A courier package came really early this morning, so I dived out of bed, threw on some clothes and limped down the stairs as fast as my knackered achilles tendons and dodgy right knee would let me. In my rush I neglected to close the bedroom door and shut the baby gate at the top of the stairs. Beanie shot down the stairs after me and headed straight into the kitchen. At last! Mum and dad had finally realized that doggy breakfast really is an emergency that should be handled the instant a puppy wakes up!

Unfortunately for Beanie, her dreams of an early breakfast were shattered when I shut her in the kitchen to answer the door. Package in hand, I re-opened the kitchen doors and headed back to bed for an extra 40 winks. Beanie eventually followed, hungry and disillusioned.

When it really was breakfast time, it took a fair amount of coaxing to get her out of bed. She wasn’t going to get fooled by a breakfast false alarm twice!

We’ve kept Beanie away from her favorite park over the last week to test if it had a more potent mix of allergens than the others. Unfortunately none of the other parks has quite the same great mix of young, active dogs for Beanie to play with, and when Beanie doesn’t burn off some of her insane energy reserves in a chase, she becomes even naughtier than usual. This week of relative inactivity has resulted in a significant reduction in the number of viable socks and underpants, an acute toilet roll shortage, and several new holes in the garden. It’s not too surprising then that we chose to return to Beanie’s number one park this morning.

We expected a chase to kick off immediately on arrival, but the first half hour or so was dominated by hole inspections and mud eating.

When Beanie finally made an effort to get a chase going…

..it quickly crashed and burned. How frustrating!

They say a Beagle is a big dog in a small dog’s body, and certainly Beanie’s happy to mix it up with much larger dogs. But there are big dogs, and then there are BIG DOGS…

Happily, everything changed when Beanie’s Labradoodle friends Amber and Zack turned up. Just a little bit of play-biting..

..and finally a proper chase was underway!

Things got even better when Kirby and Robbie arrived. There was wrestling and racing aplenty, and when the dogs got too hot there was a nice, cooling mud bath waiting for them.

Robbie graciously made time for a quick photoshoot…

and was keen to hold a hole-digging masterclass for the benefit of the others.

Inevitably all that play took its toll, and Robbie ran out of gas.

Even Beanie was looking a little tired at the end of it. Tired, but very happy to be back in her favorite playground!

We met up in the park today with a lady that used to breed Beagles many, many years ago. She’s always said that Beanie is very much like her first Beagle – and she was only one generation away from a working Beagle. She said that Beanie would look very much at home in a pack of English hunting Beagles. I came home and did a search for pictures of packs of English hunting Beagles and found this….. 

Is that our little Beanie in the middle of the picture????

I thought I’d see how far I could trace back Beanie’s pedigree. She’s such an outstanding little athlete….she must have got those genes from somewhere! Here’s what I’ve found so far.

I’ve traced back down through the bitches on Beanie’s mother’s side….

Newlin Kelsey (2001)
Newlin Yazz (1994)
Newlin Nonsense (1990)
Newlin Opium (1983)
Norcis Roxanne At Newlin (1980)
Norcis Hannah (1974)
Korwin Rachel (1972)
Korwin Laura (1969)
Sweet Selina (1965)
Pippa or Lairfad (?)
Rossut Midget
Rossut Fashion (1960)
Rossut Variant (1958)
Virtuoso
Veronesse
Eton College Viper (1951)
Eton College Vigilant (1944)

…and got as far back as Eton College Vigilant in 1944. Eton College Vigialant was mated to Old Berekeley Locksmith (1948)

Here’s a link to a1945 picture of the Old Berkley Beagles

And a current picture of the Old Berkley Beagles.

Old Berkeley Beagles

A link to a 1932 picture of the Eton College Beagles

And a current day picture of Eton College Beagles…

Eton College Beagles

I think our breeder friend from the park is right about where Beanie gets her lean, lithe build from! Look at that little dog at the front of the Eton College Beagles picture. Beanie’s certainly got the refined looks and pretty face of the show Beagles, but her build definately seems to be a throw back to her Working Beagle roots!