GPS Biggles

Posted on April 21, 2009 by Paul

Nobody wants to lose their dog, and when you’ve got Beagles this is a constant worry. We’ve been looking for some kind reliable tracking technology for a while, so that if our two ever get too far away from us we can hunt them down. After a lot of research we decided to go for the Retrieva system. We got a tracking collar for Biggles and a compatible mobile phone (more on that later) and this morning we took them out for a quick test drive. As we’ve only just got all the kit, please consider this as a quick brain dump of my first impressions – I’ll do a thorough review later on.

OK, so first a bit of background on the Retrieva system. Obviously you can get full details from the Retrieva website, but here are the basics.Your dog wears a tracking device either in the form of a special collar or a harness. This device is waterproof, tamper resistant and principally uses GPS (satnav) and GSM (mobile phone) technology to send information about your dog’s location to a compatible mobile phone. When your dog goes missing you text the collar to put it into “red alert” mode (Star Trek analogy) and use special software on your phone to track the naughty article down.

Here’s Biggles modelling the collar. He seemed perfectly happy to wear it and it didn’t diminish his ability to jump up and grab a tea towel from the kitchen table, so no problems there.

We loaded him and Beanie into the car and headed off to the park this morning. Very shortly after our departure my phone received a text from “Biggles” informing me that he was no longer at home! It was a very thoughtful gesture by our little boy. Like all youngsters he clearly has a natural ability to use SMS!

I had a quick try of the collar’s locator functions in the park, and they worked well so things are looking good. As I said I’ll give the collar a more thorough trial over the next few days and write a detailed review.

Finally, here are a few shots of what Beanie and Biggles got up to after their walk:

What is it about Biggles that incites this behavior? Lynx for Beagles?

The Newlin Racers

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Paul

It was a big day at Beagle racing yesterday, but not because there were points or rosettes up for grabs. Nope, the thing that made it special was that four of the contenders were from Newlin Beagles: Beanie, her littermates Bella and Dudley, and Chief – who was from the subsequent litter. We quickly arranged to have a special race just for them (and Biggles, who naturally couldn’t be left out) but before that we had to line up for the normal races.

A notable absentee this week was Murphy – his owner was called away just before the first race kicked off, so he just got a quick solo run up the track and then he was away. It was a shame – Beanie was completely fresh this time and I’d been hoping to see how she’d stack up against last year’s derby winner. Still there were enough Beagles present to run two heats, a consolation race and a final.

Beanie was called up for the first heat wearing the white jacket. She got away cleanly and soon took the lead. As she crossed the line, there was no need for photos to decide the finishing order!

So that was Beanie smoothly through to the final. The next race had little Biggles running against the other two male newbies Dudley and Chief. It was quite a “physical” race, and as a result of all the argy-bargy most of the the contenders ended up bunched on one side of the track.

That wasn’t the end of the aggro though. As the others pulled away after the lure, Biggles and Dudley were left running side by side.

Prior to the race, Dudley had shown a certain “interest” in Biggles. Our little boy hadn’t enjoyed it much; he’s just not that sort of boy, and anyway if anybody’s going to hump you it should be your sister (and indeed Beanie does, very regularly, but only when she’s finished humping Susan’s legs!) Needless to say if Biggles didn’t enjoy getting amorous attention before the race, he certainly didn’t want any of that naughty business going on during the race:

I think the next photo adequately expresses how our boy was feeling through all of this!

Regardless, he managed to rise above and crossed the finish line, securing a place in the consolation race which as it happened was coming up just a few minutes later. And by a remarkable coincidence this race was also hit by the kind of inappropriate physical contact found in the legendary re-enactment of Pearl Harbor by the Batley Towns-Women’s Guild. Amazingly Biggles somehow steered clear of the jostling and found himself in the lead.

I feared he might stop to investigate all the commotion, but no, like Forest Gump he just kept on a-runnin’:

Closer…

CLOSER…

HE’S DONE IT! Biggly Boy wins by a huge margin!

After he crossed the line he pounced on the lure and.. stood motionless looking very confused. Why on earth had everybody been chasing this thing? I mean it didn’t even taste nice (and yes he did checked that out by having a little nibble). He didn’t ponder the depths of this mystery for very long though, because I called him over and gave him the biggest chunk of cheesy omelette he’d ever seen. Sorted!

Now it was time for the final. You’ll never guess what happened.. or maybe you will..

This time it was Beanie who was on the receiving end of Dudley’s attention, and she reacted badly to it. After a few cross words, she huffily turned around and trotted right back to Susan on the start line, her dreams of victory lying in the gutter..

As they say in South Park, “screw you guys I’m going home”

A similar thing had happened last week (with Chief that time) and she barely jogged down the rest of the course to finish last. We’d put that down to tiredness from an earlier flyball session, but now I’m thinking that she’d just gone on another “huff”. It seems our princess takes her racing more seriously than we thought!

Anyway, that was the end of the scheduled stuff, and now it was time for the fun races. Beanie got a couple of solid victories to make up for the earlier disappointment..

