Ask Lemmy

First, scale back your expectations a bit. She is only 4 months old. You said she is crate trained and leash trained, if she also knows some commands like sit and come here you are on a very good pace. Around 4 moths is when you can start with the more advanced commands. Especially having her follow the "come here" command on a longer distance and while outside is going to be your big goal for now.

I would worry more about your beagle fighting over the bones. That's something that needs fixing more so than your 4 old puppy behaving like a puppy.

From the sounds of it, she spends way too much time in her crate. You said she is there while you are at work and over night. If you work 8 hour shifts that's 16 hours a day inside the crate. That's way too long. At her age she isn't even supposed to be in a crate for more than 4-5 hours straight and 8 hours in total should be the maximum for any dog. So when she gets out she really needs to burn energy. Just walking her isn't going to be enough with that much time spent in a crate. So get that intensity up.

In the morning before you go to work you have her play fetch so she can run at full speed and tire herself out and in the afternoon after work you take her to a dog agility training course. Even better would be to eliminate one of the crate time and exchange it for time with a dog sitter or dog day care center.

I understand you are currently worried about your dogs due to the parasites and playing fetch with a dog that's not fully trained yet is also dangerous. So maybe you will have to get active too and start jogging in the morning with them. Depending on your house maybe you can play fetch inside or build them a small obstacle course at home.

At the very least increase the size of the crate. Make it a fenced off part of your house. Just give them more space to play and move while locked up.