The Biggly Boy has just had his fifteenth birthday, but inside I’m sure he still thinks he’s a pup, albeit a pup who’s mostly deaf and losing the few marbles he’s ever had. He seems to be bonding strongly with the youngsters; it’s not uncommon to find him in his crate after we’ve put them to bed and he’ll happily sleep with them on the same sofa, but there’s no cuddling up to them – at least not yet.

A while back I used to think the youngsters found him weird – a bit like a delusional pensioner trying to gate-crash a club 18-30 holiday, but more recently they seem to viewing him as a bit of a role-model. In some ways this is unfortunate as he’s happily teaching them all kinds of naughty. He woofs uncontrollably at mealtimes and Poppy seems to think this is a good thing to imitate; she’s not reaching anything like the volume he puts out and she still sounds a bit like Mickey Mouse, but she’s doing her best.

Monkey has recently completed his Artful Pooing university course under the careful tutelage of The Bigglet, and demonstrates his new skills at every opportunity. If you live in Ayrshire and you’ve found doggy bottom sausages deposited in your garden through even the smallest gap in your fence panels, chances are it was Monkey. Biggles is currently teaching Monkey that it’s a also good idea to strain on his lead to grab discarded fast food wrappers from the gutter, especially if we’re walking by a busy road. In return, Monkey has opened Biggles’ eyes to the merits of dropped paper napkins, and they often compete with each other to get the wettest, most disgusting examples thereof.

Beanie doesn’t seem bothered that Biggles is bonding with the pups, in fact she’s growing closer to them herself; if they’re out in the garden she’s more likely to spend more time outside, happily doing her rounds and making sure that everything is adequately sniffed. Knowing Beanie this could just be a bit of FOMO – her making sure that the pups aren’t getting something she doesn’t know about. Alternatively, there may also be a dodgy romance developing between her and Monkey (that’s worth a post in itself!), but whatever the reason it’s good that she’s not just sleeping her days away.

Getting back to all things Biggly, his lordship celebrated his birthday with a trip to Pets At Home along with Beanie. Their last visit – which happened around Poppy’s birthday – was a very subdued affair; both of them seemed a bit below par and showed little interest even when we did a tour of the food aisle. This time they were back on form, pulling me around, grabbing things from the shelves and generally being very unruly doggy shoppers.

Biggles’ favorite treat in the world is a cereal “Bow-wow” stick and as we went by their display he strained at his lead to help himself to a few. I grabbed a stick and showed it to him, telling him “it’s OK Biggles this one is yours!” but it didn’t register and he kept trying to grab a stick for himself. Only when I tapped him on the head with it a few times did he finally get the message.

As we joined the queue for the checkout Beanie took issue with one of the dogs in front of us, and let out a scolding “Whaaaaaaarrrr!”. Back in the day this would have caused a scene and had us hurrying Beanie out of the shop, but nowadays her outbursts are not taken so seriously. I’m not sure why that is; it could be the fact that Beanie has lost half her teeth, or that if she stands still for any length of time her rear legs get the shakes, or that her voice sounds like an old pissed-off seal with a 40-a-day cigarette habit. Whatever the reason, the dog in question just looked round with an expression that said “Oh right, and what are you going to do about it Grandma?”. That’s the problem with today’s young pups: they just have no respect for their elders. “Whaaaaaaarrrr” indeed!

The drive back from Pets At Home was quite entertaining as everybody wanted to get out of their crate and have a shot at Biggles’ Bow-wow stick. In the end, everybody did get a taste, but the birthday Bigglet got the lion’s share and he proudly and loudly boasted about it to all the neighbours dogs.

Happy 15th Birthday Mr Biggles, maybe we can get you a volume control for your 16th!

In our eyes Beanie is still in remarkable shape for her age, but she can find the main walk a bit of a strain these days and her walking pace can be a bit.. how shall I put it.. “stately” at times.

At the same time she does not appreciate being left behind if Biggles and the pups go gallivanting off on adventures without her; Beanie has always been a very independent girl but she does like walking with her pack. So, how to keep Beanie included in the longer main walks without pushing her to do too much? This is how:

Now Beanie would like to make a few things clear: the vehicle pictured above is not a pushchair or a stroller, it’s a royal carriage. It just happens to be the sort of royal carriage that was mass-produced in China and has a handlebar for applying the humie-powered rear-wheel-drive. Most importantly it also has a brake – something that is actually absent from some of the China-made royal carriage models. This is a feature we considered to be very important; we’re both easily distracted and had visions of an unbraked carriage rolling backwards down a hill with Beanie letting out an alarmed “Whaaaaaaaaaa” from within.

Initially we had concerns that Beanie might not trust her new wheels, but we needn’t have worried; after a few stationary afternoon naps and a couple of biccie-assisted rolling tours of the house she was willing to try the carriage outside on a real walk.

She doesn’t need to use it every day, but we usually take it along with us so that she can hop in for a rest any time fatigue sets in. This is easy to recognize as she starts to drag her rear paws instead of cleanly lifting them.

Biggles and the pups don’t react when HRH The Beanster enters her carriage, other than being a bit jealous about the biccie used to lure her in, and Beanie herself seems totally happy about having the others trotting around her as she rolls along. The only downside seems to be that she feels a little vulnerable if she’s in the carriage when we encounter other dogs, but that’s diminishing as she learns to trust that we’ll keep any unknown woofers from getting too close.

I expected to be the subject of a little humor when we took the carriage out for its first spin – it’s not something you commonly see in our area – but most people we talked to were just interested in getting one for their own golden oldies. It’s certainly made a huge difference to The Beanster; no matter how long the walk, she can always finish it with fresh legs alongside the rest of the pack.

In keeping with my habit of taking formal portraits of the pups around birthdays, here’s the latest round of shots.

Poppy – whose birthday triggered this photoshoot – was very easy to photograph, and that’s mainly thanks to Beanie & Biggles; they’ve taught me that that it is most unwise to create any direct link between the click of the camera shutter and the giving of treats. Over the years they have sought ever higher modeling rates – eventually demanding biccie down-payments even before I got to take a single shot.

By contrast, Poppy and Monkey quietly and for the most part patiently followed my directions while I clicked away; only when I called them did they finally get rewarded.

Admittedly Monkey did spend the first couple of minutes walking behind the backdrop and knocking over my flash stands, but once he settled he was a pro.

Biggles was his usual biccie-demanding self, and being mostly deaf every woof came out at full volume. On top of that, he couldn’t understand my verbal directions. By the time we finished my ears were ringing and my pockets were empty of treats, but we got there.

Beanie was the hardest to photograph. The years are really catching up with her now, so instead of having to deal with an impatient and demanding spoilt princess, I had this little old lady that kept nodding off. My first round of shots had to be discarded because of the half-asleep look, so I redid the shoot at an earlier time the next day and got closer to the sparkle and inner light that I’ve always associated with my little girl.