Our pup is definitely a pet - certainly not a working dog. And whilst I wouldn't be judgmental of others I absolutely DON'T want her tracking anything alive! (apart from us!)

We want her to have fun - fun with us so she wants to be with us instead of wandering off on her own. Also, we have a vague idea in our heads that if she's got a strong instinct to follow scents to the point where she is oblivious to us and our commands, then if we teach her to do these things in controlled ways we might have half a chance of having one of the few Beagles with reliable recall!

I'm open to advice.

As for the 'find it' game. Here's what happens. During off-lead walks, we take it in turns to hide behind a tree when she's not looking. The other person encourages her to find the 'hidee'. She understands the command perfectly and frantically starts LOOKING for us. But instead of sniffing for us she just methodically looks behind all the trees, bushes and other likely hiding places.

We also play the 'find it' game at home with toys and treats. With toys she uses her eyes and a methodical search. With treats she'll use her nose.

If we're not playing with her on walks (and most of the time we are), then she'll have her nose to the ground sniffing. But she doesn't really go anywhere. She just seems to sniff around in circles.

I think her sense of smell is still developing. In the past couple of weeks she's become much more 'nose oriented' - sniffing constantly when walking on the lead, and frantically trying to get hold of any food we have. We even had problems at obedience classes because the trainer (at the other side of the room) had a piece of cheese in her pocket so Beanie wasn't interested in OUR treats

Could it be that she's simply not interested in sniffing for anything but food? Beagles do have a bit of a reputation for being foodies. But she ALWAYS gets a treat when she finds us so that doesn't really fit.

She's our first pup, so we really have no experience to fall back on.

I always start mine off as soon as they arrive and as food is always involved they take to tracking like ducks to water, we then move on to arcticles and "age"always ending in a game and they never are allowed to fail a track must always end on a "happy note" like any training.

Good luck with your beagles

Jeanette

ok, on the person search. You or your partner hold on to your dog, then with the dog looking on the other person runs away a short distance in full view of the dog. As soon as that person hides behind a tree release the dog to chase them, when the dog runs to the hidden person, reward it with a treat or some play with a toy. You could also get the dog to bark on finding the hidden person before rewarding it. Do this consistently over a 2 week period, varying the lengths the person runs away. Then when the dog is doing this part of the game well, move to the next stage which is the person hiding still runs away in full view of the dog but this time hides some where , where the dog cannot directly see him, what will happen is the dog will do an initial burst into the area and when he cant see the person will use there nose to find them.
The reason you do the first stage for two weeks is to build up the dogs prey drive so when it cant find the person by sight its natural instinct to hunt will help locate the person.

Searching for an article is easy.
Get a long line for your dog, unless it has a good retrieve.
Get an article something the dog can play with you with.
Hold onto the line and throw the article into the area rough grass is good. When the dog runs out and picks it up praise him and call him back, if he doesnt have a recall pull him back on the long line praising him as you do, when he reaches you, lots of play. repeat this until the dog is doing it well.
Next stage get some one else to take the article while you hold the dog, and have them run into an area and pretend to hide the article in three differnt locations only about twenty feet from the dog. Hide the article in one of the locations and then pretend to hide it in the last one before returning to the dog. The dog on being released will run to the last location that it saw the article being placed. When it discovers the artile is not there he will search untiul he finds it. Again when he does mega praise and play, keep the searchig short until the dog is confident then increase the size of the search area.
It is great to watch them use there noses like this and really good fun for the dogs

OK, I *think* I understand where we've been going wrong. We're making it too hard for her? We need to get her in the right ball park so she's close enough to sniff us out? She's using her eyes because she's not close enough to pick up our scent?

I'll let you know how it goes!

I appreciate the advice.

Being close at the start is to make her like the game if its to hard she wont want to play.
The running away brings out the prey drive in the dog, which then progresses to the dog using her nose when she cant find you.
A dog can wind scent a person from a quarter mile away if the conditions are right, so dont worry about not being close enough for her to sniff you out.
Keep the games short and sweet so she doesnt get bored.