No matter how many walks, house and garden play sessions they get, I never feel that the pups have been properly exercised & stimulated unless they get a couple of off-lead romps each week. And what do I get in return for all this dedication to their well-being and quality of life? Nothing but worries for their safety and yet another flagrant display of naughtiness, that’s what.

Obviously I was expecting some level of naughty, but they outdid themselves this time. I was trailing after them up and down the beach for ages, getting increasingly concerned that darkness would fall before I got them safely back on lead again.

Like most Beagles, Beanie & Biggles aren’t at home in the water, but when they’re excited and in pursuit of birds they’ll happily charge into the sea and can quickly find themselves out of their depth. For that reason I always time our beach adventures so that the tide is incoming.

So at least I didn’t have to worry about them getting washed out to sea.

But they just kept on charging up and down the beach, some times covering so much distance that I could barely see them.

At least I could always hear them. Whenever Beanie made a new attack run on the birds Biggles would temporarily lose her and bay his head off as he fought to catch up.

Every time she passed by I tried to lure Beanie back to me with a handful of chicken, but she was determined to catch her own bird meat!

The sun set and the light started to fade, but still they kept going!

Then abruptly, and for no discernible reason, they were done. They trotted back to me, soaking wet and covered in sand, and got their mouths filled with chicken and their leads firmly attached.

When I got them back home Susan instantly knew they’d been naughty. As she put it: “when even the tops of their bums are dirty, you know they’ve had a good time”. And so they had, but such a total lack of respect for my authoritah demanded some kind of reprisal. “You’re both grounded! No more off-leaders for a week!” I told them. But I don’t think they took me any more seriously than they had on the beach.

I guess they know I’m a soft touch went comes to them having fun.

Looking at the news it seems like pretty much the lower third of Britain is under water right now. Here in Ayrshire we haven’t had any flooding, but we have had a long run of horrible, wet and stormy weather. Oddly enough when the weather’s really grotty I much prefer running with the pups on the beach to walking with them; I suppose getting drenched by rain is not an issue when you’ve already accepted that you’re going to be soaking in your own sweat. Nevertheless, we’ve had some runs recently that pushed my resilience to the limit; on Thursday I had to pitch forward at 45 degrees just to get purchase against the wind, and Beanie & Biggles kept looking round to see what was tugging on their lines! Today however there was a break in the weather. I can’t say that it didn’t rain, but at least it didn’t rain much, and we used this brief respite to inspect the beach at a more leisurely pace.

Well, it started out leisurely.. but then Beanie caught sight of a group of birds further up the beach, and suddenly everything shifted into top gear.

Biggles glances back over his shoulder as if to say “see you later Dad, we’re off!”

Needless to say the raid on the birds did not result in any captures, and in due course the dynamic duo turned and sprinted back to us for the one kind poultry they could catch: cooked chicken.

We’re back! Get the chicken out!

Once they’d refueled sufficiently they were off again!

We had several more hunt / RTC (Return To Chicken) cycles during the walk; each time the hunting portion grew longer and bolder, and each time the retrieval of the chicken grew more difficult for her Beanieship. The problem she encountered, in a word, was Biggles. He likes chicken as much as the next Beagle, but he likes to tease his sister even more. Whenever she turned to sprint back for a refueling, Biggles playfully tried to block & barge her.

Given that Biggles has already had his bum bitten by his sister on several occasions, you might think that getting between her and a lump of chicken would be.. unwise. Happily for him, Beanie saw the lighter side and rose to his challenge. Using her superior agility she was able to confuse, misdirect & wrong-foot him, always arriving first at the food station otherwise known as Susan.

It was a shame to finally put them back on lead and head home, but I guess you’ve always got to leave some adventures for another day.