Daisy and the 'Bax' - Beagle Puppy update

Daisy(left) and Baxter know how to relax!

  Tuesday will be Daisy and Baxter’s 3 month birthday and they have been in the house for 45 days today. They are getting bigger and bigger but in absolute terms, they are still pretty small. Baxter has grown from 3.8 to 7.6 pounds and Daisy has gone from 3.1 to 6.8 pounds.

  Both dogs are sleeping through the night for the most part. They get up when I wake up at 4:30 and Kathy hangs out with them for a half hour while I take a bath and get dressed. Then we move the pen and puppies downstairs, feed them, and I hang out with them while Kathy goes to the YMCA to exercise. When I’m alone with them, they wrestle with each other, play with me, and then jostle for position on my lap until they fall asleep. After a bit, I put them in their bed and then go to work.

  Aside from a little waddle, Baxter’s back foot with only the one toe is proving to be no problem. Matt has been working with him a lot, making him walk on his back legs and he can out jump Daisy. He has a big thick neck and a broad face just like his father. Like most puppies that are the bigger ones in the litter, he is a very gentle dog. He is a lot of fun and has been a real blessing, just like I’d expect from a dog that just dropped in out lap.

  Daisy seems just half the size of Baxter, even though she is close to his weight. She is long and lean and is quick to get fierce when she plays with Baxter or us. Her face crinkles up when she get worried and she has an ancient look about her. I’ve been calling her ‘Old Wrinkly’, but Kathy doesn’t like the nickname so I’m trying to stop saying it.

  In the past week, the puppies have graduated from their pen in the kitchen to some supervised play time in the rest of the first floor. Our house has 3 rooms arranged in a circle, so the pups can run around and around. We’ve walled them off from the stairs because while they can climb the stairs, they haven’t learned to get back down them.

Daisy and Baxter are getting the run of the house.

  The other big milestone the Daisy and Baxter have hit is that they are starting to go for walks outside. When the temperature is above freezing, Matt and Kathy (and me too on the weekend) have been putting their collars and leashes on and taking Daisy and Baxter for a 2 block walk. Baxter looks forward to getting outside, but Daisy has been fighting tooth and nail against having her collar put on. Once she gets outside though, she is happy to walk.

Walking the beagle puppies.

  Having beagle puppies takes up a lot of time, but the happiness they bring are more than worth it. I was only half joking in one of my recent blog postings blaming the unrest in Egypt on a lack of beagles. I’ve had a problematic couple of weeks with problems popping up in programs at work that had been working like clockwork for months and years, my youth chess tournament this coming week looking to be poorly attended, and I’ve had some people turn their back on me over some real or imagined slights. But when I sit down and have a pair of puppies jumping over each other to play with me, all that stuff becomes as unimportant as it should be.

In the world of 'beagle puppy playtime' there is no room for the worries of the outside world.