Yesterday was a HAPPY FATHERS DAY HUNT!

We have been so lucky with the weather this season… I mean, we are at the end of June and we haven’t had a *freezing* morning yet (touch wood). It was lovely, sunny and warm.

We had about 35 beagles, I guess… so not as many as the last few weeks. Still, we had a few new people.

The morning went off without anything particularly noteworthy happening. Other than Marmalade doing her disappearing trick after a line. Oscar has also met a new partner in crime, in little Denver! They are attached by Oscar’s tail to Denver’s nose! They came running back to us after they completed a line… only to SPEED off together, to do the line AGAIN – all by themselves! And they did the same thing on the next line!!
I don’t know about Denver, but Oscar is STILL recovering from yesterday

After the very last line A LOT of dogs went back on the line to try and find us… so when we got to the end, we had to head out to look for them. It felt like a loooooong search! The grass was also really long in this area, so it was quite tricky. But everyone was found and went home filthy and exhausted!

It was another fun morning out on the highveld!

Sign up for the next hunt on 5 July here. Lets hope the weather keeps on like this!

Remember that Beagles.co.za is now selling Frontline Tick & Flea control at discounted rates… click here for more info & prices

Until next time!
-Happy Beagling,
Tanya

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Oscar

!! * EDIT * !! – PRICES HAVE GONE DOWN BY R5.00 SINCE THE POST WAS MADE…I HAVE CHANGED THEM AND THEY ARE NOW CORRECT!

Hi Everyone!

For the last week or two, we have been trying to get hold of Frontline in bulk to sell at a discounted price. Raymond has managed to find the supplier and given us a really good price on Frontline.

PLEASE NOTE: these prices are for the JHB Hunts only and are for collection AT THE HUNTS. If we have to post them, we will need to add on postage costs and you will end up paying the same as at a pet shop.

“FRONTLINE Plus offers long-lasting  flea and tick control, killing up to 100% of fleas on your pet within 18 hours  and up to 100% of ticks on your pet within 48 hours .

Best of all, research confirms that FRONTLINE products work for an entire month to help keep your pet flea-free!”

Read more on http://frontline.us.merial.com/home/

You can buy Frontline in all pet shops, but is quite expensive, and it is an absolute necessity to use on your pets, even if they do not come to field days, they are still in danger of picking up ticks. One of the major carriers of ticks is birds – particularly Hadidas.

Below are the prices for Frontline from Beagles.co.za – the prices in brackets are the normal selling prices in pet shops. I have listed the price for small, medium and large dogs. Beagles would need the medium size, but if you have other size dogs in your family, please protect them too! These prices are for SINGLE APPLICATION TUBES. You need to use one tube per dog per month… at least 3 days after a bath, and at least 3 days before a bath.

Size of Dog                Price                 normally sells for

0-10 kg ………………………… R 40.00…………………… (R 57.00)

10kg – 20 kg ………………R 55.00…………………… (R 75.00)

20kg – 40kg……………………R 70.00…………………….(R 98.00)

40kg – 60kg……………………R 75.00…………………….(not sure of this retail price)

YOU NEED TO ORDER VIA EMAIL (click here to mail me) TO ENSURE WE ORDER ENOUGH UNITS!  If you would like to place an order, please let me know which size you need, and how many you want.

Always remember to give your beagles a once over after the hunts, just to check for any ticks that might have latched onto them. Remember to check inside their ears too!

Hi Everyone…

this is just a quick message with a very serious subject… Little Bart who comes to our hunts is in very bad shape with tick bite fever. He is still a puppy, at just 15 months old.

Please, please pray for him and his family and keep him in your thoughts.

We all love our beagles just as much as any member of our family, so I am sure you understand how important it is that he can fight this off!

Please take one minute out of your day today, to say a little prayer for him.

Bart

Yesterday we met up for another beagle hunt and a social get together afterwards for boerewors rolls and a chat.

It is getting colder every week and waking up is getting more difficult every time! Some of us have more trouble with the early mornings than others. While most of us arrived on time and properly dressed… Poor Roti seemed to have had a very tough time leaving the comforts of his basket at home, and he arrived in his Pyjamas! Can you believe it
Trevor kept trying to convince us that Roti was actually wearing his “Racing Silks” but we know better! – I mean, seriously – that face has “EMBARRASSED” written all over it! hee hee!

