After ten days’ convalescense to recover from her spaying op, Beanie was finally allowed to return to the park and have a proper off-lead run. I think we were looking forward to it even more than Beanie. We’ve missed the walks, but even more than that we’ve missed the blissfully quiet afternoons that follow an energetic play session with other pups.

It hasn’t been at all easy to keep Beanie from popping her stitches. A few days after the op she felt fine, didn’t seem to need her pain meds, and would have been bounding round the garden like always if we hadn’t been there to stop her. But somehow we managed it, and as I write Beanie’s sleeping peacefully after a good old fashioned romp with her park buddies.

The other dogs were keen on splashing about in a stream - something  that normally doesn’t appeal to Beanie. She’s much more keen on covering herself in mud and disgusting pongs than washing it all off in an impromptu bath. Still,  she’d gone so long without a play session that she jumped in and joined in the fun.

She doesn’t know it yet, but she’ll be getting swimming lessons in a couple of weeks - our training club is holding a “pool party” at the Pets A & E in Glasgow. I guess they have a pool for therapy purposes - the ideal place for dogs to learn to swim in safety. Given that the club has a couple of crazy labradoodles in its ranks, I think I’ll be wearing waterproofs for that one!

Last Friday we took Beanie to the vet to be spayed or “dressed” as it’s often called. I’d been counting down the days to the op, convinced that she’d go into season just before it, forcing us to cancel, reschedule and endure all the hassles that come with a having a bitch on heat. Every attempted humping put me on red alert, but when the day of the op finally arrived I was nervous rather than relieved.

The operation is of course very common, and generally doesn’t require an overnight stay, but still it’s a pretty major undertaking. If you’d like to know the gory details you can click here, but I wouldn’t advise it if you’re squeamish or about to take your own dog to be spayed. I deliberately avoided any doggy Googling in the lead up to the op - trust me, ignorance is the best approach if you’re besotted with your pup!

The plan was that we’d drop Beanie off at the vets first thing in the morning, and collect her in the afternoon. Being pretty anal types we arrived early - before the practice had opened its doors - so we got to sit in the car park drumming our fingers for a few minutes. Once inside, we went through the pre-op checklist:

• No food after nine PM the previous night? (Er, does nibbling at a bit of poo I failed to scoop from the garden count as feeding? No? OK, “Check”)
• Been to the loo immediately prior to coming here? (Yep. Oh, you mean Beanie? Yep, her too. “Check”)

Then I signed the consent form, and we handed little Beanie over to the friendly lady vet. I was a little concerned that my nerves might have rubbed off on our pup, but no, she merrily trotted off with the vet without a single backward glance. Ungrateful, disloyal little git! We’re standing there fighting the fear that we’ll never see our treasure again and she couldn’t care less!

I filled the remainder of the morning with a visit to the gym. It was more about keeping my mind clear of worry than improving fitness, but it worked because by the time I’d got back, cleaned up and had lunch it was time to collect Beanie.

Back at the vets, we were told that Beanie had behaved herself very well - she hadn’t squirmed once - and that the op had gone very smoothly. The convalescence period would be ten days, during which only the gentlest exercise would be permitted. Also to prevent Beanie from interfering with her stitches, she’d have to wear the classic “lampshade” collar when unsupervised.

The first day there was no problem holding to the exercise restrictions. Beanie was feeling rather delicate after her operation, and was happy to be carried and pampered. The next day, she became a little bolder, especially after a little dose of her pain medication. Today though, she’s trouble! As far as she’s concerned, she’s fully recovered and has already launched herself onto the kitchen table. We’re trying to redirect her energy into chewing and to that end I spent a ridiculous amount at the pet shop on assorted hide chews, pigs ears and bones. So far, the only thing that’s holding her attention for a decent length of time is the “Piggy Rope“. I’d had high hopes for pigs ears - they’re certainly expensive enough - but Beanie can down one in less than five minutes. Plus, there’s something disconcerting about seeing an otherwise cute little pup devouring a real pig’s ear…

And you probably won’t be surprised to hear that the “lampshade” isn’t too popular with our houndlet either. We quickly learned that her collar needs to be extra tight to stop her pulling the whole thing off her head and chewing it to bits. Maybe the vet should have given us two collars - one to wear and one to chew.

We finally met up with Bella - one of Beanie’s sisters - at the training class this evening.

Bella and Beanie are both in the same class now so they should be seeing each other on a regular basis - something that may be a source of stress for the instructor, Val. She quickly regretted her decision to get the two sisters up together for an off-lead exercise!

We also ran into a charming Bassett called Polly on a recent park visit. Beagles and Bassetts are supposed to be quite similar in some respects. Certainly Polly has the same persistence as Beanie. When she saw me handing a treat to our pup, she went straight into a beg and held it motionless for what seemed like an age, wearing me down with her soulful eyes:

Needless to say her performance netted her several lumps of cheese.

If oil is “Black Gold” then tomato ketchup deserves to be known as red gold for its ability to neutralize the unique and overpowering odor of fox poo.

Beanie’s rolled in fox poo several times now, and while standard puppy shampoo can get her looking clean afterwards, it doesn’t do much to make her smell clean. A fellow dog walker suggested we try cleaning her with tomato ketchup, so after our most recent visit to Pollock Park I ended up standing under the shower with a foul smelling Beagle and a bottle of Heinz’s best. It worked amazingly well, though I’d recommend spending extra time on the final rinse if you don’t want a trail of red paw prints on the carpet!

When Beanie’s not rolling in fox poo, digging up the garden, leaping onto the kitchen table or humping the nearest human limb, there’s nothing she likes more than shredding a toilet roll. The one good thing about this is that she’s decided that bog roll hunting is best done when the toilet isn’t occupied, so at least you don’t have to go chasing after her with your pants round your ankles. On the other hand, it takes quite a while to clean up after a full roll has been given the Beanie treatment. It’s nothing like the Andrex puppy adverts I can tell you. And if you actually manage to stop the little rascal before she’s made much of a mess, she looks quite indignant!

How come you always know when I’ve been naughty?

As well as tussling with her siblings, Beanie had a good long wrestling session with Lucy, aka Always and Forever from the Jalhar kennels. They’d traveled all the way from Staffordshire in England to be at the competition, and two of their young handlers kindly shared their knowledge with us over a coffee.

When Lucy was dragged away to the show ring, Rhiannon (below) somehow managed to instill some discipline into our little hooligan, while her older sister Rebecca gave us a fascinating insight into the world of dog shows.

In truth we had such a good time talking to the all the other Beagle lovers that we didn’t really see much of the competition itself! There are further Beagle gatherings later in the year, including a barbecue sometime in the summer. On top of that, Liz of Newlin Beagles  said she may be organizing some informal walks via her website. Judging from the enthusiasm on show today,  I think they’ll be a great success.