We went along to the Scottish Beagle Club Championships in Lanark today, mainly to meet up with Dudley – one of Beanie’s brothers – and his owners. We were both looking forward to meeting Dudley, but we were expecting the actual show to be a rather formal affair, like a miniature Crufts. Happily, this was not the case! Spectators were free to mingle and chat to contestants, and it was as much a social gathering for Beagle fans as it was a serious competition.

Almost immediately on arrival we met up with David and Liz of Newlin Beagles, and we learned that in addition to Dudley, two of Beanie’s sisters – Zoe and Peanut – were there, along with Ginger (aka Yanis) who was from a slightly older Newlin litter.

Dudley (giving a paw) and Ginger

From the left: Peanut, Zoe, Beanie & Dudley

You’ll notice that “handlers” are present in the above picture of the four pups. This was very necessary, as without restraint the meeting had a tendency to dissolve into .. er .. this:

Seeing them playing there, it’s hard to believe this is how they started out:

Prior to the get-together, I’d wondered if our houndlets would remember each other from their time in the Newlin puppy pile. If they did, it wasn’t immediately obvious. They loved each other’s company, but apparently no more than any of the other pups in the hall. In fact all the Beagles seemed to get on well together. With so many different ages and bloodlines represented you might have expected some disagreements to break out, but I didn’t see any at all. Maybe that’s another indication that the Beagle thoroughly deserves its reputation as a “merry little hound”.

We’ve worked quite hard at getting Beanie to walk to heel, but there are times when she still can’t resist pulling, such as when we’re entering the park at the start of a walk.  Lately I’ve been feeling that these few moments of successful pulling (successful in the sense that it gets her closer to her desired destination) are undoing a lot of our hard work. I found a post in the Dogsey forums about harnesses and to my surprise a lot of the posters reported that using a harness had reduced their dog’s tendency to pull. I don’t know why – maybe when the resistance is against the chest rather than the neck it doesn’t trigger the opposition reflex quite as much? Regardless, we decided it was worth a try and started searching.

I quickly found plenty of harnesses that actually claim – in some cases even guarantee – to reduce pulling, but I rejected most of them for various reasons:

• I’m wary of harnesses that use plastic clips – one such harness caused the death of Beanie’s sister Ruby
• I don’t like harnesses that fit over the dog’s snout – they look overly restrictive to me
• Checking through customer reviews, many of the more promising models have big problems with chafing

After a while Susan happened on the “Easy Walk No Pull Harness” made by a company in the US.  This has the leash attachment point at the front – over the dog’s chest. The idea is that when the dog pulls they’re forced to turn in towards their owner, and so learn that pulling doesn’t get them anywhere. On closer examination I found that the harness uses the dreaded plastic fasteners… but it’s designed so that you can attach the lead to both the collar and the harness at the same time. I hunted down a UK seller, and ordered one.

Well that was a few days ago, and I can report that the harness actually works – Beanie just doesn’t pull when it’s on, and yet it doesn’t seem to cramp her style in any other way. I remove the harness completely when she’s walking off lead though, just in case there could be any chafing problems. I’m hoping that after a long enough pull-free period Beanie will just accept that walking nicely is the way to go, whether the harness is on or not.

During the last week Beanie has taken up a number of classic doggy pursuits that I’d rather hoped she would bypass…

Coprophragialicious

Beagles have a particularly bad reputation for poo eating, but until this week Beanie had shown no interest in this particular dietary choice. Actually that’s not entirely true, as my earlier post “This chocolate smells funny” attests, but other than that it was all sniffing and no chewing.

All that changed on a recent visit to Pollock Park. A horse had left an outrageously large pile of fresh poo right in the middle of the path, and before we could stop her Beanie ran over to investigate. After the briefest of sniffings she grabbed a big chunk of it and sprinted away from us so we couldn’t deprive her of her prize. She then set about consuming the poo with such relish… well.. you could just imagine Marks and Spencer doing an advert about that horse’s droppings: “This isn’t just horse poo; this is rich, chunky organic poo du cheval drizzled with fresh Glasgow rain water”

Neither of us wanted a kiss from her for a few hours after that, I can tell you. And since that unfortunate incident Beanie’s always on the look out for another all-you-can-eat poo buffet.

Can I dig it? Yes you can! (but I really wish you wouldn’t)

Remember we recently had the garden drained and returfed? Well accordingly Beanie has now become a digger. She keeps trying to bury her favorite raw hide chew, presumably so that no-one else can steal it.

It’s quite a comical thing to watch. She looks like she’s carrying the weight of the world on her little shoulders as she hunts for a suitable hiding place. She digs hurriedly, deposits her treasure and begins covering it but then she’s struck by doubt: will she remember where she’s put it? She unburies it a little and tests that she’ll be able to retrieve the chew when she needs it. She runs off to play but worriedly returns a few more times to make sure everything’s still OK. By the time of her next trip into the garden, she’s evidently decided that her chew isn’t quite safe enough, so it has to be retrieved and reburied elsewhere. Of course, after a day or two in the ground that chew isn’t looking too healthy but that doesn’t seem to matter to Beanie!

Do I make you horny baby? Do I?

Dogs, as in male canines, hump legs. That’s well known, in fact there are loads of videos of it happening on YouTube. Well, here’s one more:

Yep that’s Beanie. Yep she’s a girl, not a boy. Yep she’s humping like her life depended on it.Apparently, it’s not uncommon for female dogs to do this, and the popular view seems to be that it’s a show of dominance. Certainly it’s something we’ll gently but firmly discourage!

I think I may be getting a new USB dongle for our laptop though: http://www.theusbhumpingdog.com/