by John New
A small group of 13 humans and 12 beagles gathered for our outing at Bayview Beach. It was a lovely day - blue cloudless sky and very warm with a light breeze.
We started off along a concrete path. It's a popular picnic area so there were many people around, particularly small children on bicycles and picnicers. It was a little tricky avoiding the kids on bikes and also keeping our beagles away from the picnics. Everyone we passed was amazed to see so many beagles in one place. We heard a lot of parents say to look out for the puppies - even when they pointed to our senior beagles!
It was a very short walk to the beach. We timed our arrival for low tide, which meant there was plenty of flat wet sand for the beagles, and many other dogs, to run on. Almost everyone let their beagles off lead - and off they went. We spent about an hour watching our dogs run, dig, paddle, beg for food, play, sniff, etc. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves and we enjoyed watching them.
After a while it was clear that the dogs had had enough (when a few started drooling). We called out "come" and after many repetitions had them all back on lead. We slowly made our way back to the start for some afternoon tea and a well earned rest. A very enjoyable afternoon.
by John New
It was a lovely day for a walk when about 30 people and 20 beagles met at a park near Pittwater High School. This was probably a great meeting place from a beagle perspective because so many people were having barbeques and parties, and there seemed to be lots of food lying around. Our beagles were very twitchy and seemed very keen to get their noses to the ground.
We started along an easy concrete path, past picnicers, cyclists, and small children who were amazed at the dogs who all looked alike. "It's puppy world", said one small boy. We walked through Rowland Reserve and the dog-friendly Bayview Beach, toward Church Point, passing lots of interesting houses and other pedestrians. When we reached a convenient point, we turned around to return to the beach for our beagles to enjoy themselves rumbling around off-lead.
This was great fun to watch. The tide was low and there was a long sand spit so our beagles were able to have some really long chases along the sand and through the water. Some of our beagles even went in for a swim, some accidentally. We stayed at the beach for about half an hour because the dogs were enjoying themselves so much. Eventually dogs and humans seemed to have had enough fun and we walked back to our starting point.
This was a great walk. Very relaxed and lots fun for our beagles. Many thanks to Dave Baldry for suggesting and leading the walk.
