This is our fifth full day with two Beagles, and it’s as good a time as any for a status report. Many things are going very, very well.
For starters, Biggles is an absolutely superb little boy – I just can’t think of any way he could be better. He’s incredibly cute…
…and although it now appears his current size and weight isn’t all that impressive (going by Tess’s little Tara – 4.1kg at 8 weeks against Biggles 4.2 at 7 weeks) I’m still happily convinced he’s going to be a Beagle version of Arnold Schwarzenegger when he’s fully grown.
He’s also a brilliant little character. At mealtimes, he sticks to you like glue, running around and between your feet like Speedy Gonzalez. He’s confident and outgoing, yet he enjoys a cuddle. Last night while I was icing my achilles tendons after a run, he snuggled up to me, stuck his nose in my ear and nodded off. I spent the next twenty minutes with a furry, snoring, one-sided ear muff.
And then there’s the housetraining. At barely eight weeks old, he’s pretty much got the hang of it already, at least as far as peeing is concerned. When he needs to go he tells you in no uncertain terms, then trots out into the garden to do what a puppy’s got to do. He doesn’t cock his leg yet; I guess that’ll come later. Instead he adopts a herioc stance and calmly surveys his surroundings while he does his business. Of course it can all go horribly wrong if he gets too excited, but still it’s amazing that he’s doing so well at such a young age.
Really the only worry we have at the moment is his relationship with Beanie. They tend to get on well in the garden..
..but when they meet in the house it doesn’t take long for a dominance battle to begin. It starts innocently enough. A little lazy, half-hearted wrestling…
Then a toy becomes involved and the play becomes a little more intense…
Then someone nips someone else’s ear..
And things start hotting up!
Biggles’ breeder warned us to expect something like this, and I’m confident it’ll pass, the only question is how we should handle it in the meantime.
The modern training approach seems to be to limit their exposure to each other, for a number of reasons. Firstly there’s the issue that the pup may imprint himself on the older dog rather than his owners and lose his independence. I’ve heard some double-dog owners saying how the younger dog can’t bear to be parted from the older one, so I guess that is a valid concern. Certainly I want Biggles to be every bit as confident and independent as Beanie. Then there’s the impact on the older dog to consider – young pups are pushy and could make the other one’s life a misery. We tried the separation approach for the first few days, and my feeling is that the more we interceded in their tussles and kept them apart, the more the tension between them grew.
Many experienced dog owners we’ve talked to advocate a different approach: let the dogs have enough time together to settle their positions in the pack and bond. The sooner this is done, the less stress and suffering for the dogs and their owners.
And then of course there’s the Caesar Milan philosophy: be a strong pack leader and the dogs will accept the positions you give them.
We’ve got no personal experience to draw on and since neither of us is a short Mexican bloke who’s recently appeared on a cringe-worthy episode of Bones, Susan called up Biggles’ breeder and our beagle owning friends for advice. The advice we got was consistent and clear: give the dogs a chance to work it out between themselves.
This is just what we plan to do, and our first attempt this evening seemed encouraging. The play battle lasted for about quarter of an hour (the very time suggested by Biggles’ breeder) and there were lots of angry sounding noises (although I’m not convinced either dog was genuinely angry), wrestling and attempted humpings, but really nothing more than that. Afterwards everything seemed calmer.
The intense play fighting is hard to watch; on the one hand we’re very aware that Biggles is really just a toddler up against what is effectively a young adult. We know Beanie’s really very gentle, but there’s so much energy in the exchanges it’s easy to worry about our little boy. On the other hand, we worry that Beanie might get upset and stressed by the process. I guess the important thing to remember is that they’re dogs, not humans, and this is how dogs do things. And to be perfectly honest both of them seem to thoroughly enjoy it.
Finally, although this is going to mean more contact between the two of them, I’m not too concerned about the independence aspect for Biggles. We’ll continue to play with them, train and feed them separately and even when Biggles has had his final vaccination shot he’ll likely be on separate walks from Beanie for some time. And he is after all a Beagle – bred to be deteremined and independent whilst still enjoying the company of the pack.
We plan to pop in and have a chat to the neigbours over the weekend to find out just how far the noise is travelling!!
