A Big Day For Biggles

Posted on January 6, 2009 by Paul

We decided to swap the normal park visit for a swimming session today. Biggles is too young for a proper swim, so still needed a morning on-lead walk, and since we were running low on his food I combined it with a trip to our local pet shop. Dogs are allowed inside and it was incredibly exciting for him to be within nibbling distance of so many tasty treats. While he was in there a very large dog of unknown breed came in with his owner. He must have been four times the size of Biggles, and yet he was clearly terrified by the sight of our little boy trying desperately to hold the sit position even though his tail was wagging like a turbo-charged windscreen wiper. Serious loss of street cred for the big dog, big ego boost for Biggles. On the way back I had a seven kilo bag of Burns Minibites tucked under my right arm and a food-crazed Bigglet nibbling at it in the hope of getting an early tea.

No sooner had we got back home than it was time to head off to Allers Farm Kennels for Beanie’s swimming session. Normally she’s pretty relaxed about the whole swimming thing, but today she wasn’t too impressed by the temperature of the water. It was a little cooler than normal due to the heating having been turned off during the festive period. Beagles are supposed to be hardy all-weather creatures, but Beanie has grown too used to the life of a pampered princess and a luke-warm swimming pool is just not up to par.

We are NOT amused!

Of course with Biggles there she had to put on a brave face, and a few chunks of dried liver helped her to “rise above” too.

Biggles also got to dip his paws in the pool briefly, and showed that he hadn’t lost the instinctive swimming ability he demonstrated last time.

And of course if you swim, you get liver treats. Them’s the rules.

It was all very stimulating, and our little boy hit the sack in his own inimitable fashion when we got back home.

But the fun wasn’t over, because a little while ago I caught Beanie and Biggles playing with something. I’ve been doing a little computer open-heart surgery recently and it sounded like they’d found a little metal case screw, so I quickly intervened to get it off them. It wasn’t a screw though. It was one of Biggles’ baby teeth!

This may sound kind of sad, but I was really pleased to get it. We never saw any of Beanie’s – I guess she swallowed them (along with a quite a few other things). I suppose the tooth fairy will have to leave Biggles a little present for tomorrow morning :)

Beanie’s Got A Boyfriend

Posted on January 4, 2009 by Paul

Beagles are definitely becoming a more popular breed choice – we seem to bump into new ones at the park every couple of weeks. On Friday we met Oscar, an eight month old boy. I was impressed by him immediately – he’s got an athletic build and a gentle face with lively eyes. In fact if you made a male version of Beanie I reckon he’d look pretty much like Oscar. It turns out Beanie was impressed by him too, although I didn’t realize just how much until they met off-lead at the puppy field yesterday.

Just before he arrived, Beanie had been looking like she was about to wander off on a long sniff so I’d broken out her “special” tennis ball (I cut a slit in it so that it can be loaded with treats). It doesn’t always hold her attention, but when it works, it works well. Biggles doesn’t really get it yet; he seems to forget that there are treats inside and loses interest after a few seconds, but that doesn’t really matter because if his sister doesn’t get the wanderlust then generally he doesn’t either. Anyway, Beanie had a loaded tennis ball in her mouth when Oscar caught her attention, and they set off on a chase together almost immediately.

Normal Beanie chase etiquette dictates that it’s the holder of the MacGuffin (stick, ball, squeaky chicken, poo bag etc) that is the chasee, but Beanie was apparently willing to ignore the rule book for Oscar. They ran all over the field together, with the ball forgotten, though still lodged in Beanie’s jaws.

After a little while Oscar took Beanie over to see his Mum. Beanie gave her tennis ball a good squeeze, perhaps in the hope of sharing its treats with her new beau…

Soon the chase was back on, but this time proper etiquette was observed and the ball holder took the lead.

They went round and round Beanie’s favorite bush. Biggles tried to get in on the action..

..but the two lovebirds just changed direction and left him out in the cold.

He had an adventure of his own though when a playful little pup called Murphy caught his eye. Given that Biggles has honed his playfighting skills against Beanie,I was surprised to see Murphy getting the upper paw for the first few rounds.

But then Biggles turned it around. He used his superior weight..

..along with one of Beanie’s favorite dirty tricks, and one of his own, to even the score.

Beanie fighting technique #1: the surprise nibble from underneath

#2: the bum bite. This is 100% pure Biggles

Beanie and Oscar came over – initially to spectate – but Murphy was so much fun that Beanie was drawn into the action. While she was rolling around on the ground with Murphy, Biggles got the opening he’d been waiting for. Beanie’s tennis ball was lying unguarded in the grass. He grabbed it and ran to a secluded spot. I thought the penny had dropped and he’d soon be squeezing the ball to release its tasty treats….

Not a chance! He stood there with ball in his mouth for a few seconds, then something else caught his eye and he dropped it. Our little boy is strong, handsome and very affectionate, but I don’t think he’s going to win the Beagle version of Mastermind any time soon.

New Year, Old Friends

Posted on January 1, 2009 by Paul

We had a quiet New Year’s Eve at home with the dogs, hoping that they wouldn’t get stressed by the fireworks. Or at least it was meant to be quiet. One of our neighbours popped round just to let us know that they were having a party and to appologize in advance in case it got rowdy. As it turned out, we never heard a sound from the party, but we heard plenty from our two pups. Quite late at night Beanie decided to have a long distance shouting match with another, unseen dog. Little Biggles didn’t really know what it was all about, but he didn’t want to be left out and so provided the backing vocals. When we finally got them back inside they decided it was time for a noisy play fighting session, with Beanie doing her impersonation of a disgruntled pirate (“Harrrrrr!”) and Biggles sounding like an old cassette tape played at tripple speed.

In the morning, we were woken by the unmistakable sound of Beanie vomiting. I’ve grown to really dread that sound since her swallowing episode, and it looked very much like she been at it again, because she regurgitated a grimy lump of aluminum foil. Not a good start to the New Year, though we subsequently found out that it had belonged to a boy who’d been playing with her in the park yesterday, and had wrapped a chunk of ham. Still not great news, but better than the idea that she’d been swallowing anything and everything on the ground.

Anyway, we put the vomiting session behind us and headed out to the park. I expected hardly anybody to be there, but I was proved very wrong. There was a big turnout, with lots of Beanie’s friends from the past year. Here are some of the better shots: