West Country Walkies

17/08/2024

⭐️ This gorgeous girl is looking for a new home ⭐️

Star is a 5 year old Springer Spaniel. Outside of the home she has no faults whatsoever and is a total pleasure to share adventures with! In the home she has some issues with possible guarding. Her new home will need to fit the following criteria:

No children
No cats
Not being left alone for more than 3 hours.
2 walks a day and lots of fun games for brain work.
She gets along fine with other dogs however because of the attention she needs I believe it’s best there isn’t another dog in the home.
I believe she could possibly be a fantastic canicrossing companion or even great at agility, she aims to please!
I will rehome her on the basis that the new owner will attend training with a behaviourist.

Please no time wasters, only enquire if you are happy to put the work in to change her life for the better. Star deserves the best second chance possible and a home with a lot of time and patience for her. I have walked her since she was a puppy and love her dearly.

Please message me, Sophie, on 07825181832 if interested.

09/08/2024

🐾 Fridays with my helper! 🐾

06/08/2024

🐾 After 3 weeks off to recover from an operation I am sooooo happy to be back with the pups! This was Mondays group giving me their best poses! 🐾

13/07/2024

🐾 Get down to the triangle today! The one day dogs are allowed inside as well! 🐾

04/07/2024

🐾 Perfection 🙌 🐾

25/06/2024

🐾 These guys are total legends, how lucky am I! 🐾

12/06/2024

🐾 Welcome to the WCW family, Pixie! 🐾

27/05/2024

🐾 ☀️ HOLIDAY! ☀️ 🐾
West Country Walkies crew are off to find some warmer climates! Returning the week commencing 11th June, missing the pups already 🖤 xx

14/05/2024

🐾 We visited a new walk today! And the pups LOVED it! 🐾

07/05/2024

🐾 Mondays like these make me forget about that winter! 🐾

03/05/2024

🐾 Fitz aka The Dogfather 🐾

02/05/2024

🐾 Hump day lunchtime crew! 🐾

10/04/2024

🐾 Wednesdays pretty princesses… in mud 🐾

04/04/2024

🐾 Making the most of the low tide this morning with this stunning crew! How lucky am I to be able to take 7 dogs to a beach in the easter holidays! They all have fantastic recall and let’s face it, the weather is rubbish so no one was really here 😂🐾

31/03/2024

𝐖𝐞’𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐭!!! 🎉

Together we have raised £1700 for Cornwall Search Dogs, this is way above target and will pay for Lyla’s Training and then some.

As promised us Dog Professionals have also stepped up this week reaching 1.704024 Steps! More than just for the good cause this fundraiser has been a lovely way to connect, laugh and network amongst us.
(Proof of Steps of each business in comments)

As a special treat & Thank you for all the donations I’ve asked Lyla, our sponsored search dog in training, and owner Annie a few Questions:

Trailing Adventures - Lexi's Legacy

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐋𝐲𝐥𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠?𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐝𝐨𝐠?

Annie: “Lyla is a 20 month old labrador and has been with us for 5 weeks and has settled in very quickly. She is very cuddly and friendly and has no idea about personal space!
She is still growing, and doesn’t always have control over her long legs! She has a fabulous wiggle when she’s excited and it starts with her tail and moves her whole body. She loves to play with her toys and her favourite game is to de-stuff them, which does mean we often have fluff all over the floor.
She loves everyone one she meets and everyone loves her.
To be a good search dog they need to be curious and enjoy using their nose and Lyla definitely likes using hers and investigating the world around her.”

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐝𝐨𝐠𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐤? 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞?

Annie: “We train our dogs on Scent Specific trailing – this means we get them to take scent from and article belonging to one person and follow that scent to find the person and their reward (Lyla loves mackerel – and each dog is different, some like food, some like a special toy)

At the start they will see the person run off, making excited noises and the scent article is on the floor – the dogs learn that the scent on the article is that of the person and the more they play the game the more that is reinforced. As they develop they stop seeing the person and start to just be given the scent article and follow the scent. We build them up by adding in turns, junctions, split trails (where two people go off together and then split up along it and the trailing dog stays on just the one persons trail. We build them up working on the 3 D’s – Difficulty, Duration and Distance but only add in one from this list each time.
For our dogs it is a really fun game with a lovely reward at the end. It can take up to two years to train a scent specific trailing dog and handler, who are a team that builds a very strong bond on trust and respect and FUN!”

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐝𝐨𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐣𝐨𝐛, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤?

Annie: “Our dogs learn to understand when we are going on a job – from putting on our kit to getting their kit ready. Lyla has a separate harness and line that is only used for trailing so she knows that we are going to play the ‘game’.

Once we arrive we secure a scent item of the dog or person we are going to look for -find out what information is available and then we give the dog the scent item.
Our dogs then work to find where that scent is freshest – they are able to work out direction and follow the trail. There are many things that can affect scent in the environment, some of it helpful and some of it not. What we are looking for is a direction of travel in order to help searches know what area to be looking in. As well as following a scent our trailing dogs can also tell us if there is no scent in an area so the focus can be put into another area.

