Beanie “No Fear”

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It was Beanie’s second class in her Introduction to Agility course today and what a performance!

Because of the bad weather it was held in an indoor arena in East Kilbride, so we had about half an hour after completing the 5k to bundle Beanie into the car and get from Bellahouston to East Kilbride. Only Beanie and Islay the Springer Spaniel turned up so they had plenty of individual attention. The class was more demanding this week and they worked on jumps, the open tunnel and the flat tunnel, and even some little combinations of jumps and tunnels. Both dogs did superbly – it was the owners that were struggling to remember all the commands, signals and body language….not to mention the problem of keeping up with our fit, fast young dogs as they hurtle along the course. Agility really is hard work for the handler!

We didn’t expect Beanie to take to agility but after this morning’s performance we can’t help but feel that she’s going to be a little superstar! I have never seen her so excited or so fast! She flew over jumps clearing them by miles, hurtled through tunnels and after each run would sprint a couple of victory laps of the arena and then do the whole course again in reverse on her way back to me! (OK, so the victory laps and reverse run of the course weren’t strictly what she was supposed to do, but Carol informed us that she didn’t view it as naughtiness – just enthusiasm :) ). Beanie has no problem with any of the equipment and handles each new piece of apparatus like a pro first time. In fact, instructor Carol gave her the nickname of “Beanie No Fear”. She gets a little excitable on the wait commands, and often took off down the course before she was told to. And a couple of times she got bored in her ‘wait’ position and took off in search of treats. But Carol says that’s fairly common in young, high energy dogs.

Beanie’s homework is to practice her ‘down wait’.

Mum’s homework is to try not to talk so much – just the commands and nothing else. Apparently my words of encouragement are confusing Beanie. Carol made Paul’s day with that one!

Beanie Raises £114.50 for Beagle Welfare

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Today was the day of Beanie’s Big 5K Fun Run to raise money for Beagle Welfare.

The weather was awful! Howling winds, torrential rain and wet, slippy leaves under foot. So we set out equipped with heavy waterproof jackets and a rucksack with towels etc. Paul & I both have chronic injuries right now, so despite all the big talk a couple of months ago about doing the race in under 25 minutes we decided that it might be more sensible for us to walk the course.

Despite the atrocious conditions there was a good turn out. At the start line we met Monty the Beagle who was also running for Beagle welfare with his very fit looking mum who was all kitted out in her running gear.


Monty the Beagle and his mum run for Beagle Welfare

Beanie was impressed….and I couldn’t help but think she looked somewhat disappointed in her very unfit looking mum! As the pre-race warm up started Beanie got so exited, and of course, EVERYONE stopped to say hello to Beanie. She just loves being amongst crowds of people.


What a lovely day for a race

It was such a great atmosphere that at some mad point during the warm up Paul and I decided that we couldn’t let Beanie down – we had to run the entire course.

Our pace wasn’t really a run for Beanie – more of a brisk walk. We could tell that she’d much rather have sprinted along with the fastest runners. But she was SO good. She trotted along beside us on a short lead without any naughtiness at all. And she just loved all the applause and support from passers by!

Paul & I finally limped along the home straight, dragged behind a fresh and full-of-beans Beanie who just couldn’t resist sprinting for the Finish line when she saw everyone cheering for her. We finished in a time that couldn’t have been far short of 40 minutes! So not quite up to the standard of Beanie’s 27 minute East End 5k a few months ago. But we had a fantastic morning together.


Beanie completes her 2nd 5k Road Race

In total Beanie raised £114.50 for Beagle Welfare thanks to the support and sponsorship of:

  • Kathleen McDonald (Mochuisle Beagles)
  • Hazel McFarlane (Sophie the Beagle’s mum)
  • Louise Mcallister (Tess, Tara & Clara the Beagles’ mum)
  • Gillian Bickerstaff (Bailey the Beagle’s mum)
  • Liz Calikes (Newlin Beagles – Beanie’s Breeder)
  • Maggie Hendrie (Caledonean Thistle Pedigree Whippet Racing Club)
  • Paul Worthy Gardner (Organiser of the Dog Run Dog races in the USA)
  • Geraldine, Mano and Zeeshar from our local gym (Venice Physique)
  • Doog and Kate Rowand
  • Graeme McLaren
  • Kenny Taylor
  • Sean McGarrity
  • Math and Angel
  • Richard Westlake
  • Eileen Roberts

A huge thank you to all of you !!

Muirshiel Park

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We got some great weather on Friday, so we traded our usual park visit for a trip to Muirshiel Country Park. Since the park is really more of a nature preserve, we stopped off at the visitor center to get snacks and check if there were any special regulations for dogs. It turned out that dogs are very welcome – as evidenced by the full water bowl just outside the center – but must be kept on lead. That’s not really much of a restriction for Beagle owners – you’d have to be very brave to let a Beagle off lead any place there’s sheep, and more to the point, sheep droppings.

Various walks are marked out in the park, and we chose Windy Hill as our first port of call. The approach to the hill was very easy, and surprisingly short, with nice views opening up as soon as you’ve cleared the trees.

Although Windy Hill is not very high (1K) it is, as its name suggests, very bloody windy. Not a good place to blow your nose at all. Despite its modest height, you get a truly spectacular view from the top.

And if you’ve got a Beagle, you also get to spend the entire walk back down trying to restrain your beast from going after the sheep, the squirrels and any other creatures she happens to spot.

We spent another hour or so in the park checking out the other signposted walks. It’s certainly a great place to visit if you’ve got a dog. New sights and smells around every corner..

..but if yours can’t resist sticking her nose through fences, be prepared to have to extract assorted twigs and grass from her mouth before she can pull her head back through!

Uh, thank you very much…

Back home, we got a lovely email with some more pics of Biggles – playing with his new toy: