Feathers Everywhere

Every now and again you need a little time out right? I had a very long day so I thought a nice relaxing bath with the radio on and a good book would be perfect. Charlie was sparko on the bed so all was calm. I obviously took far too long in the bath. Charlie appeared at the bathroom door and flopped on the floor so I was in no rush to search the house, he’d just come from the bed right? Wrong! When I got downstairs I had a little surprise waiting for me. It looked like someone had killed a pigeon, feathers everywhere!

There is no pattern to what Charlie takes and when; the cushion has always been on the sofa, since before I even thought about buying a puppy; and yet today Charlie decided it was the cushions time. At first I thought he had disembowelled the sofa. He has done that before, he tried to burry a bone in the sofa when he couldn’t get into the garden and ripped the stuffing out of a very expensive antique leather sofa in the process. This time however, the source of the millions of feathers was a small hole chewed into the cushion, all these feathers came from that tiny green cushion.

I’m still finding feathers all over the house. They seem to spread and currently occupy the sitting room, dining room and kitchen. I think Charlie Is quite enjoying the fluffy new bed he has made for himself because he jumped straight up and curled up to stake his claim!

Runaway beast!

Charlie enjoying the sun

Charlie and I had a perfect summers evening yesterday. I took him to Grannys so he could play with her dog whilst my sister and I sunbathed. We went back to mums for a BBQ in the garden. We had a very relaxing evening. Until of course we got home.

Charlie travels in the boot of my car, when I open the boot he waits to have his lead put on and waits to be told he can jump out. At least this is what normally happens. Last night when we parked on the drive we could hear next doors dog barking. Apparently Charlie felt this gave him leave to jump immediately out of the car and hot foot it down the lane. He wouldn’t come back to me when I called. He wouldn’t follow Beemer. Instead he went skipping off through the wheat fields.

Charlie loves running through the wheat, if it wasn’t for the fact that when he is there it is because he has run away it would be quite cute. He leaps around as he runs so he can see over the crop and every now and again stands up on his hind legs like a meerkat so he can see where he is. And this is exactly what he was doing. I tried to get the biscuit tin to shake it and get his attention but no, this was not going to work. And then he did the worst possible thing. The one thing I have been dreading since I have got him. He ran across the road. We live in quite a quiet part of the world, down a private lane, but the lane leads off of a very busy road, and this is the road that Charlie dashed across whilst I was screaming at him to stop. He got over to the verge on the other side, took one look back at me and was gone across the fields on the other side with me in hot pursuit. Thank goodness that it was so late and therefore the road was quiet otherwise this would be a whole different post.

We have one neighbour that lives across the road and they have a dog so I ignored Charlie in the field and went to find Lucy the Labradoodle. Luckily she was playing in her garden and by playing with her Charlie thought we were having enough fun to come see what the fuss was about and I was able to trap him in their garden. But he was not done – oh no!

Before I could get him on his lead and take him home he decided to take a tour of their house, through the kitchen, dining room and into the sitting room to see the whole family – thank goodness they like Charlie otherwise we would have been in very big trouble. What a naughty Beagle!

Spectacular chewing!

Charlie Specs

Saturday night I went out with some friends for dinner; just popped out for a few hours in the evening. Unfortunately when I got home it would appear that Charlie was not happy to be left and had decided to make some fun for himself. I had done the usual checks, no food, drink or fluffy toys within reach. No shoes, bags or blankets. Door to the stairs closed. All done but I had left my glasses on the windowsill in the sitting room and Charlie had obviously thought that they were left there for him because he helped himself. He does like to climb over the back of the sofa and stand looking at the windowsill, normally knocking any pictures or flowers out of his way but Saturday night he found Beagle treasure!

I don’t know what it is about glasses but this is not Charlies first offence. He has eaten friends before and numerous pairs of designer sunglasses at my mums; he likes to chew at the frames and even if you get them off of him before he cracks the lenses he has normally scratched them beyond repair. He also seems to go for my sunglasses cases and did manage to crush my favourite pair of cheap sunnies by cracking the frames through the hard box. If you leave them on the side, or even on the table, then they are fair game for Charlie. I have no idea what the appeal is for him; maybe he just sees us all wearing them and wants to be part of the club. Either way it did give me an excuse to take these pictures!

With the sunshine this weekend we also had a chance to spend some time in the garden where I think Charlie met his excitable, energetic match in Ethan, Hayden and Jack. They spent all of Sunday afternoon running round with Charlie; Jumping on the hammock, which Charlie was partly responsible for managing to break, playing fetch, or as much as Charlie actually fetches! Splashing water around and just generally having fun.  Even when I tried to get Charlie to sit nicely for a photo he tried to leap on the boys so they had to pin him down resulting in the comedy photo below. What I did get though was a very chilled out Sunday evening because Charlie was so tired he just flopped out on the sofa; I had to practically drag him out into the garden to get him to go for a wee before bed.

Charlie and his new best friends

A Light Snack?

Charlie is always excitable when I get home from work so when he was snuffling around putting his nose in everything, jumping on me I took it as normal behaviour. But then he got very busy, tail in the air, head down behind the desk – definitely up to something! I rushed over and his head was in a cardboard box, he grabbed a mouthful of the contents and ran off to gobble what he could down before I could take it off of him. What was in the box you are wondering; dog treats? Biscuits? Shoes? Nope. Polystyrene packing, you know the little nuggets of polystyrene that they throw in boxes to protect the contents in delivery, he was shoving them down as fast as he could! I have no idea why, I can’t imagine that they taste nice but he was loving them so I had to hide the box to stop him eating more.

Queue a call to my ever patient vet to check that polystyrene isn’t toxic – we decided it wasn’t but he is under observation at home to make sure he hasn’t blocked his digestion! I am wondering if it might make him float but I won’t put that one to the test!

Mucky Pup

The horrendous weather this weekend could not stop Charlie on his adventures, despite the rain we took a stroll up at the racecourse. Charlie loves it here because there is loads of space to run around and there are always lots of other dogs for him to play with. I love it because there is so much space I am not worried about losing him and if he plays with other dogs he burns off even more energy than a normal walk. It’s win – win!

We did have a great adventure; jumping in the long grass, splashing round in puddles, chasing crows. We even met what I thought was another beagle but turned out to be a Foxhound pup who was being walked. It also turned out to be a bit of a woos and ran away from Charlie but it was very handsome.


The end result of our walk was Charlie looking like this. Covered in Sand and mud and soaked through. I have very sensible wood and stone floors downstairs in my house so I am never overly worried about him coming into the house. So when I went out for dinner I let him in the siting room and kitchen with the door to the stairs shut so he could only have the run of the two rooms – or so I thought!



When I came home several hours later there was no dog. Then I heard the familiar sound of a Charlie jumping off of my bed and trotting down the hall. I had obviously not shut that door! As I ventured upstairs I found that Charlie had not been on my bed, He had been in my bed! Charlie does like to be covered when he sleeps, when he slept in his crate he liked to be tucked up with a blanket over him and now if he can get upstairs unsupervised he will often get under the duvet like in this photo, I would like to point out that my bed had been made before Charlie got in, burrowing in so his head is covered. Now I am not adverse to having the dog ON my bed; in fact on a Sunday morning we often have cuddles while I drink my tea. But IN my bed?!

It was late so I got into bed anyway but I had a very sandy nights sleep with the dog snuggled up, I figured the damage was already done!

Carnage at the Polo!



Charlie and his girlfriend Kelsae

So yesterday was the Lettergold  Newmarket Festival  Polo Match and Dog show at Suffolk Polo Club, it turned out to be quite a day!

We started with our show day bath which Charlie is getting quite good at, although he did try to eat the towel afterwards! I even remembered to shut the door so he couldn’t run outside and get filthy again. We had lots of things to take up to the event so Charlie had to sit on the front seat for the journey, not a problem since he was so lovely and clean. So far so good, when I got out so that I could unload the car I even remembered to zip up the bag with his treats in it so he didn’t eat them all.

What I hadn’t anticipated was that as soon as I opened the boot of my hatchback Charlie would leap over the two sets of seats, over all of the crockery in my boot and straight out, galloping across the polo pitch before I could do anything! Charlie is not allowed off the lead at the polo club, he knows his way around too well and always runs off, sometimes for hours at a time. Once running free Charlie found his friend Pip, the resident Jack Russell and partner in Crime for the most nail biting of runaway escapades – more details in a post to come. Pip and Charlie love to play together and were rough and tumbling across the grass in the rain getting filthy. Luckily Pip is easily swayed by treats so I was able to capture Charlie by luring in Pip but was now left with a wet muddy dog who would not be allowed on the front seats of my car and a boot full of Crockery still to unload. The only answer was that Charlie would have to be tied to the clubhouse bus where he could keep dry and I could still see him while we got set up. He wasn’t overly amused at this idea so barked constantly for the half hour it took us to get everything out, much to everyones pleasure; for a little dog he has a very big bark!