Roti looking all embarrassed in his PJs

Every week seems to set a new record with the number of beagles! Again, we had between 45 and 50 beagles! Some new faces again, which is always nice… especially when the new faces are in the form of a super cute 8 week old puppy called Zoe

8 week old Zoe

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Another new face, was this one… although we weren’t too sure how he fitted into the mix at the “BEAGLE Hunt” … oh well

I hope no one notices I'm not a Beagle!

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The hunt went well… with some long tough lines. The new dogs who have joined us this season are continuing to do rather well. The beagles did much better with the terrain than we did – their legs are so much shorter than ours, but they have so much more energy than we do – running and running and running through the veld!
Look how exhausted Charlie looks

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Afterwards the guys braaied wors for all of us, and we tried our best to keep all the greedy beagles out of our food! I also did a few sales of T-shirts, stickers, flasks and badges from the BeagleShop (remember a portion of proceeds is donated to charity!)

Thanks to Jane for organising the meat, rolls, plates etc. Everyone seemed to have a good time!

It was the last time we’ll be seeing Leanda for a while – she is due to have her baby girl in 3 weeks! We wish her and Gary all the very best! Can’t wait to meet the little girl! (or at least see some photos!)

Our next hunt is on Sunday 21 June at 8am… sign up here

So, yesterday was the first hunt for the season!

Quite a few people got there nice and early, luckily it’s still nice and warm… we should enjoy the weather while we can.

There were loads of new faces and it was great to meet all the new beagles, as well as catch up on news from our friends from last year. We got to meet little Matthew (Bruce and Wendy’s little one) who seemed to enjoy his first hunt, before he decided he needed some breakfast! Congratulations to Leanda and Gary who are expecting their second little girl. Between two kids and a horde of Beagles, I wish them GOOD LUCK and much strength!!

Back to the Beagles though…

I’d just like to give a quick welcome Ahhhrrooooooooooo to the new people who joined us:

Bailey, Sasha, Denver (cute little Denver got his dad to bring along his monster camera!), Basil, Snoopy (who also joined us last year, but is now old enough to compete), Boogaloo, Keerah, Vince (Harry and Oscar’s gorgeous brother… ok, I am biased!),  Bart & Ralph (who joined us last year, but are now old enough to compete), Ruby & Nooga (who also joined us last year, but are now old enough to compete), Ace (who did very well for a first timer), Loni, Nelson & Aimee (who were also puppies with us last season), Dexter, Dee Dee, Chuck & Norris (insert giggle here), Ozzy, Gypsy, Benji, Gina, Coco,  Baxter and Maggie. If I have left any one out, I do apologise!

It was quite chaotic trying to organise everyone and distribute bibs to all the dogs and collect the annual fees from everyone… but I think everything went relatively smoothly.

Shaw gave us all a run down of how the hunts work and then we started the morning with a long walk out to the valley where we would hunt.

All the dogs were scented… and the Huntmaster and the rest of the people who walk upfront were on their way. The grass is REALLY LONG at the moment! All the beagles were pretty excited, new and old – whether they knew what was going on or not! Only a few dogs finished the line… I think the beagles are quite out of practice, and maybe a little bit unfit! … I won’t get into the fitness of us humans… I felt myself puffing and panting more than I’d like to admit!!

We only ran 3 lines in total, as this was more of a practice for the “oldies” and an introduction to the “new guys”.  A few dogs went wondering off on their own mission, but they were all found pretty quickly by our “search party”.

I hope all the new people had a fun morning and will be back next time. It does take a while for the Beagles to get the idea and follow the trail all the way to the end… But it will happen. The feeling you get when your dog finishes his first line is amazing…! You think you will burst with pride!!

Anyway, the morning was a success… my dogs slept ALL of Sunday!

I hope to see you all next time (19 April).  Click HERE to book

Until then, Happy Beagling!

-Tanya

I got this e-mail this week from Karen, alerting us to some human foods that are poisonous to dogs… I found it quite interesting, and thought it was worth posting on the site. I also did some more research to find out what other foods are poisonous to dogs…

Please take the time to read through this list, and make a mental note of these foods to AVOID AT ALL COSTS:

Quoted from the e-mail:

I know you guys all have dogs so make sure you read this … If you have a dog … PLEASE read this and send it on. If you don’t have a dog, please pass along to friends who do.

