We still managed to get a good dose of sunshine close to home though.

Having completely fried all my muscles with speed sessions and power-lifting over the past fortnight I’m on a strict diet of easy runs this week. Beanie and Biggles are very happy about this as it means plenty of nice 90 minute runs on the beach for them. Today we trundled along in a civilised manner until their dad appeared with the camera part way along our course. Things got a bit exciting then….especially when dad lured the pups through ice cold water dragging their hapless mum behind them!

That water was FREEZING – there was no way Beanie was going in!

Blue skies, blue sea, warm sunshine and the snowy white peaks of Arran peaking out above the haze. What more can you ask for?

Such well behaved pups!

I’m a firm believer that most things in life are good for you in small doses. And that goes for canicross too. A little bit of pulling in harness is very good for the dogs – it is strength training after all. But just as you and I need to keep strength and speedwork in moderation – and build it on top of a strong fitness base, so too do the pups. As such, the dogs are on flexi leads for most of our long runs (today was an exception because my arms were killing me after a hard gym session!). This is the next best thing to running free as it gives them plenty of scope to vary their speed and run the way they choose. We’ve been trying to take this a step further this winter and have been working on ways to get them off-lead on a regular basis. We’ve come up with lots of off-lead games for the beach which are working well and keeping them close to us, but we also take them to a safe enclosure where they can let rip.

And of course, the sunshine has prompted plenty of play sessions in the garden.

Hopefully our winter training will get us in great shape for the spring and summer. We’ve got lots of trips planned (although no dates set!), the main one being a week long extravaganza of trail running, hill running, hill walking and hiking on the Isle of Skye.

If Scottish Water had Beagles working for them instead of humans, their recent overhaul of our local pipework would have taken hours instead of weeks. There’d have been no need for machinery, generators or traffic cones. The workers would have simply turned up in their tricolored hi-vis jackets, stuck their bums in the air and got their forelimbs straight to work. There might have been the occasional break to pick up fallen chips and food wrappers from the pavement, or woof at a passing postman, but generally progress would have been very rapid. It certainly was when Beanie followed the trail of some unknown nighttime invader to the rear fence of our garden, rolled up her sleeves and started her latest digging project. I caught her just as she was trying to squeeze her head and shoulders through the gap she’d created, and even though I toweled her off she still brought an impressive amount of mud into the house on her paws.

In the past I’d have responded to this apparent escape attempt by turning the rear fence into a DIY version of the Berlin Wall, but this time I just packed the mud and earth back into the hole and bided my time. Sure enough, two days on Beanie seems to have forgotten about her digging project. Presumably the critter that inspired it has now found a different garden to invade, but there’d have been no digging at all if Beanie & Biggles had caught the little bugger when it first trespassed. With that in mind we’ve been training up their hunting skills, and not knowing the species of critter we’re up against, we’ve tried to cover all the bases.

We started with squirrels.

Squirrels are supposed to be the supreme athletes of the rodent world, but Beanie found this one to be easy prey. It was slow moving, unable to climb, and contained two squeakers; one in the head, and one in the tail, though the tail one didn’t work terribly well, especially after the following incident:

We also tried raccoons. These aren’t common in Scotland but occasionally they have been known to escape from a shop in Irvine called “Homebase”. Homebase doesn’t allow Beagles on their premises. If they did, I’m 100% certain they wouldn’t have a raccoon problem.

Got it!

Killed it! What’s next?

We finished up with the toughest challenge of the day; the orange mini space-hopper. These are wily customers. They bounce in unexpected directions, easily escape from one’s mouth when wet, and keep on squeaking no matter how many times you bite ‘em.

Though Beanie caught the space-hopper many times she never managed to kill it, and both she and Biggles had to retire from their training session knowing that there was still one species out there that could defeat them. Their failure clearly weighed heavily on their minds.

Well, it weighed heavily on Beanie’s mind anyway.

