Sunday’s Beagle racing at Inch Farm, Kincardine went very well for Beanie – she won the consolation race, and then in the show afterwards she won best Beagle and best dog, beating a very fine looking whippet.

However, these tremendous achievements should be put in context. For one thing, the turnout was quite low (probably due to the Bank Holiday the next day). Also, it’s worth noting that the consolation race only had two competitors – Beanie and Daisy. It gets worse though, because as we lined up for the race, I was told to nudge Beanie forwards an extra couple of yards to give her a better chance against her seasoned opponent. I guess it wasn’t playing strictly to the rule book, but I was “only following orders” as they say. In any case, Beanie bet Daisy by more than the head start :)

As for the show, well I’m not sure the judging was quite as rigorous as one might get at Crufts. For example, I have my suspicions that not all the competitors were actually Beagles:

On our return after the race, Susan decided it was time to make some repairs to our lawn. There were of course a few holes to fill – Beanie seems determined to dig her way to Australia. But an even bigger problem was the lifeless brown patches caused by Beanie’s grass killing power pee.

Our poor lawn, after a few repairs

We only found this out when it was too late, but dog pee – or more commonly bitch pee – can be lethal to grass, especially in dry weather. There are three ways to combat this:

• Don’t let the dog pee on the grass. Not that easy to enforce!
• Hose down the favorite pee spots with water regularly
• Try lawn saving products like Dog Rocks and Greenum

We’re not keen on messing with Beanie’s drinking water or giving her pills just to save the lawn, so we’re left with the other two options. From now on when she goes into the garden, we’ll keep her on lead until she’s emptied her bladder on the graveled areas, and any unplanned pee events will be diluted with lots of water. Hopefully this will give the lawn a chance to recover.

To channel Beanie’s urge to dig, I made her a little sand pit to play in. I have absolutely no carpentry skills but I’ll never turn up an opportunity to wield a circular saw. Must be something to do with all those cheap and nasty horror films I watched when I was younger. Anyway, the sand pit seems to be a success so far – Beanie just can’t get enough of it!