The big drawback of Paul handling Biggles is that we don’t get any lovely actions shots of our little boy (for those that don’t know, dad Paul is the photographer in the family). However, our boy Biggles is determined and come what may he always finds a way to get a little bit of the limelight:

And suddenly, as if by magic, a Biggle appeared!

I’m going to try taking over handling of Biggles. It will be tricky as Beanie and Biggles are like chalk and cheese and it’s all my fuddled little brain can cope with trying to keep up with Princess Beanie. Adding Master Biggles into the equation will no doubt cause a meltdown but we can but try!

Beanie in action:

And Master Biggles:

OK, it doesn’t look like much, and there are only 6 poles, but trust me it’s a huge breakthrough for my little boy. I’ve still got to get him up to 12 poles before his next lesson, but I don’t think that’ll be hard.

Finally, here are a few shots from the last week’s shenanigans:

The wasps are back and Beanie’s standing guard by their hiding place in our door vents

A surprise attack on her brother..

And an extended play fight on the bed..

Biggles can now add weaving to his impressive list of talents (though farting will always be his primary skill)

This little video really doesn’t do Biggles justice. He did lots of wonderful rounds but daft mum kept bungling the filming. His weaves are coming along great and he’s getting very reliable with 12 poles. Last night his entries weren’t so good but Paul and he practiced today and it’s looking great now! Next time we’ll make sure we show Biggles at his biggley best!

Yep things are totally back to normal in our house. Chases..

Tail pulling…

And of course sock theft..

To help our pups cope with the heat of all these activities, we’ve got them a couple of Ruffwear “swamp cooler” jackets. They have a great reputation for keeping dogs cool even in really hot conditions, but I couldn’t help wondering how Beanie and Biggles would take to wearing permanently wet jackets. As it turned out they didn’t seem to mind one bit.

Agility trainer Carol suggested we try putting a lead on Biggles to help him find the right path through the weaves. It works great, but occasionally things do go wrong!

Kibble on paws, but no-one’s snacking until they’re told. Beanie meditates on both pieces at once; Biggles is strictly a one-kibble-at-a-time boy

The two weeks of NILIF (nothing in life is free) were up some time ago but we’ve kept going with much of it, because together with the various self control exercises it’s worked wonders for bringing our two Beagles into line. We’re still hand-feeding them (it’s nice for them and us) and they still have to sit and/or perform a trick when crossing a boundary, but we are now inviting them up onto the sofa and into our bed for a cuddle.

Back in our bed on a morning, just where a Bigglet should be!

The aggression Beanie showed to Biggles seems to be thoroughly behind us now, though our boy still seems to lack confidence in some situations. We’re working to build him up, but we need to do so selectively because he is after all a Beagle boy; give him an inch and he’ll grab & tug it until it’s considerably longer, and probably full of holes.

They say it’s much easier to tell a mischievous Beagle to do something good than to stop doing something naughty, and I think that’s why the discipline of the baskets works so well. It took a bit of firm handling and patience, but now we can put a stop to lots of troublesome behavior simply by sending them to their baskets. Finally we can have TV dinners in peace, yet still invite our pups up for a cuddle when we’re ready!

The benefits of the NILIF programme have also spilled over into our agility training. Beanie is much less likely to go off on a poo hunt at the start of each session, while Biggly Boy is now able to follow commands at a greater distance and is very close to weaving unaided.

Biggles loves jumping almost as much as Beanie now!

And jumps are great for other things too :)

Beanie has her eyes fixed on the next obstacle as she slinks over the jump

The only thing that isn’t quite back on track is play between Beanie and Biggles. Having said that, they’re having lots of play sessions with us right now so maybe they don’t need to let off steam with chases and wrestling on their own. Also despite the odd clear day we’ve had a lot of rain lately, and Beagles generally don’t like getting wet. Getting smelly and disgusting: yes, getting rained on: no. Anyway, hopefully they’ll return to playing together as we head into spring and summer and they spend more time together in the garden.

Beanie and Biggles favorite thing in all the world is chasing. Last year we got them a portable lure and whilst they think that’s the bee’s knees it’s not suitable for smaller spaces. We wanted something that was as much fun as chasing a lure but that could eventually be used as a super exciting reward to make sports like agility more fun. Currently we use food rewards but the problem with that is that scraps of food found on the ground, in other peoples pockets or on stalls at an agility competition are every bit as appealing and we tend to lose control if there’s nosh within a 2 mile radius! We want something super-exciting that the pups know they won’t find anywhere except with us.

