Biggles was at the vet having “the snip” this morning while we took Beanie to the park. She didn’t seem to miss Biggles on the walk, but she was decidedly mopey when we got back home and she realized her brother was still AWOL. By 3pm though Biggles was back home with us – albeit without his two favorite non-squeaky balls. Beanie was very happy to see him but she immediately picked up on his delicate state and was very gentle with him.

Biggles isn’t the only one saddened by the loss of his pocket billiards set

As you might expect, Biggles spent most of the afternoon sleeping, but by teatime he was almost doing somersaults in anticipation of food. He was so excited by the time his bowl arrived that I actually had to pick him up and restrain him to prevent him from straining his stitches. The next week or so is going to be a challenge, that’s for sure.

The next 10 days of convalescence may be pretty dull for him, but at least he had a great park session yesterday thanks mainly to Beanie’s sister Bella. Here are some of the photos:

Of course the Beagles weren’t the only ones having fun!

And one last shot – the last ever to feature Biggles’ little conkers!

Finally, we got an unwanted chance to test the new “emergency recall” command we’ve been working on for the last three days. Right at the start of the walk, Beanie again did her pickpocket act and grabbed a polythene bag from someone’s pocket. She started tearing it up as though preparing to eat it. I fought back the urge to rush in and try to get it off her (which would probably have made her swallow it), and instead composed myself and tried the recall. It worked brilliantly! While I was following up the recall with a loads of highest quality treats and an exciting game, Kirby’s Mum Sheila quickly secured the bag, and Beanie didn’t even notice it was gone. It’s extremely encouraging to see such a simple training method working well after only three days. If we keep this up daily it should be almost hard-wired after a while. Just for reference, here’s the method we’re using for our emergency recall:

1) Choose the cue you’re going to use. Go for something that’s not likely to be heard outdoors, and preferably something that either puts you in a happy frame of mind (and so gives your voice a happy tone) or is incapable of changing due to the stress in an emergency situation (e.g. a whistle)

2) Use the cue to introduce a really, really fun session to your dog. It should involve their most favorite food(s) and games and be as exciting and over the top as possible. The dog doesn’t have to do anything to get this fantastic reward except thoroughly enjoy his/her self. Keep repeating the word during the session to build the association.

3) Never, ever abuse the cue. It is strictly for emergencies only.

4) If/when you have to use it for real, follow it up immediately with treats, praise and games just as you would during training so that you don’t weaken it.

In truth we haven’t quite spent that much money on them yet, and as far as we know they haven’t gone on any top secret missions for the government, but following in the other traditions of The Bionic Man they’re showing how fast they are by moving very, very  s  l  o   w    l    y  in the following video. Notice that Beanie is so in control of the chase that she has time to mug for the camera. I think Biggles still has some growing to do before he can offer her some serious competition!

Note that this a big file (38 MB) so depending on your connection it might play better if you download it in its entirety first by clicking here, and again, it’s best viewed with sound!

Yesterday’s morning walk was cut short when Beanie decided to eat another dog walker’s sausages. The sausages themselves weren’t the problem though – it was the fact that they were wrapped in a big plastic bag which Beanie swallowed whole after stealing it from the dog walker’s coat pocket that was the real issue. Anyway, another shot of vomit inducing eyedrops from the vet brought the whole package back up before it could wreak havoc in her intestines. Beanie’s pick-pocket antics have been a problem for a while now, so to curb it we’re now asking other dog walkers not to offer her any treats, as it’s the treat handouts that seem to be at the bottom of it.

As for the swallowing side of things, I’ve no doubt that it was my reaction that caused it this time. As soon as Beanie saw that I was hell bent on getting the bag off her she knew she had something highly valuable, and the only way to hang on to it was either to take flight or to speed-swallow it. To combat this, we’re now teaching her an “emergency” recall word. This is a word so strongly associated with fun and fantastic treats that she’ll drop whatever she’s doing and come running to us. Unlike regular recall commands, it’ll only ever be used when she’s doing something dangerous, and because it doesn’t involve us going after her and isn’t associated with taking away something she likes, hopefully it’ll sidestep the flee or swallow reaction!

Anyway, as compensation for yesterday’s unpleasantness we headed off to the park this morning with our latest doggy indulgence: a portable agility kit. Previously we’d tried making our own from plastic tubing, but it was horribly unwieldy compared to the lightweight stuff in the kit.

We set it up in the park’s enclosure, and had a go at a pseudo-flyball game that Susan’s been working on with Beanie. In real flyball, the dog sprints over a series of jumps, hits a spring-loaded box that releases a tennis ball, then catches the ball and returns over the jumps to the handler. In the Beanie version we just throw the ball over the jumps while holding her collar, release her, and hope and pray that when she gets to the ball she’ll bring it back. The amazing thing is that more often than not, she does!

Of course Biggles is too young for all that jumping, though in truth I doubt he would attempt to jump over the poles – he’s much more into brute force and would likely run straight through all the obstacles, sending them flying in the process. Fortunately for Biggles, Susan created another flyball variant involving a tunnel:

As it turned out, this version of flyball doesn’t involve the dog bringing the ball back to you. Instead, he’s just supposed to grab it, run off and give it a robust chewing. If those truly are the rules, then Biggles did very well indeed. He certainly enjoyed himself big time!

After a few rounds of Beanie & Biggles flyball, Beanie had a couple of minutes of conventional agility practice..

In Beanie’s world, agility = cheese

After that, we let them have a good old fashioned run around. Initially Biggles did very well and led the chase despite some bold faced cheating by Beanie:

Soon the confines of the enclosure proved too limiting..

so we headed out on a walk around the park. We kept them apart for the first part of the walk – I took Beanie in one direction, while Susan took Biggles the other, but about half way round we met up and let them have another run together:

This time the shoe was on the other paw, and Beanie led the chase. Being a little tease, she let Biggles get pretty close at times..

.. then abruptly went up a gear and left him eating her dust

By the time we got them back on lead little Bigglet was knackered, but he’d thoroughly enjoyed himself, and that’s what counts!