Poppy has acquired a number of special new powers over the last couple of weeks. She’s managed to jump onto the sofa, she’s humped a well-stuffed squeaky duck, and she’s demonstrated an uncanny ability to mimic Robert Plant. The last one happened one morning when we were engrossed in DIY, laying a new laminate floor in the lounge. An old Led Zeppelin track was playing on the radio at just the same time as Poppy decided she’d been in her crate a little too long, and as Mr Plant started to wail at the top of his voice, so did Poppy. It was remarkably difficult to tell them apart, I couldn’t help wondering if the next copyright lawsuit to be brought against Led Zeppelin could be filed by a Beagle.

In between exploring her new found powers, Poppy’s been learning commands (she’s now got sit, down, wait, leave and giving a paw) and enjoying her walks with Beanie & Biggles. Both members of the A-Team have grown used to having Poppy with them on walks now, and the three of them are really looking like a pack. Poppy often ends up trotting along between them, and sometimes I think she has an extra swagger to her, like the child of a mafia boss flanked with two gun toting heavies.

Prior to getting Poppy we assumed that most friction would occur with Beanie, as two females in a pack often seems to be the trickier combo. As things have turned out, a bond seems to be growing between Beanie & Poppy, and it’s Biggles who’s having the hardest time accepting the youngster. He’s fine with her on walks and in the garden, but we still have to be very careful if she’s loose in the house. That said, Poppy has joined The Bigglet on a couple of important woofing missions recently (sorting out the neighbors’ dogs through the fence, rebuking delivery guys) and he seemed to enjoy having the backup, so I think there’s scope for improvement in the near future.

We’re still amazed by how affectionate Poppy is; Beanie & Biggles were never such cuddle monsters!

Welcome to the nibble zone. Poppy loves to settle down on a humie lap, but if said humie wants to avoid puncture wounds, said humie had better have a toy or a hoof to keep those needle-sharp teeth occupied. At least humies get much gentler treatment than squeaky chickens. If any squeaky chickens are reading this, spread the word that Poppy is to be avoided at all costs.

A week after her second round of vaccinations Poppy was given the green light for walks in the big wide world. I’d already got her a cheap puppy harness for lead training in the garden, but you know what they say: buy cheap, buy twice; as soon as we went on a “real” walk we realized that it was rubbing under her arms. We retired it from active duty and ended up with this instead:

It has a little bow tie and looks very cute on the Popster, but honestly that’s not why we got it; it was the only one in Pets-at-Home that (1) was a good fit and (2) had a double D-ring fastener across the obligatory plastic clip.

I’ve never been able trust plastic clips on their own; one of Beanie’s siblings died as little pup when the clip on her harness broke by a road. With the bow tie harness the clip becomes redundant as soon as the lead has hooked through both D rings. I’ve gone the same way with collars too: Ezydog double-up collars all round for our Beaglets!

Poppy gets some solo walks to work on her training, but of course she also gets to stride out with Beanie & Biggles. I feel that each group walk has a strong bonding effect, helping the two Bs to accept the little upstart we’ve injected into their lives, and allowing Poppy to feel like she’s a member of the pack. We’re still working hard to prevent Poppy from pestering the seniors – especially in the house – but they are gradually coming closer together; there have been times when Poppy has napped on a senior’s bottom.

As an aside, I must stop referring to Beanie & Biggles as “the seniors” or the “older pups”. At Susan’s suggestion, they’re now to be called “The A-Team”, with Poppy being the current sole member of “The B Team”, even though her name doesn’t begin with the letter “B”. In fact “The P team” or perhaps “The Pee Team” would be more appropriate for Poppy, since her toilet training – though much improved – still leaves a lot to be desired; on rainy days especially she much prefers the unofficial indoor toilet (kitchen floor) to the outside loo. We’ll get through this eventually, but until then I’ll need to buy more socks to compensate for the large number of pee-soaked ones that are still in the wash.

Yeah Dad, I know you told me to “go be a clean girl” but it’s not necessary because I already did one in the kitchen. You just haven’t stood in it yet.

Sticking with the subject of “accidents”, we had a beauty in the en suite bathroom just recently. I’ve been in the habit of taking Poppy in there with me to keep her out of mischief when I’m brushing my teeth and getting dressed on a morning. The floor is tiled so I figured that any little puddles would be easy to clean up. The room also has a free standing bath that is positioned very close to a wall; close enough to make cleaning difficult, but with just enough gap for a little Beagle girl to squeeze into. It’s about the worst place in the house for someone to leave a deposit, so of course that’s exactly what Poppy did. Now she stays in her crate until I’m properly up and dressed.

