Squeaky toys have had a bad time in the park lately. Beanie’s chewed a few to destruction, and so has her Labradoodle pal Amber. Yesterday however a new species of toy was spotted in the park – the rare and shockingly expensive double-bladdered chicken. It was a big hit with Zak, who despite his size is surprisingly gentle with toys.

The double-lining is supposed to make it more resilient to power-chewers, and it was certainly put to the test when Amber got hold of it!

Once the obligatory chasing was done…

…Beanie also got in on the tugging action, but she didn’t get a chance to run off with the toy for a serious one-on-one chewathon. Perhaps that’s the real reason the chicken was still able to squeak as it left the park.

Beanie’s little brother Biggles is going to have some serious fun of his own tonight. Now that he’s fully vaccinated, he can go to his very first puppy training class. The class is more about socialisation than training, so he’s going to be meeting lots of other youngsters in a safe, clean environment. Well.. it’ll start off clean, but I suspect our excitable little boy will leave his mark on the floor before the night is over!

Beanie and her pal Sophie went for a joint swimming lesson today at Allers Farm Kennels Hydrotherapy Pool.. We all had a fantastic time!

Jennifer, the hydrotherapist, had told us that we could go in the pool with our dogs if we had wetsuits. Suprisingly, you can get a wetsuit for about £20 – £25 from a variety of online stores and also from Aldi or Tescos. I managed to pick up a real bargain and paid just £6.25 for mine. It’s not the best fit in the world – but then I’m not the best shape in the world :) And at that price you can’t complain. So Jennifer looked after Sophie for her lesson and I went in with Beanie.

I thought the water might be a little cold, but it was lovely and warm.

Sophie and Beanie clearly loved being in the pool together, but suprisingly didn’t try to wrestle each other into submission whilst in the water. In fact, they really seemed to work together as a team:

All I need now is a pair of water ski’s

The pool has water jets to make the dogs work a bit harder (Beanie and Sophie are swimming into the jets in the picture above). They seem to love swimming into these, and Jennifer thinks it’s because they like the nice massage that it gives them.

The dogs don’t swim for the full half hour. There’s a little ramp for them to climb up onto every so often for a quick breather. But as Beanie and Sophie have been getting swimming lessons for quite some time they’re happy to stay in the water most of the time:

We really want the dogs to get used to playing in the pool and just having fun, so Hazel worked hard from the side of the pool trying to tempt the terrible twins with just about every toy in the toy box. Sophie showed some interest…

…but Beanie only has eyes for food:

Whilst Hazel and Jennifer persevered with getting Sophie interested in the toys..

…I took the easy option and tempted Beanie around the pool with little lumps of chopped kidney:

But next week I plan to take along some toys that will both float and contain food – that should do the trick!

Part way through the swim session we had a little visit from a young Beagle called Henry. He’s a regular border at Allers Farm Kennels and was lured in by the smell of Beanie’s tub of chopped kidney. He stopped to say hi to Beanie and Sophie:

Beanie finished off the session with a little bit of diving practice….

I can’t recommend Allers Farm Kennels Hydrotherapy enough. It’s not officially open yet as the pool room hasn’t been decorated. But the pool is fully operational and I doubt the dogs care what colour the walls are! The owners and staff are all very friendly and go out of their way to make sure dogs and their owners have a great time. It’s also very affordable if you have more than one dog or go along with friends as the cost is the same regardless of how many dogs you take with you. Needless to say Sophie and Beanie are booked up for more fun next week.

We took Biggles along to Bellahouston park today to watch Beanie’s agility class. He’s not yet fully inoculated so we’re still having to carry him everywhere – which he doesn’t like at all. We bumped into some of Beanie’s pals, so whilst Beanie and I got to work in our agility class Paul introduced little Biggles to some of his future playmates – Barney, Buster, Ellie and Blackie.

Beanie did very well in her class and is making great progress. She loves all of the agility equipment so there’s no problem getting her to fly through tunnels or over bridges and jumps. Even the seesaw didn’t phase her. We tried this for the first time today and whereas most dogs need to be introduced to it very gently, our little “Beanie no fear” bolted over it first time. Our only problem is that she’ll wander off from time to time to sniff at something more interesting. But we’re learning how to keep her attention, and how to get her back to us when she does go walk-about. Today she wandered off twice, but was back and fully focused within 60 seconds.

We’d only just got home and had lunch when Sophie’s mum phoned to see if Biggles and Beanie would like to go over for a play date. We jumped at the chance as little Biggles is desperate to get out and about. Hazel (Sophie’s mum) has a lovely big house that’s fully puppy proofed so they had full run of the house and garden. Biggles and Beanie thought all their Christmases and birthdays had come at once!

Beanie made a bee line for Sophies toy pile which was full of toys, bones and chews. She claimed the lot, and guarded them jealously. It’s one thing being possessive over your own things, but it’s a bit much when you go into someone elses house and tell THEM off for wanting to share their own things!

Sophine was the perfect host, and politely ignored Beanie’s bad behaviour. She took Biggles out to show him the garden:

Biggles had a ball with Sophie:

..and with Sophie’s toys:

A quick break for refreshments (for which Beanie emerged from the toy pile)….

…and then out into the garden for more fun:

Sophie hasn’t been out and about much recently due to setbacks with her recent spaying op. Hazel has therefore bought her a little treadmill to help keep her trim and fit. Sophie wasn’t keen…until Beanie and Biggles showed interest:

Beanie quickly sussed out all of Sophie’s secret bone hiding places, but fortunately (or unfortunately for Beanie) Hazel was a step ahead and stashed all of Sophie’s goodies out of reach of naughty Beagle paws:

We realised that we’d outstayed our welcome when Biggles threw up his lunch all over Hazels nice hall rug – and her hair. We quickly picked up our little vomit comet, prised Sophie’s toys from Beanie’s jaw and said our goodbye’s….until next time :)