We’ve been very busy with work over the last week or so and this has reduced the quality of service given to our two VIBs (Very Important Beagles). For example while I’ve been putting in long hours at the computer, Biggles has been denied his human chin rest, and Beanie has sometimes missed her usual tug games. Lack of attention isn’t something a spoiled Beagle endures without protest, and we have certainly had plenty of those over the last few days.

We are NOT amused.

Biggles plans his protest activities for the day

I’ve suffered the loss of a filter hood for my camera; Beanie was apparently dissatisfied with the chew I’d given her and found a new one. One afternoon Biggles decided to use my keyboard as a foot and bum massager. He broke the two support flaps that hold the keyboard at a nice angle, and a couple of the keys now smell a bit funky. Talking of smells, we’ve had no less than three protest vomits in the hall, two of them the dreaded “shit-vom” (regurgitated, partially digested poo). What’s more the poo in question came from other dogs, not our two. If you’re wondering how I know that, it’s not because I did some kind of CSI-style poo DNA analysis, it’s just that the two of them have been devouring every pile of poo they can get their mouths around. At one point we were practicing recall in a dog enclosure with chicken as the reward. The recall itself worked great, but the chicken was snubbed in favor of poo. I mean, what can you do when Soylent Brown trumps chicken?

By the time the weekend came round I couldn’t help feeling a bit guilty about the lack of attention, and in a moment of weakness I visited the pet aisle in our local supermarket and got a fresh nylabone chew. It went down well for a couple of minutes, but then his Biggleship discovered that the packaging was way more fun.

What he should have been chewing

What he was actually chewing

..And we’re done

Sunday was a much better day for the Beaglets. The morning was spent in a particularly sniffy country park, and we deliberately went by some fields where sheep were grazing to work on reducing wool-induced woofs.

More signs of spring..

This time the chicken gets thoroughly polished off

Later that day I took them out again for an hour’s run at the beach park, and it was during this run that we discovered The Best Stick Ever. You know how most sticks are like chocolate biscuits – two bites and they’re gone? Well this was the “Twix” of sticks. It was really substantial, in fact it was more like a section of trunk from a young tree than a stick. It could have provided days of chewing entertainment for a normal dog, and maybe a full twenty minutes for a Beagle. Biggles was the first to pick it up and though it was heavy he carried it around proudly for nearly 2km, all the while being harassed by his jealous sister. Eventually his jaws tired and he dropped it, giving Beanie her chance. She grabbed it and pranced around in a high legged trot like a dressage pony, but soon she too was feeling the weight of it. She put it down briefly to get a different hold but fumbled the re-acquisition. I kept jogging and in a couple of steps the stick was out of her reach, and all Beanie could do was look back at it longingly. She didn’t miss it for long though; within a few seconds she was all “what stick?” bounding along happily by my side. Life would be a lot easier if we could all have the same easy-come-easy-go attitude as doggies!

Now that’s what I’m talking about!