Heather’s Walkies

05/01/2025

Heather's Happy Dogs newsletter: Weekly walk photos, getting into shape, and snack to your heart's content.

Weekly photos, getting into shape, and snacking

03/01/2025

Back to walks in the New Year, and Brian was finally able to join us!! He’s made fantastic progress in the last two months, and now walks nicely on a harness with a connector. (Previously, he had been used to pulling strongly on a collar, not only risking a neck injury but also a rather stressful experience for both human and dog.)
He’s looking forward to making even more new friends next week.

02/01/2025

The difference between a spaniel-type obedience and a terrier independence! 🤣🤣

01/01/2025

Forget the exercise*, what they eat is 95% of maintaining a healthy weight, which can give us an extra 2 years of time with our doggy best friends.
This month’s leaflet explains how to easily get these precious extra years. Pick one up from my gate (near Blackrod Primary), or view online:https://heatherswalkies.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Getting-into-shape.pdf

Thank you to Love Pet First Aid for yet another fabulous course full of information for healthy dogs.

*exercise is only 5%, but is fun and good for the human and dog souls and can also help with metabolism.

26/12/2024

Brian’s first walk! 🤩🤩
It’s taken a long time to build up the trust between us to get a harness on him for safe walking (being handled can be triggering for him), but today we managed a full walk, including the difficulties of a car ride (lots of clipping/unclipping with seatbelts).

Next challenge will be loose lead walking, helping him be calmer on walks as he gets a bit manic. For now, I’m relying on a TTouch connector which reduces the pulling force, better for his joints and mine.

25/12/2024

Merry Christmas everybody!
Wishing you all as much joy today as Brian has with his new ball! 🥰

22/12/2024

Weekly photos, muzzle trianing with a flowerpot, and a quiet space for the holidays....

Weekly photos, muzzle trianing with a flowerpot, and a quiet space for the holidays.

20/12/2024

We ended up the year on a bit of a soggy note, but everybody is smiling.

Merry Christmas to you all and your furry friends.

18/12/2024

Timely post to go alongside the chocolate leaflets I’m handing out.

The choc tox calculator! Work it out, don’t leave it to chance as symptoms can take hours to develop and can be hard to reverse! Ask your vet if unsure ❤️

https://dog-chocolate-calculator.vets-now.com/

15/12/2024

I’m at the RMI today selling doggie goodies to raise money for Bumby Breast Cancer Care Events New . Come down and say hi and pick up a few stocking fillers.
I also have a stock of TTouch harnesses and connectors (the nifty bit of kit that instantly reduces pulling without aversives).

14/12/2024

I’ll be there tomorrow with some Christmas goodies for the dogs, along with the Ttouch harnesses that I’ve started selling. Come and say hi.

Wow, what a day....

We've has a fab turn out today and would love the same tomorrow..

A busy day with a very popular Father Christmas grotto....

Thank you to you all and see you tomorrow... 🎅🎅🎅🎗🎗🎗

13/12/2024

Happy dogs this week (yes, that is Brian and Penny getting excited for kale! 🤣).

12/12/2024

Excellent advice here. Busy Christmas households can be overwhelming for dogs so get them a quiet space that they can retreat to. Some dogs may withdraw when overwhelmed, making it easier to spot. Others may go hyper or manic, and they equally need help to cam down. They may benefit from a human sitting quietly with them in the quiet room to help them calm down and self-regulate. (This is probably one of the few times that I would recommend playing games on your phone when you're with your dog!)

Everybody wants Christmas to run as smoothly as possible and managing a busy household and your dog can at times be challenging.

12/12/2024

Muzzle training with a flowerpot!

Using a different object to start with means that if the dog has a scary experience, it’s not linked to the presence of a muzzle. Flowerpots allow treats to be pushed through the holes in the bottom. Both Brian and Penny think itself great fun! Thank you to Chrysalis K9 for the tip!

11/12/2024

🐾I've had a lot of owners messaging me recently being bombarded by lots of different trainers and struggling to choose the right one!

Unfortunately the dog training industry is unregulated!👀

✨️It is simply not enough to have years of experience. A great trainer is constantly updating and improving their dog training knowledge and keeping up to date with scientifically proven, ethical, force free methods!

Please see the image below as a guide💚

www.paws-ontraining.co.uk

10/12/2024

Weekly photos, why long nails are like high heels, and give your dog some scraps...

Weekly photos, why long nails are like high heels, and give your dog some scraps