[Mikey T]

When is a good time to start training?

where you like it or not dog training start as soon as he came home. Ity is never to early what the have for puppies is called puppy kindergarten, at most class the cholderen would be welcom. The purpose of kindergarten is more socialization but some training occurs as well

Puppy Training

, he goes flat and I can't drag him if i tried

this is a normal basset reaction to stress/ and physical force. Traditional training tactic do not work well with basset. You need to reward the dog for behavior you want. That need to be a reard that the dog values. With basset that is rarely simply praise. The way to train a typical basset is with food.

Hard to Train?
A look at "difficult-to-train" breeds and the reality of what shapes these canine minds

TRAINING WITH FOOD

but lately he has been showing signs of aggression mostly when one of the two-legged kids riles him up, which in turn leads to them screaming and crying So he in turn gets fussed for biting(even though I think he's really just playing, albeit roughly), kids get in trouble for riling him up and trying to play to rough with him, its a vicious cycle

You are correct but what is likely missing is teaching the puppy bite inhibition. Also you need to train the kid how to react when the puppy is ramping up which is calmly and not by pushing the dog away , screaming etc which only is a signal to the dog to ramp up further.

Bite Inhibition

My only other problem is he stinks

all hound have a hound odor some are more sensitive to it than other but in general over time when you are expose to a odor long enough the brain shut down and does not notice it. That said bassets are prone to some dermalogical condition that can exaserbate the smell. THe most likely to be such a cause with a puppy this age is seborrhea, the most common symptom is dandruff and an oily coat. There is no cure and the only treatment is frequent baths with antiseborheaic shampoo ordinary shampoo is not going to be effect In any case I would not recoommend self diagnose talk to your vet and find out if the odor is normal or part of a desease process.

 

[Mikey T]

To own a basset you have to be more stubborn than they are.Don't put him in a position where he doesn't have to listen to you and you cannot enforce a correction

Very much old school correction based training it can work You also can train using positive reinforcement in which one does not need to compel any action That is the punishment for not complying is a lack of reward. But it still means time it is necessary to put the dog in a position to succeeed. The rule of thumb is the dog must be successfull 70-80% of the time. to maximize training efficiency. You would not ask a dog to come when it is out side chasing a squirrel and you have one worked on recall inside with little distraction.

You can train either way ie if dog doen't respond you will be forced it to respond, ie compulsion ior reforcement/incentive if dog responds it gets something like a treat it wants. So you can see the motivation and snappyness of a responce for the the dog is general better when incetives are used that why dog sport the relly heavily on motivation and speed are almost exclusive trained with positive reinforcement sports like formal obedience where speed and motivation are not as critical not so much,

 

[Mikey T]

I didnt realize you started training so early!

the dog is learning the moment he interacts with you you are always training. With formal training the early you start the fewer bad habits that occur. Wait till the dog is 6 month old in the middle of adolescent rebellion makes little sense to begin training. The only reason that it has become traditional is that is when owners realize they need to train the dog but there is nothing harder than training and adolescent dog. It is much easier to train the dog when he is yourger or older. at the adolescent stage your doing good simply treading water.