I normally have a rule that I’ll take the pups on their regular beach runs in any weather so long as the wind isn’t forecast to be 50 mph or more. Unfortunately we’ve had so many days with strong wind recently that I’ve had to break that rule, and on one such day I was given a reminder as to why I made the rule in the first place.

Getting the dynamic duo harnessed and on lead was a battle in itself; we keep a stash of plastic carrier bags in the back of the car just in case we need to shop, and of course the wind tried to grab them the instant I raised the tailgate. Then I had to deal with Mr Biggles’ toilet routine. He always, and I do mean always, has to take a dump during the first kilometre of the run. To avoid being stuck with a full poo bag for half of the run I walk him round and coax him into dropping his load while we’re still in easy reach of a bin. This usually works, but on this day the wind kept distracting him; time and again I observed his little poop chute bulge promisingly only to retract as a new sniff sped up his nose. My patience lasted for about five minutes, but then I decided that I couldn’t stand walking around in the wind-chill any longer – we just had to get going and generate some heat. I pressed the start button on my gps watch and off we went! Beanie and Biggles surged forward excitedly as they often do on windy days, but after only two hundred yards The Bigglet remembered that he had unfinished business. He jammed on the brakes, wiggled his bum as though shaking a loose fitting pair of pants down to his ankles, and squatted. The upside was that the bin was still reasonably handy, but those 50 mph gusts seemed really keen to make the poo bagging as difficult as possible. Against all odds I managed to scoop up my boy’s logs without losing the bag, but as I tried to tie the damn thing closed, the wind up-ended it and whacked it against me, splatting some of the contents onto my bright yellow running jacket. Nice.

I uttered some choice curses, then we jogged back to the bin at the car park where I was able to dump the remainder of the.. er.. dump. A wet wipe from the car dispatched the poo splat on my jacket, after which I reset my watch and started the run again. We barely got past the initial poo drop zone when a new problem struck: Beanie’s extending lead jammed solid at close to full extension. I thought about just winding all the tape around the handle, but in such strong winds I knew I’d still be fighting it for the whole run. The sensible move was to jog back to the car one more time and hope that I could somehow fix it; I’m certainly no stranger to the inner workings of a Flexi lead, and I always carry a few tools in the car. I reset my watch again, turned the pups around and off we went back to the car park with the tape from Beanie’s lead flapping madly in the wind.

I couldn’t be bothered trying to get the pups back in their crates so I just let them clamber in through the driver’s door and ushered them both onto the passenger seat while I wrestled the door closed. I took a moment to savor the stillness and calm while the wind whistled round the outside of the car, and once that moment was done I began the search for a tool to pry open the lead casing. Beanie and Biggles were keen to help; their little ginger bonces tracked my every movement, and when I opened the glove box and the other storage  compartments I had to wait until both sniffers had finished their rummage before I could begin mine. Eventually I found a multi-tool with a suitable appendage and set to work on the lead. The pups were still showing so much interest that I gave them a running commentary as I worked. It really felt like a team effort with two sets of bright eyes watching me intently as I described the process to them, then looking down to study the innards of the lead. I cleared some sand and other beach debris from the mechanism (sadly none of this was edible – Beanie in particular made sure of that), rewound the spool, snapped the case back together and tested it. The lead was now working well enough to continue our run! I thanked my furry technical consultants for their help, and off we went for the third time. As it turned out there were no further setbacks; third time was indeed lucky in this case.

Not all tasks benefit from the involvement of Team Beagle, but the ones that do are certainly more fun :)