I began the rebuild of our deck in January and now – almost at the end of March – it’s still not quite finished. But.. and this is a very important but.. it is sufficiently close to being finished that the pups can once again be let out into the garden to do what Beagles need to in gardens, off lead and without escort. Part of the underside of the deck still needs to be clad in wood to prevent Beagle access, railings are still needed on the steps, and there’s a mountain of rotten, rusty nail-covered timber from the old deck that still needs to go into the absurdly expensive 12 cubic yard skip we’ve ordered, but thanks to a few carefully arranged metal dog fencing panels everything is usable once again.

It was a big moment for me when Susan called Monkey and Daisy to the kitchen doors and let them out onto the new deck for the first time. Over the last three months I’d dismantled the old deck, put in 14 new support posts, driven concrete bolts into the side of the house, cut, carried and fixed around 50 lengths of 2×6, applied over 100 metres of joist tape, laid and screwed down decking boards, made brand new super-wide stairs and put together railings containing just short of 100 spindles.

My joints were aching, my eczema was rebelling after exposure to all that sawdust and my fingers were scarred from misbehaving screws and wood splinters, but I couldn’t wait to see how Monkey and Daisy would react to the restoration of this key part of their freedom and independence.

They both sprinted across the deck and down the steps to greet me, tails going like propellers. Monkey slammed his front paws into my groin to provide emergency braking, and as I doubled up from the impact Daisy made a play for my right hand pocket, which is where I tend to keep a supply of treats. I hugged them and kissed them, and then, once they were satisfied that I didn’t have any treats on me right at the moment, they took a look at their new facilities. Monkey crawled under the stairs and went up to the doggy fence panels, probing them for a way through to that big pile of dangerous old deck debris. Unable to find an obvious weakness, he backed up for a wider view, sat on his bum and had a thorough scratch of his big furry bonce; his body language was all “OK, this looks like a decent challenge but I will prevail!”. As for Daisy, well she went back up the stairs, sniffed the deck surface and began frantically scratching at a board. She’s only little, but when Daisy puts her front paws to work she can create a lot of damage in a short time, so Susan quickly grabbed her and then spotted the reason for this attempted act of vandalism. A small chip of red gravel had transferred itself from my boots the gap between two boards and Daisy wanted to be sure it wasn’t a biccie. Right there and then the first commandment for use of the new deck was written: “Thou halt not, under any circumstances, give out biccies on the deck, ‘cos they’re bound to fall through the cracks and cause little Miss Kindling-Maker to go into action”.

Ungrateful little buggers, both of them! Or to put it another way: Beagles, both of them!  I did have a big grin on my face the next morning when I let them out though; they went to the top of the stairs then sat side by side for a moment, and that moment said “we’ve got it back, this is ours!”. Instantly all that blood, sweat and instructional Youtube video watching was rendered worthwhile. I don’t have any photos of the (almost) finished deck to show because as I said, there’s still Trash Mountain right next to it, but I do have these:

It only cost a quid but this soggy, mucky crinkly green frog is THE best chase toy ever created!




Monkey poses by the Hazel tree that Poppy pruned almost to destruction. It’s making a great recovery but now Daisy is showing interest in nibbling it. Girl Beagles! Who’d ‘ave ’em!


Apparently girl Beagles also like destroying watering can roses.

And Daisy’s spent so much time..


honing her..


Beagle Judo skills..


.. that she can now wrestle a 20kg hulking Monkulus to the ground!


She’s also fast enough and smart enough to test him during chases!


But my big boy still has an extra gear when really needs it!


And if that doggy fence around the old deck timbers has a weakness, The Monkster will find it!


I’m glad my work on the deck is almost at an end, but I will miss looking over my shoulder and seeing my two little spectators peering at me over the barriers :)

Daisy is now one year old! That makes her officially a big girl, even though she still looks like a titch – especially when she’s viewed alongside The Monkulus.

She still embarrasses us on walks by squeaking and throwing herself onto her side when she wants to meet another dog or humie, and that combined with her compact proportions often cause her to be mistaken for a very young pup. I suspect that will continue for some time to come; Beanie was still getting mistaken for a pup at 14 years old! Interestingly, the same people who say “Aww, is that a new puppy?” often also say “and is that the Mum?” in reference to Monkey, even though he’s still in full possession of his male naughty bits.

