Baying Beagles, Bikes and Mud

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Susan

We went up to the Wind Farm again today and this time we took one of the bikes with us. It dwarfed our little car but it coped very well with the extra load.

As we approached the moors a very thick fog descended. You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face, let alone the windmills! It was really quite eerie – first you’d hear the funny swishing noise then a giant blade would come swooping out of the sky, apparently from nowhere.

We started out with Beanie and Biggles on very long training lines so they could have a good sniff about – we didn’t want them tiring themselves out too much. Paul and Biggles took one route and Beanie and I another – we met up in the middle an hour later and headed back to the car for the bike. Then the fun and ‘aaarfing’ really began. Paul attached Beanie and Biggles to the canni-cross belt and I jumped on the bike. We all headed off at speed with Paul practically flying along behind his warp-drive beagles! I thought I’d need to ride slowly to let them keep up, but no way were Beanie and Biggles letting me lead the pack. Thay “aaaaroooh’d”, “aaarfff’d”, grunted and bayed the whole way and put on an extra spurt of speed and noise every time I tried to take the lead. Poor Paul just huffed and puffed and did his best to stay on his feet.

We finally headed home about 3 hours later with half a ton of mud weighing us down. The pampered little beaglets had a hot bath then crashed out in a nice cozy bed.

Now that’s what I call a bargain!

Posted on October 11, 2009 by Susan

Fellow dog owners will know just how expensive it is to keep spoilt little pooches happy. Things to eat, things to chew, things to play with (not to mention the vets bills, repair bills and replacement costs when the pups feel the need to amuse themselves!).

Well, I got a great bargain yesterday. A Tesco’s Finest, Free Range, Ready Cooked Chicken for just £1 out of the “Reduced” section.

First we chopped up all the chicken meat to make training treats to die for. And we were rewarded with some exceptionally good behaviour during this morning’s walk:

And some of the usual Beagle naughtiness:

Our two like something to chew on in the evening (or perhaps more accurately WE like them to have something to keep them quiet in the evening). We don’t like them to have too much rawhide and the little strips we give them each day don’t last long. Bones aren’t really an option as they’re likely to lead to squabbles. Most toys just aren’t tough enough for our power chewers. Nyalabones are the safest and most hardwearing, but they tend not to have much appeal…..UNLESS we flavour them.

So, during the afternoon I boiled up the chicken carcass. After a couple of hours of simmering it was clearly cooked to perfection as Beanie and Biggles began to howl and whine to get in the kitchen. I gathered up all their nylabones, gave them a good wash and popped them in the pan with the chicken stock. Beanie and Biggles camped out in the hall by the kitchen door. By the time evening came I fished out a couple of nylabones, cooled them and presented them to our hounds. We had peace for the whole evening. They were so tasty that Biggles chewed clean through his:

Finally, I fished the bones out of the stock and poured the lovely thick, lumpy stock into ice cube trays and froze it. We now have hundreds of tasty little chicken flavoured ice cubes for our puppies to snack on.

Not bad for £1, eh?

Biker Beagles

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Susan

Where to start – it’s been a hectic few weeks!

We’ve been looking to buy a field for our Beaglets for quite some time now. Two or three weeks ago we found a 9 acre field for sale that looked perfect. It was double fenced with secure sheep fencing with thick beech hedgerows between the fences. The current owners are keen conservationists and had planted little woodlands in the middle of the field. There’s a burn filled with otters, king fishers and brown trout running most of the way around the field and they had created a lovely walkway amongst the trees along its banks. It was perfect and they led us to believe it was ours if we wanted it. Needless to say pretty much everything else went out the window. In the excitement we even missed The Big Fun Run and a flyball comp in Redcar! Unfortunately it all fell through so it’s back to the drawing board….and the normal routine.

The mountain bikes have been a huge success (Thanks for the suggestion Sam and Chigley!). It’s amazing how much you find on your doorstep when you’ve got a bike. It turns out that National Cycling Route 7 is just minutes from our front door. Just 10 minutes along it is Pollock park which has lovely forest paths and a number of purpose built mountain biking courses graded from ‘Beginner’ to ‘Advanced’. We find we can easily manage 15 miles or so while the Beaglets nap after their morning walk.

We’re not really competent enough bike riders to go out with Beanie and Biggles yet but the other day we decided to take one bike along to the park and see how they reacted to it. We started out just pushing the bike with the dogs attached before progressing to sitting on the bike and free-wheeling a bit.

Next we decided that Paul should ride ahead a little then I’d unclip the dogs one at a time to see if they’d chase the bike. First time it worked great – Beanie and Biggles tore along behind him baying their heads off. They were rewarded with a tasty lump of cheese when they caught him. Second time we tried it they tore along behind him, caught him, then ran straight past him – still baying their heads off. Paul caught up with them a few minutes later having a sniff in the woods. Beanie re-joined him but Biggles wasn’t ready to give up his freedom quite so quickly. We could hear his “aarff, aarff, aarrf” in the woods not far from us and waited patiently for a couple of minutes. A couple of walkers emerged from the woodland paths giggling about the funny little white dog that was tearing round and round the trees barking his head off! Moments later our little boy emerged from the woods with his tongue hanging out and his tail wagging.

Finally Paul attached them onto the canni-cross kit and I took off on the bike while the three of them ran along behind me:

Still a way to go until it’s safe to attach the dogs to the bikes, but they’ll soon get used to running free with us. We just need to find somewhere nice and safe…..