Kelsae the Champion

The dog show was sponsored by AshTree Vets in Kennett; We entered the ‘Best Condition’ Class and Charlie actually behaved (ish) we even got second prize! The next class was an Obedience Class, why on earth would I enter that you say – well at one point no one else was going in so I thought I might manage to win by default! Alas no, I was beaten by Charlies new girlfriend Kelsae. All Charlie needed to do was a sit – check! A down – Check! And a retrieve – not check! Charlie just doesn’t have the retrieve instinct in him, Plus Charlie barked through the whole class because I ran out of treats and couldn’t keep him quiet! Losing to Kelsae wasn’t too bad though, she did win Judges favourite for the whole day so at least we were beaten by a Champion!

There was also a fun agility course set up which we of course had to have a go at – on the lead of course! Unfortunately our time ended up being three times the winner, possibly because Charlie decided he needed a poo half way around! But before we could even get onto the course another dog started snapping at him, got tangled in his lead and somehow managed to unclip Charlie setting him loose on a full tea tent, a dog show and two  bouncy castles with kids everywhere. Queue me running across the grounds hollering “CHARLIE!” like a banshee as he hot-footed through everyone, practically skipping at the excitement of finally being free. Luckily the day was saved by one of our vets Bill grabbing him after he took himself into the ring to say hello to all of the competitors.  I think I must have had quite a red face as I retrieved my runaway Beagle from the judge in the show ring, but at least he was back. Charlie wasn’t quite done though; as we walked past the bouncy castle he stole one of the kids wellies, I didn’t even notice and had to be chased down by the parent to get it back!

Overall quite an eventful day, but we did get a rosette and he slept very, very well last night.

Duvet Destruction

Never Leave a Beagle unattended - Never! Don’t think “Oh I’ll just be five minutes” or “there is nothing edible in here” just don’t leave them unless you have fully secured the room.

Last night I had popped upstairs to sort some laundry - a rare event in itself! I wasn’t long, maybe 5 or 10 minutes so I left Charlie lying on his sofa; designated as such because it has a blanket that can be easily washed! All was calm. Until I came back downstairs. It would seem that I had left my spare duvet in my dining room (aka generic dumping ground for laundry). What a silly thing to do Charlie must of thought, why would I leave it there? It would be much better placed in the middle of the sitting room. And why is all of this lovely fluffy stuff restrained behind this cover, it would be much better if it was loose to roll around in. I am of course speculating as I have not yet gone completely crazy and Charlie does not speak to me. But what other explanation is there for the picture below?

Naughty Charlie strikes again. Another evening spent clearing up and disposing of the evidence – I must remember that Beagles require Adult Supervision at all times!

The Prize Winning Pooch!

Yesterday Charlie and I went to our first ever dog show; the Dog Day at Eleveden Estate which was raising money for Alzheimer's Society. It was a brilliantly organised event and I will definately be going back next year and would recomend it to anyone who wants to have fun with their dog. It was very busy and there were so many dogs that Charlie was actually quite subdued for the first hour, in true Charlie style though it did not last! The Suffolk Hunt had brought the hounds to display and I think Charlie thought he was one of them because he would not stop barking!

In preparation for the show we did get up early so Charlie could have a bath; generally he is quite good at this, he doesn't like it but he will stand in the bath and be showered and Shampoo'd. However I forgot that I had left the back door open so within 5 minutes he had to go straight back into the bath to wash off his legs which were black with mud - as was my sofa after he had jumped all over it! But is was worth the pain becuase Charlie was now looking and smelling very lovely indeed ready for his public appearance.

There was a dog dash, and although Charlie is pretty quick I did not fancy my chances of him actually coming back to me and I did not want to be responsible for the carnage he would cause if he got loose so we stuck to the showing classes! We did enter 'Dog the judge would like to Take Home' but we didn't even get shortlisted, this may be due to the fact that Charlie stole treats off of the floor, was jumping up to steal treats out of my hand and we had to keep stopping to untangle the lead - not his best performance! We did however have much more luck in the 'Handsomest Dog' there were 50 enteries and we managed to get Third prize, beaten by a massive Newfoundland and a very distinguished black Lab. Charlie and I were very chuffed with our rosette, though he did try and eat it whenever I wasn't looking!

I tried to get a nice photo of him next to the sign with his rossette to show you all but Charlie was not very co-opperative because there was a coop of Chickens behind him that was far more interesting. You can see from the pictures below that there were quite a lot of dud shots and I am afraid the one at the top was the best we could do.

After such a succesful day we are going to try and raise our standing and will be entering the classes at Suffolk Polo Club next Sunday. There will be an exhibition polo match, fun dog classes at 1pm, a bouncy castle and live music as well as the famous Suffolk Club teas so please come along if you are free; the event will be raising money for Kettlefields Promary School PTFA and Newmarket Citizens Advice Bureau.