Today’s heavy snow may have caused hassle for the human population, but it’s been blummin’ brilliant for dogs. Neither of our two pups had seen a decent covering of snow before, and when they got out into the garden they went absolutely wild. Needless to say we rushed through breakfast and got them to the park as quickly as we could.

As I noted in a previous post we’re still walking them separately so they can’t go running off together, and as usual the first off-lead slot went to Beanie. When we first got to the field there was no-one else about, so I loaded up her trusty slit tennis ball with treats and threw it as far as I could. It buried itself in the snow, but with treats at stake Beanie was willing to dig it out. I think she got the Beagle equivalent of an ice cream headache when she first picked it up…

but she soon got used to it!

Soon she was not alone – a huge yeti appeared at the top of the hill and she bravely gave chase with her ball still in her mouth.

Unfortunately the yeti was so fast that Beanie had to drop the ball to gain that extra gear!

She chased the creature up and down the hill and round and round the trees..

but somehow it escaped her clutches and is still at large, ready to pounce on unwary travelers and cause them to lose their balls.

Beanie may have lost her ball in the encounter, but at least I didn’t lose her. That was a major concern when it was time for Biggles’ off-lead session! The snow had started up again in earnest, and Biggles’ mostly white coat gave him very effective camouflage. He still had time for a brilliant run with a corgi called Polo before we called it quits, but sadly due to the blizzard-like conditions I couldn’t get any snaps.

I did get plenty of photos of a great walk on Saturday though. While Beanie was having her weekly (formal) agility session, I took Biggles for an off-leader. I wasn’t expecting to run into many other dogs, but for some reason the park was packed. We soon met up with some of Beanie’s old pals Barney, Buster, Ben and Ellie. Biggles hit it off with Ben immediately and the two of them played constantly as the group made a circuit of the park.

There were moments of excitement..

..moments of almost balletic grace..

..and of course, moments of naughtiness

All that running about is thirsty work, so there were a few unplanned pit stops along the way.

The more we walked, the more dogs and owners joined our band, and Biggles and Ben soon admitted Troy to their pack. The three canine musketeers charged round having adventures in every corner of the field.

As we reached the upper level of the park a longstanding tradition was observed – the line-out along the wall. The dogs happily lined up to receive their treats with only minimal direction – much more civilized than the mobbing that accompanies a treat handout in our usual park.

The Biggly-boy had a brilliant time, and left the park a little gift to show his appreciation:

Look at the height of that leg-lift! Faultless leg-cocking technique from the Bigglet!

Every morning in our house starts with a bang. Several bangs in fact, typically around six o’clock in the morning. These bangs are Beanie pounding her paw against the front of her crate; her way of telling us she wants to be let into our bed. Once she’s in there our sleep remains disturbed as she repeatedly changes her mind about whether to be above or below the covers, or tries to shove one of us out so she can lie horizontally. When we finally give in and commit to getting up, we then have to deal with her brother, Biggles.

Biggles has an entirely different morning routine. The moment you approach his crate he rolls over onto his back, and refuses to get out until his tummy has been sufficiently tickled. At least I assume it’s a tummy tickle he’s after. I suppose it could also be his first waking reaction to the lethal fumes his little bottom has been generating all night. Either way, you have to kneel there and tickle away for a couple of minutes until he emerges, then quickly usher him downstairs and out into the garden before he’s tempted to use the Beagle en-suite (the left hand side of our chest of drawers) for his first pee of the day.

Here’s my first attempt to capture the Biggles part of the routine on video. I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the clip; I’m not too good with the camera that early in the morning, the light level is very poor, and those Biggles fumes are quite potent:

Of course the fact that I was filming piqued Beanie’s interest, and when Beanie’s on the move Biggles always follows suit, so this is a much shortened version of the morning ticklefest.