We’ve been very busy with work over the last week or so and this has reduced the quality of service given to our two VIBs (Very Important Beagles). For example while I’ve been putting in long hours at the computer, Biggles has been denied his human chin rest, and Beanie has sometimes missed her usual tug games. Lack of attention isn’t something a spoiled Beagle endures without protest, and we have certainly had plenty of those over the last few days.

We are NOT amused.

Biggles plans his protest activities for the day

I’ve suffered the loss of a filter hood for my camera; Beanie was apparently dissatisfied with the chew I’d given her and found a new one. One afternoon Biggles decided to use my keyboard as a foot and bum massager. He broke the two support flaps that hold the keyboard at a nice angle, and a couple of the keys now smell a bit funky. Talking of smells, we’ve had no less than three protest vomits in the hall, two of them the dreaded “shit-vom” (regurgitated, partially digested poo). What’s more the poo in question came from other dogs, not our two. If you’re wondering how I know that, it’s not because I did some kind of CSI-style poo DNA analysis, it’s just that the two of them have been devouring every pile of poo they can get their mouths around. At one point we were practicing recall in a dog enclosure with chicken as the reward. The recall itself worked great, but the chicken was snubbed in favor of poo. I mean, what can you do when Soylent Brown trumps chicken?

By the time the weekend came round I couldn’t help feeling a bit guilty about the lack of attention, and in a moment of weakness I visited the pet aisle in our local supermarket and got a fresh nylabone chew. It went down well for a couple of minutes, but then his Biggleship discovered that the packaging was way more fun.

What he should have been chewing

What he was actually chewing

..And we’re done

Sunday was a much better day for the Beaglets. The morning was spent in a particularly sniffy country park, and we deliberately went by some fields where sheep were grazing to work on reducing wool-induced woofs.

More signs of spring..

This time the chicken gets thoroughly polished off

Later that day I took them out again for an hour’s run at the beach park, and it was during this run that we discovered The Best Stick Ever. You know how most sticks are like chocolate biscuits – two bites and they’re gone? Well this was the “Twix” of sticks. It was really substantial, in fact it was more like a section of trunk from a young tree than a stick. It could have provided days of chewing entertainment for a normal dog, and maybe a full twenty minutes for a Beagle. Biggles was the first to pick it up and though it was heavy he carried it around proudly for nearly 2km, all the while being harassed by his jealous sister. Eventually his jaws tired and he dropped it, giving Beanie her chance. She grabbed it and pranced around in a high legged trot like a dressage pony, but soon she too was feeling the weight of it. She put it down briefly to get a different hold but fumbled the re-acquisition. I kept jogging and in a couple of steps the stick was out of her reach, and all Beanie could do was look back at it longingly. She didn’t miss it for long though; within a few seconds she was all “what stick?” bounding along happily by my side. Life would be a lot easier if we could all have the same easy-come-easy-go attitude as doggies!

Now that’s what I’m talking about!

After our little setback with gobby Biggles on Conic Hill the other day we’ve been having a good think about why we’re struggling to keep Biggles calm in certain situations. It’s not as if we haven’t worked hard on solving the problem!

Most of the time Biggles is an extremely laid back little boy. He does everything at a slow pace and rarely gets over stimulated at home or on regular walks. I’d go as far as to say that he really is as good as gold most of the time and responds very well to commands and training.

When something (a scent or a ‘pack hunt’ atmosphere – a race for example) does get him going he looses all self control and is oblivious to us. This is true of Beanie too, but she’ll calm down after a moment or two. Biggles keeps it up for hours on end if the stimulus doesn’t go away. This unpredicatable behaviour is both dangerous and antisocial. If he ever got loose in this state goodness only knows what would happen. He’s capable of doing himself damage in his determination to hunt, and the racket he makes really isn’t fair on other people (or dogs!).

