Howling Beagle

Question
My friend adopted an adorable beagle from the Humane Society. He's had him for about a year now.  The Beagle is 10 years old.  He's a perfect dog, except that he frequently howls, both in the house and on walks.  The townhouse complex where my friend lives has received several complaints about the howling.  Is there anything he can do to stop the howling?  Thank you.

Answer
Beagles, as with other hounds, tends to be very vocal.  As I type I am listening to our coonhound out in the yard yelling at a neighbor dog.  Although I don't normally resort to electronic collars, I have had much success in these cases with a bark collar.  The key is to stop the barking right away, and then reward.  You can try a noise distraction such as penny can or air horn to startle the dog from barking, and be sure to reward as soon as the barking stops.  The difficult part of this is when the dog is focused on something such as a rabbit, squirrel or cat the noise distraction is useless.

Another technique is to teach the dog where the howling is appropriate-run him in a large field or hunting area where he can kick up game and praise for barking then.