Why Dad? Why did you get another one?

We’ve had four Beagles for just over two weeks now, and it’s been a roller-coaster of grins, surprises, stress, and chaos. Especially chaos. But where to start?

Going into this with the experience gained from introducing Poppy to our longstanding Beagle family of two, we had the following expectations:

1. Whatever other problems we might have, we wouldn’t have to worry about having Poppy and Monkey together. Two pups from the same breeder with just a 3-4 month age-gap should get on like a house on fire.
2. Monkey should be easy to house-train because he’d be able to learn quickly from Poppy.
3. Beagle puppies are like Monty Python’s Spanish Inquisition. They always bring the unexpected.

Well, #3 was dead on, and we got #1 sort of half right. From the moment they clapped eyes on each other, Poppy and Monkey did indeed “get on like a house on fire” in so far as a house on fire usually needs the urgent attention of the emergency services. Poppy was the problem; she just couldn’t leave Monkey alone and would initiate play the instant she was near him. On more than one occasion I literally had to pick her up off him while he was trying to have a quiet pee. We rationed and monitored their play sessions to give little Monkey plenty of chances to explore his new environment at his own pace and bond with us, but still every so often we had to unleash the play monster…

I’m happy and relieved to report that in the last few days things have calmed down and now their play sessions are much more balanced and less frenetic.

We’ve just trashed all the potted plants Monkey, I guess we’ve earned a few minutes of quiet contemplation

Something that’s helped us reach this point is the phenomenal rate at which Monkey has developed. It took Poppy several days before she could trot round the garden without falling over, and a good week before she could tackle steps, but Monkey was at that point within a couple of days. Although still smaller and slower than his sister, he’s gaining on her rapidly and loves to test his strength against her in a tug of war…

As I said at the start we expected house-training Monkey to be a breeze, given that he’d have Poppy as a role model. That’s how it was for Biggles all those years ago when he joined Beanie in our home as a seven week old pup. Things haven’t worked out that way at all. He’s learned what “go do your business” means and will happily oblige if – and I stress “if” – we manage to get him out into the garden in time. If it’s raining or cold (which here in Scotland in winter is pretty much every day) he’ll do almost anything to avoid going outside. He’s got a little pot belly and doesn’t move all that fast, but he can still evade capture long enough to leave a puddle on the floor of the kitchen. Even when we do get him out in time and observe him doing the deed, the sneaky little bugger likes to keep a bit of pee in reserve which he then dumps on the floor within a minute of being let back into the house. On top of that, despite our best efforts he has peed in his crate; at one point all his bedding and blankets were simultaneously in the wash, so Susan brought in an emergency reserve blanket from the van, and he peed that too.

For all his deficiencies in this most important area, he’s still not quite as bad as Poppy was. In retrospect, it may have been unwise to expect the current holder of the world records for “Most crate/playpen soilings” and “Most poos deposited in high traffic areas of the deck” to be a good house-training role model.

Poppy shares house-soiling tips with her impressionable little brother

A more pleasant and certainly less smelly surprise is that – aside from being a insatiable play demon – Poppy has taken on an air of maturity since Monkey arrived, so much so that we’re starting to regard her as a member of the A-team with Beanie & Biggles, rather than as the slightly older member of Team Crazy Puppy. Just like Beanie & Biggles, her recall has gone down the toilet, she nicks things from the bins in the kitchen and moans when tea is late. Yep, she’s 100% a member of the pack.

Well that’s it for now – I’ll end the post with a few more shots from the last couple of weeks..