It might be wishful thinking, but I see elements of all three of our other Beagles in Daisy. Like Poppy, she’s an incredibly cuddly little girl who will happily lie on her back in our arms while we tickle her tummy, and if she wants to go through a doorway, she’s so small and fast that it’s almost impossible to stop her – another Poppy trait. Leave your cup unguarded for a second and Daisy’s snout will be in it, slurping up the remains just as Beanie used to do, and she’ll shamelessly vacuum up crumbs off our clothes like Beanie too. Despite never meeting Biggles, Daisy has inherited the role of Chief Gobhead from him; it’s common to see her perched on the sofa by the window, laying down the law to binmen, delivery folk and any neighbor who has the temerity to take their own dog for a walk. In fact she’s such a vocal little girl I often imagine her as a Beagle drill-rapper called “DayZee”, telling it how it is on the street in London and Chicago. In recent weeks she’s taken to boinging at mealtimes – another Biggles speciality – though her small stature prevents her from being a headbutt risk.

In some ways Daisy’s a very cheeky and forceful little girl; if she wants to probe your pockets, be prepared to push her away quite firmly ten or more times before she gets the “no” message, and at many points in each day Monkey follows her lead, not the other way about. For all that, she can also be remarkably biddable. I guess what I’m saying here is that she’s a spoiled little madam who knows that in order to get away with the more outrageous and demanding stuff, she has to do the cute and adorable stuff too. That again is classic Beanie, and I’m a sucker for it!

Some more recent shots:

A birthday pupcake for our little big girl
And of course there’s one for Monkey as well!

Monkey lets Daisy have the driving seat for most things, but not toys! He claimed first dibs on the squeaky lion that was intended for Daisy.

But then the green dinosaur caught his eye, and a swap was arranged.

Spring is nearly here…

The daffodils are showing…

And the new deck is finally approaching completion…

..though Monkey and Daisy are pretty sure it’s still missing a major component, like a surface to walk on!

Monkey’s fetch skills are undiminished despite several months of neglect

Now that Daisy’s officially a big girl, maybe she can learn fetch too!

A few days ago I tore down the remaining half of our deck in preparation for the rebuild, so we currently have no access to the garden from the rear of the house. As a consequence every pee request from Team Beagle now requires the donning of shoes, leads, and more often than not a warm coat as we take them round to the garden from our front door. It’s a bit of an inconvenience for us humies, but it’s brilliant fun for Monkey and Daisy. The previously tedious ritual of “final wees” is now an exciting torchlit adventure, often involving mad chases through the darkness and endless rounds of that old but popular game entitled “I bet you can’t get my lead back on before I scarper”.

It’s making me realise that it was unwise not train the two of them to purge their bladders and bowels on command; on campsites Beanie and Biggles would reliably respond to the phrases “go be a clean girl” and “go do your business!”. There’s no such facility with Monkey and Daisy, and Daisy in particular must be given time off-lead if she’s to complete her night-time pee; failure to do so invariably leads to extra washings of her bed, or Monkey’s, and sometimes ours.

At least this new pee protocol is getting them back into the habit of synchronised trips to the outside loo. In recent months that had lapsed, leading to the following scenario:

• Beagle A (usually Daisy) requests to go pee-pee. Beagle B appears to have no such need.
• Beagle A is let into the kitchen, and instantly forgets the need to pee, instead focusing on debris on the floor or items on the worktops.
• After a suitable period of herding, Beagle A is ejected into the garden to go about their business.
• Humie returns to lounge, unpauses whatever was playing on the TV and lowers bottom back onto sofa. At this precise moment, Beagle B has a change of heart and insists that a pee is now urgently required.
• Humie sighs, pauses TV and leads Beagle B to the kitchen. After a suitable period of worktop surfing and attempts to access the kibble box in the adjoining utility room, Beagle B is finally ejected into garden.
• Humie returns to sofa, unpauses TV and at the precise instant arse is about to reacquaint itself with comfy sofa, Beagle A reports loudly that he/she is done and would like to come in. Needless to say Beagle A is on his/her own and Beagle B won’t be ready to come in until Humie has sat down again.

Well that whole run-around is finished now; if one pup wants out, they go out together and come back together. Thems the rules! There’ll be no more instances of naughty Beagles taking the pee, not on our watch. I should note however that in the early days of this new protocol Daisy did get a bit confused and pee our bed, but that’s not taking the pee, that’s just doing a pee inappropriately (and to be fair Monkey’s crate was closed at the time so her usual indoor emergency toilet was unavailable).

To finish, a hotch-potch of recent shots and a short chase video taken in the daytime, rather than at night by torchlight when certain puppy types should sleepy and ready for bed.

Is it the nuts she wants, or the tug toy? Given that this is Daisy we’re talking about, it’s both. Obviously.