More Beagle Racing

Posted on August 31, 2008 by Susan

Today we had another handicap race. A 170 yard race which is great for Beanie as she’s got good stamina. The dogs were all weighed and the lighter dogs were given a 1 yard per pound head start. Beanie is the lightest dog at 22lbs. Murphy (the Derby winner and officially the fastest dog) was the heaviest at 39 lbs (I think that’s 3 lbs lighter than he was at the last handicap race!?).That would have given Beanie a 17 yard head start over Murphy, but Beanie and Murphy didn’t race each other until the final, and in that race we all agreed to ‘race rules’ which meant that the biggest head start a dog can have is 10 yards.

Beanie won the race, which was no surprise to anyone. However, Murphy made up quite a bit of ground – I’m not sure how much but enough to put him in second place.

We were interested to see how Beanie would do if we reversed the handicap. So this time around Murphy had a 10 yard head start over Beanie. Beanie likes to be out in front and we thought she’d run faster if she started from behind. And sure enough, she managed to maintain the distance between her and Murphy this time around. Which meant that she and Murphy were running at pretty much the same speed. Graham suggested a scratch race between Beanie and Murhpy just to see what would happen. Murphy won by less than a dog length.

We’ve noticed a big improvement in Beanie’s speed every week since she started racing. For about three weeks now she’s been getting close to Murphy, but the gap is closing VERY slowly. She’s widening the gap between her and some of the other dogs, but Murphy’s holding on to his lead. We suspect that Murphy is getting fitter and faster every week so our little pup is going to have to work very hard to catch him :)

We also got a little bit of good news with regards to drag hunting. One of the Whippet owners told us about a lady that’s absolutely nuts about hunting with dogs. She’s not too well at the moment, but once she’s better he’s promised to put us in touch with her. Beanie absolutely loves the racing, and we’re sure the sprinting is great for her health (well certainly you can’t beat sprinting for building fitness in people). But as she’s a Beagle we feel that she needs a good bit of long distance running with a pack too. She likes to run with us, but from her point of view you just can’t beat a pack of baying Beagles and something smelly to chase!

Swimming without a life jacket!

Posted on August 12, 2008 by Susan

Beanie had another swimming lesson yesterday and this time swam without a life jacket! She actually does much better without it. She’s a superb little swimmer now, and we’re confident that by the end of her course she’ll be swimming regularly in the local rivers, ponds and sea.

We met Sophie there again, and she’s reached the end of her first 10 week course so went to get all her vital statistics taken again. Sophie mainly started swimming lessons to get her back into shape after her phantom pregnancy. The measurements show she’s lost quite a bit off her waistline and put on a significant amount of bulk in all the right places!

Beanie has certainly built lots of lovely muscle over the past few weeks, although because she’s a devloping pup it’s not clear how much of that is down to the swimming. But I’m told that typically in a 10 week course dogs do build measurable muscle. Beanie certainly got loads of compliments from the vetenary nurses about her lean, muscular build! And I have to say we agree with them – she looks fabulous!

Cupboard Love

Posted on August 12, 2008 by Susan

After travelling all the way up to Kincardine on Sunday only to find that the track was waterlogged and un-useable we decided to head straight for Irvine beach rather than go back home. We got there about 5pm and there was still lots of blue sky and sunshine. The sea looked amazing in the evening light.

As always the beach was deserted, and despite the very high tide Beanie had a superb time.

Looking at the photos Paul took you’d think that our little pup adored me and couldn’t bear to be parted from me. In 90 percent of the snaps she was glued to my side looking at me adoringly.

In actual fact she spent most of her time a mile down the beach from us chasing a galloping horse! She just sprinted back and forth between us and the horse….which was great exercise for her! The only time she stayed still for long enough for Paul to take a photo was when I pulled out a lump of chicken!

She made a couple of new pals – the first one we didn’t get the name of, but he was with the horse:

And then we met 5 month old Tucker the Jack Russell cross :

We also discovered a restaurant on the beach that welcomes dogs! It’s about three miles down the beach from the Harbourside, which means a nice 6 mile walk to burn off all the calories! We haven’t tried it yet, but we’ve heard the food is excellent and quite reasonably priced.

Chasing horses? Me? I’d never do anything naughty like that!!