So I’m in our gym room doing an exercise to help fix all those years of being huddled over a keyboard. It involves lying face down with my arms stretched out to the side and held just a few inches off the ground for 90 secs. The Bigglet is doing his own version of the exercise and is lying down alongside me, keeping his chin just an inch off the ground by resting it on his front paws. Suddenly I feel something furry brush past my feet, then along my leg and my side. I try to sneak a glance at the stopwatch to see how much time is left, but my view is blocked by a Beanie head. She’s all excited and waggy, and I know what’s coming next. She carefully straddles my right arm, curls her front paws round it and launches into a vigorous humping.

Yep things are totally back to normal in our house. Chases..

Tail pulling…

And of course sock theft..

To help our pups cope with the heat of all these activities, we’ve got them a couple of Ruffwear “swamp cooler” jackets. They have a great reputation for keeping dogs cool even in really hot conditions, but I couldn’t help wondering how Beanie and Biggles would take to wearing permanently wet jackets. As it turned out they didn’t seem to mind one bit.

Agility trainer Carol suggested we try putting a lead on Biggles to help him find the right path through the weaves. It works great, but occasionally things do go wrong!