For a while now Susan’s been using a daily video diary on Facebook to drive improvements in her push-ups and pull-ups. Initially this was a strictly no-Beagle affair; on the rare occasions that Beanie & Biggles weren’t snoring in the lounge or bedroom, they were explicitly forbidden from barging into her video sessions.
As her confidence has grown and her abilities expanded, the Beagle exclusion policy has been less strictly enforced. In the following example Beanie – who is perhaps the most potentially disruptive of our Beagles – was allowed to participate..
The above clip displays some classic Beanie behavior. The second you get down on the floor at her level, she feels the need to come over for a bit of a cuddle and a sniff. In due course she wanders off to sniff other things, then goes to the rug to do some cute stuff – a face rub, a Beagle commando crawl – and then, quite suddenly, the chin hits the floor and she’s bored. Had the camera kept rolling we might have seen another key Beanie behavioral characteristic, resulting in Susan gaining a coating of little white Beanie pubes on the calves of her leggings.
Some days on from that clip the no-Beagle policy wasn’t merely relaxed – it was completely reversed, and Beanie & Biggles actually got to make their own push-up video:
As you can see – or rather hear – from clip, Biggles considers himself to be very technically adept, always wanting to go hands-on (or more accurately, bum-and-paws-on) with anything electronic or mechanical. In the van, he’s the Beagle most likely to beep the horn or toggle the central locking switch; he hogs the TV remote control, often using his bum to change channels, and now in the above vid he tries to make some adjustments to the camera just as filming starts. At least he does reasonably well at the push-ups, though Beanie as usual is faster and more self-assured, never feeling the need to throw in a roll-over to make extra sure she gets the biccie at the end of the exercise.
The idea of filming doggy push-ups seems to be gaining traction outside of Susan’s Facebook page now. I wonder just how far doggy calisthenics can go?
Thanks for sharing the videos, Paul. I’d seen the second one when Susan posted it on FB, but not the first. Beanie is amazingly restrained, LOL! Yes, Lady and Ringo are also participating in the challenge, although they are not as prompt, accurate or synchronized in their execution. Ringo actually doesn’t understand “down”, but he can be lured into it. On the other hand, Lady knows it, but not the hand signal. When you use it, she thinks you’re pointing to a treat gone rogue somewhere on the rug, so she abandons the exercise and starts searching for the phantom biccie.
I had to laugh at Biggles throwing in the bonus roll over, our beagle Jordan used to do that, too. Any time you had a handful of training treats and gave a command, he’d go nuts and just run through his entire repertoire as fast as possible, just to be sure he wasn’t missing anything. He was also a monster if I was ever on my back on the floor for crunches or back exercises, as he would run over, stand on my hair right up against my scalp so I was trapped, and then would lick my face. Clever boy, LOL!
Love the Jordan story! Reminds me of how Beanie used to pin down Biggles as a pup so she could lick his ears (his lugs always used to dip into the food in his bowl when he was eating).
Absolutely love the video of them doing their push ups!!! Both are such sweethearts and it proves a beagle will do anything for a treat!!
I would say they’d do “almost anything for a treat”. Biggles in particular still isn’t a fan of having his ears cleaned!