Looking after TWO beagles!

Yes, you read the title correctly. This weekend I had the pleasure of looking after another beagle puppy for the whole of Saturday and most of Sunday.

Meet Bilbo – he’s seven months old and a BAG of energy.

To say it was hard work would be an understatement!

If you’ve read my many posts about her you’ll know I have my very own Beagle pup named Juno – I love her very much but, that being said, I had many a day disliking her when she was a puppy.

I know, I know, you shouldn’t say things like that about your pets but Juno was… difficult. It was like she purposefully went out of her way to be a pain in the ass. She’s now 3 and, I have to say, I’ve mostly forgotten the details of what she was like [never standing still, always on a mission to find trouble, always biting and barking] because she’s now SUCH a good dog it’s strange to remember how I used to worry she’d be a pain forever.

Bilbo was… how can I say? A gentle reminder? He’s a lovely dog and has such a nice playful attitude – plus he enjoys being stroked, which Juno doesn’t – that just having him would have been lovely. Enter Juno and the two were a handful!

Juno isn’t unplayful with other dogs, in fact, she loves dogs to chase her. She doesn’t seem to understand dog language though. She never gets it when dogs bark at her to play or when they nip at her to encourage fighting. She kind of takes it personally and so the playing just becomes fighting.

Now, I know it’s hard to understand if you haven’t had energetic dogs before, but dogs bit and growl as part of playing. They learn who the leader is and test out biting each other etc. It’s mostly harmless unless a dog gets too aggressive but that’s a whole different kettle of dogs.

Bilbo is a master play fighter. He loves it. He was born to do it.

Juno, sadly, is so timid and passive that any kind of dominance from another dog goes either without fight or with full fight. She doesn’t know how to have fun in the middle ground! Bless her little paws. She tries.

I did actually try to separate the two when I thought Juno was having a little too much agro from the pup [I mean, he can just play and play] but as soon as Bilbo lay down for a rest for himself I’d find Juno sneaking up on him to start it all over again. Talk about glutton for punishment!

It was difficult and has made me think twice about getting another dog in the future, or at least made me think about the KIND of dog we could get in the future. I loved having a cute little puppy around the house again, though. I woke up in the middle of the night with him snoring in my face and all four paws up in the air. How much cuter can it get?

Hope you enjoy the pictures! There are a few more on Instagram and, if you want to look at Bilbo some more, you can follow his account [@bilbolovesburritos] because he is adorable!

Sam