Despite all our recent efforts, Beanie’s recall hit a new low in the park today, and when we got home Susan started hunting around for new training ideas. She found this article on a so-called “natural” dog training blog. It’s all about tapping into a dog’s prey instinct to make owners more interesting than other dogs, squirrels etc. and advocates games and training exercises that seem to go completely against the “humans as leaders of the pack” theories. For example, it encourages you to play tug of war games in which the dog always wins. It makes for very interesting reading and might be particularly applicable to dogs with a strong hunting drive like Beagles. We’re going to give it a shot, and I’ll record how it goes in future posts.

Another Internet resource that’s proving useful is the Dogsey site: http://www.dogsey.com/.
It’s got a really active, friendly forum that’s a great place to bounce ideas off other dog owners.

And talking of dog owners, I was contacted yesterday by a fellow Beagle owner who lives near Edinburgh. She’s got a lovely Norcis pup called Chester, and was kind enough to send in some piccies:

He’s slightly older than Beanie, and apparently has just perfected his technique for nicking food out of the kitchen bin. He seems to be pretty good at putting Bagpuss in his place too!