A couple of days later, it became apparent that our tick search should have been much more thorough. Now fully engorged on our dogs’ blood, they were really easy to spot. Beanie had one on her eyebrow and one on her neck, while Biggles had a couple in the area around his naughty bits! We didn’t have a proper tick tool, so I grabbed a pair of tweezers and proceeded with the extraction. It was actually quite easy to remove Beanie’s ticks, because she held very still while I got a good grip, twisted and pulled. As far as I could see I got both ticks out fully (without leaving behind their mouth parts) though they kind of exploded from the pressure of the tweezers once I’d got them clear of Beanie. It was way, way harder to remove Biggles’ ticks. He’s never liked anybody, human or dog, messing about around his joy department and he wriggled about like a thing possessed. Trying to bullseye ticks with the tweezers while he was struggling like that was difficult in the extreme. It would have been easier to play “Operation” on the top of a washing machine doing its spin cycle. Anyway I eventually pulled the ticks, or at least their bodies, off my boy and happily neither our two dogs nor us suffered any ill effects.

The experience convinced me that we needed a proper tick extraction tool, so I hunted about on Amazon for a bit and eventually ended up with an “O’Tom Tick Twister‘.

It was the only device that didn’t seem to be a variation on tweezers and had good reviews. I popped it in our doggy care kit and promptly forgot about it – until yesterday that is! A couple of days ago we had a long walk around Culzean Castle, and then yesterday Susan spotted a tick on Biggles as he rolled over for a tummy tickle. Curiously it had chosen to attach itself to his nether regions again. Biggles’ nethers have always attracted other male dogs, but now they’re clearly a magnet for ticks as well. It’s a hard life being a Bigglet.

I went to get the tick twister, while Susan prepared to put our new Biggles handling routine to the test. Happily both the twister and the handling worked beautifully. Biggles struggled for a couple of secs then calmed right down, allowing me to go to work unhassled.

The twister kit contains two different sized plastic er.. well, let’s call them “forks” for want of a better term.

The idea is to slide the appropriate sized fork in around the tick’s attachment point. Once the tick’s mouth is securely gripped by the “V” of the fork, twist slightly and pull the nasty little critter off your dog. When I tried this on Biggles it worked perfectly! The tick came away intact and alive, so I wrapped it in toilet paper, squished it and gave it a burial at sea (flushed the bugger down the loo).

So now we’ve got a tick remover that really works and a little boy that doesn’t mind us handling him as long as we go about it the right way. We do however still have a spoiled little girl who tends to get stroppy if she doesn’t get her own way. We’ve been taking care to win all our little battles with her, but she still vocalizes her indignation when her demands aren’t met, as evidenced by this photo from our visit to Culzean:

Beanie seeks an answer from the heavens! It’s time for more treats but the humans aren’t taking the hint! Why??!!!

A couple more shots from our dreary but still enjoyable day at Culzean:

• To deal with situations we’re he’d stolen something, we offered Biggles a treat in return for the stolen item. We associated the word “swapsy” with this and after a while a mention of the word “swapsy” was often enough to make him give up his prize, just so long as he got a treat soon afterwards.
• To get him out of rooms he didn’t want to leave, we held impromptu training sessions which just happened to end up in the hall.
• Whenever he seemed to be getting more stroppy, we cut back on his privileges a little.

All of this made his behavior much easier to manage, but it didn’t actually eliminate the behavior. As proof of this, we decided to see what would happen if we tried to get something off him without using the “swapsy” workaround. Here’s a clip of how it turned out. Needless to say I was volunteered for the role of hapless victim! My approach is all wrong, but still, Biggles shouldn’t be reacting the way he did.

He absolutely detested having his ears cleaned (an important part of regular Beagle maintenance) so we gave it up, and any trip to the vet was unnecessarily stressful because we didn’t know if he’d take a dislike to the examination or treatment. It was a shame because most of the time Biggles is a true sweetheart, and his enthusiasm and attention during training sessions is unmatched, even by much more cooperative breeds.

