When you teach your beagle to lie down, it’s an incredibly valuable command by itself, but it can likewise be utilized to manage other behaviors, such as:

Temperament: Many beagles battle with nervousness, animosity, ruinous tendency, nipping and for the most part — being preoccupied. Encouraging the down command can give you an approach to deal with those behaviors.

Respect: Teaching your beagle “down” at a youthful age can build respect without needing you to be forceful or coercive, to make a point.

Direction: Notwithstanding other directional directions —, for example, “sit,” “out” and “stand” — “down” lets you impart to your beagle where they ought to be and what they ought to do. This can make existence with your pupster much simpler and less upsetting for both them and you.

How to Teach Your Beagle “Down”

Discover something your beagle adores and will pursue when you move it. If your pupster is particularly appreciative of their nourishment, kibble and/or treats will likely make a very easy tool.

Conceal the treats in a zippered baggie in your pocket or a treat pouch behind your back. Go to a quiet area and bring your beagle over to you.

If your beagle knows the sit command, have them sit. If they haven’t taken to this yet, draw them into the sit position by contacting a treat to their nose and afterward gradually raising the treat toward the rear of their head, moving it along the bridge of their nose two or three inches above them. Moving the treat should make them turn upward. At the point when they can’t observe the treat above them, they ought to sit in light of the desire to see it the treat again. If your beagle backs up when you do this activity, practice in a corner or against a wall to ensure they are limited in their movement.

Work on having your pup sit until they sit rapidly; once you show them the treat or state, “Sit.” If you might want to show your little guy (or girl) the sit direction now, at this point state Sit”, directly before you start moving the treat. Acclaim them and give a treat when their tuchas hits the floor.

When your beagle is sitting, place a treat against their nose. Gradually push the treat toward the floor then away from them, along the floor before them. Make sure you stating dating “down” while you are moving the treat.

If your beagle stands up while you are drawing them into the down situation with the treat, bait them over into the sit position and have-a-go at attracting them into the down position again — yet this time, let’s take a stab at moving the treat even slower.

When your beagle’s chest contacts the floor, commend them and give them the treat.

If he or she is clearly struggling to perform the “down” command after repeating it a few times, touch the treat to their nose and lower the treat to the floor yet again — The difference this time will be that you will move the treat toward them, in between their front paws. Place a hand above your puppy’s lower back if they tend to stand up when you move the treat.

At the point when your pup’s chest contacts the floor, promptly acclaim them and give them the treat.

Practice “down” with the treats until your beagle rests when they see the treat or hear the order — before you move the treat.

At the point when your beagle lays down without anyone else while the treat isn’t moving, expel the treat from your hand yet imagine you are as yet holding it. Order “Down” and when your young doggie complies, acclaim them and feed them a treat from your other hand.

If your beagle is having difficulty, push your unfilled hand toward the floor as though you are drawing with a treat while saying, “Down.” Praise them and give a treat from your other hand when they lie down.

Practice the down order with just your unfilled hand as a hand signal piece of the time, and with just the verbal “Down” direction.

After you give the hand signal or the verbal order without any other input, wait for 7 seconds to check whether your pupster will do the direction. In the event that they don’t understand, give them a clue and state, “Down” or show them the hand signal.

Practice with just the order or hand signal until your young doggie can react to both the hand signal and the verbal direction when each is given independently from anyone else.

Praise your beagle when their down was superior to anything it was previously, or each 3–5 reiterations. As they improve, decline the number of treats after some time so they are unexpectedly surprised when compensated with a treat.

Work on teaching before you feed them, play with them, let them outside or accomplish something different in their normal that they appreciate. This will keep their training in top shape.

What If Your Beagle Won’t Lie Down

Congrats — well sort of. Your beagle has graduated to a whole new level. Now that they’ve become familiar with what “Down” means and can do the command in calm environments, there will be times when they will not obey your down command.

How can we fix this issue?

Stubbornness is often due to:

Not understanding

It’s too advanced — for now

There are too many distractions

These 3 things must be addressed to gain a consistent “down”.

Not Understanding

Envision that you are in an outside nation, in line to buy nourishment.

A man begins motioning toward you and addressing you in another dialect. New to the language and feeling somewhat awkward, you overlook the man. He turns out to be progressively persistent and even somewhat furious.

You feel bothered and attempt to clarify that you can’t get him. At long last, he movements toward the ground, and you understand that you are standing on his backpack strap. Humiliated, you rapidly grab your food and get the heck outta there.

It’s not difficult to expect your beagle to comprehend what you need them to do — however, in the event that you haven’t invested the energy training them what words and hand signals mean, they likely don’t. This is the reason you first need to teach the down direction, bit by bit.

