Did the beach shrink in the wash?

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Although it was a little overcast we decided to take another trip down to Irvine beach this morning. We got quite a suprise when we arrived – it looked like a different beach and not just because it was gray and drizzly today. The lovely expansive beach that we strolled along last week had shrunk to a fraction of it’s size!

Gray day on the beach

There must be 100m of a difference between the width of the beach at low tide and at high tide!

But the lack of beach (it is still more than three miles long at high tide) didn’t spoil Beanie’s fun any, and despite the rain Paul & I still enjoyed it. But I think the best possible time to go would be a nice sunny day when low tide occurs at about 10 am. According to the BBC Weather Tide Tables the next morning low tide is at least a week away :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/coast/tides/tides.shtml?date=20080729&loc=0411

Swimming Marathon

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Beanie had her third swimming lesson today at the Pets A&E in Glasgow. This time she did 23 laps! (OK, so the pool isn’t much bigger than the average bath tub). We thought they’d let her swim without her life jacket today as she’d been swimming unaided in the river last week. But the therapist thought it best to give her the added confidence for one more week.

She clearly got a good workout because she spent the rest of the day like this….

Sleeping Beagle
“Wake me up when tea’s ready”

Beagle Racing and then some!

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[Note: when the above slide show stops, click the close box in the top right to start it again!]

There was a huge turnout for the racing today, and it was accompanied by gloriously hot, sunny weather. In fact the afternoon sun was so hot that a hose was set up – so owners could give their dogs a cooling shower between races. Even then some dogs had to retire early!

It was a great day for Beanie. She ran hard…

…and came second in both of her heats, just losing out each time to race veteran and powerhouse Sam. Here’s a clip of one of her heats:

(If the video doesn’t play, try clicking here)

She made it through to the final, where she had to compete against not only Sam, but the other two speed kings Murphy and Milo.  The three boys ran a very close, fast race but Murphy had the edge and claimed the crown. Beanie came in last, but there’s no shame in that – she was up against the (current) three fastest Beagles in the club after all!

Victory clearly tastes sweet for Murphy!

Our friends Kathleen and Neil entered 5 of their Beagles this time. One of them bagged a rosette for winning the consolation race – and it was his first ever time at the racing! I think he could do very well in the coming weeks.

Once the serious racing was over, there was the traditional all-together “fun” run. With so many Beagles (and one cuddly Tibetan Terrier) on the start line, video was the only way to go:

(If the video doesn’t play, try clicking here)

Sam came in first, followed by Murphy. Beanie came in third – another great result for our little pup. When I stopped filming and went to catch her, I had trouble finding her amidst all the other Beagles. Then I spotted Sam and Murphy having a tug of war with the lure (just ‘cos it’s stopped moving doesn’t mean it’s dead!), and there she was, trying to grab her own piece of the prey. She’s definitely got the racing bug, big time!

I took a lot of shots of the racing and the fun dog show afterwards. There’s no room to post them all up here, so instead I put some of the better ones in a slideshow at the top of this post. If your dog’s in there and you’d like a full size copy of a piccie, or a full quality copy of either of the vids, please just drop me a line at BeanieTheBeagle@googlemail.com!