Swimming without a life jacket!

Posted on August 12, 2008 by Susan

Beanie had another swimming lesson yesterday and this time swam without a life jacket! She actually does much better without it. She’s a superb little swimmer now, and we’re confident that by the end of her course she’ll be swimming regularly in the local rivers, ponds and sea.

We met Sophie there again, and she’s reached the end of her first 10 week course so went to get all her vital statistics taken again. Sophie mainly started swimming lessons to get her back into shape after her phantom pregnancy. The measurements show she’s lost quite a bit off her waistline and put on a significant amount of bulk in all the right places!

Beanie has certainly built lots of lovely muscle over the past few weeks, although because she’s a devloping pup it’s not clear how much of that is down to the swimming. But I’m told that typically in a 10 week course dogs do build measurable muscle. Beanie certainly got loads of compliments from the vetenary nurses about her lean, muscular build! And I have to say we agree with them – she looks fabulous!

Cupboard Love

Posted on August 12, 2008 by Susan

After travelling all the way up to Kincardine on Sunday only to find that the track was waterlogged and un-useable we decided to head straight for Irvine beach rather than go back home. We got there about 5pm and there was still lots of blue sky and sunshine. The sea looked amazing in the evening light.

As always the beach was deserted, and despite the very high tide Beanie had a superb time.

Looking at the photos Paul took you’d think that our little pup adored me and couldn’t bear to be parted from me. In 90 percent of the snaps she was glued to my side looking at me adoringly.

In actual fact she spent most of her time a mile down the beach from us chasing a galloping horse! She just sprinted back and forth between us and the horse….which was great exercise for her! The only time she stayed still for long enough for Paul to take a photo was when I pulled out a lump of chicken!

She made a couple of new pals – the first one we didn’t get the name of, but he was with the horse:

And then we met 5 month old Tucker the Jack Russell cross :

We also discovered a restaurant on the beach that welcomes dogs! It’s about three miles down the beach from the Harbourside, which means a nice 6 mile walk to burn off all the calories! We haven’t tried it yet, but we’ve heard the food is excellent and quite reasonably priced.

Chasing horses? Me? I’d never do anything naughty like that!!

Beanie’s been diagnosed with allergies

Posted on August 11, 2008 by Susan

Beanie’s itching has been better since we switched her to WafCol low allergy puppy food. Or more precisely, the redness and skin infections on her tummy have cleared up – the itching itself was never a big worry as it’s quite mild and doesn’t distress her. We were hopefull that after a few more weeks on WafCol the itching would dissapear completely.

But we got a phone call from the vet this afternoon with the results from the first round of blood tests. Beanie has tested positive for indoor allergies and possibly for tree pollen too. We now have to wait another 10 days or so for the next round of tests which will tell us precisely what she’s allergic to.

It’s a big worry as allergies are rare in puppies. And beanie was showing the very first signs at about three months old (very mild itching that the vet dismissed as ‘puppy dandruff’ at the time). From what I’ve read the typical pattern is for a dog to develop allergies at around 2 years and get worse each year after that. So it seems logical that if a puppy develops allergies very young it’s likely to be a serious problem later?

It seems likely that house dust mites are at least part of the problem. Our house is the cleanest it’s ever been. We’ve taken down all the curtains and plan to replace the carpets with laminate flooring (we’ll just wait for confirmation that she is allergic to house dust mites first though!). We’re going to keep her out of the bedroom and at night move her crate to just outside our bedroom door – hopefully that’s enough.

I’ve found some sources that say Allergies are a common problem in Beagles. If anyone has a Beagle with allergies – especially if it developed them as a young pup – please get in touch and let us know what’s worked for you.