The weather wasn’t really good enough for hill walking at the weekend so instead we paid a visit to Culzean Castle.

In reality the “castle” is more of a stately home than a rugged fortress, and the surrounding land has been turned into a dog friendly 600 acre country park.

Shortly after parking we were heading along a peaceful tree lined path with our two hooligans sniffing intently. As we turned the corner we ran into a rider on a huge horse, and once Beanie & Biggles managed to lift their noses off the ground enough to see it, there was much woofing. The horse’s response to all this noise was to empty it’s bladder. This was not a trivial process. It seemed to go on for several minutes and could probably have filled a bath. Beanie wasn’t impressed by it; she’d have been much happier if the horse had opted to produce a tasty number two. Biggles on the other hand seemed a little overawed by this world class peeing demonstration – it completely put his territory marking efforts to shame. What’s worse, he couldn’t draw any consolation from his farting ability because he’s been a bit short on gas recently. Fortunately Culzean had a remedy for that:

Time for a refill

Beyond the gas house was a stretch of beach, perfect for a relaxed sniffy stroll.

On the way back the gray clouds parted briefly to let a bit of sun and blue sky through..

A little further on we encountered this grim reminder to hungry Beagles that speed swallowing can be bad for your health:

Apparently even the Bigglet thought this was an unsavory find

We had some food and refreshments back at the visitor center while our two doglets did their best to tie their leads in knots around the table, and then we walked around the park a little more.

A gazebo built around an old tree now has some Biggle-nibbles on it

Castle builders had the sense to place these windows at just the right height for nosy Beagles

All too soon it was time to head back home. We saw only a fraction of what the park has to offer – it should be worth a second visit at some point in the future.

It’s generally accepted that Beagle boys are more of a handful than their female counterparts. Certainly Biggles has presented us with challenges we haven’t had to face with Beanie.

The first problem we had was with resource guarding, or more specifically sock guarding. Our little boy developed a major obsession with socks from an early age, and he’d growl and even snap at our hands if we tried to take them off him. A little bit of firm handling from the head trainer at Biggles’ obedience class convinced him that this wasn’t a good way to behave, and though he still appreciates an occasional sock (especially if it’s smelly), he’s now very willing to accept a trade.

We tend to think he’s not as smart as Beanie, but he has learned how to open the tumble dryer and help himself to socks!

The growling and snapping (usually with no or very light contact from his teeth) soon resurfaced in other situations however. Though initially an extremely cuddly boy, he now took a dislike to being picked up and handled which was not very helpful when a vet examination or a nail trimming was required. My gut reaction to this was to be firm with him and make it very clear that such behavior would not be tolerated, but the almost unanimous advice we read was to avoid confrontations, so that’s what we did. As we backed off however Biggles started misbehaving in more and more situations. He developed a kind of passive-aggressive response to anything he didn’t like. It was kind of Gandhi meets Hannibal Lecter; he’d roll over onto his side, raise his upper rear leg slightly and snap at any attempt to approach him. We saw this when we told him to leave the kitchen, to come in from the garden, to go into his crate, in fact pretty much any time we asked him to do something he didn’t want.

We consulted trainers about this and the consensus was that as an adolescent boy, the Bigglet was just getting a bit too big for his boots. He needed to be shown his place in the world, but not by shouting and bottom smacking. Instead,  withdrawal of privileges and symbolic demonstrations of our superiority was the way to go.

About a month ago, we made the following changes:

• Biggles is no longer allowed into bed with us in the morning
• He is no longer allowed to sit on the sofa beside me
• When entering or leaving the house he has to sit and wait for us to go first
• If he tries the bitey-Gandhi routine, we just stand over him and stare him out until he gives up (usually less than 60 secs)

Interestingly these are all the kind of things you see on Caesar Milan’s “The Dog Whisperer” every week, even though the trainers in question don’t subscribe to his theories. According to Caesar’s pack hierarchy model we weren’t being sufficiently strong pack leaders and Biggles had figured he was the boy to fill that role.

By the age of 32, Alexander The Great ruled most of the known world. At the age of 1 year and a few weeks Biggles has lost his bedroom and sofa privileges, but he still has his favorite step.

The thing is, whether you believe Caesar’s theories or not a lot of his advice seems to work, and that’s the case here. Since we’ve been following these simple steps Biggles has once again become an easy going, cuddly little boy. He’s still naughty of course, but then he is a Beagle and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

OK, OK I’ll go into my basket, but I’m still going to give my bed a good seeing-to!

On Sunday we headed up to Sue & Kevin Rose’s monthly lure coursing session. This time we had the company of friends from the park and the Glasgow Dog Training club: Tess and her two pups Tara & Clara, and Jamie and Cuillin.

As before we put Beanie & Biggles in together for the first round, and also as before Beanie cruised to victory over the Bigglet, but both of them had a great time.

Beanie closes in on the lure…

But she fumbles her chance to catch it…

Biggles does his level best to keep up

A rare sight – the Bigglet at full stretch!

But it’s not enough, and Beanie romps down the home straight to win

We’d been warned that the excitement of lure coursing could undo some of the hard work we’ve put in to controlling our two off lead. I don’t think that was the case with Beanie, but it was for Biggles. He proved tricky to get back on lead after his run, though we had some help:

You’re nicked Biggles!

Biggles now got a long rest while Beanie progressed quite far through the other rounds. She won against Tara in the second round, and also out-ran a lovely little terrier called (I think?) Rosie in the third:

Beanie bays her head off to take the lead…

goes to full stretch to maintain it…

…and wins the round convincingly!

Rosie (I think) without her Hannibal Lecter muzzle

The fourth round put Beanie up against a lurcher nicknamed “the pocket rocket” that had previously been clocked at 38 mph! Beanie ran her heart out, but it was like watching a cute little Mini racing a sleek Ferrari. She resorted to cutting corners to stay in the race, but still it wasn’t enough to catch her turbo-charged opponent.

After all the rounds were done the course was thrown open to all dogs to have another go, so Biggles got to run again. In our previous coursing session we let him have his second race against whippets. Inevitably he fell far behind and he went on his own little sight-seeing tour outside the field. This time we just had him race against Beanie again, and it worked – she still won but he had a closer race and completed the course. However when it came time re-attach his lead, he evaded capture and went on a high-speed sniffathon.

Biggles sets off on another solo adventure, though this time he doesn’t get very far

Eventually he ended up at the exit point of the field, but this time his way was barred by a heavy gate installed after (and probably as a result of) his previous naughtiness.  After a while he saw the futility of further running and I got my cheeky little boy back on lead.

And that’s what he thought about having his off-lead excursion cut short!

So much for Beanie and her naughty brother, but what about their chums?

Well Cuillin had a spot of bad luck in the draw – his first ever race pitted him against a dog called “Sonic”. We’d never seen Sonic before, so for a while I held out hope that his name was the result of sarcasm and he was in reality a couch potato. Sadly this was not the case; Sonic was a very fit looking whippet who quickly left Cuillin behind (and Cuiliin is no slouch!). Like Biggles, once Cuillin lost sight of the lure he lost interest in the chase. Kevin very kindly gave him another couple of solo tries after the “official” races but they too weren’t entirely successful. I’m sure he’ll catch on soon though.

Cuillin started strongly every time…

but didn’t sustain it for the the full lap

Tess, Tara and Clara also got off to a good start but kind of lost focus as the race progressed, though Tara came very close to catching the lure at one point!

A few more shots from the day:

More shots are available here.