Over recent months we’ve been looking into Beanie’s herritage to try and find out where she gets her lythe, athletic build and physical prowess from.  A lady that we know from the park had always said Beanie was a throwback to the English Pack Beagle, and that she looked just like her first Beagle who was the daughter of a pack Beagle.  During our research we discovered that this lady’s Beagle was in fact an ancestor of Beanie’s!

Well, finally we have a photograph of her. Her name is Cindy (aka Graffham Cinderella). Cindy was born in 1961.

 
Cindy (after having had a litter of puppies!) left, Beanie (aged 8.5 months) right – Beanie’s got bigger ears and a softer face, but the build is very similar.

Cindy was apparantly a speed demon and could run forever – just like Beanie! Cindy’s mum tells us that she remembers watching the Edinburgh Beagle pack hunting in the early sixties. She says Beanie would have fitted right in with them – although her big ears would have been no use as they’d have got tangled and damaged in the undergrowth. The big ears that we see on Beagles nowadays are apparently an aesthetic modification !

Now Beanie’s not a direct descendant of Cindy, but pretty close. This is going to be complicated to explain….

First here’s the names of all the bitches down Beanie’s mums side (mum, gran, great gran, etc), right back to Eton College Viper, who was a working Pack Beagle.

Newlin Zamantha (2007) (aka Beanie).
Newlin Kelsey (2001)
Newlin Yazz (1994)
Newlin Nonsense (1990)
Newlin Opium (1983)
Norcis Roxanne At Newlin (1980)
Norcis Hannah (1974)
Korwin Rachel (1972)
Korwin Laura (1969)
Sweet Selina (1965)
Pippa or Lairfad (?)
Rossut Midget
Rossut Fashion (1960)
Rossut Variant (1958)
Virtuoso
Veronesse
Eton College Viper (1951)
Eton College Vigilant (1944)
Eton College Lavish

Eton College Viper had a little boy Holbein and a little girl Veronesse (half brother and sister).  They were mated to produce Virtuoso (direct ancestor of Beanie).

Holbein was also mated with Sabina to produce Graffham Cinderella.

So Vertuoso (Beanie’s direct ancestor) and Graffham Cinderella (our friend from the parks dog) were half  sisters.

Now according to our friend from the park, Graffham Cinderella was very typical of the Beagles of that time. And I was told by the daughter of the people that bred Rossut Variant that she was very different from todays Beagles – more leggy and finer boned. So it’s probably reasonable to assume that Virtuoso and her daughter Rossut Variant (1958) looked similar to Cindy (and therefore similar to Beanie!).

Our friend from the park tells us that the Rossuts played a big part in changing the Beagle into the stockier, shorter legged, bigger eared dog that we see in this line today. They used stud dogs imported from America by Rozavel kennels. These were dogs were chunkier, shorter legged and more refined than the pack beagles. Whilst in this country Beagles were largely only bred for function (hunting) until the 50’s, in America they had been breeding for showing & aesthetic appeal for very many years. I wasn’t able to find photos of Rossut Variant, Fashion or Midget. However, I did find one of Midgets full brother Rossut Triumphant.

So perhaps we can guess that the Rossut’s changed the Beagles in Beanie’s mums line from something similar to this traditional hunting Beagle:

To this Champion Show Beagle:

In just a couple of generations and about four years!

Beanie has the best of both worlds – the physique of a functional English pack Beagle (which should serve her well in her racing and agility) and the soft, refined features of the American show Beagles.

Way back when we knew we were getting Beanie, we bought her a toy to play with in her last week or so at Newlin Beagles. This wasn’t purely indulgence – as we’d handled the toy before Benaie got it we hoped it would help familiarize her with our scent, and when she came to our home it would bring the comforting scent of her littermates with her. Now that Biggles is going to be joining us, we headed off to Pets at Home to do the same for him.

We settled on a rope ring with four textured balls on it – it looked to be fairly robust, and the different textures should make for an engrossing chewing experience. Unfortunately we had no idea just how engrossing.

Once back home, we handed the toy to Beanie to get her scent on it. It was an immediate hit, and got Beanie’s full attention.

The chewing quickly grew more intense..

.. and after taking a couple of photos I made a mental note to rescue the toy fairly soon, just in case it couldn’t stand up to a prolonged Beanie session. After all, not many things can. Unfortunately I left the toy in Beanie’s clutches just a little too long, and Susan found a trail of debris on the landing ten minutes later.

So one more visit to the pet shop was on the cards. This time we got a simpler, and surely more robust chew/tug toy:

Rhino – sounds just the thing for a tough little Beagle boy doesn’t it? Beanie’s jaws of death didn’t get hold of it this time – we just handled it a bit and sent it straight off to Biggles. But another toy caught Susan’s eye – a treat jar on a rope. This one would be solely for Beanie – it is her Birthday soon after all!

The bottom of the jar unscrews for loading, and it has lots of air holes to allow the smell of the treats to escape. The dog has his work cut out to get extract the treats though. He has to push the knotted rope down into the jar a little (otherwise the knot blocks the jar’s neck), and jiggle the treats down to towards the neck end by tilting the lower end up. I honestly didn’t think Beanie would be up to the task – that one brain cell of hers usually only comes up with a single strategy: brute force. Can’t open the baby gate into our office? Just chew your way through. Can’t open a jacket pocket to extract some week-old treat debris? Chew the jacket! You get the picture.

And yet, to my amazement, she’s become quite expert with this toy.

Perhaps even more amazing is the fact that it’s showing no sign of damage even after two days of full-on abuse.

I’m hoping that something else will survive Beanie’s attention. To help Biggles cope with our new laminate floor we’ve bought a set of black interlocking rubber mats – kind of like the ones you find in gyms – only way cheaper and therefore not as robust. So far Beanie hasn’t shown any signs of wanting to chew it, and she can run on it without any skidding, so if it lasts the week we’ll get a bit more to make some slip-free play areas for the two of them.