Biker Beagles

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Susan

Where to start – it’s been a hectic few weeks!

We’ve been looking to buy a field for our Beaglets for quite some time now. Two or three weeks ago we found a 9 acre field for sale that looked perfect. It was double fenced with secure sheep fencing with thick beech hedgerows between the fences. The current owners are keen conservationists and had planted little woodlands in the middle of the field. There’s a burn filled with otters, king fishers and brown trout running most of the way around the field and they had created a lovely walkway amongst the trees along its banks. It was perfect and they led us to believe it was ours if we wanted it. Needless to say pretty much everything else went out the window. In the excitement we even missed The Big Fun Run and a flyball comp in Redcar! Unfortunately it all fell through so it’s back to the drawing board….and the normal routine.

The mountain bikes have been a huge success (Thanks for the suggestion Sam and Chigley!). It’s amazing how much you find on your doorstep when you’ve got a bike. It turns out that National Cycling Route 7 is just minutes from our front door. Just 10 minutes along it is Pollock park which has lovely forest paths and a number of purpose built mountain biking courses graded from ‘Beginner’ to ‘Advanced’. We find we can easily manage 15 miles or so while the Beaglets nap after their morning walk.

We’re not really competent enough bike riders to go out with Beanie and Biggles yet but the other day we decided to take one bike along to the park and see how they reacted to it. We started out just pushing the bike with the dogs attached before progressing to sitting on the bike and free-wheeling a bit.

Next we decided that Paul should ride ahead a little then I’d unclip the dogs one at a time to see if they’d chase the bike. First time it worked great – Beanie and Biggles tore along behind him baying their heads off. They were rewarded with a tasty lump of cheese when they caught him. Second time we tried it they tore along behind him, caught him, then ran straight past him – still baying their heads off. Paul caught up with them a few minutes later having a sniff in the woods. Beanie re-joined him but Biggles wasn’t ready to give up his freedom quite so quickly. We could hear his “aarff, aarff, aarrf” in the woods not far from us and waited patiently for a couple of minutes. A couple of walkers emerged from the woodland paths giggling about the funny little white dog that was tearing round and round the trees barking his head off! Moments later our little boy emerged from the woods with his tongue hanging out and his tail wagging.

Finally Paul attached them onto the canni-cross kit and I took off on the bike while the three of them ran along behind me:

Still a way to go until it’s safe to attach the dogs to the bikes, but they’ll soon get used to running free with us. We just need to find somewhere nice and safe…..

Bigglet Pigglet

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Paul

The decent weather on Thursday was too good to waste, so the four of us headed out to Irvine beach. It’s been a while since our previous visit and we couldn’t help but wonder whether our dynamic duo would be any better behaved off lead after all the training we’ve been doing.

As it turned out they were. There was an initial explosive sprint off towards the horizon but they returned quickly, and then spent most of their time staying pretty close. Whenever they showed signs of heading off for another distant adventure we abruptly changed direction and that seemed to reign them back in.

I have to admit though that most of the improved behavior came from Beanie. Biggles was in a very playful mood and frequently tried to tempt her away on a Beagles-only mission, but she held firm. I think Biggles still needs more solo time to get him more interested in us than his sister, but then again he’s still just a youngster.

Biggles may be lying down but he’s ready spring into action the second Beanie shows interest!

All the swimming we’ve been doing has made both of them much more confident in the water. Beanie waded through quite deep water to retrieve her toy a couple of times (though she didn’t actually swim) and Biggles went for a cool bath whenever he got a little too warm.

Of course whenever you get wet, you’ve got to shake yourself off…

About halfway down the beach something caught Beanie’s interest, and of course Biggles ran over to investigate. A tug of war ensued and as we approached it became clear they’d got hold of the remnants of an animal carcass.

There wasn’t much left except bones and leathery flesh remnants. It’s possible – just possible – that this was all that was left of the dead sheep they found on their last visit. Either way we felt it would be a good idea to get them away from it, and this was accomplished with surprising ease and no squealing, grunting or aaarfing from the Bigglet.

The rest of the walk was uneventful, save for Biggles deciding that he wanted to drink seawater instead of the bottled stuff we’d brought with us. Needless to say he was sick shortly afterwards, but as often happens he made an instant recovery and was back to doing what Biggleses do best.

Nice and clean – time to go back on lead ready for the trip home!

So of course, a thorough roll in the sand is required

The Bigglet Pigglet!

The seaweed but not as much as the horse

Posted on September 28, 2009 by Paul

The weather wasn’t really good enough for hill walking at the weekend so instead we paid a visit to Culzean Castle.

In reality the “castle” is more of a stately home than a rugged fortress, and the surrounding land has been turned into a dog friendly 600 acre country park.

Shortly after parking we were heading along a peaceful tree lined path with our two hooligans sniffing intently. As we turned the corner we ran into a rider on a huge horse, and once Beanie & Biggles managed to lift their noses off the ground enough to see it, there was much woofing. The horse’s response to all this noise was to empty it’s bladder. This was not a trivial process. It seemed to go on for several minutes and could probably have filled a bath. Beanie wasn’t impressed by it; she’d have been much happier if the horse had opted to produce a tasty number two. Biggles on the other hand seemed a little overawed by this world class peeing demonstration – it completely put his territory marking efforts to shame. What’s worse, he couldn’t draw any consolation from his farting ability because he’s been a bit short on gas recently. Fortunately Culzean had a remedy for that:

Time for a refill

Beyond the gas house was a stretch of beach, perfect for a relaxed sniffy stroll.

On the way back the gray clouds parted briefly to let a bit of sun and blue sky through..

A little further on we encountered this grim reminder to hungry Beagles that speed swallowing can be bad for your health:

Apparently even the Bigglet thought this was an unsavory find

We had some food and refreshments back at the visitor center while our two doglets did their best to tie their leads in knots around the table, and then we walked around the park a little more.

A gazebo built around an old tree now has some Biggle-nibbles on it

Castle builders had the sense to place these windows at just the right height for nosy Beagles

All too soon it was time to head back home. We saw only a fraction of what the park has to offer – it should be worth a second visit at some point in the future.