As Beanie gets older our once 100% recall is slipping further and further away. She can still do it perfectly when she’s in the mood, but as her nose and tracking ability develop we’re starting to see why so many Beagle owners advise against ever letting a Beagle off lead!!

Fortunately we can still trust her off lead in the park if there’s a suitable playmate for her. She stays on her extending lead until we bump into a dog / dogs that she wants to play with (usually other pups). If the other dog seems just as keen we explain the situation and ask the owner if their dog would be up for a bit of Beagle style rough play. If the owner is in agreement (and they always are!) the pups get a good long run and play session that normally includes a substantial chunk of wrestling – so good all-round exercise! There’s no risk of her following her nose and wandering into danger, and when she’s playing with other dogs Beanie will happily trot back to us when called.

High energy, a love of chasing and a willingness to engage in a bit of rough-housing are the key ingredients for good playmates for Beanie – and there are always plenty of pups that fit the bill!

But ultimately we want to be able to control Beanie off lead in all situations so we’re still working hard on overcoming her strong tracking instincts.

For quite a while now we’ve been interested in learning to nurture and harness Beanie’s natural tracking instinct rather than trying to supress it. At Wednesday night’s obedience class, head trainer Val kindly lent us a DVD explaining how to get a pup started on tracking. It’s been a huge success so far. Beanie is a complete natural!

We now give her all of her meals in the garden. I leave Beanie indoors and lay a track around the back lawn. The DVD called it laying a scrub track – you simply shuffle your feet as you walk to disturb the grass as much as possible. I started out putting little bits of kibble along the track as the DVD advises, but Beanie didn’t need or want this. Her instinct to follow the track even overpowered her love of food! At the end of the track I pop her dinner out of sight behind a bush. I then bring Beanie out on lead and take her to the start of the track. She doesn’t hessitate – she sprints around the garden following the track EXACTLY and finds her dinner with ease every time. We also lay little tracks whenver we’re out on walks (the ‘prize’ on walks is her favorite ball with a piece of ham stuffed in it – so she gets a snack and a game) and we are finding that Beanie is viewing tracking as a group activity rather than something she does without us.

I’m not sure yet where this will lead us, but she’s so good at it that we’re planning on taking her as far as we possibly can with it. Our hope is that in the process we’ll learn how to get her to listen to us when her nose is down.

We’ve ordered a book from Amazon to give us more ideas for nosework games:

Fun Nosework For Dogs 

Beanie’s been growing up fast lately – so fast it’s hard to keep up!

Her sniffing ability has really blossomed, to the extent that it’s getting in the way of training. A little while ago we had the tunnel incident during puppy agility. On the following training night, she was doing quite well until a sausage was used to lure a nearby dog into the down position. From the point that chipolata hit the floor, Beanie became a sausage-seeking missile. After observing the shenannigans, head trainer Val advised us to work extra hard on the “leave” command and include tasty distractions in her day-to-day training. We’re doing this, and hopefully it’ll make a difference in the next session tomorrow.

OK, so that’s the sniffer situation. Now let’s talk about the woofer situation. Beanie has suddenly discovered that she can growl and bark, and is trying out her new skills with.. well let’s say mixed success. The actual sound is fairly convincing – she’s managed to lower her voice a bit so it doesn’t sound quite so obviously like a silly puppy. Unfortunately she doesn’t really pick appropriate times to use it. The ruleset for her vocalizations seems to go something like this:

• Safe on Daddy’s lap in the car? Growl and bark at some unfortunate soul who’s minding their own business across the road. Or possibly target a bull or other large animal in a roadside field, but only if the car’s moving and we could outrun it if it turns nasty.
• Another dog or cat making noise in the street? Growl and bark if (1) the front door is closed and (2) the windows aren’t open wide enough to allow entry
• Some stranger comes to the door? Keep really quiet, look cute. They might have treats.

Then there’s the play fighting. It’s become much more dominance-oriented of late, and it takes a big, confident dog to be able to stand up to Beanie. In fact her most even-sided play session so far occurred with a pitbull cross called Dozer. He’s a really gentle, friendly chap who actually looks quite cute, until that is he opens his jaws and reveals the knife-filled chasm of death that is his mouth!

Play sessions with lesser dogs usually end up like this though:

Takedown – Jack Russell Terrier pup goes belly up

Is that an Alien bursting out of Beanie’s chest? Nope it’s a thoroughly dominated JRT!

Don’t worry – the JRT’s were having every bit as much fun as Beanie!

Today Beagle Racing wasn’t an option – the club has closed for a few weeks due to an outbreak of kennel cough – so we headed off to the park for a short walk on nice, flat ground. We were still feeling the effects of yesterday’s journey up Ben Lomond, and I think Beanie was too. When we let her off lead she didn’t run around madly as normal, and stuck close to us.. and the treat bag, of course.

All that changed when we ran into a lovable collie cross called Tessa. Susan checked with Tessa’s owner that she was up for a bit of rough Beagle-style play, and when we got the OK we let Beanie off lead again. The two immediately got down to some vigorous play fighting:

Although Tessa was bigger than Beanie, they seemed to be pretty evenly matched and took turns being in the dominant position. Tessa had no problem keeping up with Beanie’s rapid fire direction changes, and after a few minutes Beanie was happy to call a timeout.

They had a couple of treats and went at it again, but yesterday’s exertions – combined with Tessa’s boundless energy – left Beanie feeling thoroughly pooped.

We said our goodbyes and headed back home with very sleepy little Beagle!