Fetch doesn’t come as easily to Beagles as it does to some other breeds, but it’s good interactive fun and it’s a useful thing to have as dogs mature and aren’t as likely to really stretch their legs without a good reason to do so. Beanie and Biggles learned fetch as a byproduct of their agility training; I never managed to get Poppy to learn it, but I had success with Monkey and now little Daisy has picked it up using the very same slit tennis ball that I used to teach him. Getting the slit just the right size is tricky – it must be big enough to allow the insertion and removal of a small treat, but not so big that that treat falls out before it’s back in human hands. I got it just right for Monkey, and to his credit he never thought to simply rip the ball apart, which is odd given that he’s such a toy serial killer.
Daisy’s just getting to the stage where we can play fetch in the garden without her getting distracted – as long as I keep the session short and don’t throw the ball too far. In the house she’s more focused and can now fetch somewhat reliably with any ball, trusting that she’ll still get her treat if she does it right.
Monkey of course has moved on from balls and much prefers his big orange lobber. When he’s playing more vigorously it sometimes whacks him on the side of the head as he runs, but he doesn’t seem to mind, in fact I think he likes it. Boys are silly like that, and Monkey’s silly even by boy standards.