So, back to the pressie. The first part sounds a bit strange – it’s a lunge whip. The type they use for training horses. It’s a long, flexible pole with a ‘rope’ attached to the end. It cost about £5. Now it might not sound like fun but attach a rope to the end and wiggle it about a bit and you’ll be any Beagle’s best friend.

Here it is in action:

And some piccies:

The second part of the pressie is something a bit nicer than an old rag to chase and kill. A JML ‘crazy critter’ fox and racoon as advertised on TV:

These are just perfect for attaching to lunge whip – they’re all slinky and fluffy with squeakers in the head and tail that’ll make lots of lovely noise when the critters are being killed.

Anything that’s been attached to the lunge whip becomes exciting in it’s own right so in time I’m guessing that we’ll be able to stuff a ‘crazy critter’ in our jackets and whip it out at the end of an agility run to drive our pups wild with excitement.

The show was held in a well lit barn roomy enough to house two agility rings and a row of stalls selling various money-raising items. The barn only had one entrance/exit, but as it was permanently open we decided that our two would-be escapees should wear their Retreiva tracking collars. As it turned out we didn’t have to use them as all the action stayed safely within the barn, though not necessarily in the right part of the barn.. but I’m getting ahead of myself.

When we first arrived, we felt a bit of culture shock. One ring was set out with a course containing purely jumps, while the other had a mixture of jumps and “contact” equipment (A-frame, dog walk and see-saw). Different grades and sizes of dogs were set to run at different times in each of the rings but there didn’t seem to be a schedule to follow, and everyone but us seemed to know what they were doing. Fortunately everyone we asked for guidance was happy to help and before long we were queuing up for our first attempt at the jumps-only course. Susan was handling Beanie, and I had my hands full with the Biggly Boy. Originally the plan had been for Susan to run both our two, but coping with two dogs at radically different ability levels is a strain, and she eventually talked me into giving it a go. I’m really glad she did because one of the rewards of agility of training is a stronger bond with your dog. Although I love Beanie to bits, I’ve often felt closer to my little boy; that’s increased over the last month or so and in his own way Biggles has reciprocated. When I go for a shower, he usually camps out on the bed to keep me company. When I sit on the sofa, Biggles often chooses to cuddle up to me rather than Susan. When I’m doing a bit of DIY, I can always count on my four-pawed assistant to help me botch the job, and last night he even trashed the external drive sitting on my computer desk. But I digress.. back to the agility!

Susan and Beanie went first. There were lots of distractions in the barn, and Susan wafted a chunk of chicken underneath Beanie’s nose to get her focused. It seemed to work, but almost as soon as Susan gave the “go” command, Beanie headed out of the ring. By the time Susan caught up with her, Beanie was frenziedly digging through the contents of a rubbish bag to the side of one of the stalls. Just to be clear, Beanie didn’t merely have her head stuck in the bag, she was fully in the bag, in fact she was virtually wearing the damn thing, and when Susan extracted her she had a bunch of wrappers and other junk hanging from her mouth. Not the best of starts, but then in training sessions Beanie often needs to do a thorough exploration of her surroundings before she’ll settle and give her full concentration to the agility.

Me and the boy were next, and I wasn’t feeling too hopeful. The course seemed very complicated, and I decided just to ignore the sequence numbers by the jumps and make up our own mini-course. Sadly even that fell by the wayside when we actually got started, along with all the handling instruction I’ve had over the last few weeks. Biggles went over some of the jumps and round the others, but he stuck with me and that in itself was a victory worth celebrating!

Our next performance was to be in the mixed equipment ring, and again Susan and Beanie went first. This time Beanie was looking very focused, and when the “go” command was given she bounded over the first three jumps like a champ! Susan gave the command “right” for the first turn and Beanie responded immediately.. by turning left, sprinting out of her ring, straight through the other ring and up to the stall she’d visited earlier. She didn’t concern herself with the rubbish this time though; she went straight to the back of the table and positioned herself for a shock-and-awe raid of the seller’s goods, which, it turned out, included every kind of smelly dog cake you could imagine. Sardine cake, trout cake, kipper cake – it was all there, ready to be speed-swallowed by our thieving little girl! Looking at the video, it’s like she’d actually planned to do that right from the start – her attention was on Susan completely right up to the turning point.

