The freezing conditions over the last few days have brought some unexpected benefits:

• Walking to heel. The pavements around our house have been covered in thick ice. It’s amazing how the prospect of a hard landing on your arse can focus you on heel-work during an on-lead walk.
• A holiday for wellies. Even the muddiest field loses its ability to swallow your feet when it’s frozen. And the dogs come back from the walk half-way clean too!
• Cryogenic poo. This is a mixed blessing if you’ve got a little boy called Biggles. On the one hand, frozen poo is much easier to pick up and bag. On the other, the frost turns last night’s number two into a delicacy – a crunchy, lickable poosicle that’s impossible to resist. And of course if Biggles is eating the stuff, then Beanie has to get in on the action too.

The really good thing though is that cold weather hasn’t got in the way of park fun. Here are some shots from Wednesday’s outing, in which our dynamic duo were once again joined by Bella.

It may seem a good idea to bite Bella’s bum…

..but there can be reprisals. Time to leg it!

Biggles in full flight!

But he’s not nearly fast enough..

..to outrun Bella

A gathering at the office water cooler

How long before he’s big enough to pick this up!

You may wonder what Beanie was doing while Biggles was having all this fun. Well, despite the small fortune we’ve spent trying to find safe but interesting chase toys, it turns out Beanie still prefers her own improvised toys:

Yep, that is a poo bag swinging from her chops

Needless to say we got a nice quiet afternoon when got back home.

Finally, we’re still waiting for Beanie’s treat bag to emerge from the black hole that is Zak’s stomach. If it is still in there, it doesn’t seem to be weighing him down at all.