..but the race I was really wanting to see was the full Newlin line up, plus the Biggly boy of course! Here it is in glorious slow motion (for best viewing quality, hit the HQ button on the panel once the clip starts playing):

As you can see, there was a bit of naughtiness in this race too. On this occasion I think Chief was the instigator, but at least it paved the way for Biggles (in blue) to join his speedy sister (red) in the first two positions. Chief crossed the line next, followed by Dudley and Bella. How Bella managed to come last even after overtaking Chief and Dudley is a bit of a mystery, but let’s not forget this was her first ever day at the races!

In an effort to help Dudley learn that the race track is for racing rather than.. other things.. he had a race with Beanie. Beanie started slightly in front to ensure there wouldn’t be any jostling, and as you can see Dudley ran well.

But was that enough to cure him of his naughty tendencies? Well, a photo from a subsequent race suggests otherwise!

Last year Beanie was the baby at the race track. This year we’ve got a whole bunch of dog’s the same age and younger. Dudley and Chief might have had one or two naughty moments but they’ll soon learn that the race track is for racing! The important thing is that they are both very fast dogs with heaps of potential. Who knows, maybe the second half of the season will be thoroughly dominated by Newlin Beagles!

Here’s one of the other races, this time from the side:

That was it for the Beagles, but during the day I also got some photos of the whippets in action. Here’s a sequence showing a youngster piling into the lure at the end of the race:

Vet School Rodeo 2009

Posted on April 18, 2009 by Paul

Today the Glasgow Vet School held its annual “Rodeo” at the Kelvin Campus, and we went along to check it out and help out at the Glasgow Dog Training Club stand. The Rodeo’s main purpose is to raise money for the vet school itself and for various animal charities (RSPB, SSPCA, Dog’s Trust) but it’s a really good family day out whether you have a pet or not.

There were a number of featured shows during the day including a falconry display, a demonstration of gun dog training, some highland dancing and sled racing. The gun dog training was on first. The level of control the presenter had over his dogs was very impressive. While he effortlessly arranged his dogs in a circle, then flawlessly sent them off one at a time to retrieve targets, I struggled to keep hold of my two crazy Beagles as scores of people walked past flaunting their icecreams, hotdogs and burgers.

Another target is retrieved on command…

But apparently even gun dogs can develop a pocket obsession! Maybe it was Beanie’s naughty influence…

While waiting for the falconry display to start up, we headed back to the Glasgow Dog Training Club where Beanie and Biggles got to try out the fun agility course, and sample the delights of the doggy lucky dip.

Susan and Becky take our two through the course

But it’s the lucky dip bags that really grab their interest

One of them squeaks, and Biggles wants it. Really badly!

It’s a chicken!

But just like a little kid, once it’s open he’s more interested in playing with the packaging

Finally it was time for the falconry. The show got a off to little bit of a false start when the first bird to be removed from its cage did a runner, or perhaps more accurately a flyer (Beanie and Biggles’ influence again?). It shot off to the nearby roof tops to say hello to some pigeons and didn’t respond to recall, leaving its lonely trainer twirling his lure and filling the void as best he could with bird facts:

“It can soar to hundreds even thousands of feet above the ground. It flies at over 100 miles an hour and has eyesight good enough to spot a flea on a dog’s head at over a mile away”

Yep that’s all very well. But it would be nice if it would stop buggering about with those pigeons and head back to the area so we can see the blumming thing!

Eventually it obliged – in grand style. It made several low and incredibly fast passes at the lure, wowing the crowd as it shot over their heads.

Duck!

Once recaptured…

.. this little tearaway got blinkered and put back in his cage

The rest of the show more than made up for it’s slow start. The trainer talked about the history of the sporran, and how back in falconry days it was not only illegal to wear the more decorative evening version during daytime, but also dangerous. He pulled a guy out of the audience to demonstrate why you don’t really want a fluffy, feathered covered object dangling in front of your groin when their are prey birds in the air:

This guy came perilously close to being like Biggles – lacking two critical items in the family jewels department

Yep, that’s one scary bird

The owl is much cuter

But you absolutely wouldn’t want to mess with this fella!

The falconry was certainly the highlight of the day, that doesn’t mean there weren’t plenty of other sights, sounds and smells to entertain:

A ferret out for an on-lead walk

This sled dog doesn’t really seem up to the task in hand

You don’t see that very often

Blimey Beanie! Look at the size of those dogs!

I don’t know what that is Biggles, but it smells luurvely

Just before we headed off, I tracked down one attraction that I just had to see: chainsaw sculpture. When we arrived, the sculptor was applying the finishing touches to an owl using a blowtorch.

We had to wait a few minutes until he has ready to start on a new piece. The guy was quite a character – he knew everyone was desperate to see him rev up his chainsaw, so he dragged the preparations out, slowly pouring petrol into the chainsaw’s tank while a lit cigarette dangled from his mouth.

Eventually he got to work. It wasn’t exactly a reenactment of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre as I’d hoped, but it was impressive none the less.

After a few deft cuts, a new owl was already taking shape

We saw other sculptures he’d made earlier in the day, but sadly there were no Beagles among them.

When we got back home our two were tired out, despite having had very little exercise. It’s good for them to have a slow day every now and then, especially with Beagle Racing coming up tomorrow!