Eventually we decided we needed to tackle the problem another way, because the Biggly boy is approaching adulthood and growling and snapping at anybody other than us could get him into serious trouble. We called on Heather Smith, who runs our pup’s Heelwork To Music classes. In addition to her training skills she’s a qualified behaviorist and has already helped friends of ours with their Beagle. She gave us some simple, practical advice and techniques for dealing with Biggles’ naughty habits. Here are some of them:

• Never back down. If you have a confrontation, you HAVE to win it, otherwise you can only expect things to get worse.
• Never respond immediately to our dogs’ demands. They get attention/food/walks when we decide, not when they ask for it.
• Gently get Biggles used to human behavior that can be threatening to a dog, such as standing or leaning over him. At the same time, adapt some common operations to make them less threatening. For example when attaching a lead to the collar, try to do it underneath rather than above the neck.
• In resource guarding situations like the one in the video, secure Biggles’ by the collar by reaching in from the side, not from the front. Don’t get in to a tug of war or talk to him, simply hold him firm and patiently wait for him to release the item.

All of this was valuable, but for me the most valuable thing Heather’s visit gave us was the confidence to tackle Biggles, and Beanie for that matter, and not be plagued with doubt that what we’re doing might be harmful or counterproductive.

Two weeks on, the changes in Biggles have been amazing. He rarely resists us when we try to take things off him, and if he does, he gives up within a couple of seconds. We can usually get him off tables and out of rooms he shouldn’t be in by command alone, and we’ve resumed cleaning his ears. On walks he’s becoming much more attentive and less headstrong. Beanie’s changed too – she’s suddenly become very cuddly, whereas before she tended to be a bit aloof and only accepted affection on her terms. I can’t help thinking that the most important factor in all of this is the confidence we now have in interactions with our dogs. I guess Caesar Millan would say that we’ve become a little more like the leaders of our pack.

And in case your wondering, demotion from joint pack leadership hasn’t made our two any less playful:

You wouldn’t believe how many goes it took to get them jumping in sync! Or if you own a beagle, maybe you would!

Don’t be fooled, Beanie’s not resting – she’s lying in wait, ready to ambush the Bigglet

Biggles knows what’s about to go down, and hangs back for a while…

Eventually he succumbs, and this is what’s waiting for him!

But he turns it around soon enough!

Biggles investigates a moth by the window. It seems kind of big, so he bravely hands the job over to Beanie

She’s remarkably gentle with the moth, and picks it up in her mouth then releases it a couple of times without harming it in the slightest. The capture and release cycle continues, but then some bits fall off and the moth dies. I guess they don’t make moths like they used to.

But there are some battles we just can’t win:

Beanie at least knows she’s not allowed on the table. She jumps off quickly as soon as she see’s us coming. Or at the very least she respects us enough to run FAST after jumping up onto the table and swiping the food off our fork as it makes it’s way to our mouth.

But Biggly Boy….”It looks nice up there. I think I’ll get up there”. Then FLOP. “zzzzzzzzzzzzzz”. He never touches our food – he just likes to be on the table.

Whatever their origin, they’ve granted Biggles some new abilities. Firstly, he’s become a master tactician. When gets into a chase with Beanie in our garden, he heads straight for the rear of the shed and lies in wait for Beanie. When she arrives, he tricks her into taking the long way round and quickly legs it round the other side.

Suckered her again!

Eat my dust, Beanie!

Admittedly he sometimes cuts it a bit too close and things don’t work out, but his strategy is sound.

It’s a royal pain in the bum if you don’t factor in Beanie’s remarkable acceleration

His other new talent is more of a problem for us – he can now open all the sliding-door cupboards in our house. It started with a few accidental openings caused by rough and tumbles with Beanie, but then he figured out how to do it at will. On the evening the breakthrough came, I heard some unexpected chewing sounds and found the Bigglet down at the far end of the corridor with a Paint Pod roller in his mouth. I retrieved it and shut the cupboard, but then two minutes later worrying noises summoned me and there he was again, indulging his obsession with the Paint Pod. This repeated three more times before I put an end to it by stapling heavy duty velcro onto the door and cupboard frame. Of course I only protected one of the cupboards, so shortly afterward I found him and Beanie lying on our spare duvet together, busy chewing off all the washing care labels. Yep, he’d figured out that his technique would carry over to the other cupboard. The next day, Biggles seemed to have disappeared from the house for a couple of minutes, until I spotted that the sliding wardrobe door in our bedroom was slightly open. Opening it fully I saw Biggles sitting among Susan’s shoes with a “Yes? Can I help you?” look on his face. I predict that our local Tesco is going to run out of velcro in the near future.