We’ve had a degree of success with games that teach him self control. For example, a game of tuggy to get him revved up then make him sit and calm down for a few moments before resuming the game. The limitation of this is that whilst the game is fun it doesn’t tap into his Beagle hunting instincts. It doesn’t help him to learn self-control in a situation where all of his senses are compelling him to relentlessly pursue the trail of some critter (or run with the pack). There doesn’t seem to be a gradual build up towards a ‘hunting frenzy’. It’s an on/off switch. So no opportunity to practice in a partially aroused state.

The other day it dawned on me that there was another situation where he was completely oblivious to us or treats – during off-lead play with Beanie away from home. She’s totally focused on us, but all he wants to do is entice his sister into a chase. There is no tasty treat that would entice him away from her. Despite his obvious excitement he’s not at the fever pitch he gets to when in ‘hunt’ mode so I think we can work with him. Fortunately there’s a nice safe enclosure close to home where we can practice.

The plan is to use the excitement of this situation to teach him self-control. We have close to 100% reliable control of Beanie (she’s completely fixated on us due to hour upon hour of work to keep her close when off-lead) so we simply won’t let her join him in a chase until he calms down and responds to us. But also we plan to work on transferring his fixation from Beanie onto us.

And if it doesn’t work? Well, we’ll all have good fun trying!

It’s been a week of highs and lows. The highs occurred in the garden when Beanie proved that she’s more than a match for those pesky squeaking space hoppers.

The lows occurred ironically while going up Conic Hill again. We had a brief burst of good weather and decided to revisit the hill – this time strictly at walking pace and sticking to the paths – to get a proper look & sniff at it. Unfortunately his Biggleship decided that to use this as the venue for his latest attempt on the world aaaaarrffing record. It was a shame because he’d been doing a lot better on country walks of late, but for some reason Conic Hill put him in the mood for extreme baying. And it certainly was extreme; his squeaks, aaarrfs, oinks and warbles echoed round the hill and eventually he even got into a long distance conversation with some other dog way back down in the Balmaha car park. We’re used to getting small outbursts from him, particularly at the start of a descent, but this was a return to the bad old days where it never really lets up until we’re right back at ground level. It was not only tiring but embarrassing when we encountered other walkers.

Adding to the embarrassment was the fact that I’d neglected to empty my coat pocket after the garden play session, and still had Beanie’s space hopper in there. I tried to reposition it but still I had a tendency to squeak any time I moved my arms. On the very rare occasions that Biggles took a breather from his baying, I was still squeaking away with every step. Not good. Even worse was the fact that somehow amid all the noise and distraction caused by her brother, Beanie managed to get offlead twice. The first time she managed to wriggle out of her harness (we’d neglected to tighten it up sufficiently) but thankfully responded to our emergency recall command just as she was starting to pick up speed. The second time the clip on her lead somehow came undone – maybe it rubbed against Biggles’ lead in just the wrong way – but we got hold of her before she realized she was free. So all things considered, this was not the relaxing, minor hill walk it was meant to have been, but it was remarkably pretty given the modest height.

Near the start of the walk reflections in a perfectly still small lake gave the illusion that reeds where floating in mid air

The winding path just beyond the forest

A brief moment of order & peace on the summit, but you can still count on someone to stick their tongue out for the group photo!

Yeah the views are nice…

But someone has spotted some sheep and the noise machine is about to start up again

Biggles is a noisy bugger but we still love him.. just about..

When we’d completed the descent (some of it conducted on our bums to avoid being pulled down at high speed by crazy Beagles) we took an extra stroll along the “Balmaha Millennium Forest path”.  This took us up to the site of an Iron Age fort, then back to the car park via the shores of Loch Lomond. It was little more than a kilometre in length but very pretty, and now we were back at ground level and away from the scent of sheep, it was also mercifully quiet. Apart from the odd squeak from my pocket that is.

Peaceful sniffing at last!

The view point by the site of the fort

A chance to get some sand between Beagle toes on a short stretch of beach

The way back goes across a modern but attractive bridge. Biggles wasn’t keen on the grid-like floor of the bridge and had to be carried over it but Beanie was able to spider-beagle her way across.