Yep I pooped behind the bath, but at least your socks didn’t get wet this time!

Both Beanie & Biggles had phobias about things when they were little pups. Beanie feared rustling bin bags, while Biggles more sensibly had a fear of smoke and fast running water. Until very recently Poppy had a fear of puddles, which is ironic given that she makes so many of them. Fast-flowing rivers and energetic waves were just fine but a still, clear and not very deep puddle was a total no-go for The Popster. I got her to face down the puddle demon on a trip to the beach, and since then, she’s just a little wary of them rather than outright fearful.

If you’re name is Poppy, puddles can be scary. Unless they’re yellow and smelly that is.

Another trigger for Poppy is having a barrier that prevents her from getting to her humies. She’s happy to spend time away from us in her crate, but if I’m on the other side of a gate or fence to Poppy there will be wailing and beginner-level arroooing, and if the barrier has enough space for a little girl to squeeze through then it’s guaranteed she will.

This little breakout occurred while I was using our woodchipper. Fortunately a wire panel and growth have now closed this escape route permanently.

She’s also very much a little Beagle now, rather a than generic pup in a Beagle outfit. She knows the sound of kibble hitting a metal bowl, and shoots in from the garden whenever she hears it. We’ve reduced her initial four small meals a day to three larger servings, but she’s still desperate to get into the kitchen to check her bowl bang on four o’clock – the time when that fourth meal used to be served. Like the A-Team members, she’s learned that all the dog food and treats are stored in the utility room and she’s developed some of Beanie’s ninja skills for getting in there. When she succeeds, she’s a lot harder to catch than the two B’s because those little feet of hers move impossibly fast. She’s also acquired Beanie & Biggles’ strawberry picking habits, and often goes mountaineering on the pots to get better access to the last of the alpine strawberry plants.

All the signs are that Poppy’s going to be a very cuddly, mischievous little character. All we need now is for Beanie & Biggles to get more used to her, and for the in-house pee habit to diminish. Either that, or we’ll have to boost our supply of clean, dry socks somehow.

It’s true: The Beanster is now 14 years old! Due to her pesky (very) little sister and other constraints we weren’t able to mark her special day with a big adventure, but we did manage to have a number of mini-adventures, the first of which occurred in the kitchen on the previous day.

Susan prepared a beef-flavored cookie mix then let Beanie, Biggles and myself loose in the kitchen with a rolling pin, various bone-shaped cookie cutters and a bowl of grated cheese.  Things went surprisingly well for the first few minutes; I made a splendid mess of the worktops as I rolled out the dough and cut out bones, Beanie forced her snout into one of the bins (the one containing sharp-edged empty cans, naturally) and Biggles grabbed all the tea-towels. As the bones started to fill the baking tray and the remaining dough dwindled in size, my attention turned to the next task: decorating the cookies with cheese.

This wasn’t easy as Biggles had maxed out on the tea-towels and was now intent on grabbing things from the worktop. Somehow I managed to put cheese hearts on most of the cookies, get the number 14 on one of them, and lock them safely away in the oven without any mishaps.

Baking was due to take around 12 minutes, so we passed the time by tasting samples of the remaining dough.

Even in an uncooked state the cookie dough seemed to be a hit, and we were all keen to see how the finished bones would turn out. In due course the cookies came out of the oven, and as they were cooling on the worktop, Biggles decided he couldn’t wait any longer to try them. Just as I was extracting Beanie’s snout from the bin one more time, he launched himself at the baking tray and grabbed a corner of the grease-proof paper on which the cookies were lying. He could so easily have brought everything crashing to the floor, but instead he pulled off his own version of the tablecloth trick, withdrawing the layer of paper so quickly that the cookies were left largely undisturbed. It was an impressive feat, but I decided to withdraw Beagle kitchen privileges before a repeat performance could be attempted.

On the morning of Beanie’s Birthday we all headed out to Stewarton for a sniffy woodland walk. Stewarton is only a short drive from our home, but with all the lockdowns and restrictions over the last couple of years, it’s been some time since our last visit. It’s at its most beautiful at this time of year, with the autumn colors starting to appear. Little Poppy was great on the walk (I’ll give an update on her progress in the next post) but she only did a shortened version, giving Beanie & Biggles a chance to explore and enjoy the sniffs as a team of two as they have done so many times in the past. Once back home the pressies came out and so did those beef and chicken-flavoured bones.

So our first little Beagle is now 14 years old, and though her hound colors have faded a bit over the years the light in her eyes is still burning strong. Happy Birthday Beanie Girl!