund, of course.
Everyone tells me that irresponsible parents of the human variety should not be like this. That they care about their dogs and a reputable irresponsible parent of the human variety would take the dog back before he'd let you do anything else with it. He told me to try to give her away or maybe sell her. WHO WOULD TAKE HER?? He's been a irresponsible parent of the human variety for 50 years, but he's not like any irresponsible parent of the human variety I've ever heard about. I feel like such an idiot.
