Biggles’ First Trieball (Urban Herding) Lesson

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Susan

Biggles had his first Trieball (Urban Herding) class last night. And boy was it fun!!!

His teacher, Heather, explained to him that the sport involves ‘herding’ several gym balls (representing sheep) into a ‘pen’ under verbal command from your humie. The balls have to be collected in a specific order that changes every time so it’s important to be able to listen to your humie and follow commands.

Heather explained to him that we were going to practice five skills:

A send away
(To send you away from your humie to where the balls are)
Turning left and right
(To guide you to the ball that your humie wants you to collect)
Going around an object clockwise and anti-clockwise
(To get you behind the ball you are to collect)
A ‘down’
(to get you in position behind the ball you are about to push)
Pushing a gym ball towards your humie with your nose
(Your humie is standing in the ‘pen’ so if you push towards her the ball ends up in the pen).

We had one or two teething problems at the start. Biggles misunderstood Heather’s instructions. He thought she said “Wait until the other doggies in the class are practicing these things then go raid their treat bags”.

Found some!

Biggles new best buddy Ozzy had the most amazing treats – it’s fortunate that Ozzy is more interested in his ball!

Once we’d explained the rules to Biggles again (or more precisely, when he’d eaten all of the other doggies’ treats) he did rather well.

OK Heather, I’m listening now – gimme a treat!

We managed a very eager ‘send away’ (although it has to be said we did come back via Heather’s treat table):

We spun ‘left’ and ‘right’ until we were dizzy:

We lay ‘down’ behind the ball waiting to be told to push:

And we pushed:

…and pushed:

After just a few goes I turned my back for a second and when I looked back Biggles was scooting across the room pushing his ball. He loved it! He even had a go at pushing the other doggies balls (sorry about that folks!)

At the end of the class bestest buddies Biggles and Ozzy shared a well earned bowl of water:

Did I mention that Ozzy had the most amazing treats?

We think Trieball might turn out to be the perfect Biggly sport. It’s right up his street. The class was lovely – a really nice room to practice in and nice doggies to chill out with. And the best bit – NO GIRLS IN THE CLASS. And when you have a big sis like Beanie it’s kinda nice to hang out with the boys now and again!

If you want to find out more about Trieball or Biggles’ wonderful teacher Heather then visit her website.

The Forest of Creaky Doors

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Paul

Beanie & Biggles’ morning lie-in was cut short on Friday when we dragged them out of bed for a return visit to Ben A’an. The last time we were there it was sunny, with blue sky and great views all around. This time it was grey and windy with poor visibility, but we still had a fun time.

The first part of the trail winds through a very pretty forest, packed with interesting smells to entertain Beagle noses. It’s only when you emerge from the forest that you get a proper look at Ben A’an.

It looks a lot taller and steeper than it really is. The rocky path up is in great condition and after all the scrambly walks we’ve done this year it was nice to do something short and relatively easy. It would have been even easier had it not been for the wind. We’d been sheltered as we’d walked through the forest, but but it was blowing really hard at the top. Happily for us, you can’t live with the Biggly Boy without getting well-used to dealing with powerful wind, and the occasional odorless 30mph gust wasn’t going stop Susan & the pups from scaling the last few rocks for their summit photo.

Getting back down from there proved to be more of a challenge however; Biggles pulled off a world-class lead tangle as he tried to find the optimum sniffing position, while Beanie made the most of her special talent for getting under one’s feet.

We’d had to resort to the “bum method” to descend the Cobbler recently, but this was the first time I’d seen anybody using the “belly method”..

Does this remind you of the rock climbing scene in Mission Impossible II? No, me neither, but then Tom Cruise didn’t have a pair of naughty Beagles tied to him!

Fortunately this unplanned rock climbing stunt concluded without any casualties, save for my trousers and abdominal muscles (I peed my pants a little bit and had sore sides from laughing). I took a couple more shots from the summit, then we headed back down to the shelter of the forest.

On our previous visit the walk back to the car had been dominated by Biggles’ woofing and baying frenzy, but this time he was a model of self control. His silence allowed us to hear all the ambient noises in the woods, and it was pretty spooky..

The forest was very densely populated with tall trees – so much so that they would rub against each other in the wind, generating all manner of scary sounds. We heard creaky doors, rusty gates, ghostly whistles and tapping coming from all directions. Biggles seemed oblivious to it all, but Beanie frequently paused and looked round trying to identify the source of the noises. Very Blair Witch.

In due course we made it back to the car without any disappearances, and without anybody standing in front of the camera with an excessively runny nose (Beanie & Biggles’ noses are moist, but not runny).

Beagle Cross

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Susan

It was a lovely sunny day today with a nice crisp frost on the ground. The ideal day for a bit of Beagle-cross! What is Beagle-cross I hear you ask?

Enjoying a cross country romp…with a difference

We all know that the ideal sport for a Beagle is drag hunting – a pack of Beagles running across the countryside following an aniseed trail with humans following the hunt on foot. In the old days the pack would have been hot on the tail of a bunny, but that’s illegal now so an aniseed trail laid by a human is the next best thing.

There are two obvious drawbacks for the typical Beagle owner:

Finding a farmer that’s happy to let a pack of Beagles go careering across his land is not easy (Although it has to be said that the farmer next door to us has offered. In fact the fox hunt used to meet at the end of our road!).
How likely are you to get your Beagle back? Are you willing to take the risk that he’ll favour deer or sheep over aniseed?

The next best thing we could think of was to have our Beagles follow the trail whilst on lead. Sounds dull? Well actully it’s superb fun because you run with them! Here’s how it works:

The trail layer runs off dragging an aniseed rag behind them. Their objective is to loose the Beagles.
A little later the Beagles are set off to follow the trail. They’re attached to a runner via a harness, bungee line and belt. The Beagles will go full pelt and stick to the trail like glue. Through streams, mud, woodland, over walls and fences….the level of chaos depends entirely upon the imagination of the trail layer. For the humans it’s the ultimate cross country running experience! The game ends when the Beagles catch the trail layer.

We aim to make it last for about 2 kilometers. Of course a Beagle can run much further, but when attached to a human they’re pulling a heavy load. They won’t let you know they’re tired as they’re driven to hunt so for safety reasons we think it’s best to keep it short and sweet. In addition, you’ll run much faster over a shorter distance and that’s more satisfying for your Beagles!

The more Beagles in the ‘pack’ the better, but in our experience it’s best to let them hunt as a pack. That means everyone runs at pretty much the same speed. It’s not fair on a little Beagle to be left behind the pack just because he’s attached to a slow hummie. Staying with the pack is very important to a Beagle!

Warming up with a 1k cross country run

Other tips are a good warmup first – we even do a little 1k cross country run before hand to really get their blood pumping. And a nice long cooldown walk afterwards. If you try Beagle Cross with your Beagle please send us a video of the fun!!