Petting a bloodhound is really challenging for new domestic dog owners, this is the widespread belief in the market. Are bloodhounds easy to train? let’s find out before getting one home!
Bloodhounds breed is not easy to train due to their stubbornness and independent qualities. It can be an overwhelming challenge for a domestic dog owner to train bloodhounds. Previous experience is a must to train this breed.
In case you still want to train your puppy on your own, then prefer to enroll your puppy in a puppy training school for additional support.
We recommend training them indoors, as they can be easily distracted by small animals and scents, which are unique to them as they are born to chase and catch. Training them indoors is the only way to limit the distractions.
They are sensitive and love to socialize; yes, be sure to socialize with them as young as possible. They love to meet new people, animals, sounds, places, and experiences. Socializing them also speeds up the training and can bring you better results in less time.
AS the domestic dog, the more you socialize, the more they become friendly and well-behaved in the future.
Let’s find out in detail are bloodhounds easy to train?
The Breed Information and Characteristics
Bloodhounds were brought to Europe from Constantinople; until now, their origin is still unknown, but they have been traced throughout Mediterranean counties as early as 3 A.D.
In the medeterian countries, it was bred to hunt deer’s wild boar and, since the Middle Ages, for tracking people. These were the good reasons to bring it to Europe, but now it ends up as a good domestic dog, police dog as well as search and rescue dog.
They have been around for centuries, and people have used their impressive sense of smell to hunt and track for a long time.
The monk, St. Hubert’s Abbey, bred them to use their strong sense of smell to follow cold and old trails, and he also used them in hunting quests. Even after his death, this breed was widely popular with monarchs and noblemen alike.
In England, the bloodhounds were widely used in the 18th century to track down felons, to track criminal pursuits while following a scent.
In the USA, Bloodhound is used by law and enforcement, mostly by tracking and rescue divisions.
They are strong, action ate, and stubborn still; they become great family companions due to their docile and loveable personalities.
Bloodhounds need daily exercise to stay fit and to practice their natural skills.
When To Start Training Your Bloodhound?
You can start training your Bloodhound puppy as soon as you bring them home; 4 weeks is an ideal age to start obedience trading.
This does not mean you can start advanced training; let them become familiar with surroundings and boundaries.
You can start advanced trading like search and rescue when they reach the age of six to eight months, and all training should be completed before they reach 1 year age.
3. Training Strategies for Bloodhounds
Before deciding about the training method, you must strategize the trading like you need to decide about the sessions, environment, timings, and help that you need. Here are a few effective things that can support you to get quick results.
1. Be Consistent
Make sure you can follow a training schedule, conduct training sessions on a daily basis, and involve your family members to reward the Bloodhound during the training for positive behavior.
Use the same rewarding method in the whole training and educate your family member for the same. So the dog can associate the rewards with good behaviors easily.
2. Control The Environment
Choose to train them indoors with the minimum distractions possible; your backyard can be a good area for training.
Make sure there is no toy around that can be tempted to chew and no birds or small animals to distract them.
Always keep them on a leash as they can easily start a squirrel chase during training if they hear the sound.
Pro Tip – Keep the cats away during training sessions
3. Get Help
For new dog owners, the first few sessions might become a rough training experience; they will show aggression and laziness during the training session. It is better to get help instead of keeping trying on your own.
A professional knows better how to calm an aggressive and stubborn dog.
To keep your Bloodhound calm while training, start from the small session and increase the duration later on.
Defining Tasks
It is better to train your Bloodhound in basic obedience at an early age; young puppies are easily distracted and a little willful at times.
If you lay a good foundation, then you can turn the stubborn one into a well-behaved dog. In the obedience training stage, you need to keep the sessions short due to their short attention time.
It’s best to arrange multiple short sessions in a day to make the training fun and slowly build on each lesson.
Pro Tip, if they get frustrated or you bore your dog, then this training experience will become miserable for you.
3 Training Methods to Be Used for Bloodhound
Here are two training methods that you can use to train your bloodhounds; the first one is most recommended:
1. Positive Reinforcement
The theory behind positive reinforcement is very simple and easy to follow; this is the reason it’s the most popular method of dog training in the world.
Your Bloodhound will follow the instructions if they are given a reward, discourage bad behaviors, and encourage when he follows your instructions. In case of bad behavior, you also can remove his access to toys.
You also need to teach your family which behaviors to reward and also ask them to reward the dog after training; this will make them a good companion.
Remember, punishment doesn’t mean physical punishments or harsh reprimands.
2. Pack Leader Method
It’s just like its name. This training method is also considered best for bloodhounds as they are bred as pack animals, so they are born with the natural instinct to understand packs.
This method allows you to teach them they are not in comm, teach desire responses against commands, and your pup will be more than happy to follow you as commander.
The key to training a bloodhound is persistence and patience, as it might take more time as compared to training other dogs.
3. Clicker Training
In the clicker training method, instead of treats and toys, a clicker is used, which makes a clicking noise to reward the dog. The device makes a quick sharp sound and most dogs like that.
Wrap Up
Bloodhounds are very focused, and they do not think when it comes to tracing and tracking down a smell; once they start, they never stop until they finish.
It’s hard to control them by a leash, they are not lazy, and they are not sleepy when they are on a mission. These are the reason they are hard to control.
Bloodhound puppies can be energetic and destructive, but adults are best cop dogs as well as companions who love to enjoy hiking and trailing.
They need a lot of exercise for a healthy and proper life; it might be a little bit hard to train as a domestic dog, but once trained, they will be the most loved family member.