Happy Birthday Cuillen

Posted on July 4, 2009 by Susan

Beanie and Biggles’ monthly swim with buddies Tess, Clara, Tara, Jamie and Cuillen was due today. And as luck would have it the date coincided with Cuillen’s 2nd Birthday, so what better excuse for a Party!!! This time we were joined by Val (our obedience teacher) and her dogs Lucy, Anna and 16 year old Star. Jamie and Cuillen brought along their house guest Mouse.

A great time was had by all! We had a lovely birthday cake, party bags and Cuillen and Jamie even got into the spirit of the party by wearing bathing caps and snorkels! All the dogs in our little group enjoy swimming but it’s also a great chance for them to hang out with a bunch of other nice dogs and brush up on their socialisation skills.

I don’t think Val planned on having old lady Sky in the water, but at the last minute she decided it might be good for her. It was lovely to see. She was apparantly quite a swimmer in her day, and it really seemed to give her a little boost. She swam really well and she was looking very perky after her swim.

There isn’t much footage of Tess, Clara, Tara, Beanie and Biggles as they were in the pool first and the camera was fogged up with all the steam.

It’s the Biggly Boy’s birthday next month – we’ll need to think up something special for his party!

Beagle Racing

Posted on June 23, 2009 by Susan

Flyball wasn’t on this Sunday so it was an easy decision to take Beanie and Biggles racing. It was a warm day, so a great opportunity to show off their trendy new cooling jackets:

I think Paul’s secretly missing seeing his little girl winning the official races, but there’s no doubt that Beanie and Biggles find their little private races much more enjoyable and rewarding. There’s no risk of having to fend of an aggressive or unruly dog, and we can give Biggles a head start so that every race ends up as a thrilling neck and neck battle at the finish line.

We headed up to Kincardine Bridge nice and early so that they could have some private races while Scooby was testing the lure. In their first race we gave Biggles a 15 yard head start fully expecting Beanie to overtake him. In actual fact he beat her by a good 2 yards. It gave him a huge confidence boost and made things really interesting for Beanie in the next race.

Biggles winning a race and looking like he’s wearing a muscle suit!

This time Beanie overtakes Biggles despite a 9 yard head start

Biggles really digs in and trys to catch her

Currently Beanie’s beating Biggles by about 12 yards over a 160 yard course. But he’s really starting to gain confidence now so I think we’ll see him closing the gap over the coming weeks.

While the Whippet and Beagle racing got underway we created a secure enclosure and set up our portable agility equipment. We then spent the afternoon having short strolls with the dogs and having short little agility, obedience and trick training practice sessions.

Beanie in action:

And Biggles having a little try:

In return for use of the field we let anyone that’s interested have a go on the agility course. It’s an arangement that suits everyone. Here’s Murphy in action:

When the Beagle and Whippet racing finished up Beanie and Biggles were watching the track intently so we gave them one last race – their best of the day!

More photos here

Wanted – Field to Rent or Buy (Glasgow, Ayrshire, Renfrewshire)

Posted on June 13, 2009 by Susan

For a while now we’ve been looking for a field to rent or buy so that we have a controlled environment for training Beanie and Biggles.

We would need to securely fence the field (sheep fencing should be fine) and for that to be affordable and maintainable it would need to be not much more than an acre.

We’d need a flat area for practicing agility etc but the rest could be flat, hilly, wooded….it doesn’t really matter.

Our dogs will bay if chasing each other or following a scent, so it’d need to be a reasonable distance from houses or any livestock that might be stressed by this. And just in case one of our dogs suddenly developed a newfound jumping ability it’d be best if it wasn’t near busy roads or anything where a dog could do damage or cause distress to people/animals.

If anyone knows of anything, or knows of someone that might be able to help please contact us. If anyone already has a securely fenced field and wouldn’t mind letting us use it for an hourly rate that too would be of interest.