Ballistic Swimming

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Beanie has had her first “real” swim at the park! It’s not the best of photos (heavy tree cover) but here’s the moment she took the plunge:

It’s a landmark moment for our pup, and proof that those swimming lessons have done some good. Admittedly the fact that it was a really hot morning probably helped too – she waded right into the cool water and swam without any prompting from us. We’ve booked another lesson for her next week to keep up the momentum, and I’m very hopeful that she’ll become a regular swimmer in the pond and streams at the park.

So it looks like we’re well on the way to conquering our Beagle’s inherent dislike for water. The other Beagle-ism I’ve been trying to break is her total disinterest in playing fetch. For a long time she would run after the ball/stick/frisbee/whatever only in response to competition from other dogs. I have perservered though, trying short fetch games in the garden whenever she seemed receptive.

Dog walkers in one of our local parks seem to have an addiction to those ballistic ball throwing thingies. Being naturally stubborn (I’m from Yorkshire) , I’ve been determined to resist this flexible plastic virus, but I have noted that lately Beanie has shown much more interest in balls whenever they’re in use. Well, last night we succumbed:

Damn you Tesco, damn you and your cheap pet products!

It only cost £1 from our local Tesco. It came with a poor quality orange tennis ball, and as I picked it off the shelf I said to Susan “that’ll last five minutes”. I was wrong, because in fact it lasted just 3 minutes.

Our little Olympian chewer Beanie was the first to puncture it’s delicate orange epidermis.

Hmm, I’m sure that ball was spherical a moment ago

It was all downhill from there, of course.

Penny and Sophie finish it off with a tug of war

Still, it does enable you to throw much faster and further, and I think it could help us to break the Beagle Fetch Taboo. It’ll get another outing this afternoon, albeit with a more robust ball!

We Have Recall Again!!

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Everyone that knows Beanie is probably aware that her once perfect recall started taking a nose-dive at around 5 months old. For about a month we could hardly let her off-lead at all. She improved a little and for a couple of months we’ve been managing fine if we only let her off-lead when there are other dogs to play with.

I’m pleased to say that all this week Paul has been managing to let her off-lead the moment he enters the park. I joined them in their morning walk today and I have to agree she’s as good as gold! She mostly comes when she’s called, and always stays close.

It’s hard to say what has resulted in the improvement. It could be just her age, but there are one or two things that I think have played a part.

  1. Paul has been doing the morning off-lead walks alone. He stays much calmer than me when Beanie plays up, and simply walks away from her when she doesn’t come when called. We both felt that she was playing up more when I was with them.
  2. We’ve been working on the ‘Natural Training’ exercises that Paul described here
  3. I’ve been taking her for long walks every evening on the lead. Part of the walk she has to walk nicely to heel, and the other part she gets to have a good sniff around on her extending lead. I’ve been working on recall then when I can enforce it.

Does my Bum Look Big in This ?

A couple of weeks ago we’d been to a Beagle Club event and all the Beagle owners we spoke to told us (nicely) that they thought Beanie was a bit too skinny. Our vet had always said she was in perfect shape, and we thought she looked good. We paid the vet a visit and the assured us things were fine. We hadn’t intended to feed her any more, but it’s been in the back of my mind and I’ve just been slipping a tiny bit of extra food in her dish at each meal. She’s definately fattened up a little bit and I think looks better for it.

I don’t doubt what the vet said about her being very healthy at the weight she was. From what I’ve read current thinking seems to be to keep pups nice and lean so that they develop slowly. Apparantly (according to some sources) this keeps them healthier as adults. It’s certainly true of kids, so it makes sense that it would apply to dogs too.

But I think the vet would be happy that Beanie is still nice and lean, but she’s got a little more flesh on her bones. So hopefully we’ve struck a happy medium :)

Beagle Racing – More New Recruits!

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Last week Beanie’s park pal Sophie joined her at the race track. This week she had the company of more friends from the park, in the form of Dillon – a cuddly Tibetan terrier she loves playing with, and Nollaig (Irish for Christmas) – a beautiful Beagle who’s only recently had pups. Nollaig’s owners Kathleen and Neil also brought along two of the pups to spectate, and three more of their nine (yes, NINE!) Beagles to participate in the racing.

The Beagle newbies all finished their races and had a great time doing it. That’s a good start, and should make for some interesting races later in the season when they really find their feet. The final was dominated by the regulars however, and this time it was Milo that took 1st place.


Milo wins the race and Murphy’s face says it all!

Beanie’s playmate Dillon got to run in his own race against Titch and a Jack Russell terrier.


Titch in the lead, Dillon in second place just before it all went wrong!

They were all doing well and clearly having a ball, but unfortunately the lure lost its appeal before they reached the finish line. Race protocol was cast aside as Dillon decided he’d rather have a playful runabout at the halfway point, while Titch embarked on her own new race back to the Start line.

The day concluded with an all-in final race. I have to say this is always my favorite. No vests, no recorded results, just a big bunch of dogs tearing down the track and having fun.

With so many dogs running, both Susan and I were down at the finish line to help out with the post-race catching. We fully expected that Beanie would forget all about the lure and go play with Dillon, but to our complete amazement she actually won! Apparently she got a little bit of an early start, but barefaced cheating has always been allowed in the Beagle rule book :)


Murphy’s last second Superman impersonation is not enough to beat Beanie!


Beanie deploys her ears as an air-break while Nollaig secures an impressive 3rd place

Guided by his Beagle chums, Dillon finally makes it past the finish line!

There appears to be some controversy over the second photo of the final, erm “Fun” race. Here it is, in its full uncropped glory – click the link to see it.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2003/2701447941_37a9c6d14c_b.jpg

Did Beanie win? Did Murphy win? And if the Apollo moon landings really happened, how come there are two light sources in the photos :)