The big Beagle race at the Caledonian Thistle Open took place today. We’d been looking forward to it for some time – not least because Beanie stood a good chance of winning! In last week’s time trials she ran a whole second faster (some 15 lengths) than her nearest rival, Murphy.
Unfortunately it wasn’t to be. We’ve had a lot of new dogs joining the club recently and whilst there is some real talent some are still a little unruly. Little Beanie has born the brunt of a few ‘fouls’ in recent weeks. She’s still very young, and also very small compared to the other dogs. So we felt that it wasn’t in her best interests to race again until things settle down.
Beanie and Biggles took the news in their stride – trophies and titles mean nothing to Beagles. They just enjoy the thrill of the chase. But poor mum and dad didn’t take it quite as well. Fortunately we had a great weekend to make up for the disappointment.
On Saturday morning we headed to the park as usual. Within moments of letting Beanie and Biggles off lead the familiar “aaaarf, aaaarf, aaaarf” started up – in stereo. This could only mean one thing – both Beanie and Biggles were hot on the tail of a fast dog. And sure enough when we looked around we saw Beanie disappearing over the horizon, hot on the heels of a lurcher. And bringing up the rear (not that far behind either) was Biggles. The lurcher was really shifting, but Beanie managed to keep her in her sights. After what must have been a mile or two of sprinting around the meadow Beanie finally wore down the lurcher and moved in for the kill (well, a sniff and a play):
Later in the day we headed off to Allers Farm Hydrotherapy for a swim session with buddies Cullin and Jamie. I’ve never seen Beanie or Biggles swim so well! Beanie was in the pool for a good 40 minutes playing fetch with a sausage loaded tennis ball. I had difficulty getting her out when it was time to go home. Biggles didn’t stay in for as long, but he too is getting very confident – and he’s a cracking little swimmer now!
Today we went to flyball. And as luck would have it our teacher, Sarah, had decided to do time trials. Paul took all of his cameras along and we managed to get excellent footage of the dogs. Here’s our two little hooligans in action:
Beanie managed a very respectable 5.98 seconds and Biggles set a new Lomond Flyball Beagle boy record with a whopping 8.23 seconds!
I’m amazed at how quickly Beanie has learned to do this. She’s only had a few classes.
Biggles doesn’t yet do flyball properly – he’s too young. Mainly we work on teaching him to retrieve the ball. But he gets a couple of goes at running the course over low jumps in classes. Until now it’s been very slow and puppy-like. But he surprised us today with a couple of glimpses of real athleticism.
Although most of the time he was busy trying to figure out why daddy (his usual handler) was standing on the other side of a fence with a camera and how he was going to take the ball back to him so he could get his treat.
Here are some more shots – first some of Beanie & Biggles’ classmates:
And finally a couple of pics of the advanced class in action:
That was one awesome video! I’m a frequent lurker here at you blog and although I enjoy all your posts and pictures, I had to stop and comment on this one. Your Beanie is quite the sportswoman. She looks really graceful out there. And Biggles looks like he’ll soon be giving his big sister a run for her money. Is Flyball difficult to teach? I’ would like to hazard a try with my Beagle.
Thanks for the very entertaining post!
Oh, and another thing, I just noticed you changed their picture at the upper right portion of the blog (very cute), may I ask what brand of harnesses they’re wearing in the photo? Thanks!
Hi Claire,
I am astonished at how easily both Beanie and Biggles picked up flyball. Neither of them were interested in balls.
We do agility too, and whilst Beanie can learn things increadibly quickly it’s a bit hit and miss whether she’ll decide to cooperate or not. With flyball she’s driven. I think she’s had something like 5 classes. I think the third class was the first time they took them outside and had them running with the fencing up. Both Beanie and Biggles just knew what to do!
We’ve never really taught biggles (he’s too young to be doing flyball really). We just take him along to the class and let him play when he feels like it.
A tip to get yours started….
Take a tennis ball and cut a slit in it. Pop a piece of sausage or cheese inside while your dog is watching and play with him with the ball for a moment or two. Then let him see you take the treat out and give it to him. In time he’ll figure out that in order to get the treat out of the ball he’ll need to bring it to you. It makes teaching so many things much easier!!!!
Let us know how you get on.
Oh, and the harness is fab! It’s the fleece harness from http://www.snugglepets.co.uk – we use them for canni-cross.
Thanks for the tip and quick reply Susan.
My beagle loves balls, I actually obedience-trained him using the tennis ball/fetch method. Unfortunately, the lazy guy has learned to catch. Will definitely try the treat-packed ball method you guys use although I’m still quite wary to let him off-lead outdoors.
I’m seriously having some harness envy. I hope snugglepets can ship all the way to southeast asia. Worst case scenario, I’ll get one when I fly over to the UK to visit (not anytime soon though). My guy uses an ezydog, another fab harness manufacturer. You might want to check it out also.
http://ezydog.com/ezydog/uk/
Hi Claire,
For some reason we’ve had a few people email us to ask about that harness. I know someone from America got one shipped out to them so I doubt you’ll have a problem. (And she was very pleased with the harness too!)
If your boy already loves balls he’ll be a natural. Perhaps you could get hold of some of that plastic fencing that you can see used in our video? That keeps the dogs on the track. I’m going to try and get some myself!