BeagleArt

Since you are hopefully enjoying reading about my Painting Beagles, and perhaps considering a purchase of one of their works of art, you probably would also like to know a little more about them.

Piper and Tuig are both 'rescue beagles'--rescued by animal shelters and first fostered and later adopted by my husband and me.

Piper is now two and a half years old and we have had him since he was 6 weeks of age. As a pup he was due to be euthanized until rescued and placed in foster care at the tender age of 5 weeks. Piper is a bright little dog that has been clicker trained since 6 weeks of age.

At four and a half months Piper auditioned for and won the role of the "warm ears dog" in the television commercials for North Atlantic Petroleum. Piper appeared on television for rescue beagles and became a registered therapy dog at one year of age.

Piper is my demo dog for clicker training. He knows over 70 different behaviors and enjoys showing off for an audience. He is a wonderful example of a clicker trained dog--happy and eager to learn. Piper has gone with me to schools to help facilitate my talks with students from the primary grades to senior high school, and also to Memorial University of Newfoundland so that we could demonstrate real-life uses of operant conditioning for psychology students.

Piper is an ambassador for beagles and what wonderful, intelligent, loving dogs they are. It is my hope to raise awareness of the plight of beagles, many of whom live outside in extreme weather conditions or are otherwise raised in less than ideal environments.

Tuig is a special little dog. He is a year and a half old. He was rescued by Beagle Paws at approximately 7 months of age. At that time his eyes were so badly infected that it wasn't until the infection was cleared up that it was discovered Tuig had a genetic condition known as micropthamalia (small eyes). Along with this condition, he has problems with his eyelids and he also has cataracts. Tuig has very little vision and will likely become totally blind. With this prognosis Tuig wasn't considered very adoptable, with one local veterinarian recommending he be euthanized. A member of Beagle Paws believed in Tuig and refused to accept the vet's recommendation. Tuig came to us as a foster dog. We fell in love with his happy, good-natured personality-adopting him in September of 2004. Once here, I began clicker training Tuig--working on basic good manners and socializing him to the world around him.

Tuig's painting came about from an idea I had of teaching Piper to paint and selling his painting to help pay for some eye surgery Tuig will need. After Piper had completed a few paintings, I decided to teach Tuig to paint too. He really enjoys his new 'hobby'. As a result, we now have this site devoted to showcasing the works of our Painting Beagles.