Recently we had to change to a different doggy training class. I have to stress that this wasn’t because our little miss was so naughty she got expelled! Nope, we just couldn’t make the normal training night due to other commitments.

We found a website for what appeared to be a good alternative club and called the instructor. It turned out that she’s no stranger to Beagles, and in fact one of Beanie’s sisters – Bella – goes to one of the classes. Needless to say we signed up straight away! We’ve been trying to run into Bella for some weeks now; we’ve heard that she’s visited our local parks, but somehow we’ve always missed her.

Unfortunately”Sod’s Law” is clearly in effect because Bella has missed both of the classes we’ve been to so far. Clearly she must be an even naughtier little Beagle than Beanie – at least Beanie doesn’t play truant! Still, when she finally does turn up it’ll be nice to compare notes with her owners and see how she’s grown.

Bella (left) and Beanie investigating a hose together, before they left for their new homes

We did get a big surprise in the most recent class though as not one but two other Beagles turned up! One of them was Tanner, a 7 month old lemon-colored male. The other Beagle was Bessie, who’s 13/14 months old and is from the Newlin kennels, so she’s probably related to Beanie in some way.

We’d met Tanner and his family briefly before at the park, and he and Beanie clearly remembered each other because they wasted no time in getting down to some serious wrestling. Bessie, being a little more mature, wasn’t so keen to join in with all this silly puppy behavior. Nevertheless, at one point in the class the instructor was drowned out by the sound of three howling Beagles.

The actual training was a little more advanced than we were used to, and when Beanie got her turn I was expecting her to cause mayhem! Happily though she decided to behave herself reasonably well, and didn’t compare too badly to Tanner. On the other hand, maybe Beanie’s naughty influence dragged Tanner down to her level. Regardless, Bessie showed us how well behaved a Beagle can be, and in fact at the end of the evening she graduated to a more advanced class. Methinks it’ll be quite some time before our bundle of chaos gets to graduate!