Our dogs can work long trails and we are very aware of how much a trail can take out of them so we make sure if it is a long trail that they get rest breaks and sometimes will leapfrog our dogs and use two or three on one trail.
For our dogs it is always a fun game – as humans we understand the serious side of what we do.”

Woodhead Woofers
New Tricks Dog Training & Pet Services
Wags Canine Services
Kels canines
Laneast dog walking and pet sitting service
Bude K9 Services
West Country Walkies
Coastal Canines South West
Aunty Maggie's Pet Services.
All Little Paws
Whiskers and Tails Devon
South West Veterinary Nurse Services
Uncle Dan's Pet Care
Johnny Whiskers

27/03/2024

Brilliant info here 💁🏼‍♀️ please read!

*How to keep your dogs safe!*
In line with our “1000 Steps per Sniff” Fundraiser for Cornwall Search Dogs , here is some of my wisdom:
Dogs will be Dogs. It is in fact not “cool” to have them off lead or without a collar strolling down a main road. It should be our main priority to keep them safe.
Even if your dog has a great Recall and is seemingly not worried about much in life, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
- Let’s talk about Harnesses. I have seen dog’s slip / step backwards out of Julius K9 harnesses more than I can count on both hands. I don’t understand how or why they exist but they are not safe and if your dog get’s spooked or backs away from another dog it will be standing split naked on a busy road. Get a well fitting harness, Y shaped at the chest to give free range of motion and avoid joint and muscular issues as well as working with the dogs anatomy to be escape proof. You can see on Bronagh here I have used a 3 point harness because she would tend to back away more likely from new situations.
- It is legal requirement for dogs to wear an ID tag. This is the easiest and quickest way for whoever finds your dog to reunite them with you. Better than waiting for hours until the Finder, if they do, takes your dog to the Vets to be scanned or posts the found dog on some page you might not even be on.
- Naked dog? At home, yes. Please put a collar or harness on your dog so anyone coming across your dog can get hold of it safely before it crosses the next busy road.
- GPS tracker, as modelled by Rufus here! The Pawfit tracker gives us peace of mind that if the worst does happen we know were to look. Battery lasts for several days, it’s small and works.
- Although it is legal requirement for all our Dogs to be Microchipped, many still aren’t. And even if they are, often details are not up to date. Log into your Microchip provider’s page now to check if you have entered enough information, often you can enter several numbers, address and information about your Vet.
Please do donate for our Fundraiser, if the worst does happen, we know who to call on, the dog heroes!

https://www.justgiving.com/page/1000stepsforsniffs

25/03/2024

🐾 Rainy Mondays just means more mud right! The boys (and Fern) are happy! 🐾

25/03/2024

*1000 Steps per sniff*
Fundraiser for Cornwall Search Dogs

Every Owners worst Nightmare. Your dog is missing.
There are many different reasons why this could happen to any one of us. Being able to call on these real life heroes with their well trained sniffers has led to countless happy reunions!
In collaboration with 15 Dog Professionals we want to help Cornwall Search Dogs train up another amazing Search Dog by raising funds for her Training. This is Lyla, owned by Annie, and her training as a Search dog could be costing between £400-1500.

If you own a dog with a minimum of 3 legs, please support this cause. Spare as little or as much as you can. We all hope that we will never have to call upon this service, but when we need to, wouldn’t it be great to know they are well equipped and in the area, ready to help?

Within the next 7 Days us 15 Dog Professionals are going to walk our little socks off. We don’t have much to give and our baking skills are questionable, but what we CAN do is walk. We are aiming for a total number of steps of 1.5 Million between the 25th - 31st of March.
Can we do it?
The average Brit reaches 3000-4000 steps a day. Meaning we are aiming for 14000 steps a day per Person. We will be stepping up fo sure, so please support the cause to make every step count.

Help North Cornwall Dog Professionals raise money to support Cornwall Search Dogs

05/03/2024

Good Tuesday Morning, from Eddie and this weird golden shiny thing in the sky! ☀️

01/02/2024

🐾 Welcome to the WCW family Eddie! 🐾

30/01/2024

🐾🌷 Today feels like spring is actually coming! And I’m so excited for this! Plus look at these happy beauties! 🌷🐾

30/01/2024

🐾 Welcome to the WCW family, Jake 🐾

23/01/2024

🐾 Welcome back to the WCW family Daisy-Mae! 🐾

Daisy-Mae joined us when she was just a pup but unfortunately she then had some medical issues which meant she couldn’t come for adventures anymore. However her amazing owners have put in so much time and effort into her recovery she can now come back to the gang! And we couldn’t be happier! 🖤

15/01/2024

🐾 Welcome to the WCW family, Ralph! 🐾

08/01/2024

🐾 Fun in the sun! 🐾

11/12/2023

🐾 Fridays gang were joined by Griff and Monty, good job they know how to pose for a picture as well! 🐾