Bing’s nose knows snow

Bingley has seen snow before, so this time round he didn’t spend quite as much time trying to catch the flakes as they fell. Though I should add that during the last hail storm he did snap at the icy kibble as it ricocheted off the floor – he must have thought someone was throwing him big bags of treats!

But although he’s seen snow before it’s never been in the same volume as we’ve had this Christmas. On our first snowy walk across the playing field, as soon as his legs sank knee deep he immediately went into bum-tuck mode. In fact bum-tuck doesn’t do justice to the five foot leaps and twisty spins. It would have been even more amazing, and probably even funnier, if he hadn’t still been on-lead at the time!

Bing’s unbridled enthusiasm extends to anything which he likes and deep snow is no exception. It didn’t take him long to figure out that the best way to catch a thrown ball was to run after it as he normally would, but then instead of just scooping it up as usual (an impressively energetic feat at the best of times) he found that the deep snow would provide the perfect cushion for a belly-flopping dive at the end. He’s been doing this over and over again for the past few days, throwing up great spumes of snow as he leaps onto the ball and turning himself into a chocolate Dalmatian in the process.

But even when he wasn’t throwing his entire body into the snow he couldn’t resist getting up close and personal. Do smells smell different in the snow? Smellier and more enticing? I don’t know; but Bingley has certainly been on some heavy duty sniffing sessions over the past few days.

When he first stuck his entire head into a snow drift, we thought it was a fluke: just Bingley being Bingley. But then it happened again and again. A gentle sniff of the surface was sometimes enough to satisfy his curiosity. But some smells clearly required closer examination and time and again his muzzle up to his ears would completely disappear into the snow, leaving behind a perfect nose print as he walked away. Sometimes though the smells would be especially tantalizing and he would then try following the scent, pushing his nose along the ground and churning up the surface like some sort of canine snow plough.

Snow dives and nose prints are what we’ll remember most about the past few days. Though I have to say that the bum-tuck which almost had me on my bum is hard to beat, and the first sight of Bingley disappearing into a snow drift was certainly another classic example of the Bingcredible!