We have a visitor for a week :-)

This week we have our Grandma's dog Sally visiting us whilst Grandma has gone to New York
We Love Sally she is a 15 yr old Jack Russell and she is most definately in charge of us youngsters!!

We've enjoyed going for little walks together just taking things at a slower pace - we share our treats with her but she doesn't share her yummy smelling dinner with us - I think Me and Star will have to work harder on this one, may just have to make cute beagle eyes at mummy!!

How nicely we sit and wait for our tea x
(Only becacause there's food involved) BOL

Look at me aren't I cute :-)

Ughh I do hate this wet weather!!!

Now mummy I'm looking at you all cute and sitting nicely, please can I have some of Sallys food??

What do you expect the boy Alfie moved!!
So I got the BIG bed hehehe

And I got to Snuggle up in the Tiny bed Awwrroooooo - thats what I wanted all along really!!






Grandma comes back soon so we only have a couple more days together but its going to be a fun couple of days for sure!!!

Nottingham Beagle Walk 4th Sept 2011

For the last 3 years Claire Buckels has organised a Beagle walk in Nottingham to raise money for the charity Beagle Welfare - no easy task!!

This year as part of the day to raise some extra money we decided to do a raffle after the walk, but for this we needed some raffle prizes so Claire wrote an e-mail for some help - I then set about finding companies to send the e-mails to and filled in online forms too, we got quite a good response and some companies gave quite generously these include - Nestle Purina Pet care, Naturecare, Twycross Zoo, Wagg, Johnsons Veterinary, Ancol, Lily's Kitchen, Butchers, The Bespoke Dog Bakery, the netpetshop and Chudleys - Fish4Dogs also provided us with free samples of treats and bags that we gave out at the end of the walk - special thanks go to all of these companies and for everyone who donated items on the day without you the raffle would not have been possible... You can find links to all of these companies on my links page!

The wonderful products donated by the companies

Lily's Kitchen and underneath
Christine's Beagle Cards

The raffle table with the Wagg food and Hills donated by Naturecare.

Goodies from - The Bespoke Dog Bakery,  Ancol, Netpetshop
and Johnsons Veterinary

And no raffle would be complete without a few bottles







The walk

We started setting up for the walk at 9:30am in the rain luckily we had plenty of Gazebo's for shelter once they were up of course, there was Beagle Welfare merchandise for sale, A Lucky Dip, The Raffle and Beagle cards to sell produced by Christine Hartland which you can find the link for on my link page, all proceeds to Beagle Welfare
As the morning went on people and their lovely beagles started to arrive what a wonderful sight it was despite the wet weather.

At 10:30am the walk Started and we were off on our hours walk just after we set off the rain stopped and it suddenly went warm - even the sun made an appearence

All of the beagles had a wonderful walk lots of good sniffs all the way around

When we arrived back to the start it was time for some food and a drink for 30 minutes and then we had some novelty classes it was such good fun and at 50p per entry even more money raised for such a good cause a special thank you goes out to Nicky Stewart for kindly making the beautiful rosettes for the classes.

Here are the novelty classes

All in a days work for a beagle 

Decisions, Decisions!!!

And here with just two weeks until her 10th birthday is one of the winners Lizzie - looking very proud and rightly so!!




After the classes were complete it was time for the raffle we had so many lovely prizes that most people went home with something it makes taking part all the more fun

Here are two of the lucky winners winning a Kong toy







After the raffle people chatted, took photo's and exchanged beagle stories - it was a wondeful day the day itself raised £560 from Donations for attending, the Lucky Dip, The raffle, sale of Merchandise and the Novelty classes - currently people have also donated £177 on the walks JustGiving page which can also be found here should anyone want to donate Claire Buckels is fundraising for Beagle Welfare
So all in all thats a wonderful total of £737 which will go towards caring for and rehoming beagles in need.
Maybe after reading this you would consider joining us on next years walk details of these will be on the beagle welfare website, next year for all beagle welfare events please take a look you can even become a member of beagle welfare and recieve 2 issues of beagle welfare's magazine "In full cry"
which is always a lovely read - but don't take my word for it just follow the link and explore all you want Beagle Welfare

Thank you and hopefully see you next year for more beagle fun!!!!!!

Picnik

Thanks to a friends blog and their clear intstructions I've finally managed to edit a photo taken at the weekend of Alfie the light was on the camera and there was absolutely no shade, so was quite disappointed by the outcome of my pictures after reading a great post on this blog
this is me sarah mum of 3
Here is the before and after so if you have photos that you've not been too happy with its well worth taking a look at this blog on how to put them right

Before

After

Silent Sunday

Wagg Treats

Today Star and Alfie were very excited when the post arrived I opened up the envelope and inside were two packs of Wagg Treats One were Low-Fat treats for Alfie and the other pack was Training Treats for Star - I'll explain why in a minute.