It doesn’t stop there. The other night he opened the door to the kitchen and managed to get his jaws round some very spicy leftovers. His bottom paid the price the next day (ever heard a Beagle singing Ring of Fire?) but I somehow doubt that it’s put him off. All this extra thinking has taken it’s toll on the Biggly boy though. And on Beanie. And on us.

Finally, on today’s tea time walk, Biggles’ new found intelligence somehow prompted a discussion about whether our Beagles truly understand spoken commands. I feel that they do, and decided to put it to the test. As we walked along, I said “stamp collection” in the same voice I use to call them over for a treat, and neither of them responded. Then I said “treat time” and they trotted over expectantly. It was all very encouraging, but then I blew it, because for some reason the spectacularly random “Return trip to Aberystwyth” brought them running. Still, Biggles can now open doors and cupboards, and that’s good enough for me.

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!

Beanie was very good.

Some of the time she walked to heel

Sometimes she ran on ahead…

..but always she looked back to see where I was…

…and came running the moment I called

We practiced our heelwork to music techniques

Played endless games of fetch

Raided the treat bag

And finished up with a mud feast

As Susan is a member of the Glasgow Dog Training Club committee the whole family was roped in to some degree.  I had been asked to take photographs for the club website and Beanie and Biggles were featuring in the flyball demo which was being provided by their club – Lomond Flyball.

When I’d dropped Susan off at the crack of dawn the sites for the various attractions had been marked out but nothing had been erected. By the time I returned with Beanie and Biggles just a few hours later the change was amazing – stalls selling all things doggy-related had sprung up everywhere, enclosures were fenced off and ready to go and visitors were already starting to gather. There wasn’t much time to admire the transformation though, because the flyball demo was starting shortly and Beanie & Biggles were in it!

Given our two pups’ superb performance in a recent competition, I had been confident that they would play their part well. However, when I heard the music blaring around the main ring, pipe bands, cheerleaders and dogs everywhere  I was beginning to wish that Susan hadn’t said to quite so many people “Make sure you’re there to see Beanie and Biggles in the flyball demo – they’re amazing!”.

My fears proved well grounded as you can see in the following video:

We often joke that Beanie has a faulty nose as she’s often hopeless at finding things. But somehow she sniffed out  bonios in a rucksack from yards away. She remembered her training to a degree and when the time came for her first run she flew over the jumps and headed for the box to release the ball. But at the last moment temptation got the better of her and she sharply veered off to the right and made a bee-line for one of our team mates rucksacks. Club instructor Sarah quickly left her station behind the flyball box, extracted Beanie from the rucksack and prised a couple of bonios out of her mouth.

From that moment onwards, in Beanie’s mind the rules of the game had changed. A flyball run was no longer complete without a trip to the bonio rucksack! The audience seemed to thoroughly enjoy the chaos that followed.

Err.. the ball’s right here!

Little Robbie – one of the few who stayed focused on the ball

But eventually Biggles..

..and even Beanie managed to get it right!

The more advanced dogs followed and showed the spectators how it should be done.

Of course while the other dogs were running, our two weren’t quite finished letting the side down. What’s the most embarrassing thing that your dogs can do when you’re wearing your obedience club polo shirt and there are scores of people watching? How about a noisy round of play fighting while you demonstrate that you clearly have no control whatsoever over your dogs?

Fortunately order was restored fairly quickly.

Naughty? Who me?

After the flyball Susan had to rush off to work on the  ’Dogstacle’ or mini agility stall.  There was a gazebo beside the course so we popped Beanie & Biggles crates in there and settled them down for a nap while I went off to check out the other attractions.

The Dogstacle course was running throughout the afternoon and proved to be very popular – there was a queue at it all day long!

