Recently we had to change to a different doggy training class. I have to stress that this wasn’t because our little miss was so naughty she got expelled! Nope, we just couldn’t make the normal training night due to other commitments.

We found a website for what appeared to be a good alternative club and called the instructor. It turned out that she’s no stranger to Beagles, and in fact one of Beanie’s sisters – Bella – goes to one of the classes. Needless to say we signed up straight away! We’ve been trying to run into Bella for some weeks now; we’ve heard that she’s visited our local parks, but somehow we’ve always missed her.

Unfortunately”Sod’s Law” is clearly in effect because Bella has missed both of the classes we’ve been to so far. Clearly she must be an even naughtier little Beagle than Beanie – at least Beanie doesn’t play truant! Still, when she finally does turn up it’ll be nice to compare notes with her owners and see how she’s grown.

Bella (left) and Beanie investigating a hose together, before they left for their new homes

We did get a big surprise in the most recent class though as not one but two other Beagles turned up! One of them was Tanner, a 7 month old lemon-colored male. The other Beagle was Bessie, who’s 13/14 months old and is from the Newlin kennels, so she’s probably related to Beanie in some way.

We’d met Tanner and his family briefly before at the park, and he and Beanie clearly remembered each other because they wasted no time in getting down to some serious wrestling. Bessie, being a little more mature, wasn’t so keen to join in with all this silly puppy behavior. Nevertheless, at one point in the class the instructor was drowned out by the sound of three howling Beagles.

The actual training was a little more advanced than we were used to, and when Beanie got her turn I was expecting her to cause mayhem! Happily though she decided to behave herself reasonably well, and didn’t compare too badly to Tanner. On the other hand, maybe Beanie’s naughty influence dragged Tanner down to her level. Regardless, Bessie showed us how well behaved a Beagle can be, and in fact at the end of the evening she graduated to a more advanced class. Methinks it’ll be quite some time before our bundle of chaos gets to graduate!

I don’t know how she does it, but Beanie’s always had a remarkable ability to clean herself. Some days she’s come back from the park covered in mud yet still emerged from her bed a couple of hours later in a relatively presentable state. Lately however we’ve noticed that although she usually appears fairly clean, her subtle houndy scent has been replaced by a far less fragrant eau de toilet. After a particularly muddy park session at the weekend (the results of which can be seen below) I decided it was time to introduce Beanie to the pleasure of bathing.

I got some “no tears” puppy shampoo, grabbed my muddy pup and headed up to the bathroom. Rather than using the bath though, I opted for the shower cubicle. I figured this would reduce the chances of Beanie staging her own episode of “Home Makeover – Beagle Edition”. To avoid Beanie getting stressed by the slippery surface of the shower floor, I threw an old towel down and put her on that, then got in with her and closed the door.

It soon became apparent that Beanie isn’t too keen on power-showers. She kept drying to dodge the water so I ran the jet through my free hand before it reached her, and she calmed down and accepted her lot. The lathering phase was much more enjoyable though; she stood perfectly still while I massaged her with the gel. Even so, I tried to get things over with quickly and proceeded to the final rinse off in short order.

When she emerged from the cubicle she looked like a drowned rat. Drowned, but clean. After a towel dry I performed a sniff test and found my first Beagle wash to be generally successful. Her body and most of her head now smelled fresh, but I’d missed a smelly spot on her ear flaps. Still it was a big improvement, and I don’t think she’s been left with any fear of future bath times.

We hadn’t had Beanie long before we discovered that if we failed to push any chairs tight into the kitchen table, she’d jump onto them and survey the exciting contents of the table top. As she got bigger and stronger, she graduated from snatching brief moments “at table” to actually being “on table”.

We really, really did our best to discourage this by always picking her up, saying “Off” firmly and lowering her back to the floor, but she’s never got the message. Or to be more accurate, she knows that table mountaineering is naughty but… “it’s there” and a Beagle’s got to do what a Beagle’s got to do, etc.

Well, things got markedly worse recently when she scaled the summit and managed to snatch a few scraps of steak pie. It was yummy. Very, very yummy. Since then, she’s learned how to make it to the table top with a lightning fast two stage jump. She sneaks round to the side and leaps onto your thigh. Then, without even the slightest delay, she uses your leg as a springboard for a second jump onto the table surface. Once there she knows she’s got at most a couple of seconds before one of us grabs her, so speed is of the essence. She singles out her target and consumes it with the desperation of an escaped convict.

Even when you get hold of her, the game’s not over. You leave your chair to pop her back on the ground, and now you’re in a race. Can you get your bum back on the chair before there’s a Beanie on it? Quite often the answer is No and you end up sitting on a Beagle cushion. And that’s no fun, because Beagle cushions are noisy, wriggly and sometimes bitey.