This innocent looking little boy has become quite a handful over the last couple of weeks. He’s always been prone to having the odd “I’ve got to get something” moment, where he prowls the house looking for something to nab, but currently we can count on him going into klepto mode several times a day. Empty yoghurt pots and plastic milk containers have now joined socks as his most prized items, which is problematic as we’re using them extensively as temporary homes for Susan’s ongoing vegetable and fruit-growing project.
She takes great care to purge any trace of food from the containers, hand-washing them first and following that with a round in the dishwasher, but still Biggles finds them highly desirable. His raids start off with uncharacteristic stealth; he sneaks into Susan’s office when she’s occupied and quietly browses her store of clean pots, then mayhem ensues as he brute-forces his way to his chosen target. I tend to hear rather observe the raids; very often I have my head down working on code when suddenly there’s a series of thuds and crashes, followed by Biggles’ trademark urgent trot and Susan shouting through to me “Paul, he’s got one again, can you get it off him?”
I’ve been trying to work out what’s behind this increase in his kleptomaniac tendencies; it’s certainly not lack of attention because he’s never had so many tummy rubs and ear-fondles. I think perhaps I’ve made both him and Beanie fitter in my attempts to compensate for the loss of their beach runs. Their daily exercise now includes going round the perimeter of one of our local farmer’s big fields, a field so overgrown that at points the grass exceeds my knee height. I have to really pick my feet up to make good progress, and the pups get an even better workout; Beanie uses a bounding motion like a stone skipping over water, while Biggles stoically hammers his way through it.
Periodically their legs get a rest while the focus switches to intense core exercises, which coincidentally result in something smelly being deposited on furry necks and shoulders.
This is followed more often than not by a session in our latest dog-related extravagance, a big paddling pool. Some time ago Beanie had problems with weakness in her back legs, and a canine physio advised lots of slow, deliberate wading in deep water. I followed this advice religiously every time we were at the beach, and it worked, restoring Beanie to her normal sure-footed and athletic self. I saw this progress starting to unravel when the coronavirus lockdown stopped access to the beach, so now we have a surrogate beach on our patio.
Spurred on by kibble rewards the pups walk round it repeatedly, alternating direction each time, then do lengths. It’s not the same as wading through the sea against the wind and waves but it is helping to keep Beanie’s rear end strong. I’m sure it also feels great on hot sunny days when little Beagles may regret having non-removable furry romper suits.
I reckon this adds up to an overall increase in exercise for the pups and the more exercise they get, the more energy they seem to have; Beanie is often seen leaping on to the table on our deck in search of food remnants, while Biggles has more go-juice for his raiding and pillaging activities. Sadly it doesn’t quite seem to work that way for me, but at least I am getting better at crashing out on the sofa for daytime naps.