Ayrshire Cancer Support 6K

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Beanie and Biggles notched up their first 6K road race on Saturday. The race is a regular event in Ayr, and is held to raise money for Ayrshire Cancer Support.

The turnout was quite small compared to the 5Ks we’ve run in Glasgow, which surprised me a little. After all, the weather was perfect – bright and sunny but still quite cool, and the course is flat and linear: starting at the Amphitheatre, you run left along the promenade up to the Doon Estuary Bridge, then return.  The views along the sea front are spectacular, some of the runners wear entertaining costumes, and all the proceeds from entry fees and sponsorship go to fight cancer. What more could you want from a road race?

Biggles’ answer to that question might well be “candy floss”. There was a sizable chunk of the stuff lying on the pavement about halfway along the promenade and fortunately or unfortunately – depending on how many legs you have – I saw it first and denied Biggles his chance to grab it. As often happens, what Biggles misses, Beanie gets; that candy floss was half way down Beanie’s throat before Susan could react. Biggles still got the satisfaction of being the first dog to finish though, despite having me in tow!

We met up by the Amphitheatre after the race and broke open the water from our goody bags. One of the first aiders spotted Beanie & Biggles drinking from our hands and kindly brought over a sick bowl. Sadly for our two Beagles the bowl didn’t come with any vomit in it (they’re both very partial to a bit of pavement pizza) but it did make it easier for them to get a good drink.

Here are a few moments from the race..

There’s another road race coming up in Ayr on 21st November – the Ayrshire Santa Dash. The entry fee gets you a Santa suit which you’re encouraged to wear during the race. It should be quite something to see a load of Santas jogging along Ayr’s promenade. I’ve got a feeling there’ll be a couple of small, four legged Santas among them!

Why Beagles Shouldn’t Do Agility!

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We’ve entered our two hooligans into a fun agility competition later in the year, and so we’re tuning up their skills so that we have a chance – however small – of them actually doing what they’re supposed to do on the day. Beanie of course can be pretty good when she feels like it, but Biggles has never really got into agility. To be fair it’s probably because he’s never had the depth of training that Beanie has, but whatever the reason, we got the feeling that while he likes the “scrambling” equipment (like the A-frame, dog walk and see-saw) he’s not keen on the jumps.

To help get him over this, we took him and Beanie for a session with Carol Rogers of Clear Run Agility. We spent a few minutes at the start of the session explaining Biggles’ apparent dislike of the jumps to Carol, and then she set up a few pieces of equipment to see our boy in action for herself. He seemed quite calm as I put him in a sit-wait and unclipped his lead, but then the little bugger took off on a sprint round the barn and leaped over every jump he could find, with a huge grin on his face the whole time. So much for the “problem” with jumps.

It seems that agility session unlocked something within him though. Yesterday I heard him “boinging” for something on the worktops in the kitchen. I was pretty sure there was nothing for him to get, other than a bit of salad packaging, so I didn’t respond immediately. The boinging sounds became a little more desperate, then abruptly they stopped, to be replaced by a rustling sound. The thing was, there was no intervening thud of something hitting the kitchen floor. That’s the normal pattern you see: boing, boing, boing, thud, scoff/rustle.

Curious, I headed into the kitchen and found Biggles standing on the worktop next to an empty pack of tomatoes. It must have taken one hell of a jump to make it up there. His elevated position had given him access to a number of previously forbidden areas, but he hadn’t used his time up there wisely; he seemed to be having trouble deciding whether he should nick something from the window sill or the sink. I didn’t give him time consider the matter further so I don’t think he got much of a reward for his efforts, but he’s been up there once and no doubt he’ll do it again. It’s a bit like we’re living a video game. Every so often Biggles gets a new “power-up”, and life gets more complicated!

Anyway, throughout all the chaos I did manage to get a couple of nice portraits of our two Beaglets this last week. I don’t how or why, but the camera always seems to make them look all innocent and angelic.

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The nature of the Beagle is irrepressible?

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Recently we called on our Heelwork To Music Trainer Heather Smith to give us a hand getting Beanie to behave herself in the presence other girl doggies. Heather’s methods have already worked wonders with Biggles, and we’re hopeful that we’ll get the same results for the Beanster.

The first session was all about gently but firmly letting Beanie know who’s boss when other females are around, and managing the introductions so they don’t get off to a bad start. It went very well, and the next day we bought “proper” control leads from Pets At Home that have enough length to let you loop them across the dog’s chest (yeah, I know, there’s always an excuse for a trip to the pet shop). We actually broke the new leads out of their packaging and used them while we were walking around the store with our little vandals. They worked brilliantly; within a few seconds our two were no longer straining to get at everything on the shelves, although when my concentration lapsed Biggles did get to nibble the corner off a huge bag of biscuits. Nobody saw him do it though, so it’s just our little secret.

On the way home from the store we felt like true pack leaders. We’d finally turned the corner; from now on we’d be the ones in charge in our home. No more wailing if we’re late with a walk or puppy nosh, and no more embarrassingly vigorous humping sessions from Beanie when one of us has crashed out on the sofa!

Of course you can probably guess what’s coming. I’d barely put away our control leads when I heard a boinging session in progress in the kitchen. When I got there I found Beanie & Biggles demolishing a pack of cream crackers. In about 10 seconds they’d consumed about 2/3 of the packet. That has to be some kind of record – I mean I can’t eat more than two in a row before my chewing gear grinds to a halt, desperately in need of lubrication. I guess it helps if you bypass the chewing process and just swallow.

Since then we’ve lost 2 toilet rolls, a kitchen roll, a couple of tea towels and there’s a big hole in the rear lawn. On top of that, Biggles did two pees in last night’s heelwork to music class. I wasn’t there (Susan took him), but apparently Biggles kind of excused himself, trotted into an adjoining room and let loose with a power widdle before cheerily returning as if nothing had happened. Initially Heather gave Susan a single sheet of kitchen roll to clean it up. I’ve seen the adverts for the extra absorbent kitchen towels – you know the ones – “one sheet does plenty”. Yeah right! One sheet does sweet FA when Biggles has emptied himself! Later in the class he did it again, just to prove that he could. I guess what you win on the swings, you lose on the roundabouts..