Written by: Laurinda Morris, DVM Danville Veterinary Clinic Danville , OH

This week I had the first case in history of raisin toxicity ever seen at MedVet. My patient was a 56-pound, 5 yr old male neutered lab mix t hat ate half a canister of raisins sometime between 7:30 AM and 4:30 PM on Tuesday. He started with vomiting, diarrhoea and shaking. About 1AM on Wednesday but the owner didn’t call my emergency service until 7AM.

I had heard somewhere about raisins AND Grapes causing acute Renal failure but hadn’t seen any formal paper on the subject. We had her bring the dog in immediately. In the meantime, I called the ER service at MedVet, and the doctor there was like me – had heard something about it, but … Anyway, we contacted the ASPCA National Animal Poison Control Center and they said to give IV fluids at 1 & 1/2 times maintenance and watch the kidney values for the next 48-72 hours.

The dog’s BUN (blood urea nitrogen level) was already at 32 (normal less than 27) and creatinine over 5 (1.9 is the high end of normal). Both are monitors of kidney function in the bloodstream. We placed an IV catheter and started the fluids. Rechecked the renal values at 5 PM and the BUN was over 40 and creatinine over 7 with no urine production after a litre of fluids.

At the point I felt the dog was in acute renal failure and sent him on to MedVet for a Urinary catheter to monitor urine output overnight as well as overnight care. He started vomiting again overnight at MedVet and his renal values have continued to increase daily. He produced urine when given lasix as a diuretic. He was on 3 different anti-vomiting medications and they still couldn’t control his vomiting. Today his urine output decreased again, his BUN was over 120, his creatinine was at 10, his phosphorus was very elevated and his blood pressure, which had been staying around 150, skyrocketed to 220 …

He continued to vomit and the owners elected to Euthanize. This is a very sad case – great dog, great owners who had no idea raisins could be a toxin. Please alert everyone you know who has a dog of this very serious risk.

Poison control said as few as 7 raisins or grapes could be toxic. Many people I know give their dogs grapes or raisins as treats including our ex-handler’s. Any exposure should give rise to immediate concern. Onions, chocolate, cocoa and macadamia nuts can be fatal, too.

Even if you don’t have a dog, you might have friends who do. This is worth passing on to them. Please note: RAW POTATO PEEL IS ALSO TOXIC TO ANIMALS!!!!

This is a really scary story and I bet most people wouldn’t think twice at tossing a grape to their dog!

I looked up a list of “Poisonous food for dogs” on google and compiled this list:

• Chocolate
• Onion
• Garlic Macadamia nuts

…Click HERE to read more info …

This really comprehensive websitelists foods you should avoid, and the reasons why. Click HERE to read more

Below is the list of foods… please visit the site to read up some more:

• Alcoholic beverages
• Baby food
• Bones from fish, poultry, or other meat sources
• Cat food
• Chocolate, coffee, tea, and other caffeine
• Citrus oil extracts
• Fat trimmings
• Grapes and raisins
• Hops
• Human vitamin supplements containing iron
• Large amounts of liver
• Macadamia nuts
• Marijuana
• Milk and other dairy products
• Mouldy or spoiled food, garbage
• Mushrooms Onions and garlic (raw, cooked, or powder)
• Persimmons
• Pits from peaches and plums
• Potato, rhubarb, and tomato leaves
• Potato and tomato stems
• Raw eggs
• Raw fish
• Salt
• String
• Sugary foods
• Table scraps (in large amounts)
• Tobacco
• Yeast dough

24 March

We have found a pair of Beagles – in show condition – a male and a female – in the Alwynspoort area.

If  you are their doting owners or know of someone that has lost these two -

please email us and we’ll put you in touch with the people who are caring for them.

Hi Everyone Jane has informed us that there will be a meeting at her house on the 11 March at 7pm to discuss the upcoming hunts as-well as suggestions for future responsibilities. If you think you can help out or have some ideas feel free to speak to Jane and let her know you will be coming.

Please note this is for people only