Biggles kicked things off by vomiting a pile of partially digested poo on our hall carpet. Known by more experienced Beagle owners as sh*tvom, this putrescent powerhouse took nearly half a bottle of “Wash and get off” to remove. Later the same day, Beanie decided to take a dump right in the middle of her heelwork-to-music class.

Mid-week, a pile of dirty washing was raided and a pair of pants was subsequently found to be lacking a crotch.

As the week drew to a close, Biggles nabbed a bag of donuts intended for the guys working on our garden. He managed to consume two of them (and by consume I mean basically swallow whole, one after the other) while Beanie got one. There’s no denying that two young Beagles can be a handful at times, but two young Beagles on a sugar high is something else! In a desperate bid to keep our house and our sanity intact, I bundled them into the car and drove off to the beach, hoping that a long walk would burn the sugar off.

When I got there I decided against walking on the beach itself, because the sea washes in a lot of junk and in their hyper state Beanie & Biggles would have grabbed and eaten just about anything. Instead I took them along the grassy embankment that borders the beach. At first it seemed like I’d made the right decision; all I had to contend with up there was frenzied lead tangling and the occasional attempt to roll in something nasty. Then I saw Beanie’s head all but disappear down a hole, while her bum stuck straight up in the air. When she emerged, she’d got something – there seemed to be some string dangling from the corner of her mouth. I opened her mouth, tugged on the string and became the not-so-proud owner of a used tampon. Lovely. Suddenly the sh*tvom didn’t seem so bad.

Once I’d got over the shock I attempted to hurl my unwanted catch into the bushes, but the wind caught it and carried it to within a couple of feet of where Biggles was. Ordinarily Biggles is pretty slow to react to something landing near him, or even on him, but sugar-powered Biggles was much sharper and he pounced on the tampon immediately. I got a firm hold of him, opened his mouth and just managed to grab the tail end of the string before the whole package headed south to join the donuts. I washed my hands pretty thoroughly after that walk, I can tell you.

Happily things went more smoothly over the weekend. Bundy joined us at flyball and did amazingly well, as you’ll see from the photos and video clips below. Just one more Beagle and the Lomond Flyball Club could have the UK’s first all-Beagle flyball team. It wouldn’t win any prizes, but it would certainly be entertaining to watch!

Bundy’s first ever flyball run

A couple of runs later and she’s got it!

Biggles’ steering was a bit wonky last week

This week, he’s like a harassed shopper; gets all the way to the store then forgets what he came for

Beanie has trouble when the ball gets stuck in the box

But a couple of rounds later she’s flying!

Some of the pics. First Beanie in full flight:

Biggles:

Bundy:

Click here to see the full set of pics and videos from Sunday’s flyball session.

Here she is  :

You can certainly see the family resemblance!

“Oh, she’s so sweet”, “So cute” and “Isn’t she gorgeous” gushed the other dog owners and our teacher Heather. I have to admit to feeling a tiny bit proud of her…….until she squatted down and did the biggest dump you’ve ever seen in the middle of the floor! No warning. Not even an interruption to her little dance routine. Just weave, weave, twist, circle, dump, turn, twist and “gimme my treat”.

Pride comes before a fall!

They’re getting plenty of long walks on the beach, and they’ve even had an off-lead run around with their pal Bundy, but none of this seems to be adequate compensation for the temporary loss of their garden. In a bid to ease their frustration we’ve cordoned off an area unaffected by the ongoing work, and we take them in there once the workmen have packed up for the day.

Still, it’s just not the same as having their full-sized playground on tap morning, noon and night. Yesterday Biggles tried to remedy this by forcing his way through the barrier, but his escape attempt was short-lived. He got to have a sniff and a little dig at the drainage trenches…

But Susan quickly got Beanie on lead and and like a moth drawn to the flame, Biggles just had to go taunt his sister. Once he got close enough he was nabbed – first by Beanie, then by Susan. Game over!

There’s at least a week to go, maybe two, before the work is complete. Until then I guess we’ll just have to accept that our two may be at each other’s throats from time to time.

