We’d been looking forward to the lure-coursing ‘Christmas Special’ at Rumbling Bridge but sadly it was not to be. The weather has been milder here and the big thaw had started so we were hopeful that the roads would be clear. But last night Susan (Cuillen & Jamie’s mum) emailed to say that it was snowing again in Glasgow and they weren’t happy about risking the trip. By midnight another of our fellow race-goers reported a few inches of snow in Stirling and more still falling. We were still hopefull – Sue had been reporting reasonable conditions last evening, but by this morning one by one all the regulars reported that they were snowed in – even the locals weren’t willing to risk the trip – they have 6 to 8 inches of snow! Everyone is very dissapointed, but the good news is that Sue and Kevin are rescheduling for another day. Probably sometime around New Year. So my giant doggy christmas cake is now in the freezer – I just hope it isn’t a giant SOGGY christmas cake when it’s thawed out!

As the snow has been on the ground for so long we’ve been putting plenty of food out for the birds. I hung some bags of seed and fat balls from the trees in our garden. Beanie and Biggles have been quite comical in their attempt to steal it. They’re trying every trick in the book. Firstly they sit nicely in front of the tree and when that doesn’t work they rapidly go through their full repetoir – down, paw, beg, dance, roll-over. When that hard hearted tree still wouldn’t relent it got a stern woofing. They’ve tried climbing the tree, jumping and trying to grab their prize and last night Paul spotted them both in the dark, dancing on two legs around the tree in some kind of weird pagan ritual.

Taking advantage of Beanie & Biggles nap time to have a quick snack

We racked our brains for something special to do today to make up for the dissapointment over the lure coursing but it’s really quite a drab, grey day out our way and the weather meant that trips further North were out of the question. We finally settled on Troon beach for a change as it’s only 15 minutes away. It was bitterly cold but Beanie and Biggles had a good time and even went paddling in the sea!

New beaches, new friends

Why is it that when we want our Beagles to learn do something we have to reward the behaviour over and over before they start to get the message. Yet when we don’t want them to repeat something just one itteration and it’s carved in stone in the Beagle rule book?

Take a couple of weeks ago for example. Beanie had pulled a nail slightly during some rough play. She had a couple of days enforced rest, an all-clear from the vet and then it was business as usual. A few days later she woke up at 5am and was obviously in quite a bit of pain. I got her some metacalm from the kitchen, and as it can’t be given on an empty stomach, came back through to the bedroom with sausage sandwiches for both of them (Biggles doesn’t like to miss out on anything). Of course, the new rule-that-can-never-be-broken-ever is that at 5am precisely you bang on the crate door and mum goes out to the kitchen for sausage sandwiches. Always! (Beanie’s sore paw turned out to be a nailbed infection which was cleared up quickly by some anti-biotics).

Another day Biggles had been so preoccupied on his walk that he didn’t get his share of the treats. Biggles was in the kitchen with me after the walk and Beanie was in the bedroom. I took the opportunity to redress the balance. I told him “shhhhh” while I quietly opened the cupboard door and took out a whole slice of bread and gave it to him. His eyes were like saucers and his tail wagged like a little propeller. That was quite a few weeks ago now yet still I can’t say “shhhh” or take out a loaf of bread with out Biggles’ tail wagging in anticipation. And of course, Beanie knows what the sound of his tail banging against the furniture means so she comes running to get her share!

So you can imagine the trouble we’ve had today after yesterday’s treats. “Where’s our turkey dinner?”, “It’s boxing day – where’s our box full of pressies?”, “Why won’t you spend hours and hours playing with us in the garden?”. Of course, it sounds more like whining, barking and scratching at doors to the untrained ear.

So we decided to take them somewhere new for their walk in the hope of stimulating them and tiring them out. Eglington Park is only 10 minutes down the road so we decided to check it out. Beanie and Biggles loved it – full of interesting country smells. I think it’s going to be one of our regular walks.

Exploring the ruins of Eglington Castle:

Weather permitting we’ll all be heading up to Rumbling Bridge tomorrow for a special Christmas Lure Coursing get together. I decided to bake a special sardine Christmas Cake with liver pate icing for the occasion. Judging by Beanie and Biggles behaviour tonight I think it’s a good ‘un. They’ve been howling and whining franticly all evening. Even my Christmas turkey didn’t get that response!

I’m not sure if they were disturbed by the sound of hooves drumming on the roof, but Beanie & Biggles got out of their crates and snuggled into bed with us at about 5 am this morning. They managed to contain their excitement until about 6.30 am before hauling us out of bed to let them out into the garden. We couldn’t believe it when we got out there – patches of brilliant blue sky, sunshine, golden clouds and large flakes of snow drifting down.

What a great start to christmas! Beanie and Biggles celebrated as only they know how:

A chase around the garden

Some tail biting

A punch up

And a quiet sniff

After breakfast we set off for our morning walk on the beach. It was beautiful – it’s such a shame we didn’t have the camera with us. The sky and sea were blue and clear and the sun was shining. It almost looked like a warm summers day if you ignored the snow frosting on the sand and the snow covered peaks of Aran towering out of the sea like a huge iceberg. There were a few dog walkers on the beach but it’s so vast that they were just little dots on the horizon. Silence apart from the sound of the waves lapping onto the beach…and Beanie and Biggles ‘aarrff, aaaarff, aaarrrfffing’ of course!

Just as we got back to the car and were about to drive off another Beagle arrived. Her owner shouted over “Is that Beanie and Biggles by any chance?”. It was  Bundy and her owners who’d recently written to Beanie and Biggles via their blog to welcome them to Ayrshire. Bundy lives just a few miles away from us and goes to the beach regularly – they got along very well so hopefully they’ll turn out to be great buddies. It turned out Beanie and Bundy are related. Bundy’s dad is Newlin Sailor and Beanie’s mum is Newlin Kelsey – both share an ancestor in Newlin Nonesense (very fitting!). Although I have to say that Paul and I think Bundy is actually a Collie in a Beagle suit – she’s FAR too good to be a Beagle. Here’s hoping that some of it rubs off on our two!

Next it was back home for Christmas presents. We had two fantastic presents on order for Beanie and Biggles but sadly neither turned up. We were let down over the first, a superb play kennel, but happily ‘Uncle Fergus’ (our Neighbours Nephew who built our Beagle proof back fence) is going to custom build one for us.  The second, a portable lure coursing set which we were importing from America  has been sitting in customs for a week! We didn’t have time to get anything else at the last minute so I improvised by popping a few tasty treats in cardboard boxes, wrapping them and then putting all the little boxes in a big box along with a handful of treats. Two Beagles have never had a better present – it took them about 20 minutes but they destroyed it completely and loved every minute.

We wound up the day with Christmas Dinner and chews:

And then slept it off on the sofa (Beanie decided she didn’t approve of the plan to keep her off the new cream leather sofa):