I’ve been training hard and sticking to the diet we started at the New Year, and mostly feeling pretty good on it. Yesterday however I did a pretty hard “legs” session at the gym and today hunger has dominated my thoughts. On tonight’s dog walk – just before tea – Beanie & Biggles found a trail of crisps and assorted snack wrappers and it sent them straight into “spider-beagle” mode. For those who aren’t familiar with that term, it’s my attempt to describe the spread-eagle stance our Beagles adopt when they’ve found something they think is edible and they want to resist the tug of the lead for as long as possible. When they get like this, the walk descends into a dragathon; first I’m trying to pull them away from one site of interest, and just as I succeed, they sniff another site up ahead and suddenly they’re dragging me towards it. Anyway, the thing is, tonight I was almost as interested in their finds as they were. Every “Flake” or “Cadbury’s Caramel” wrapper they located sent me off into a brief food-related fantasy. I didn’t salivate at the sight of dog poo like they did, but when we got back home I demanded my tea double-quick, just like Beanie.

The two Bs have been mostly sticking to their New Year resolutions too, though for Biggles the strain of not opening the toy cupboard (much) has pushed him back into his old sock addicted ways..

I can confirm that socks were harmed during the making of these photos, but it was a worthwhile sacrifice!

In the last week we’ve had a couple of nice days so we took the opportunity to test out our Beagle calming measures in the hills. Sadly, when the fresh air hit their noses all the training went out the window and we spent most of our time arse-surfing on the downhill stretches:

I think we may have to accept this aspect of our little monkeys’ behaviour!

Our first hill walk of 2012 took place in the hills around Straiton – a small, picturesque village set amongst beautiful countryside. Our walk started in the village and climbed up the hill to the monument that you can see on top of the hill in this picture:

Sheltering from the bitterly cold wind behind the monument

Looking back towards Straiton from the monument

From the monument we headed across the moors for a while…

…before arse-surfing down the hill behind our excited, baying Beagles.

The walk continued along the river for a while before crossing a little bridge:

Of course, Beanie and Biggles had to climb up to have a good look:

We continued along a pretty trail for a while with plenty of obsticals to keep the Beags entertained..

…then another steep ascent up through forest trails to a viewpoint on another hill before making our way back to Straiton for icecream and sardine flavoured bones. We’ll definitely be doing this walk again – probably running it next time!

The forecast for today had been excellent – blue skies, sunshine and superb visibility. We’ve had a few hard runs this week so we decided upon a relatively easy hill walk with fabulous views Beinn Dubh – Glen Striddle horseshoe, Luss. Unfortunately the forecast couldn’t have been more wrong. All we saw during the entire walk was dense, gray fog! It was still a fabulous walk – one that we’re really looking forward to both running and walking in better weather. The downhill section was very wet today – almost like a water chute. After slipping and falling umpteen times (with the help of our little angels) we eventually gave up and let them hurtle down the hill dragging us behind them on our bums! T’was fun….and very cold and wet!

It wasn’t really the weather for photos but Paul did haul out the camera for a snap of us on the summit of Beinn Dubh

Yep, the Beanster has had a little fall out with Biggles again. It’s nowhere near as bad as the bust up they had in February last year, but we’ve gone back to the nothing-in-life-is-free programme for a week or two to nip it in the bud. It’s working already, but we’ve been scratching our heads trying to work out the reason for this latest “domestic”. Only a couple of things have changed recently that might be to blame:

1. Over Christmas they’ve been spoiled for attention, and there have been some small signs of jealousy over who’s getting cuddles from whom.
2. We’ve been giving them some short but very exciting off-lead romps

We’re leaning towards #2 being the most likely cause. When we get into the enclosure we typically play recall games rather than simply letting them do their own thing. Beanie takes these very seriously because treats are involved, whereas Biggles is mostly interested in trying to kick-off a play session.

