It’s Been A Hard Night’s Day

If you’re the sort of person who thinks dogs should know their place, you’re going to be shaking your head in disbelief by the time you’ve read this post. In fact why not save time and get the head shaking over right now. Go on, give it a good old shake. Done? OK, here we go…

After spending most of yesterday morning & afternoon in the garden with us, we put Beanie & Biggles to bed in their crates for a couple of hoursĀ  to let us get on with a few jobs free of Beagle assistance. It never occurred to us that Biggles might be close to needing a pee. It certainly occurred to him, and our poor little boy ended up wetting the bed in his crate. There wasn’t time to get his bed washed and dried before proper doggy bed time, so he had to make do with an improvised bed. It obviously wasn’t as cosy as his real bed, and at around 2 am that night he started complaining about it. We felt a degree of culpability over the bed wetting incident, so Susan opened up his crate to let him into our bed. Of course when you let one of our Beagles out, you have to let the other one out too, so Beanie came to join us. I figured that might be a recipe for a poor night’s sleep, but even I wasn’t prepared for what was to come.

Beanie did her usual lie-across-the-bed routine, but Biggles was insufferable. Ordinarily he can sleep soundly just about anywhere, in any position, for hours at a time..

IMG_4413

..but this night, he was the fidgetmeister. He snuggled up against me for a couple of minutes, then he got too hot and crawled out from under the covers. As soon as he was cool enough he hassled me again to get back under the covers. Then he got really hot and climbed out of the bed, dropping onto the floor in a heap. Two minutes later he felt the need to roll onto his side, which he did with all the grace and stealth of a 30lb sack of tatties. Flump! Then he rolled onto his other side. Flump! Shortly thereafter he wanted to get back onto the bed, but being Biggles he couldn’t just jump up there on his own, oh no, he had to paw my arm until I sat up to give him a clear path and told him “Go”. Back under the covers, he could once again cosy up to me. Until he got too hot again… And so it went on, and on, and all the time I’m contorting myself into weird positions to accommodate Beanie. Very good if you’ve got a dodgy back, I can assure you.

Around 5am the Biggly boy quit fidgeting and I thought I might finally catch a couple of hours’ uninterrupted sleep. Just as I was drifting off I heard a scratching noise. I checked the bed, and Biggles wasn’t in it. The scratching continued so I got up and walked towards it, to be greeted by a very animated Bigglet. He paced up and down between me and the door, clearly desperate for a pee, and looked at me with an expression that said “Dad, you know what’s going to happen if you don’t get me to the garden, FAST!” So I threw on my clothes and took him out for his leak. I *think* I got a bit of sleep somewhere between 6-7am, but when I got up I felt like.. well, kind of like Beanie looks in this picture:

IMG_4426

Refreshed, alert and ready for the day ahead. NOT.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Beagles! Who’d ‘ave ’em!

6 Replies to “It’s Been A Hard Night’s Day”

  1. Sara

    Oh no, I bet you’ve spoilt it for yourselves now. They’ll want to be out every night to sleep with you. Give a Beagle an inch and he takes a mile!

    They do seem to be very particular about being comfy in their beds. I recently washed Murphy’s new cushion and it came out all lumpy. I did my best to flatten out the lumps and thought I’d done a good job, too. Obviously not! You should’ve saw the pantomime that went on whilst he was trying to find a comfy position. The grumbling, the pawing and the turning round and round and round and round.

    We can’t have Murph sleeping in the bedroom at all, because he’s such a fidget in his sleep. Not to mention the snoring. I don’t know how you can possibly sleep with TWO snoring Beagles in close proximity!

  2. mamajuliana

    Our one Beagle is enough, but two! You are so brave. Ours is always changing her mind-under the covers, over the covers!

    I love you Beagle blog!

    Hope you get a nap this afternoon!

  3. Angela

    Truman does this exact same thing! Burrows under the covers, snuggled up to me, then wriggles free and flops on top of the covers when he gets too hot, and on and on throughout the night. I’ve gotten so used to it, it doesn’t even bother me any more. I also have to give him a clear path and pat the bed for him to jump up! The things we do for our beagles. :)

  4. Gillian

    ok i have definitely decided that beagles NEED to be cosy. they are not the hardy little outdoor dogs they pretend to be! they are all about the home comforts.
    bailey was always IN my bed under the covers. he didnt do sleeping on the hard floor!
    and now kody (yes, i have a little beaglet!!) is exactly the same.

    gotta love them though :)

  5. Paul Post author

    > ok i have definitely decided that beagles NEED to be cosy.
    > they are not the hardy little outdoor dogs they pretend to be!

    QFT! They’re all spoilt wimps, totally addicted to their creature comforts.

    It’s good to hear that Biggles isn’t the only fidget monster though. And happily it’s looking like we haven’t set a precedent with the early opening of the crates. We made it to 7.30 this morning without a sound. Plenty of farty smells (thank you Biggles) but no complaints about still being in their own beds.

  6. Sara

    Poor Murph was an outdoor kennel dog (no heating, not even in Winter) in his previous home. I was told he preferred it outside, in all weathers. Well that was complete piffle… I have a hard job getting him to set foot outside for his bedtime wee, on a cold, wet night. It’s a quick wee then a dash back to his warm cosy bed in the kitchen.

Comments are closed.