In the land of the barefooted the Beagle boy with one sock is.. or should be.. king. Unfortunately, if there’s suddenly a plentiful supply of socks due to a fresh wash, that Beagle boy and his prized possession might just end up getting ignored.
OK guys, I’ve got a sock and I’m ready to exchange it for goods and services!
Doesn’t anybody want to trade for my sock?
Clearly the bottom has fallen out of the sock market. I’m ruined. Destitute.
I may as well just sleep in the hall under the console table, like a poor homeless Beagle.
For the benefit of anyone reading this post who – like Biggles – has invested heavily in fabric foot garments and is now becoming alarmed, let me reassure you; the sock market has not crashed. There has however been a temporary trading embargo for naughty boys who’ve been nicking too many socks and refusing to come in from the garden unless offered a treat.
The timing of this is particularly unfortunate given that Biggles has only recently done something thoroughly laudible; he’s finally learned to jump into the back of the car rather than being lifted in. Now I know Beanie and every other dog in the known universe has been doing this since puppihood, but for Biggles it’s something new. It only came about because of my sore shoulder; I figured I could save myself some discomfort by teaching Biggles this new (to him) method of car entry. Needless to say I had to coax him to jump in using treats, and since then he’s been trying to get even more treats out of me by grabbing socks willy nilly and playing stubborn when coming back in from the outside loo. Still, the fact remains that at 5 years old Biggles can finally leap into the car like nearly every other adult dog, so progress has been made.
Out on our walk today it occurred to me that there might also be some progress in other areas, so I decided to test the one other skill that’s always eluded my boy: catching treats. I reached into my pocket and grabbed a handful of doggy biscuits and called him, but as often happens I got not one hound but two, both eagerly awaiting food. Of course I couldn’t treat one of them and not the other, so I threw a couple of biccies at Beanie first, in the hope that her speed and accuracy at treat catching would serve as an example to her brother. Unsurprisingly she nailed it perfectly.
Then I tried his lordship. Before I show you the result, you might like to click here and see his performance from more than three years ago. OK, now here’s the new improved 5 years old Biggles trying to catch a treat:
Notice how he closes the one eye that the treats aren’t even close to hitting. But at least this time he didn’t actually look away.
So, still some work to do there Mr Biggles. But socks, jumping into cars and treat catching still have nothing whatsoever to do with digging, which is in the title of this post. The digging comes in because last week I got to name a small crater on Mars to honor my two pups, and you can too by going here: http://www.uwingu.com/mars/. Unlike the earlier Bennu thing this is not free (naming a small crater costs $5 USD or about £3 GBP), and the name doesn’t really have any official standing, but it provides a bit of support for future space exploration and you get a certificate with a small map showing your crater. As for the name I chose for Beanie & Biggles’ crater, well…
Hilarious as always, Paul!! Lady is very spry about jumping in cars and is also a world-class treat catcher like Beanie. Josie at 14 needs lifting into the car and occasional carrying up and down stairs (first thing in the morning especially; I think we can all appreciate being creaky and stiff upon awakening!). She totally cannot catch treats now because her eyesight is bad, but she was never good at it anyway. She was always too eager and would jump/chomp too early, and also would often try to grab them out of the air by clapping her paws together — not very effective!
His Lordship certainly is handsome, which compensates somewhat for the lack of treat-to-mouth coordination. I’m afraid the Kennel Club might revoke his breed card for his inability to catch anything coming at him that might be food! The crater certificate is great!!
@Kaye: Yep it’s a pretty sad state of affairs when a Beagle has trouble getting food in his mouth! He’s not only bad at catching it, he’s also slow at picking it up off the ground when it lands (Beanie’s like a sniper!)
@Susan: I would love to see Josie’s attempts at catching treats with her paws! That sounds just brilliant. Who cares if it wasn’t too successful!