Beagles seemed to be very well represented and we even bumped into Thomas who we’d previously met at Beagle Racing. Here he is having a go at the Dogstacle course:

Sue and Kevin Rose (the couple that host the lure coursing events that Beanie and Biggles enjoy so much) came all the way from Rumbling Bridge to set up a lure coursing run, free for all visitors to try. Obviously there was only room for a short course, but still it was enough to give dogs and owners a taste of how much fun the full thing can be:

This fellow got the idea of chasing the lure straight away

Cuillin was also a natural (Cuillin’s mum plans to take him to the next event at Rumbling Bridge!)

But the best lure chaser I saw was Tess – particularly impressive given that she’s only recently returned to full activity after her spaying op!

The flyball team also set up a have-go course that proved to be very popular. Not all of the newbies managed to return with the ball on their first go, but at least none of them raided any rucksacks!

In the main ring there were presentations by the Greyhound Awareness League and Dog’s Trust:

..and a demonstration of heelwork to music:

This was followed by a series of very popular dog shows (including junior handler, pedigree and crossbreed categories) and finally a doggy fashion parade featuring the latest and greatest from The Pet Stop.

The Dog’s Trust also ran a Doggy Dash competition throughout the afternoon – a short, timed restrained recall with some handsome prizes going to the fastest dog. I fancied Beanie’s chances in this and before the competition closed I prised Susan away from the Dogstacle stall and we gave both Beanie and Biggles a chance at glory. They both ran well and came straight to me but sadly their times just weren’t good enough to claim any prizes – the competition winner was a very cute little 7 month old Tibetan Terrier who shot over the line like a shaggy, fur-covered bullet.

Lining the path between the various have-a-go events were a multitude of stalls. Some were simply aimed at raising awareness about animal issues, while others sold anything and everything from personalized gift cards to hand-drawn portraits and of course a wide range of pet products:

It’s just as well that yellow duck can’t read ;)

The time flew by and at 4pm everything came to a close. If the setting up of the stalls and enclosures had been impressive, the clean up operation was even more so. As the event was closing I took Beanie and Biggles up to the meadow for a nice walk while Susan was helping to pack everything up. I came back within an hour  and everything was gone and the park was left completely spotless. Well, perhaps not completely. One or two rawhide chews had been left on the grass, but fortunately Biggles was able to help with these. Beanie does the giant Bonios in other people’s rucksacks, while my boy takes care of stray rawhides. What a team!

As always, all photos of the event are available here.

Read more about Paws in the Park here.

He still gets a little bit excited so we need to work hard at keeping him calm. But provided we do that he doesn’t take his little eyes off us! He’s so eager to please. His heel work was excellent – perhaps better than his big sister! His sit / down wait was good, but his attention wandered after a while. He didn’t get the idea of distance control at all – everytime I told him to do something he’d run over to me so he could do it beside me!

Unfortunately we couldn’t take many photos as one of the dogs didn’t like the flash.

Dog owners that are local to Glasgow will also be interested in an event that the Glasgow Dog Training Club will be hosting in Rouken Glen Park on Saturday 22nd August:

Beanie and Biggles’ flyball club will be doing a demo and a ‘have-a-go’ (highly recommended!). Also, their lure-coursing club will be there letting everyone have a try. I’ll be working at the event, but I’m sure Beanie and Biggles will be having lots of goes with their dad. He’s under strict instructions to take them along to the aromatherapy and tellington touch stalls for a bit of pampering! There will be lots of dog activities to watch and to try. Also stuff for the kids (pony rides, face painting etc) and craft stalls selling lots of lovely hand-crafted items.

Her heelwork was perfect – onlead, offlead, fast pace, slow…it made no difference. Beanie trotted along beside me like a little dressage pony with her eyes glued to me the whole time. She didn’t even sniff the floor. And all this without treats!

Her sit-stay, down-stay were perfect. At one point we put all the dogs in a down-stay and the owners left the room. One of the dogs caused a bit of an upset and all the dogs got to their feet….except Beanie. I’d told her to stay so she refused to budge even when a dozen dogs were running around her.

Her only weakness was her stand-wait. Beanie can’t even stand on command. So something for us to work on!

We finished up with some ‘leave’ training and Paul caught a bit on camera: