Here’s some stuff I found on the internet about my athletic abilities: • If you enjoy running, you’re in luck; Tollers are fast—they can reach speeds up to 45 mph! • Running Miles: Healthy Duck Tolling Retrievers may be able to run up to five miles. Hiking Miles: A full-grown Toller may enjoy spend…

Don’t let those long skinny legs, ferociously wagging tail (accompanied by ferociously shaking butt), and innocent black eyes fool you: That one-year-old Pickle (before his somewhat sensitive male surgery) was quite the sex fiend.  Last summer — when he was just seven months old! — I saw him on the…

I hope I don’t sound too full of myself when I tell you I have tons of admirers.  “OMG, that’s the most gorgeous dog I’ve ever seen!”  “Eight years old??!!  Look at that face!  I thought he was still a puppy.”  “What kind of dog is that?  He’s beautiful!”  That kind of thing.  I hear it a lot. But…

I’ve noticed, in the last couple of posts, that Beagle Man’s been featuring my young nephew Pickle quite prominently.  I mean, jeez — why don’t we just start calling the blog BLACK LAB MAN? Last week we were watching Pickle while Robby and Brianne were away.  The little attention-grabber and I wer…

Confucius say: Dog who belongs to you will generally do what you say.  Dog who doesn’t, won’t. “Pickle, come,” I say. Pickle just stares at me.  I’m standing with the back door open.  Pickle is in the yard, 15 feet away, still as a statue.  Carol and I are watching him because Robby and Brianne bo…

I told you, in last month’s post, how the Beagle Man wound up with a Duck Toller.  Which got me to wondering:  How did you all choose your best dog in the world? ROB & CHARLOTTE: SCOUT (4 yrs old) “In 2018, Charlotte and I woke up one morning and decided to go to a rescue shelter we’d been eye…

I’m not even supposed to be thinking about another dog yet.  That’s what was in my head after Ricky, the World’s Most Handsome, Most Lovable, and Most Stubborn Beagle, passed away in April, 2014.  I’d always heard that when your dog dies, you’re so disconsolate that thoughts of the next dog are un…

After I’ve completed maybe a trillion fetches of my favorite stick in the surf, what I’ll do is I’ll drop my shoulder, throw myself onto my back, and roll around in the sand.  I do this not just once, but again, and again, and again.  In this way, I’m able to reach not only my back, but my sides a…

He’s not a puppy anymore.  Although strangers he runs into on the street, or in the dog park, or on the beach still think he is, based on that eager expression of his, not to mention his hyper activity level. About a year ago, I thought I noticed that Kemba had slowed down just a tiny bit, and loo…

My friend Jeff started life as a cat person.  I well remember Twotone from our growing-up years, and then M’hija, from Jeff’s young-adulthood with his wife Joan, first in NYC, then Virginia.  It wasn’t until the year 2000 that Jeff got his first dog.  (I’m not counting Dog and Friend, the two he h…