beagle behavior

Question
QUESTION: we have 2 adult female sisters (from the same litter) and want to get a better handle on getting them to not bolt out the door at any chance they get. no, we didn't get them trained as puppies (big mistake) and they are 6 now...ugh. also one is more dominant of course and causes the other anxiety at times. i know its late to be dealing with these issues, but nevertheless want to. also at this age they still haven't been fixed and i should have because i worry about the risks. i've been told a few things about the dominance issue, one being to separate them completely until the one is taught not to be alpha. i should be alpha, but total separation at this point is near impossible. what do you think of these issues?

ANSWER: It is never to late to train your dog, any dog at any age can learn new behaviors. You need to focus on this before one bolts otu the door and get shit by a car or otherwise harmed. In addition there will always be always be one dog who is more dominant than the other but YOU are supposed to be the ALPHA. As far as getting them spayed I feel it is the most important thing you can do for them, it protects them from uterine, or mammary cancer and eliminates the risk of unwanted pregnancy. It is also not too late to do this.

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QUESTION: I know it's better to have them fixed for health reasons, my concern is their age. I still need to know how to keep them from aggressively trying to squeeze out the front door anytime it has to be opened. Iknow one of them is going to be more dominant, I just would like to see the other one feel less anxiety about it and stop any bullying by the other. It is difficult to be on them behavioral wise 24/7 but I have been trying and seen a little improvement. I was told by someone that the less dominant one will have a shorter life span if feeeling tense and anxious by the other?

Answer
You don't mention how old they are but unless they are elderly or not healthy, spaying can still be helpful. It can also curb their desire to bolt out the door if it is at all related to when they are in heat. Beagles are notorious roamers anyway, they want to be free and running. Only your vet can determine the safety of this however.

The part about the one who is tense an anxious having a shorter life span is news to me, I haven't heard that before. Conversely you could say that the dominant one would have a shorter life span because she has to expend so much energy all the time to be dominant and is on hyper alert. The biggest thing that I have found for a beagle especially to influence longevity is to NEVER, EVER, feed them human food and watch their weight vigilantly, beagles will eat till they pop if allowed.

The only way that you can interfere with the bullying of the dominant one is by being the dominant one yourself. If you are the Alpha then she will always fall into line with what you ask of her. So if you see her bullying her you need to react. It is not helpful to coddle or shield the less dominant one because this reinforces her behavior of being submissive and tense and anxious. This may be part of the problem that you have inadvertently reinforced this dynamic. Do not handle the less dominant one. You must direct your energy on the dominant one who is falling out of line with the pack rules. So that means when you see her doing something dominant you grab her and tell her no, you look her directly in the eyes, and tell her sternly NO when you do this and do not falter your gaze until she looks away from YOU. You can also remove her from whatever the situation is and make her sit or force her into a down and do this. This isn't about aggression, but sometimes you have to make the point by being somewhat forceful without hurting them of course. This is how the ALPHA in the pack would handle it. Either with eye contact and back them down or with blocking or posturing, they would only become aggressive if the other wouldn't back down. If you begin to assert yourself as the Alpha instead of allowing her to have that title you will see her begin to slow this all down, she will always be more dominant than the other, that is nature, but she must learn that in YOUR pack you wont tolerate bullying.

As far as the door this is a lot for an e-mail so I am not going to go into a blow by blow but I will try to answer this for you in a general way and you can go from there. Do both dogs know the command sit? I mean do they REALLY know it? like no matter where you are or what you are doing if you say sit they will stop what they are doing and sit? and do they know stay?, like they wont move for as long as you tell them until they are released by you the Alpha? If not then this is the thing to tackle. They must be 100% on their sit/stay. If you accomplish this then when you are going to answer the door or go out the door you put them in a sit and stay and your problem is solved. The sit/stay command is in my opinion the MOST important command you can ever teach your dog because it gives you complete control. So when you are practicing this you do it over and over and over and over and over. If they get you up you say Un UH (like a no) and put them back. And each and every time they get up you repeat it.It may be easier to separate them when you are training, it is hard to keep track of two if they aren't well trained yet. If you were to do a 10-15 min session with each dog twice a day (up to an hour of your day) every day for a few weeks faithfully you will see in a few weeks a complete difference in their behavior all around as this also is establishing you as the Alpha.

I hope this all helps. Let me know