Beagle Racing was back on today after a three week lay-off, but this morning we actually considered giving it a miss due to bad weather. Fortunately I caught a more promising forecast on the radio as I drove back from the gym, so we bundled Beanie into the car and headed off towards Kincardine Bridge.

I had reason to hope that Beanie would do well this time. Earlier in the week we bumped into her friend Tessa in the park. Tessa is a Collie cross, but it looks like she’s got some Greyhound in her mix (does that make her a Lurcher?) She’s fast, and could easily outrun Beanie the first time they met. However, this time around Beanie had closed the gap noticeably – despite already being tired from a heavy play session with other dogs.

My hopes proved well founded. She finished second in her first race, then managed second again in the final, losing to Jan Bell’s lovely Abbey.

 
Beanie (in blue) chases hard…

…but it’s not enough to deny Abbey’s victory

This result is particularly remarkable because:

• it was achieved without any of the dodgy practices that often creep into Beagle racing, such as giving Beanie a head start because she’s a midget, or disqualifying the true winner on the grounds that Beanie’s cuter
• we only had a few pieces of Burns Kelties to give her at the finish of each race. I mean come on, no cheese?
• this was the Beagle Bitch Championship of 2008, not just an ordinary race

Admittedly there were only 5 Beagles in the whole competition (it would have been 6 if astute officials hadn’t spotted that late entrant “Samantha” had some dangly bits that don’t belong on a girl), but still we’re really proud of our little sprinter.

Just for fun an extra race was held between three of the Beagles (Abbey, Beanie and Sam, now cured of his earlier “confusion”) and a whippet, to see just how much faster those sleek speed demons really are. The Beagles were given a sizeable head start, but it wasn’t nearly enough:

OK, so whippets *are* quite fast then

Abbey and her owner Jan were presented with their fine looking trophy,

then the traditional post racing show was held (again won by Beanie, thanks to some expert handling by youngster Holly!) just before the heavens opened.

For any Beagle owners interested in having a fun day at the races, the location is Inch Farm, Kincardine – close to Longannet Power Station (FK10 4AA). Racing is held on Sundays around 3pm – for more details head over to the Caledonian Thistle Pedigree Whippet Racing Club forums.

Sunday’s Beagle racing at Inch Farm, Kincardine went very well for Beanie – she won the consolation race, and then in the show afterwards she won best Beagle and best dog, beating a very fine looking whippet.

However, these tremendous achievements should be put in context. For one thing, the turnout was quite low (probably due to the Bank Holiday the next day). Also, it’s worth noting that the consolation race only had two competitors – Beanie and Daisy. It gets worse though, because as we lined up for the race, I was told to nudge Beanie forwards an extra couple of yards to give her a better chance against her seasoned opponent. I guess it wasn’t playing strictly to the rule book, but I was “only following orders” as they say. In any case, Beanie bet Daisy by more than the head start :)

As for the show, well I’m not sure the judging was quite as rigorous as one might get at Crufts. For example, I have my suspicions that not all the competitors were actually Beagles:

On our return after the race, Susan decided it was time to make some repairs to our lawn. There were of course a few holes to fill – Beanie seems determined to dig her way to Australia. But an even bigger problem was the lifeless brown patches caused by Beanie’s grass killing power pee.

Our poor lawn, after a few repairs

We only found this out when it was too late, but dog pee – or more commonly bitch pee – can be lethal to grass, especially in dry weather. There are three ways to combat this:

• Don’t let the dog pee on the grass. Not that easy to enforce!
• Hose down the favorite pee spots with water regularly
• Try lawn saving products like Dog Rocks and Greenum

We’re not keen on messing with Beanie’s drinking water or giving her pills just to save the lawn, so we’re left with the other two options. From now on when she goes into the garden, we’ll keep her on lead until she’s emptied her bladder on the graveled areas, and any unplanned pee events will be diluted with lots of water. Hopefully this will give the lawn a chance to recover.

To channel Beanie’s urge to dig, I made her a little sand pit to play in. I have absolutely no carpentry skills but I’ll never turn up an opportunity to wield a circular saw. Must be something to do with all those cheap and nasty horror films I watched when I was younger. Anyway, the sand pit seems to be a success so far – Beanie just can’t get enough of it!

Yep, this was only our third visit to the Sunday races at Inch Farm, Kincardine but we’re completely hooked – in fact we’re now fully paid up members of the Caledonian Thistle Pedigree Whippet Racing Club (Beagle Division).

Beanie showed more steady improvement in her racing ability today. She had two “proper” races, in which she placed 2nd and 3rd respectively. Susan handled the release at the start line, while I was down at the finish, trying to juggle a new camera, Beanie’s lead and a decent sized lump of chicken (the “post race lure”).

Here are a couple of shots from Beanie’s second race:

The winner to-be glances over his shoulder to check that he’s got a clear lead

Beanie (in the blue vest) just beaten into third place by a superb lunge for the finish line

Needless to say we were very proud of our pup’s performance, but there was more to come. An additional, somewhat informal race was held, and this time Beanie finished second. This result was subsequently overturned after the original winner was disqualified for being less cute than Beanie (see, I told you it was informal!) This gave Beanie the win, and a second blue rosette to add to her growing collection of achievements.

Beanie closes in on the lure, and the tasty lump of chicken in my hand

Needless to say, we’ll be back for another fix next week :)