As well as tussling with her siblings, Beanie had a good long wrestling session with Lucy, aka Always and Forever from the Jalhar kennels. They’d traveled all the way from Staffordshire in England to be at the competition, and two of their young handlers kindly shared their knowledge with us over a coffee.

When Lucy was dragged away to the show ring, Rhiannon (below) somehow managed to instill some discipline into our little hooligan, while her older sister Rebecca gave us a fascinating insight into the world of dog shows.

In truth we had such a good time talking to the all the other Beagle lovers that we didn’t really see much of the competition itself! There are further Beagle gatherings later in the year, including a barbecue sometime in the summer. On top of that, Liz of Newlin Beagles  said she may be organizing some informal walks via her website. Judging from the enthusiasm on show today,  I think they’ll be a great success.