There could be punchups..

And we’ll have to keep a close eye on the “corridor of doom”. This is the quiet, secluded part of our hall that Biggles uses for his most intensive frustration-fueled chewing sessions. Anything he gets, be it a sock, the mail, or the roller from our Paint Pod, ends up down there. Fortunately for us, Beanie is a tattletale and regularly exposes her brother’s naughty deeds with a distinctive “Mum! Dad! He’s at it again!” woof.

Recently though, poor Beanie has had to pay a high price for betrayal of the Bigglet. When he’s feeling especially naughty he grabs the bed in her basket and drags the whole thing (with Beanie still in it!!!!) down the corridor. I’ve tried to catch him doing this on video several times because it’s an impressive feat, but as soon as I poke my head into the hall he freezes, with his eyes fixed on mine and the bed still between his teeth. He stays like this – motionless – until I tell him to leave Beanie’s basket alone, which he does, but only until I turn my back. I don’t know what’s going on in his head; maybe he thinks that if he’s not moving, I can’t see him.

Beanie’s bed takes a walk down the Corridor of Doom once more

The look says it all: Brothers! What can you do with ‘em!

It was a beautiful morning and the beach was completely deserted. Just miles of sand, crystal clear waves lapping against the beach and sun splitting from a brilliant blue sky. Arran was completely covered in snow.

We used to make trips to the beach when we lived in Glasgow and I often wondered what it would be like to live near the sea and to be able to run on the beach every morning. Well, on a day like today it’s a thousand times better than I could ever imagine!

Beanie, Biggles and I running on the beach last year

We’ve just learned that Scotland will be having it’s first official CaniX race in April so we’ve all decided to enter. I’ll be running with Beanie and Paul with Biggly Boy. It’s a cross-country route along forest tracks.

Right now I’m probably capable of running to the end of the drive way and no futher. Six weeks to build that up to 5k! And as Beanie and Biggles have been doing all their running attached to Paul we’ll need to get them used to running separately.

Anyone fancy joining us?

Back inside – just as Dad was preparing to take them on their morning walk – Biggles sounded the alarm. Something big had pulled into the drive, and now intruders were entering the garden through the top gate. He woofed loudly to alert the household, but nobody seemed to take any notice.  Nobody except Beanie that is; she joined in the woof-fest, but still Mum and Dad just carried on as normal. The Bigglet had almost worn out his woofer by the time he and his sister were loaded into the car for a long walk on the beach.

On their return, the intruders were still on site and there was lots of noise coming from just outside the house. Try as they might Beanie & Biggles couldn’t get a proper vantage point to see was going on, and no-one would let them into the garden. It was all very frustrating!

Our little boy so wanted to defend his home, but his paws were tied; the humies kept him confined to the house. Eventually he just gave up and left it all to fate. What’s the point in trying to save the world if the world doesn’t want to be saved?

Beanie eased her stress with a vigorous humping of her Mum’s leg. If the apocalypse was coming, why not “check out” with an extended rumpy-pumpy session?

The hours dragged by and eventually the intruders packed up and went home. Finally Beanie and Biggles were allowed out to inspect the devastation! All the trees had gone, there was a deep trench running down one side of the garden, and a huge yellow thing was sitting close to the house.

Still, it wasn’t all bad. The kibble fairy had paid a visit to their kennel (which strangely had moved on to the deck) and the remnants of the trees made for some quality chewing:

There was nothing the dynamic duo could do to restore their garden to its former state, but Biggles was determined to exact his revenge. He went right up to the big yellow thing, cocked his leg high and gave it the pee of the century. The following morning when the intruders returned, their yellow monster wouldn’t start. They kept mumbling something about the cold having broken it, unaware of the true cause: death by Biggle piddle.