What’s more, Biggles may now be able to run faster than his sister. In the past, she was the undisputed top athlete of the family, but now that could be changing. It’s not so apparent in chases in the garden, where Biggles still uses his one tactical brain cell to outwit Beanie rather than simply trying to out-pace her, but in a straight recall sprint, he’s now taking the lead:

In the last couple of sessions I did notice her looking a bit displeased with The Bigglet, and a day or two later this spilled over into a more serious quarrel. So for the time being the off-lead sessions are going off the menu, and both Beanie and Biggles are facing tougher austerity measures than those imposed on Greece. Much tougher. In fact any time the Greeks feel like complaining about cuts and tax rises they should think themselves lucky that they don’t have to nap in their baskets instead of on the sofa, or give a paw before coming in from the garden.

Just like non-furry children, Beanie & Biggles enjoyed the boxes their pressies came in almost as much as the pressies themselves, especially as those boxes were filled with extra surprises like doggy chocolate buttons and biccies.

Biggles is so intent on checking out the box that he misses the chocolate button – but only for a second!

Beanie’s taking no chances on missing anything, and decides to eat the box as well as everything inside it

Their main pressies this year were new-style Kongs. Our two have never really taken to the traditional bell-shaped Kongs – once the food has gone from them, they show no interest in using the Kongs as chew toys in their own right. On a recent trip to Pets & Home Susan spotted two new models: an urn and a bulbous cylinder, each soft and squishy with multiple food exit points. Pure chance gave Biggles the purple urn, while Beanie got the cylinder. Needless to say Santa had seen fit to fill both of these toys with tasties before they were wrapped.

Biggles immediately got to grips with his toy and was duly rewarded for his efforts, but Beanie had a more difficult time. She tried rolling the cylinder, throwing it, forcing her tongue through the openings – just about everything except the one thing that would have worked: a few seconds of power chewing in her jaws. In the end we came to the rescue by standing on the cylinder a few times. Once the biccies and kibble had been pulverised by our weight, the tasty debris came out much more easily.

When the Kongs had been emptied, Susan handed out the other pressies – a couple of large “Cerea” dog chews. Beanie expertly unwrapped hers before taking her first bite, but Biggles missed this crucial first step and went direct to the chomping stage.

Did his little Christmas wrapping faux-pas weigh heavily on Biggles’ mind?

You mean I should have unwrapped it first?

Doh!

Still, it’ll all come out the same end in due course. I’m OK with it!

And clearly Beanie was OK with it too!

By the time the snacks were finished, an impressive amount of debris had built up on the floor of our “posh” lounge.

I generously offered to take the pups out for their first Christmas walk, leaving Susan to clear up the mess, though as it turned out Susan may have got the better deal. I drove to Troon, and the weather there was strongly reminiscent of the storm we’d had a couple of weeks ago.

Still, a windy, wet day is a fun day for Beagles, and Beanie & Biggles certainly had fun! Every 50 yards we covered was celebrated by a wrestling match, and when we got to a nice safe spot by the beach I let them have a short but extremely energetic off-lead romp. By the time we got back they were both knackered, but still found the energy to enjoy their special Christmas dinner.

Yep, even Biggles got sprouts. We’re still living with the consequences, but at least we bought some powerful new air fresheners prior to Christmas.

After the big nosh we all crashed out on the sofas for a coma. I vaguely remember seeing the initial episode of the four-part remake of The Great Escape, and when I was next conscious, we were half way through part four. Although I’d missed most of this less than riveting Christmas Day TV offering there was plenty more to come, and that of course is where the booze comes in handy. Biggles apparently felt the same way.

Do Beagles get hangovers?

Later on that evening, a couple of furry imps quietly padded down the corridor and wrenched open their toy cupboard, despite it being secured with a thick strip of industrial strength velcro. They had access to all their toys, but they still chose to grab their new Kongs, so I think we can call them a big success, and the same goes for Christmas Day as a whole!

Beanie  seemed particularly keen to help unpack the tree, while Biggles wanted to be in charge of the baubles. Strangely their offers of help were rebuffed, so instead they switched to singing ear-splitting Beagle Christmas carols.

