The Bigglet is now 3 years old! By way of celebration our birthday boy’s first act was to deposit a particularly smelly barf on our bedroom carpet, before climbing into bed with us for a cuddle. To be fair I had spotted him consuming a rather sloppy poo the previous night, but rather than interrupting him I took the lazy option and let him get on with it. Bad move.

With such a poor start to the day things surely had to improve, and indeed they did. I took both our pups out to the beach for a run, but to give them a treat I ditched their canicross bungee lines and used their extenders instead. It was harder work for me (our two Bs are officially the world’s best lead tanglers), but they loved it! Biggles made good use of his extra freedom by repeatedly shoulder-charging his sister, while Beanie tried to snatch a putrid chunk of dead bird that the tide had washed up. Runs on the beach don’t get much better than this!

Later in the day they got a play session in the garden, but to mark Biggles’ birthday I broke out the special Air Kong squeaky tennis balls.

There’s a strict Beagle protocol to be observed when a squeaky ball makes an appearance. Beanie uses her superior speed to seize the ball first, and cavorts round the garden squeaking away merrily. About a minute later she gets bored and forgets to guard her ball, allowing Biggles to nick it, whereupon he goads her into a chase..

When the chase peters out, we have a rendition of the famous Beagle aria “I’ve got a squeaky ball and you haven’t”

Shortly after this, Biggles takes the ball down to a quiet corner of the garden for some quality chew time. It’s at this point that I normally intervene to rescue the ball while it’s still in one piece, but this time I just let him get his chewing gear to work on it. If you can’t kill a squeaky ball on your birthday then there’s no justice in the world!

This ball is done squeakin’

Teatime came early for our pups, and hand cooked chicken and rice was on the menu. It took mere seconds for tea to be consumed, but the subsequent bowl-licking took more than ten minutes – a sure indication that it was well received. So no expensive toys this time, but I think my little boy thoroughly enjoyed his birthday nonetheless!

Happy third birthday Mr Biggles!

Recently we got together with other fans of canicross (cross country running with dogs) and set up a website to promote this fun but still little known sport. The new website – Canicross-Adventures.co.uk – is already doing well, and last weekend we got invited to a doggy fun day at the Veterinary Physiotherapy Clinic in Dunlop.

We set up a stall and a short have-a-go run, but with competition from agility, flyball and a giant green bouncy alien, we wondered if we’d be able to attract much attention.

I wouldn’t park too close to that thing if I were you. It looks hungry..

Fortunately if there’s one thing Beagles are good at, it’s attracting attention! We harnessed up Beanie, Biggles and Bundy and gave them a few demo runs on our little course, and the noise they generated helped bring a steady stream of people our way. They probably also helped burst a few eardrums, but there’s always a downside to getting three Beagles together.

Brian and Susan do a demo run with the three musketeers

The course was less than a 100m in length, but that was still enough to put a smile on the face of just about everyone who tried it. Burns Pet Food had been kind enough to supply us with a generous quantity of goody bags, so everyone who ran also got to take home some tasty, healthy treats for their pooch.

At one point I got a little break from photographing all the have-a-goers and purchased a rather tasty chicken sandwich. I got to take a couple of bites out of it before I was called back to duty, so I carefully placed my sarnie back in its packaging and popped it on top of Beanie & Biggles crates behind our stall. In retrospect I realise this was not a good idea, but the packaging was the stout, snap-shut plastic kind and I figured it would be safe for the minute or so it would take me to snap a couple of photos and return. Not for the first time, I was wrong. Beanie’s dextrous tongue had somehow managed to roll the package over to a more accessible spot and prise it open, and she was now nibbling away at my precious nosh. Much as I love beanie I didn’t really want to share her germs (I’ve seen and smelled all the other stuff she eats) so I gracefully accepted the loss of my snack and shared the remainder of it between the Beanster and her Biggly brother.

By the end of the day we’d seen dogs of all shapes, sizes and breeds  take their owners on a madcap sprint down our track. And I really do mean ALL shapes, sizes and breeds!

This was the first canicross demo any of us had ever done but it went very well indeed. Apart from that little incident with the sandwich, that is…

Team photo. Check out the paw prints on Stewart & Brian’s shirts!