Most beagles don’t generalize well. By that I mean, if either he or she learns a command in a specific place or situation, they can’t readily apply that same learning to different places or situations. Example: Just because your beagle knows how to lie down in your home, while facing you, with interruptions around —  doesn’t mean they will comprehend the same “down” command, when your back is to them and another dog is running past both of you while at the park.

We can reinforce generalization by practicing teaching your beagle to lie down in a multitude of scenarios; with various locations, distances, distractions; etc. The more exposure your beagle gets, the better they will adapt in any future scenarios.

It’s Too Advanced  — For Now

It’s uncommon to see an elementary class reading about the laws of thermodynamics. Right? Right.

If the students’ parents realized that was realistically assigned by their teacher, they’d have a WTF moment. Yes, all of those students may be capable of learning about thermodynamics, but to advance to that level, there will be a lot of heavy lifting through hard work and determination.

Our beagles operate the same way.  Their abilities will become markedly more advanced with plenty of practice. You can’t go 0-60mph without going to 1 through 59mph.

Once they’ve graduated, you’ll know it. Your beagle will be able to lie down under a picnic table for 30 minutes, without much of a peep or movement.

There Are Too Many Distractions

Inspiration is an incredible thing. Have ever watched beagles in obedience competitions and seen their near-perfect obedience despite the hundreds of people and other dogs in the building?

Your beagle should be motivated to comply with your order in addition to understanding it and having the skills to obey it. Reward-based training is popular for this reason.

From the start, search for something that your little dog cherishes, for example, treats, and utilize that thing as a reward during instruction. As your beagle improves, you can utilize the treats less and rather have your little dog work for things that they appreciate consistently, such as praise.

For instance, before you feed your pupster supper, instruct them to sit. Before you toss their preferred ball, order them to lie down. Incorporate instruction into their everyday life to keep them inspired.

You will unavoidably stumble into something your beagle adores more than treats, toys, strolls and pets. Additionally, your beagle should learn that they should follow the command, even if they don’t want to.

Improving Upon The Down Command

When your beagle realizes how to lie down upon command, there are such huge numbers of valuable and fun things you can do with that teaching. Instructing your beagle to lie down is just the start of what you can utilize the down direction for.

Down On Autopilot

One valuable thing you can train your puppy is to lie down in specific circumstances naturally.

At the point when you go for your doggy on strolls, to parks, to the pet store and different areas, stand or sit still for a few minutes. When your beagle lies down on their own, have treats covered up in your pockets and calmly place one between your little guy’s front paws while they are in the down position.

If your beagle won’t lie down on their own, wait a little while, at that point place the treat between their paws, while instructing them into a down position. After you have done this numerous times, stop reciting “Down” and check whether they will offer it all alone, in order to get a treat.

If you consistently reward your beagle for lying down when you resting on a bench, stopping to chat with someone or read labels on items in the pet store, they will begin to acclimate and settle down on their own and be calmer when you take them places.

Down: Version 2.0

Now that your beagle has learned “down” successfully, now you are ready to add the stay command.

You can also instruct them to automatically stay while in the down position — as long as you’re able to enforce staying down until you give a release command.

Down -Stay [Distance Variable]

Give your beagle the “Down” command, and put your hand toward them with your palm facing out like a stop sign and say, “Stay.”

Slowly walk backward away from them. If your pupster attempts to stand up, quickly return to them, tell them “Uh-uh” and have them return to the down position. Do not reward them when they lie back down since they broke their stay. This is key.

Now, proceed to start stepping backward away from them again. If your beagle remains still, praise them, return to them and place a treat on the floor between their paws. Do not have them get up every time you reward because you don’t want them to think that they are being praised or rewarded for getting up. They’re being rewarded for staying down.

Continue practicing step 3, until you can advance further and further away from them, while they remain down and stayed.

When you are ready for them to get up, tell them “OK!” or “UP!”

Down -Stay [Time Variable]

Tell your beagle “Down” while you are seated doing something such as watching TV or working on your computer.

Place their leash under your foot. Keep the least taut enough that it prevents them from standing up, but loose enough that they can remain comfortable.

Say, “Stay.”

Periodically reward your beagle every few minutes for staying down, and not attempting to get up. Their rewards should be more frequent at first and less frequently as they improve.

No need to rush this. Be sure to work on this command for a few minutes at a time at first. As your puppy improves, gradually increase that amount of time until your pup can lie quietly for a half-an-hour or an hour.

Once they’ve progressed this far, you should be able to remove the leash from your beagle, if you are somewhere where it is safe to do so. Practice without a leash, returning your pup to the down position if they get up. 

If you need some additional help; here is a video that may be able to help.

Final Thoughts

The “Down” command is one that is universally popular one, as it makes your beagle [or any dog, for that matter] calmer and safer to handle.