(Un)Happy Feet

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Paul

Susan’s been handling most of the morning dog walks lately while I put in some extra work hours, so when I do take Beanie & Biggles out I usually try to make the walk special in some way. One of our recent outings certainly was “special”, but not in a good way!

I’d taken the pups for a wander around Dundonald castle. It was an uncharacteristically beautiful day – not exactly warm, but sunny with clear skies, and as we approached an old ruin near the castle I couldn’t resist the temptation to get a couple of shots of it…

Beanie and Biggles were on their extenders and I kept them close to me, but being Beagles they couldn’t help investigating the foliage around them. There must been something unpleasant growing there because as we resumed our walk I noticed Beanie fussing over one of her paws.

A beautiful day, but all’s not well in the land of paws…

Now it’s worth pointing out that Beanie is a complete wimp when it comes to her tootsies. If anything gets between her toes or attached to her pads she stops dead, lifts her foot and waits for one of us to make it better. Needless to say I indulged her latest request for a roadside service and finding nothing obviously wrong, we continued on – although it was clear that something was still bothering her. Fortunately we went through some mud a couple of minutes later and after that, all was well.. or so it seemed.

With all tootsies back in a roadworthy state..

..the adventure continues!

We had a great time; the trails looked gorgeous in the autumn sun, and there was plenty of sniffage for even the most discerning noses. On the return journey Biggles had his head down all the way back to the car and kept making noises like a geiger counter with a head cold! Both our pups fell asleep on the short drive home, but once I got them back in the house, Beanie rapidly became agitated. She started licking all her feet, then rubbing herself against anything with a scratchy surface, and finally took to running round the house like a puppy having a “mad hour”. I let her into the garden and she sprinted round and round at break-neck speed before stopping by the fence for a prolonged scratch. There were still no visible changes in her paws or skin, but still she seemed top be having some kind of allergic reaction. I’ve got a couple of bad allergies myself, so I had a lot empathy for her, and I broke open a pack of Piriton that I keep especially for situations like this. Straight Piriton – not the “non-drowsy” offshoots like Piriteze – can be given to dogs to help calm allergic reactions. I gave her a couple of tablets (the dosage is higher for dogs), Susan gave her a gentle oatmeal paw-bath, and then we sat tight until the pills took effect.

Just as Beanie was calming down, Biggles showed signs that was having a reaction too. Like Beanie he began by licking his paws and rubbing himelf against things, and when that didn’t do the trick he woofed angrily at his paws. That’s a typically Biggles solution; when faced with a problem, if you can’t chew it or pee on it, woof at it indignantly until it goes away. Well this was going to take a lot of woofing to get rid of, so I served up two Piriton tablets for my boy, and in due course he too calmed down enough to have a nap.

All things considered that was certainly not one of our best outings, but we had a great one tonight. My head was swimming from battling my way through Microsoft documentation and I figured that a run on the beach would be the best cure. Since it was 6pm it was already pitch black outside, but I grabbed a head torch, loaded Beanie & Biggles into the car and we went for nighttime jog by the sea. For safety’s sake I’d put a couple of cheap eBay flashing tags on their collars and as we ran the tailed members of our group got very excited and took to wrestling, chasing and shoulder-barging each other. It must have looked like some weird night-club act, with two furry neon-clad dancers cavorting in the spotlight cast by my head torch. Fortunately there was no-one else on the beach to see it, save a for a lone Golden Retriever, and he promised to keep quiet about it!

Biggles’ First Trieball (Urban Herding) Lesson

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Susan

Biggles had his first Trieball (Urban Herding) class last night. And boy was it fun!!!

His teacher, Heather, explained to him that the sport involves ‘herding’ several gym balls (representing sheep) into a ‘pen’ under verbal command from your humie. The balls have to be collected in a specific order that changes every time so it’s important to be able to listen to your humie and follow commands.

Heather explained to him that we were going to practice five skills:

A send away
(To send you away from your humie to where the balls are)
Turning left and right
(To guide you to the ball that your humie wants you to collect)
Going around an object clockwise and anti-clockwise
(To get you behind the ball you are to collect)
A ‘down’
(to get you in position behind the ball you are about to push)
Pushing a gym ball towards your humie with your nose
(Your humie is standing in the ‘pen’ so if you push towards her the ball ends up in the pen).

We had one or two teething problems at the start. Biggles misunderstood Heather’s instructions. He thought she said “Wait until the other doggies in the class are practicing these things then go raid their treat bags”.

Found some!

Biggles new best buddy Ozzy had the most amazing treats – it’s fortunate that Ozzy is more interested in his ball!

Once we’d explained the rules to Biggles again (or more precisely, when he’d eaten all of the other doggies’ treats) he did rather well.

OK Heather, I’m listening now – gimme a treat!

We managed a very eager ‘send away’ (although it has to be said we did come back via Heather’s treat table):

We spun ‘left’ and ‘right’ until we were dizzy:

We lay ‘down’ behind the ball waiting to be told to push:

And we pushed:

…and pushed:

After just a few goes I turned my back for a second and when I looked back Biggles was scooting across the room pushing his ball. He loved it! He even had a go at pushing the other doggies balls (sorry about that folks!)

At the end of the class bestest buddies Biggles and Ozzy shared a well earned bowl of water:

Did I mention that Ozzy had the most amazing treats?

We think Trieball might turn out to be the perfect Biggly sport. It’s right up his street. The class was lovely – a really nice room to practice in and nice doggies to chill out with. And the best bit – NO GIRLS IN THE CLASS. And when you have a big sis like Beanie it’s kinda nice to hang out with the boys now and again!

If you want to find out more about Trieball or Biggles’ wonderful teacher Heather then visit her website.

The Forest of Creaky Doors

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Paul

Beanie & Biggles’ morning lie-in was cut short on Friday when we dragged them out of bed for a return visit to Ben A’an. The last time we were there it was sunny, with blue sky and great views all around. This time it was grey and windy with poor visibility, but we still had a fun time.

The first part of the trail winds through a very pretty forest, packed with interesting smells to entertain Beagle noses. It’s only when you emerge from the forest that you get a proper look at Ben A’an.

It looks a lot taller and steeper than it really is. The rocky path up is in great condition and after all the scrambly walks we’ve done this year it was nice to do something short and relatively easy. It would have been even easier had it not been for the wind. We’d been sheltered as we’d walked through the forest, but but it was blowing really hard at the top. Happily for us, you can’t live with the Biggly Boy without getting well-used to dealing with powerful wind, and the occasional odorless 30mph gust wasn’t going stop Susan & the pups from scaling the last few rocks for their summit photo.

Getting back down from there proved to be more of a challenge however; Biggles pulled off a world-class lead tangle as he tried to find the optimum sniffing position, while Beanie made the most of her special talent for getting under one’s feet.

We’d had to resort to the “bum method” to descend the Cobbler recently, but this was the first time I’d seen anybody using the “belly method”..

Does this remind you of the rock climbing scene in Mission Impossible II? No, me neither, but then Tom Cruise didn’t have a pair of naughty Beagles tied to him!

Fortunately this unplanned rock climbing stunt concluded without any casualties, save for my trousers and abdominal muscles (I peed my pants a little bit and had sore sides from laughing). I took a couple more shots from the summit, then we headed back down to the shelter of the forest.

On our previous visit the walk back to the car had been dominated by Biggles’ woofing and baying frenzy, but this time he was a model of self control. His silence allowed us to hear all the ambient noises in the woods, and it was pretty spooky..

The forest was very densely populated with tall trees – so much so that they would rub against each other in the wind, generating all manner of scary sounds. We heard creaky doors, rusty gates, ghostly whistles and tapping coming from all directions. Biggles seemed oblivious to it all, but Beanie frequently paused and looked round trying to identify the source of the noises. Very Blair Witch.

In due course we made it back to the car without any disappearances, and without anybody standing in front of the camera with an excessively runny nose (Beanie & Biggles’ noses are moist, but not runny).