Whoa there!

What do you do when come home, knackered from a good chase in the park, and your little brother’s full of beans and running round the garden like a crazy thing? Well, if you’re Beanie you do something like this:

Biggles wasn’t the least bit deflated by the tail grabbing incident, and he headed off towards the sandpit with a very determined look on his face.

He emerged with his prize – Beanie’s heavily chewed frisbee, and did a quick victory lap of the garden.

All this activity took its toll though, and it was soon time for a nap.

Tail-grabbing and frisbee-stealing aside, our two Beagles are getting on pretty well now. They still have noisy arguments, but we don’t pay them any serious attention. Nope, the time to get worried is when they’re both quiet, because it probably means they’ve joined forces to chew something to destruction. So far they’ve ripped up a couple of the edge pieces from our rubber gym mats, and torn some of the covering off the base of our bed. The funny thing is that when she hears us coming, Beanie flees the scene, leaving little Biggles to take the rap. She’s just not smart enough to realise that Biggles’ little mouth couldn’t possibly do that much damage in such a short time. We’re on to you Beanie!

Frost & Tactics

Yesterday’s walk was a little short, so today I got to the park early to let Beanie have a good long play session. It was pretty frosty but I’ll take that over wind and rain any day!

I think the frost must help keep scents close to the ground, because Beanie had a great time sniffing around in the “puppy” field before her regular chums arrived.

Today’s playmate of choice was Robbie the Golden Retriever. Robbie’s a big, fun-loving seven month-old pup but in the past he wasn’t that great a chase partner for Beanie – she likes the challenge of a fast, agile dog. Lately however Robbie’s skills have improved, and he’s developed a style of play that’s the perfect counter to Beanie’s. Beanie relies exclusively on her speed, tremendous stamina and single-minded determination to win the day. Robbie uses the tactical approach. If he has a stick, he’ll keep turning away from Beanie so that she can only grab at the shortest end, and he’ll save his energy for a few well-timed sprints rather than letting Beanie wear him out. That big, handsome head of his has more than air in it, that’s for sure!

Today’s play started off with a somewhat unwieldy stick…

…but eventually they found a more manageable size!

And after the inevitable chases, there was wrestling..

I had a very content little Beagle when I left the park, and when we got home Biggles was waiting – fully charged and desperate for play!

It’s just under three weeks before Biggles gets his first real walk. I can’t wait, and if the sounds of frustration he was making as I carried him around last night are any indication, neither can he!

There’s no need to fear – Beanie is here!

Glasgow Dog Training Club is having a Halloween theme in all its classes all this week, and though I’m normally not a big fan of dressing dogs up, I have to admit that Beanie looks very heroic in her Underdog costume.

That was taken just before we left for this evening’s class. I took loads of photos at the actual event – I’ll post ’em up as soon as I’ve had chance to sort through them. But right now, it’s time to relax in front of the telly with our two Beagles. What are we going to watch? Underdog of course!

Update – 30th October 2008

Here’s the rest of the photos from the party.

And Kathleen – these were the winning costumes: