Beanie and Biggles had their monthly swimming session at Allers Farm today with Beagle buddies Tess, Clara & Tara and crazy Lab Cullin and his sister Jamie. The dogs aren’t all in the pool together – only two go in at a time, but the others get to roam about the outside of the pool and watch. Which makes the whole swimming experience more enjoyable and relaxing for them.

Biggles is doing great! It really paid off introducing him to the water from a very young age.

No photos I’m afraid as Paul & I both go in the pool with Beanie & Biggles. I’ll try and get someone else to get a few snaps next time.

Beanie and her sister Bella hooked up for a swim session on Monday. This was Bella’s very first session in the pool, and she did rather well:

Perhaps spurred on by competition from her sister, Beanie suddenly got a lot better at retrieving her treat-filled tennis ball from the water – there wasn’t a single sunken ball crisis in the whole session. She nearly lost her ball to Bella at one point though when it floated close to the edge of the pool!

There was another Glasgow Dog Training Club pool party at Allers Farm Kennels on Saturday, and our two Beagles were booked in for a slot.  As usual Beanie got the lion’s share the swimming time, while Biggles hung around at the side of the pool and amused himself with one of the toys.

This next clip is my favorite of the whole bunch. Look how affectionate Beanie is as she rests her sweet little head on Susan’s arm as she’s swimming. The truth of the situation becomes apparent by the end of the video though!

Yep, it’s all about the piece of sausage in that tennis ball. The power of the sausage also motivated her to do a few dives into the water from the ramp. OK, it’s not exactly a triple backward somersault with pike, but it’s a big deal for a little Beagle who wasn’t keen on water until fairly recently!

By now Biggles had grown tired of the pool toys, and was getting bored. He tried nibbling on the poles and nets in the corner, but I pulled him away. He tried to chew on my camera case sitting on the floor, but again I caught him in time and pulled him away. Boredom turned to frustration. As I readied the camera to film another Olympic diving performance from Beanie, Biggles saw that my attention was diverted and made a grab for one of our towels. He got it, and as he pulled it away he saw that it was covering an even greater treasure – Susan’s shoes, and inside them, socks! Our sock-crazed little boy thought it was Christmas all over again and lunged straight for them. They might have been a lowly cotton/polyester mix, but to him they couldn’t have been sweeter if they’d been made out of month-old sausages that had been left out in the sun. But then fate dealt him a cruel blow – his lead was just fractionally too short to reach them. It was truly a tragedy of Big Les proportions. Unfortunately you can’t actually see any of this happening on the next clip, but you can certainly hear our Biggly Boy’s desperate cries.

Finally, here are a few shots I took of the park session on Sunday with Beanie:

Kirby and Beanie agree to disagree on the course the chase should take

So Beanie and Skye (The Yeti) join forces for a bit of bum biting

A “Condor” moment with a tasty stick

A great chase with Bonnie (a pal from the previous day’s swimming)

Perhaps Beanie could do with a breath-freshening mint?

You tell her Bonnie!