Back in Glasgow, failing to scoop a freshly fallen poop was likely to incur a hefty fine, and because of that our two Beagles’ obsession with consuming and rolling in the brown stuff was relatively easy to manage. Out here in the country things are different; there’s no pressure to pick up poo unless it falls directly on a path or pavement. As a result, nearly every walk ends up being an all-you-can-eat Soylent Brown buffet. Some of the local dogs have a diet which produces poo with a reddish tint, and this seems to be particularly flavorsome to the Beagle palette. Even if you manage to dodge all the doggy doo, there’s still a plentiful supply of horse & cow droppings – it just never ends. It’s a wonder our two still  have room for their breakfasts after their morning walk. But of course they do. Still it’s meant to be good for them – friendly gut bacteria and all that, sort of a doggy version of Danone Activia. I can see the adverts now: “Feeling bloated? Sluggish? Just sling a big pile of horse muck down yer throat, that’ll sort you out”

Anyway, the morning routine goes something like this. A little while before we get up, I open up Beanie & Biggles crates so that they can come for a snuggle in our bed. Beanie jumps onto the bed almost straight away and quickly wriggles under the covers. Biggles – who still has a “thing” about not being able to jump onto things – needs more encouragement, but he makes it up there eventually. A little while later he goes out for his first pee of the day. He usually gets into a long-distance name calling session with local farm dog, and of course he’s always ready to defend the garden against horses and cows.

A boy must always be alert and ready to respond to any threats to his territory. Unless those threats are a bit scary, in which case it’s probably better to pretend you haven’t seen them and take the covering off your ball.

More serious threats can simply be monitored from behind the safety screen on the deck. It’s not too far from the kitchen if you feel the need to run inside.

Eventually Beanie joins him for sniff about, and before long it’s time for their first walk of the day. On their return – if they’re lucky – the treat fairy has visited their kennel and left pieces of kibble on and around it.

The kibble could be anywhere..

So a thorough search is required!

Breakfast is next, followed by a good long nap that lets us human types actually get a bit of work done. When they awake, there’s often time for a bit of play.

A ball is good!

But a ball on a rope..

..well that’s just..

..the business!

A carrot may seem like a good thing too

It’s certainly crunchy

But the taste is a big let-down. Nowhere near as good as poo

Lately we’ve been helping Beanie & Biggles to make new friends. They’ve already met a fellow Beagle called Bundy, and now there’s Ruairidh (let’s just call him Ru!)

He’s never tried agility before, but he quickly got the hang of it when he had a little go in our garden.

His impressive debut put a bit of pressure on our two to perform. Beanie responded with her super hero impersonation:

Biggles had a bit of a false start, but then he hit his stride.

Aaargh! Should have gone over the jump, not round it!

Looking better!

That’s it – just keep your eye on it Biggles!

Sue Rose has just announced some more dates for lure coursing meetings in the summer. Full details here:

http://lure-coursing.blogspot.com/

If you haven’t tried it I highly recommend it – especially if you have either hounds or terriers!

It all started yesterday morning when our intrepid adventurers discovered this huge construction in their garden:

I’m sure you’ll agree that its resemblance to the Mayan pyramids is undeniable, yet this 8th Wonder of The World was definitely built by the Fergus entity. We know this because he came along yesterday afternoon to put some extra steps on the back to make it easier for Biggles to reach the top.

Biggles spies a route to the summit of the pyramid. Beanie of course just plain jumped up there -  it’s not that much higher than the kitchen table, and she jumps onto that all the time!

The mysterious Fergus entity surveys his amazing work

You see Biggles is very good at jumping and grabbing things off table tops and shelves, but he hasn’t yet worked out how to jump on to things. Beanie on the other hand has the complementary special ability; she can jump onto just about anything, but she can’t do the jump-and-grab motion that Biggles is so very, very good at. If our Beagles ever manage to mind-meld and share their superpowers we’re in big trouble, that’s for sure.

Anyway, I digress – back to the Great Pyramid of Irvine! It’s a got a round bit you can run through, a small cave that you can crawl into and hide in, and of course the aforementioned steps that lead up to the summit.

It’s early days but initial indications (e.g. squabbling over who gets to sit on top or inhabit the “cave”) are that the pyramid is going to be a very popular addition to our garden.