The last two days Beanie & Biggles have been out on park walks together, and it really seems to be helping to cement their relationship with one another and with us. This morning however we gave Biggles a mentally stimulating lead walk, allowing Beanie to have a traditional, full-length romp in the park.

Of course when we were all back home together they went straight back to their naughty ways and had a series of noisy tiffs over toys, attempted humpings and their uncooperative bed (sometimes it’s just not comfy and needs a good telling off)!

Anyway, here’s a couple of short video clips from Beanie’s park session this morning. The first is the tail end (no pun intended) of a long chase with Amber, Kirby and Honey:

The second is a mammoth tug of war between Honey and Beanie. Guess who eventually won!

Beanie finally had her staples removed yesterday. The vet gave her the green light for all activies (or at least those that don’t involve eating another cart-load of stomach-filling blue/green plastic) so this morning the four of us headed out to the park. The unfortunate timing of Beanie’s op meant that this would be the very first time they’d be offlead together outside of our garden.

Both of them were very eager to get to the field, but once there they stayed surprisingly calm and well-behaved as we headed to the usual gathering place. That didn’t last for long though. After a brief sniff-around, Beanie suddenly took off on a mad sprint round and round the field, leaving poor little Biggles squealing as he tried and failed to keep up.

It was obviously very, very good to be back!

Once she’d burned off some of that pent up energy, she had a little play with Biggles…

then the two of them went to greet their chums Zak, Amber and Kirby. Kirby’s mum was still nursing bruises from yesterday’s collision with a certain Golden Retriever..

Robbie scores another strike!

..but she still managed to bring a horde of squeaky toys. Unfortunately one of them was not long for this world. The pink bikini-clad chicken was hung, drawn and quartered by Zak and Amber and left the park in a body bag. Actually, it was a poo bag but you get the idea.

While Beanie got down to the obligatory chasing, Biggles went over to introduce himself to another regular face at the park, Rannoch.

Rannoch’s a handsome, well-behaved boy but he didn’t seem keen to surrender his squeaky Christmas pud to our spoilt little Bigglet, despite repeated woofings. He did let Biggles join in a three-way play fight with Amber though.

Just as we were about to leave the park Bella and Baxter arrived, bringing the Beagle count to four. We let Biggles off lead one more time to have a little play with them. There’s no doubt that Bella, Beanie and Biggles have a natural affinity with each other..

..though they all get on well with Baxter too. He’s a really handsome Beagle, but somehow he always manages to dodge my camera. Maybe next time!

Beanie finally gets her staples out tomorrow. It can’t happen soon enough for our two Beaglets. Most of the time they’ve been kept separated by a wire play pen – to protect Beanie’s scar from a munchkin nibble frenzy – and it’s driving them (and us) crazy. They’re absolutely desperate to play with each other, and any time they get together they immediately start play fighting. This is what happened when Susan gave them a few moments together on the bed this morning:

(We switched back to the lampshade briefly because Beanie was trying so hard to get at her scar. I think those staples are irritating her now they’re almost ready to come out!)

I can’t wait to finally see them playing offlead together in the park. Still, Biggles is managing to have plenty of fun on his own.

He had a little run with Honey (I think) a few days ago:

A brilliant romp with Buster on Saturday

And this morning, little Ben was his bestest buddy in all the world!

Biggles is growing at an incredible rate. He already weighs well over half of Beanie’s weight – it won’t be long before he crashes through the 7 kilo barrier. Earlier this week his increased strength and chewing ability resulted in irreparable damage to Mr Duck.

Unfortunately the development of his grey matter isn’t quite keeping pace with that of his body. At meal times he almost dives into his bowl, sending food flying all over the place. Beanie of course is quick to take advantage of the situation and snaffles each stray piece of kibble like a ruthless sniper. When I was practising recall the other day at the park – holding a treat delicately between my fingers – he ran at me with such enthusiasm that he hit the treat before he could stop, smashing it into little pieces. The other dogs quickly vacuumed up the debris before he realised what had happened. Then there’s the other antics with his food bowl. Like a security blanket, he insists on carrying it with him into every room of the house and plays at pouncing on it even though it’s empty. More than once he’s landed on the edge of the bowl, causing it to flip up and whack him in the mush. He looks stunned for a fraction of a second then carries right on playing – I wish I could capture it with the camera but he’s just too fast!

He’s also started humping. Beanie’s long suffering battery operated pink pig was on the receiving end of some lurve action yesterday, and he had ago at Susan’s arm this morning. Despite that he’s a total softie, and loves nothing more than rolling onto his back for a tummy tickle whenever you go near him :)