Tristan Beagle continues to grow up faster than I can even type about him.
See? Teething! And between the day I took this pic and am writing this blog, those missing front teeth have largely grown in!
He has a lot of fun stuff in his life, along with the ongoing ball of activity we dryly call the PuppyCat Unit. He visits my dad at the hospice residence, goes to Connery and Dart’s obedience drill for a few moments of play and socialization, heads to our version of a National Forest to play with scent on our tracking practice grounds, and loves the daily games also known as training.
(Many of those games are simply building body awareness, but he also has an early understanding of sit, down, stay, heel, show stacking, bringing me an object, taking an object from hand, come, go to kennel, stay in kennel until released, wait at door to come in, leave it alone, let it go, and I’m probably forgetting something because these are all just things we DO.)
Most recently, he attended a puppy party.
He hasn’t been with his brothers since he came home to visit with us, you see. And as it turns out, there were other Beagle litters born in this area within a week of his own.
The puppy party didn’t turn out entirely as Tristan might have hoped. The other pups are familiar with one another in an ongoing way; Tristan was odd man out. He got a lot more attention than he initially appreciated! But eventually they all settled in well enough so the day turned into a romp—likely a critical opportunity for him, given that he’ll see and interact with these youngsters through his showing days.
Yeah, it was a total photo op. Enjoy!
This puppy scrum formed around a rope and tumbled its way across the generous yard as a single unit, until they got close enough to the humans to forget what they were doing.
A much smaller scrum—Tristan and his two brothers.
The others never did stop crowding Tristan. They crowded him right into the pond! Look at their little faces. “Gosh, how’d THAT happen?”
Tristan slept well on Puppy Party night!
If there’s anything cuter than one beagle puppy, it has to be a pack of beagle puppies. (Though, admittedly, I think ALL puppies are cute. HerdyShepherd1’s 10 little sheepdog puppies, now almost a week old…to die for cute.)
Holy cow, TEN of them! That’s one busy HerdyShepherd1!
Floss’s first litter. Due on the Friday, arrived the night before. Floss is out of champion working lines; so is the sire, Tan. These pups are bred to be working sheepdogs, although at the moment they are snub-nosed, blind, squeaky little black and white blobs. They’re supplementing Floss’s milk because of the large litter. Turns out it was hard to get the kids to go to school the next morning. I’ll bet it was!
Yes, he’s a busy man. His book comes out next month in the UK, weeks later in the US–it’s getting rave advance reviews. I have a copy on order at an Austin indie bookstore. And lambings about to start. He’s said he’s a bit overwhelmed. He wants to keep one or two of the pups for his own work, and intends to be sure all the others go to homes where they’ll be herding stock. His fans on Twitter all seem to want one, except those who know enough about dogs to know that this kind of border collie should be herding sheep.
It was amazing to me how fast Tan (the sire) who was a pup himself last year, learned to work the sheep so that by fall he was a full partner with Floss. Combination of the right breeding and a shepherd who knows how to train dogs. (He says he made a lot of mistakes with his first dog.) It’s also amazing to me how much good working sheepdogs go for in the UK. Thousands and thousands of pounds.
Ooh! What’s the title of his book?
The Shepherd’s Life: A Tale of the Lake District, by James Rebanks. The London Times posted part of the first chapter last week–it’s incredible. He hated school; he was told that only stupid, lazy people wanted to be farmers like his father and grandfather. Now he’s writing not only about his life, but a passionate defense of a way of life that connects people to the land–to a particular landscape. Here’s a review from The Independent: http://tinyurl.com/oga9jnh
Terminal Cute. Especially the pond picture. Beagle pups are endless energy. OR no — Puips in general are binary. One minute, full speed ahead. Next, ker-flop and they’re asleep.
Boy, that’s the truth! No inbetweens…
Very cute. Love the picture of Tristan sleeping on the cat!