How not to win friends but still influence people

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Paul

Not exactly peaceful, but I’ll take play fighting over the real thing any day!

As you can see from the above shot, play between Beanie and Biggles has resumed, which I take to be a good sign that things are back on track. There have been two very minor grumps – microgrumps really – from Beanie to do with possessiveness over our bed, so we’ve decided to ban them both from the bed once again. Other than that, things have been pretty good.

Biggles’ confidence seems to be mostly restored

Unfortunately it seems to be the way with Beagles that as soon as you get one problem behind you, another one is already in line to take its place. We’re now having problems with Biggles getting over-excited and spectacularly noisy when certain other dogs are around. He’s always been prone to being woofy, and by all accounts that’s just part of the package with male Beagles, but over that last couple of weeks he has been over-reacting to other dogs when we go for a coffee after a run. He’s fine with other dogs when we’re on a walk, but in situations where we most need him to stay calm and quite – like in one of the very few park cafes in Scotland that allow dogs inside – he’s quite likely to lose his self control. To be fair it usually happens when there are other out of control or over-excited dogs around him, but his vocal outpourings are so loud and penetrating that he’s the one that gets the bad rep. Yesterday however, his rep hit a new world record low. How did he achieve this? Well it went something like this:

Woof at other dogs inside the cafe, forcing us to retreat to the outside seating
Once outside, attract the attention of other dog owners by looking particularly handsome
Drink too much water too quickly, wait until the other dogs’ owners approach and begin fondling one’s ears, then do a huge watery barf at their feet
Further impress and delight the other owners by rolling in one’s own watery vomit
Drink more water and vomit again
Start woofing at other dogs again until all attempts at staying by the cafe have been abandoned

To top it all off, Beanie also took exception to the other owners’ dog, which in all fairness was off lead, pushy, and known to be grumpy itself. All in all, not the apres-run social interaction we’d been hoping for. On the up-side, those other owners have now realized how easy they’ve got it, regardless of the problems they may have with their own dog.

To avoid a spell in the doghouse, always look cute and maybe a little forlorn after you’re been naughty.

Oh yeah, perfect!

Beagle Zen

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Paul

Kibble on paws, but no-one’s snacking until they’re told. Beanie meditates on both pieces at once; Biggles is strictly a one-kibble-at-a-time boy

The two weeks of NILIF (nothing in life is free) were up some time ago but we’ve kept going with much of it, because together with the various self control exercises it’s worked wonders for bringing our two Beagles into line. We’re still hand-feeding them (it’s nice for them and us) and they still have to sit and/or perform a trick when crossing a boundary, but we are now inviting them up onto the sofa and into our bed for a cuddle.

Back in our bed on a morning, just where a Bigglet should be!

The aggression Beanie showed to Biggles seems to be thoroughly behind us now, though our boy still seems to lack confidence in some situations. We’re working to build him up, but we need to do so selectively because he is after all a Beagle boy; give him an inch and he’ll grab & tug it until it’s considerably longer, and probably full of holes.

They say it’s much easier to tell a mischievous Beagle to do something good than to stop doing something naughty, and I think that’s why the discipline of the baskets works so well. It took a bit of firm handling and patience, but now we can put a stop to lots of troublesome behavior simply by sending them to their baskets. Finally we can have TV dinners in peace, yet still invite our pups up for a cuddle when we’re ready!

The benefits of the NILIF programme have also spilled over into our agility training. Beanie is much less likely to go off on a poo hunt at the start of each session, while Biggly Boy is now able to follow commands at a greater distance and is very close to weaving unaided.

Biggles loves jumping almost as much as Beanie now!

And jumps are great for other things too :)

Beanie has her eyes fixed on the next obstacle as she slinks over the jump

The only thing that isn’t quite back on track is play between Beanie and Biggles. Having said that, they’re having lots of play sessions with us right now so maybe they don’t need to let off steam with chases and wrestling on their own. Also despite the odd clear day we’ve had a lot of rain lately, and Beagles generally don’t like getting wet. Getting smelly and disgusting: yes, getting rained on: no. Anyway, hopefully they’ll return to playing together as we head into spring and summer and they spend more time together in the garden.

Fitness, fun and training

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Susan

Beanie and Biggles have had a lovely day today.

This morning we met up with Susan and Carol for a canicross training run in the park.

Then, after a nice lazy day basking in the sunlight while mum and dad did a few hours work we went out for our afternoon walk followed by a fantastic play session. We incorporated lots of games that behaviourist Heather Smith had taught us to teach Beanie and Biggles self-control. (Beanie and Biggles are getting on great now thanks to Heather’s help!). Our play sessions are all designed to be a combination of fun, control and physical conditioning to keep the pups safe and sound in all of the sports that they do.

A quick game of ‘fetch’ to warm up.