Happy Hounds

04/06/2026

03/06/2026

Getting dogs sensibly from the van to a place safe enough for them to go off lead can be challenging!
Enthusiastic doggos want to get from a to b as fast as humanly possible.
Unfortunately that may well involve me ending up face down on the floor.
Today I tried this little ‘calm it down fella’ trick with the Ginger Ninja Brodie Boy.
I call it ‘whoa boy’
AKA
‘nope we’re not going yet’

This also works well with front doors and gates!

02/06/2026

I always have an idea of where I’ll go and what I’ll do with the dogs each day.
Very often though, something unexpected comes along and our plans go right out of the window!
An exciting find plus the ‘Bog Of Doom’ today …

01/06/2026

What’s this?
A busy cocker loose lead walking?!
No slip leads, no corrections, no aversives.
Just simply lots of practice building connection and engagement.

Go Dolly!
🥰

28/05/2026

This might look like I’m just frolicking about in the water with the dogs but
there’s an lot of ‘management’ going on here so that lil Monty can still enjoy himself amongst his bargy friends!
Being in the water with them makes it loads easier to move some back or hold onto them in order to make sure everyone has a turn fetching the toy WITHOUT being mowed down by an enthusiastic fellow swimmer!
You can see here lil Monty is (rightly) rather cautious about his smashy bashy friends! 🫣

So I ushered the others onto the other bank so that he can have a swim in relative peace!

Before heading home we practiced our

“stay on the bank, don’t sn**ch the toy, yay you did it, go ahead and snaffle up some snacks”

27/05/2026

I’m not going to lie, I smiled when I read that she was ‘tired’.
She’s definitely NOT been tired today.
No sir eeeeee!
We took a different path today in the forest for a change.

We all did some nice easy find it games which then resulted in some cracking focus and eye contact here!
I’ve only been waiting ‘several’ weeks for this, madam.
Never mind, we have it now so I was keen to quickly turn it into a game so that we get more of it!

The “ok” release is exactly the reward she values most so that’s what I’ll use!

Go Coco!
💕

26/05/2026

Our morning looked like this…
Pre soak the doggos before heading straight for water… 💦

24/05/2026

Here we go again, folks!
The heat has descended and looks set to continue for most, if not all of next week! 🥵
In order to keep everyone safe I’ll need to shift time slots back a couple of hours. This means that our 9am walk will start at 7 and our 11am walk will start around 9.
I’ll be cancelling afternoon walks .
Each summer gets a little more tricky as all of our (once young and resilient) dogs get another year older!
Most of you have had your summer haircuts which helps and we’ll be scurrying about in the shade as much as we possibly can.
We won’t be heading out to the meanders as there is confirmed blue- green algae present.
But we can still make our way along to the flowing river or the sea in order to keep nice and cool!

There’s a few myths doing the rounds right now so here’s some updated guidance for us all…

💦 Before ‘heat STROKE’ happens, you might see ‘heat STRESS’ - heavy panting- a ‘spatulate’ tongue looks a bit like a spoon - this happens in order to increase the surface area so that cooling happens quicker.

💦 Cooling a dog fast with cold water WILL NOT cause them to go into shock. The correct advice is to wet the dog with cold water (not tepid) and keep it wet. Then get them to a vet keeping your air conditioning on in the vehicle on the way.

Please do message if there are any issues with your walk time change .
If your dogs are home alone during the afternoon and need a welfare visit do let me know.

Thank you all! 💕