We went up to the Wind Farm again today and this time we took one of the bikes with us. It dwarfed our little car but it coped very well with the extra load.

As we approached the moors a very thick fog descended. You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face, let alone the windmills! It was really quite eerie – first you’d hear the funny swishing noise then a giant blade would come swooping out of the sky, apparently from nowhere.

We started out with Beanie and Biggles on very long training lines so they could have a good sniff about – we didn’t want them tiring themselves out too much. Paul and Biggles took one route and Beanie and I another – we met up in the middle an hour later and headed back to the car for the bike. Then the fun and ‘aaarfing’ really began. Paul attached Beanie and Biggles to the canni-cross belt and I jumped on the bike. We all headed off at speed with Paul practically flying along behind his warp-drive beagles! I thought I’d need to ride slowly to let them keep up, but no way were Beanie and Biggles letting me lead the pack. Thay “aaaaroooh’d”, “aaarfff’d”, grunted and bayed the whole way and put on an extra spurt of speed and noise every time I tried to take the lead. Poor Paul just huffed and puffed and did his best to stay on his feet.

We finally headed home about 3 hours later with half a ton of mud weighing us down. The pampered little beaglets had a hot bath then crashed out in a nice cozy bed.

Where to start – it’s been a hectic few weeks!

We’ve been looking to buy a field for our Beaglets for quite some time now. Two or three weeks ago we found a 9 acre field for sale that looked perfect. It was double fenced with secure sheep fencing with thick beech hedgerows between the fences. The current owners are keen conservationists and had planted little woodlands in the middle of the field. There’s a burn filled with otters, king fishers and brown trout running most of the way around the field and they had created a lovely walkway amongst the trees along its banks. It was perfect and they led us to believe it was ours if we wanted it. Needless to say pretty much everything else went out the window. In the excitement we even missed The Big Fun Run and a flyball comp in Redcar! Unfortunately it all fell through so it’s back to the drawing board….and the normal routine.

The mountain bikes have been a huge success (Thanks for the suggestion Sam and Chigley!). It’s amazing how much you find on your doorstep when you’ve got a bike. It turns out that National Cycling Route 7 is just minutes from our front door. Just 10 minutes along it is Pollock park which has lovely forest paths and a number of purpose built mountain biking courses graded from ‘Beginner’ to ‘Advanced’. We find we can easily manage 15 miles or so while the Beaglets nap after their morning walk.

We’re not really competent enough bike riders to go out with Beanie and Biggles yet but the other day we decided to take one bike along to the park and see how they reacted to it. We started out just pushing the bike with the dogs attached before progressing to sitting on the bike and free-wheeling a bit.

Next we decided that Paul should ride ahead a little then I’d unclip the dogs one at a time to see if they’d chase the bike. First time it worked great – Beanie and Biggles tore along behind him baying their heads off. They were rewarded with a tasty lump of cheese when they caught him. Second time we tried it they tore along behind him, caught him, then ran straight past him – still baying their heads off. Paul caught up with them a few minutes later having a sniff in the woods. Beanie re-joined him but Biggles wasn’t ready to give up his freedom quite so quickly. We could hear his “aarff, aarff, aarrf” in the woods not far from us and waited patiently for a couple of minutes. A couple of walkers emerged from the woodland paths giggling about the funny little white dog that was tearing round and round the trees barking his head off! Moments later our little boy emerged from the woods with his tongue hanging out and his tail wagging.

Finally Paul attached them onto the canni-cross kit and I took off on the bike while the three of them ran along behind me:

Still a way to go until it’s safe to attach the dogs to the bikes, but they’ll soon get used to running free with us. We just need to find somewhere nice and safe…..

Success! I am now able to ride my bike. The breakthrough came yesterday when I did what I should have done when we first got our bikes; I embarked on a major Googling session. I found a US site with an instructional video (cheap but not free otherwise I’d reproduce it here) which spelled out the most crucial bit of advice every non-bicycle-riding adult needs, and it’s not advice you’ll get from someone who learned to ride as a child because the whole process is too instinctual for them.

The advice is simply this: when the bike starts to lean, correct it by temporarily turning the front wheel in the same direction as the lean. That’s it. Once you’ve got that idea loaded into your head, progress comes fast. I spent a little time in a deserted car park last night just practicing the balancing side of things, and ten minutes later I was pedaling. This morning we went for another practice session on a bike trail and by the end of it I was getting bursts of 1-2 mins without any mishaps. I haven’t  collected any new injuries either, though my arse is sore thanks to that medieval instrument of torture which is laughingly called a bike seat. Anyway, anybody reading this who also managed to survive childhood without ever learning to ride a bike will find the following link very useful:

http://www.hembrow.eu/personal/howtorideabike.html

I’ve still got a ton of photos from yesterday’s lure coursing to sort through and process before my next post, but for now here are a few snaps from a flyball demo we attended (but did not participate in this time) at James Lindsay Park, Baillieston. The demo was given by the Lomond Flyball Club, and here are a few shots:

Click here for the full set of photos