Separation Anxiety

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Suzanne York

I was recently out of town for work for a week and a half. Fortunately we have technology to keep families close. Mike and I talked via Skype, and I got to connect with him and the pups that way while I was in Montreal.

It’s hard being gone from “my pack” for any length of time. But in some ways it is more difficult for the one left behind to take care of Harley and Scooter. Twice a day feedings, walks, buying dog food, scheduling times with the dog walker, etc. Oh, and lots of time cuddling on the coach! Harley likes to think he’s a tough dog, but he’s really a big baby.

I would get emails from Mike with photos of the beagles, and he would relate how stubborn or bad they were being, or gross or annoying. And how they woke him up in the middle of the night barking and hunting (that’s Harley). Scooter even got up on the dining room table! That’s a new thing with her. Now we have to make sure the chairs are pushed in and there is no food or anything dangerous she might ingest. So in addition to having to hang up our garbage bags far from their reach, locks on the lower kitchen cupboards, not leaving our backpacks out, we now have to remember to push in our chairs. Beagles!

Quote from Mike, in response to one of the delicacies that Harley and Scooter like to eat way too often – “Gross Damn Beagles!” These type of statements usually start off with “Do you know what your dogs did today?”

Despite the complaints, I also heard all about how sweet they were, the greetings they gave him when he came home, how he stopped off to buy them some special treats. Mike loves them even more, I suspect, because they drive him crazy! Of course, the same thing can be said about me. Harley and Scooter are stubborn, willful, and often disgusting dogs, but somehow that endears them to us. Being cute and lovable doesn’t hurt either!

I’ll be on the road again soon. I’m sure I’ll soon hear all about their misbehavior, and in the same breath, just how sweet they are!

“S” is for Stubborn!

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Suzanne York

In our opinion, beagles win the award, paws down, for most stubborn dogs. Whenever we meet other beagle parents, we almost always ask them how stubborn their hound dog is. And invariably, the answer is “very stubborn!”

Some of the best examples to convey Harley and Scooter’s stubbornness?

For starters, they won’t come when they are called unless they think they’ll get a treat. We can be sitting on the couch, all comfy and cozy, and call them over, and sometimes they just look at us. Especially if they are on the recliner. “Why should we move over there? We don’t see any treats in your hands.”

Another example is taking them for walks. They can be slow walkers due to all the sniffing they want to do. And if there is something they really want to sniff or see, they plant their paws and throw their weight down and won’t budge. Scooter is especially good at this. And given that she’s heavier than Harley she can be hard to move. Harley at least is skinny and has ADD and can be distracted easily; Scooter, not so much. She’ll give us a look that says “Hey, I’m not moving yet, I’m sniffing here.” We either let her sniff or have to drag her away.

These are some reasons why beagles are usually on leash. They know when they are being called to come, but they have other things on their minds and will ignore you. So unless treats are involved, they rarely come when called. Priorities, right?

In the beagle world, however, “S” is also for sweet, squirrel, and sniffing. Especially sweet – Harley and Scooter are the sweetest beagles!

We’ll Eat Anything!

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Suzanne York

Our dogs are most definitely spoiled, and perhaps no more so than in terms of their diet. Since Harley and Scooter joined our family, we’ve made sure that they’ve eaten a healthy, organic dog food. This is mainly because of our last beagle – beloved Gus – died from a liver tumor. He was 11 yrs old when we adopted him, and he came to us having been on a diet of Pedigree dry dog food for most of his life. You know, the rather cheap stuff, but we figured it was okay. Until he passed quickly from our lives. We’ve always wondered if that cheap dog food had something to do with Gus’ tumor.

Our beloved Gus

So when Harley and Scooter came bounding into our lives, they’ve been given the red carpet treatment where food is concerned (and yes, every other area too!). A couple of years ago our dear friend Renee told us of the benefits of feeding dogs a raw food diet. So we began buying pre-made patties for them.

Talk about living high on the hog. They eat better than we do! All organic ingredients, stocked with lots of veggies, and you can buy chicken, duck, pheasant and even rabbit (sorry Pat and Karen), though we primarily buy chicken. And because the patties are ready to go, all we do is stuff some in a kong (best invention ever for dogs) for their breakfast and dinner, and voila, dinner’s ready!

We'll eat anything!

They definitely love it. However, they pretty much like everything and being beagles, consider garbage and cat poop delicacies. They are not discriminating eaters by any stretch of the imagination.

Since Harley and Scooter have been on a primarily raw food diet (they still get non-raw biscuits and other treats) they’ve had very healthy and shiny coats and better digestion (we won’t go into details). You can read more about the benefits here.

It’s not too expensive and worth the investment, as we just want these sweet pups to be with us for a long time.

It’s All About the Hunt – Arooo!

Posted on October 9, 2011 by Suzanne York

By Suzanne

Arooo! Arooo! Arooo!

The sound of beagles baying and howling is a frequent part of our walk with these two. They were born to hunt.

Most days we walk in the regional park near our home. The scents they find there! Cats, gophers, deer, wild turkeys, the occasional fox and coyote, and lizards (yes, they like to hunt the poor little lizards).

You can tell when Harley is beginning to get into his hunting mode – his tail starts wagging like a metronome, his sniffing sounds like a sucking noise, and he starts barking and baying. A lot and loudly. Scooter is more of a quiet hunter, but if there’s a very strong scent, or she sees something, like a cat, she will let out a high-pitched howl–almost a shriek. It’s very entertaining and often hilarious to watch them hunt, except when they are pulling my arm out of its socket in chase of whatever they see or smell.

One week I came close to a hospital visit, all because Harley and Scooter saw a feral cat:

We were in our park, near the top of an incline. Fortunately I saw the cat first, and braced myself for when the dogs caught whiff of it, but despite holding on tightly to their leashes, I was pulled downhill at breakneck speed. Thankfully I had on good hiking boots, as the path was still damp from previous rains. The chase probably only lasted 50 seconds, but boy, was I praying that I wouldn’t fall flat on my face. I’ve suffered a broken wrist and jaw before and would be quite happy to never go through that experience again. And even though between the two of them they only weigh about 50 pounds, Harley and Scooter are strong little buggers. They simply go crazy when they see potential prey.

Never a dull moment with these two. Wonder where they will drag us to next?

Arooo! Arooo! Welcome

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Suzanne York

Welcome to Damn Beagles: The Adventures of Harley & Scooter

This is a blog about two spoiled, rambunctious and always-getting-into-trouble beagles, Harley and Scooter. They are brother and sister. They love to eat, walk, cuddle, and sleep…and also get into things they shouldn’t. Stay tuned for some of their past adventures, some of which will leave you shaking your head! All we can say is that these two are lucky they are cute!