Just when you think the snow is on its way out, it returns full force. Bad news for cars and people who prefer not to fall on their bottoms, great news for dogs.

Beanie just loves her new ball-on-a-rope

Anyone for a game of conkers?

As you can see Beanie got to play with her latest toy – a ball-on-a-rope from Auntie Sheila – and thoroughly enjoyed it. I swapped it for her tennis ball after a few minutes though, because Beanie has a nasty habit of losing her toys in the snow.

Predictably, she didn’t hold onto the tennis ball for long. It was saved, briefly, from a white, powdery grave when Lola (I think!) dug it up and started a chase..

.. but a few minutes later Beanie managed to lose it more thoroughly. Fortunately she didn’t miss it, because little Maya was well up for a play session.

They had a great time together, although Beanie soured it slightly by telling Maya off for some reason. Happily, it was all waggy tails again seconds later.

Soon it was time for Biggles’ off-lead session, and boy was he ready for it. He was so wild with excitement he lost his Air Kong ball within the first couple of minutes, but again it didn’t matter too much because he soon found some new friends to play with!

When you’ve lost your ball, you just have to work with what you can find

The prelude to a chase…

And they’re off!

His playmate had good straight-line speed, so Biggles had to draw on the skills he’d learned from his sister Beanie:

Sprint hard..

turn sharp and..

..break away on your own!

He did well, but then he seemed to forget that you’ve got to keep doing those sharp turns if you’re going to out run a bigger dog!

Still, he’s relatively new to this chase game. I’m sure he’ll get the hang of it soon. After the running was over our little boy seemed keen to show off his howling ability to another of the Eurasiers.

I’m not sure what he was howling about or why, but it didn’t seem to have the desired effect. Don’t you just hate it when that happens?

He had a great time though and afterwards we took the long way back to the car, allowing our two pups to pack in some more sniffs and us to see some pretty unusual sights. Believe it or not, this is the “Pond” – the park’s lake, totally frozen over and covered with snow.

Beanie and Biggles weren’t too impressed by the view though, and we weren’t too impressed with Biggles’ idea of walking to heel.

At least he doesn’t share his sister’s worrying fascination with walking on ice!

As we left the park, I made a mental note to restock my pockets with balls for tomorrow. That’s three of our balls lost in the snow in the last week or so, and who knows how many lost by the scores of other dogs who frequent the park. When the snow finally clears it’s going to be Christmas all over again for some lucky pups!

It’s now two weeks since we started walking Beanie & Biggles separately at the park, so we decided to give them a session together to see if their desire to run off as a pack had been tamed at all. It seemed promising – they had some great chases with other dogs and each other but stayed in the field. They lost their own balls, found or “borrowed” others and generally had a great time.

It’s not really my ball, but it’ll do…

Rather than pushing our luck, we put them both back on lead just as the other dogs were leaving and headed up to the “Pond” cafe for hot drinks. While there, we met another new Beagle – a handsome, happy and friendly young boy called Patrick. It sounds like his owners may bring him to the puppy field for a run around in the near future. If all the Beagles we’ve met in the park turned up at the same time I think there’d be more than 20. Beagle popularity is definitely on the up!

On the way back I suggested going back through the field and giving our two pups one more brief session off-lead. Not one of my smartest ideas, but it’s the kind of thing that pops into my head after a sugar-filled hot chocolate.

Once released the two of them shot away, raced each other round the field at break-neck speed, and promptly disappeared into the trees. Although we couldn’t see them we could keep track of them with our ears, because our noisy little boy was baying his head off as he tried to catch his sister. The desperate “Aaarf! Aaaarf” circled round to our right, then grew faint. We sighed, and Susan started off towards the trees while I held stayed put in case they returned to our last known position. Susan had only got a few feet away when the baying grew louder. A lot louder! I looked towards the sound and saw Beanie bounding over the hill straight towards me, with Biggles bringing up the rear as only a Biggles can. They both sat for treats and we re-leaded them easily. So, they did run off a bit, but it was an improvement over the disappearing act they pulled a couple of weeks ago. The separate walks really do seem to be helping to fix the problem as well as manage it.

Back at the car, we found a lovely present waiting for us from Sheila (Kirby’s Mum) – a ball on a rope. It’s now in my coat pocket, ready to be unleashed during Beanie’s off-lead session tomorrow (assuming the snow doesn’t make the roads impassable). Beanie says a big “Thank You” to Kirby & Sheila!

Finally here’s a shot I took of Biggles yesterday. After meeting up with Ben & Co for another great play session while Beanie was having her agility class, he snook into the putting green for a solo treasure hunt. It proved quite successful! Indiana Biggles came back with a burst tennis ball, a couple of empty crisp packets and – his largest find to date – a punctured and heavily weathered football.