 They just couldn't wait to get the packets open






Alfie and his Low-Fat treats - earlier this year Alfie started to show signs of being uncomfortable after eating - after various tests at the vets inc an ultrasound he was diagnosed with Acid-Reflux this means he now has to be on a relatively low-fat diet as food high in fat often increases the amount of acid made and this increases the chance of him getting indegestion - gone have the days when he could have pigs ears and whatever treats he fancied, then came the job of looking for treats that were low in fat that wouldn't upset his digestive system after trying quite a few we found the treats that caused absolutely no problems at all were the Wagg Low-Fat treats.  What we like about the treats is they are nice and soft and can easily be broken into smaller pieces for training.

Please can I have them I know these are Mine!!!!





Star and the training treats - Star can have most treats without any problems but usually has the low-fat ones too as we tend to keep more of them in because of Alfie but Wagg very kindly sent her something different to try Wagg Training Treats - she loved them and was licking her lips even before the packet was open, the treats are the perfect size for training as any beagle owner knows the breed has a tendancy for weight gain so you really do have to watch what they eat.  I think its wonderful that Wagg treats don't add sugar meaning fewer calories and less weight gain and the fact that they don't use artifical colours or flavours to enhance their products instead they use healthy wholesome ingredients.

Star licking her lips in anticipation





Wagg have a range of treats and sticks to suit a wide range of situations - Puppy, Sensitive, Low-fat, Training treats, Mobility sticks with added glucosamine & chondroitin and Wagg Training sticks which can be broken into smaller pieces. As well as treats they also do a variety of complete dry food.

So if you have a dog with a blog please check out this Link as Wagg are currently sending out treats to dog bloggers in exchange for a review

Dog Food

Beagle Tail

The last few days Alfie hasn't been very happy - his head has been down and his tail down too, my husband took them both out for a walk hoping it would cheer him up and get his tail wagging but no :-( tail remained in a downwards position and on touching it he cried out in pain, time to make an appointment at the vets - luckily we were able to get in the same day, that evening we took him to the vets to get checked out - he had a full examination of his spine, legs and hips all perfectly normal took his temperature absolutely fine, then for examining his tail - he wasn't a happy Alfie at all he shot his head around as the vet touched it as if to say "ouch that really hurts" the problem seems to be coming from the base of his tail where it connects to the body he can move his tail from side to side to wag but not up and down, it could have been caused by something as simple as banging it when he was wagging it or maybe playing too rough with Star and over-used it. A 5 day course of carprieve was given we're now on day 3 with a small improvement this afternoon when he managed to lift it level with the rest of his body only for a short time but its progress!

A little more about beagle tail AKA cold tail, dead tail
Dead tail syndrome and "cold tail" is quite commonly seen in hunting dogs, but may not be familiar to veterinarians. It is most often seen in breeds like English Pointers, English Setters, Foxhounds, Beagles, and particularly Labrador Retrievers. In most dogs the most frequent age of onset is reported to be 2 years old.  Typically the presentation is a young adult dog with an acutely flaccid tail that hangs down from the tail base or is held horizontally for 3-4 inches and then drops down. The tail remains in this position even when the dog moves about.  Pain may be seen on touching the tail base and some owners report that the dog seems uncomfortable.  The best thing to do is leave the tail alone.
Rest is definately recommended. 
Complete recovery is usually seen by 2 weeks and often occurs within a few days although it can recur later during excercise or play. Some owners feel that anti-inflammatory drugs shorten the recovery time if given when the condition is first seen.  
The cause of dead tail is not known although it is thought to be associated with over-using the tail (especially in underconditioned dogs) and swimming or bathing in water that is too cold or too warm. Tail conformation (high set or very active), gender (males more frequently affected), and nutritional factors have also been suggested as possible causes. Ongoing studies suggest that dead tail is associaed with muscle damage in the tail with dogs examined early in showing elevated muscle enzymes eg., creatine phosphokinase. 

Alfie has had it 3 times before so we were aware what it was but some dog owners may be concerned if their dog suddenly developed it and wasn't aware of the condition so I thought it beneficial to other dog lovers to pass on this information :-) I've also included two pictures of Alfie so people are aware of how it appears

Alfie and Stars New bed

This week our mum ordered us a new comfy bed it came today and it is sooooo comfy
I (Alfie) just cannot get out of it well I managed to get out for my tea and then I saw Star going towards it so I leapt passed her and jumped right in and then stretched out and went to sleep - BLISS!!!!
And of course I'm (Star) just as comfy in my own bed with lots of cuddly blankets