I don’t know which song this is, but it certainly isn’t “Silent Night”

At one point someone – I’m not sure who – got hold of a miniature teddy bear decoration and almost dismembered it. The teddy is still suffering from post traumatic stress, but the decorating is done and neither Beanie nor Biggles managed to electrocute themselves which is always a plus.

We’ve done all our Christmas shopping now but we’re still waiting for some items we’ve ordered to arrive. Fortunately Biggles is very good at alerting us when a delivery is about to occur, and afterwards Beanie quickly dispatches the packaging, sometimes while the precious item is still inside..

Oh yeah, that’s much neater now. Thanks Beanie!

As the space under the tree gradually fills up our two favorite Beagle noses are convinced that at least some of the packages are for them, but they’ll have to wait a little longer before they find out for sure..

As I arrived at Irvine Harbor the gale seemed pretty tame, until I tried to get out of the car that is. I almost had to use my legs against the door to push it open against the wind, and once I’d fully extracted myself, forward progress was very slow. I watched as a series of people parked up alongside me and took the slow, deliberate 45 degree walk towards the sea. They’d each get out to the furthest point along the harbor wall and use their mobile phones to take a picture, only to return with a chunk of dead technology in their hands as the rain and sea spray did their worst.

A few seagulls seemed equally determined to brave the elements. The ones that tried to fly into the wind soon tired, lost ground and when they turned back towards the land they returned with the speed of jets! As I looked around it became clear that the storm had been even stronger earlier in the day, as the grassy bank above the harbor wall was littered with debris from the sea.

As I left the tide was on its way out and the harbor was enjoying a brief respite from the wind and rain.

Back at home, it was immediately obvious that we had two very bored Beagles. The mail had been shredded, there was a strong smell of fart and feet in the air, and there was much tugging of tails and biting of ears going on.

Since our normal running club session had been cancelled that evening I decided that the best solution all round was to harness up Beanie & Biggles and take them out for a short run. The gale had now subsided to the point where there was no longer any danger, but it was still very windy, cold and wet. I hated it; within the first five minutes I’d lost all feeling from the skin on my legs, face and hands, but the dynamic duo loved it. I don’t know why, but both of them always get really excited when they’re out on windy days, and as I kept my head down to shield my eyes from the lashing rain they merrily led me through all the puddles and piles of horse dung they could find. The run did the trick though – burning off all their excess energy – and while they settled down on the sofa for the evening, I lapsed into a coma in a hot bath.

Those photos might lead you to believe that Biggles is the naughtiest of the two, but that’s not the case; he’s just the least accomplished at scarpering from the scene of the crime before we arrive. Nope, Beanie’s the criminal mastermind! She’s smart enough to take advantage of moments of opportunity, then quickly leg it when she’s about to be discovered. For example, if we get distracted by the sound of Biggles rolling around in the corridor with a glove he’s just nicked, she’ll have her snout stuck in a cup or be pilfering stuff from my desk in a flash. Between them it sometimes feels like we’ve got a house full of Beagles instead of just two.

Three Beanies to two Biggleses. Yep, that ratio feels about right..

And yet, for all that, they can be remarkably well behaved when they want to – which is pretty much whenever there’s food at stake. Here’s a quick clip of the current breakfast time routine:

Breakfast-time discipline from Paul Roberts on Vimeo.

This short exercise is kind of a fusion of various training ideas. Obviously self-control is always a good thing for a Beagle, while hand-feeding is supposed to underline the position of the humies at the top of the pile (since they control the food). The “pushing” thing – making the dog push against a hand on the chest, comes from so-called “natural training” and is supposed to teach the dog to turn to their owner in times of excitement/stress. As a side-effect, this routine also seems to be making Beanie more accepting of cuddles and kisses, and as you can see Biggles’ tail does a fair job of sweeping the floor too.

As the day of departure approached they started to think about it some more and became more than a little nervous. They’d heard it’s very dark in space and weren’t sure they’d like that very much. So, we decided to switch off the lights and give them a little taste of how it might feel.