As you’ll see, her devious plan was scuppered by a life-form she’d never encountered before – a green witch. The witch grabbed her, picked her up and handed her over to Susan. What a party pooper!

Now it was Biggles’ turn. The mixed-equipment course was longer but much simpler than the jumps-only course, and after Biggles’ initial performance I felt that we might actually be able to muddle our way through it. I was mentally rehearsing the turns as I led him up to the starting position but I needn’t have bothered, because the moment I said “go”, his nose hit the floor, he locked onto Beanie’s trail and sprinted off towards the stall with all the tasties. It was an impressive demonstration of his scenting abilities because he followed Beanie’s route pawstep for pawstep, but he wasn’t quite as fast as the Beanster and was quickly apprehended (albeit by a different witch).

Beanie was allowed a second go at the course, but it had about the same low level of agility content as the first, save for a brief weave round a guy who tried (and failed miserably) to block Beanie on her way to the kipper cake. At this point we knew that any further attempts would end the same way, and said our goodbyes. I have to concede that Collies – along with just about every other breed of dog that doesn’t begin with “b” and end in “eagle” – may have an edge in the agility ring, but our two certainly provided the most entertaining performances of the day!

Here are the edited highlights of our first agility show:

Notice how Beanie keeps scanning the contents of the stall even while she’s being carried past it – casing the joint for a future repeat raid! Yep, our girl truly is a criminal mastermind.

Our Beaglets had been very well rewarded for their little raid on the doggy treat stall and we didn’t want them thinking the objective of an agility competition was to counter surf all of the stalls. We’d set out with a freshly roasted chicken, venison, sausages and cheese to reward them well if they did anything right. Most of that was still in our treat pouches so we decided to set up a course as soon as we got home so that we could reward them well for doing things properly. The agility show had clearly taught them something because we’ve never seen them so focused and keen to do agility. Take a look at the clip of their first and only run. Needless to say we quit while we were ahead and gave them the biggest reward ever – the entire contents of the treat bags.

To help get him over this, we took him and Beanie for a session with Carol Rogers of Clear Run Agility. We spent a few minutes at the start of the session explaining Biggles’ apparent dislike of the jumps to Carol, and then she set up a few pieces of equipment to see our boy in action for herself. He seemed quite calm as I put him in a sit-wait and unclipped his lead, but then the little bugger took off on a sprint round the barn and leaped over every jump he could find, with a huge grin on his face the whole time. So much for the “problem” with jumps.

It seems that agility session unlocked something within him though. Yesterday I heard him “boinging” for something on the worktops in the kitchen. I was pretty sure there was nothing for him to get, other than a bit of salad packaging, so I didn’t respond immediately. The boinging sounds became a little more desperate, then abruptly they stopped, to be replaced by a rustling sound. The thing was, there was no intervening thud of something hitting the kitchen floor. That’s the normal pattern you see: boing, boing, boing, thud, scoff/rustle.

Curious, I headed into the kitchen and found Biggles standing on the worktop next to an empty pack of tomatoes. It must have taken one hell of a jump to make it up there. His elevated position had given him access to a number of previously forbidden areas, but he hadn’t used his time up there wisely; he seemed to be having trouble deciding whether he should nick something from the window sill or the sink. I didn’t give him time consider the matter further so I don’t think he got much of a reward for his efforts, but he’s been up there once and no doubt he’ll do it again. It’s a bit like we’re living a video game. Every so often Biggles gets a new “power-up”, and life gets more complicated!

Anyway, throughout all the chaos I did manage to get a couple of nice portraits of our two Beaglets this last week. I don’t how or why, but the camera always seems to make them look all innocent and angelic.

Sue and Kevin Rose are holding a lure coursing meeting on Sunday 22nd August – all welcome. More info on their blog.

Paws in the Park is on at Rouken Glen Park on Saturday 4th September. Lots of activities to try including lure coursing, agility, agility dash (no skill needed, prize for the fastest dog) and flyball. More info on the Glasgow Dog Training Club website.

Then on Sunday 5th September Sue and Kevin are holding a special lure coursing meeting to raise money for charity. This will include fun races, fun dog shows etc. Again, more details on Sue and Kevn’s site.