Biggles post-neutering scar is healing very well, and it won’t be long before he’s back to full fitness. Until then, we must continue with the constant struggle to keep him and Beanie sufficiently occupied so that there’s no illegal licking of wounds and no rough and tumble. To that end, here’s our latest find – two huge, bagel-like chews from our local pet shop.

An initial display of excitement from Beanie is quickly followed by suspicion. Is this giant bagel kosher?

But a couple of exploratory nibbles later, and it’s chew time!

As for Biggles, he got straight down to business the second he got his paws on it!

Biggles is now almost a match for Beanie when it comes to chewing. When he was younger we had the problem that she’d finish a treat in five minutes while he’d still be soldiering on a quarter of an hour later – a sure recipe for trouble. It’s no good when one Beagle is left with a full tummy and nothing to chew while the other one is still gnawing away!

These bagels have given us a different problem. It’s fine to let our pups chew away on them for a while, but eventually they have to be taken up and shelved for another day. Given Beanie’s recent reaction to attempts to take something off her in the park (i.e. speed-swallow the whole thing) we don’t really want to take things off her in the house without replacing them with something of equal or higher value. Equally, Biggles often gets a bit growly when asked to give something up and all the advice we’ve been given warns against confronting him. Again, bartering is the way to go. Up to now a Pedigree Dentastick has usually been a good enough trade for most things, including teatowels and semi-clean socks (smelly socks are on a whole different level, but that’s a story for another day). Unfortunately these bagel chews appear to be painfully close in value to Dentastix.

When I went out to the kitchen to raid the Dentastix box, Biggles started to follow, got as far as the kitchen entrance, then had to dart back into the living room to answer the bagel’s siren call. A couple of seconds later he was back.. almost.. then again he sprinted away. This sequence looked like it might carry on for some time. Every time I crinkled the sticks’ foil wrapper there’d be a mad scramble of paws and claws as he ran up the hall, then a split-second of indecision, and he’d be off again. It was such an effective form of exercise I began to wonder if it might be a viable alternative to the park on bad weather days.

Eventually the cycle was broken by Susan, who came to my aid by making a big enough fuss over the dental chews to tear both Beanie and Biggles away from their bagels for a couple of minutes. When our two duped Beagles returned to the living room, the bagel fairies had whisked them away.