Doherty Dog Services

21/04/2025

Exciting news!
Due to high demand we are now offering a dog sitting service for our regular walking and training clients. As well as Laura, Dan and Claire, Laura's mum Carol has also joined the team and will be offering dog sitting too. Carol is insured with us and will do her canine first aid training in due course.
The fee for this will be £40 per 24 hour period. Please message us through your WhatsApp group to enquire about potential dates and we can let you know who is available and go from there. Looking forward to spending even more time with your delightful dogs 🐶❤️

Pic of HRH Duke Silver, just cos 🩵

11/04/2025

How's your dogs recall? Want it to be better? You can grab our guide when you sign up to our email list, link below!
https://mailchi.mp/e6d18d64b6dd/perfectrecall?fbclid=IwY2xjawJl6UFleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHmYLT7wbXfISC76sNx58v3XTiV8N4B5zHymPtBeS4CJ_0sYVUrtAW-ev4bqS_aem_mVqqKvgNswVDD8TpwRZnfQ

Learn how to set you and your dog up for off lead fun and freedom! Sign up to our mailing list and you'll receive our guide for free, straight to your inbox. You'll also get our weekly email full of dog training tips and ideas. Double winner! 

03/04/2025

What do you wish you'd known before you got your dog?
I've had some really interesting replies from my email subscribers and there's definitely some themes that keep popping up! Let me know what you wish you'd known in the comments below

03/04/2025

What to consider before getting a dog. New post on substack this week

In this article, I’ll be discussing what to consider before getting a dog.

27/03/2025

Struggling with your dogs recall? You can grab our Perfect Recall guide by signing up to our email list- link below🐶❤️

Learn how to set you and your dog up for off lead fun and freedom! Sign up to our mailing list and you'll receive our guide for free, straight to your inbox. You'll also get our weekly email full of dog training tips and ideas. Double winner! 

25/03/2025

Are you on substack yet? You can have a read of our posts there :)

It’s a classic game to play with your dog.

25/03/2025

Our favourite walks:
Lower Leas Coastal Park
Lower Sandgate Road, Folkestone, CT20 2JP

The Lower Leas Coastal Park is a beautiful spot for a walk and parts of it feel like something from a fairy tale. It’s broken into three main sections. The formal zone is a well maintained area of gorgeous gardens and flowerbeds. The fun zone holds the largest free adventure play park in the South East. The wild zone is a quieter area bursting with wildlife. Dogs have to be on lead through the fun zone but can be off lead in the formal and wild zones but like everywhere, do make sure your dog has a solid recall before letting your dog off. There are a number of toilet blocks dotted through the park plus Mermaid's cafe and two other coffee stands. The coastal park is mostly flat with ramps and bridges dotted about, making it accessible for all. You can park at either end of the coastal park. It’s a family favourite for us here at DDS as there's something for all of us and we visit regularly. It's also right by the beach so gorgeous views.

21/03/2025

Next in our series of our favourite walks....
Reinden Woods
Hawkinge, Folkestone CT18 7BB

The walking route through these woods takes you around Ministry of Defence training land and the walk takes between 50 and 60 mins, depending on your oace. You can find the entrance to Reinden woods on Canterbury Road in Hawkinge, just after Hawkinge Football Club but before you get to Densole, there is parking but no toilets or other facilities. It’s a fairly flat walk but gets very muddy through the winter, so may not be accessible for everyone. I love walking around Reinden as it’s a set route so it’s difficult to get lost! It’s just off the main road but as soon as you start walking you feel like you’re in the middle of the countryside, it’s so peaceful and quiet. It is occasionally closed to the public for army training. Plus, keep your eyes and ears open for hunts and army training happening if your dog is sensitive to loud noises. ⠀
One of mine and Duke's all time fave spots!

18/03/2025

As the sun is starting to show it's face a bit more (!) I thought it would be a good time to share some of our favourite adventure spots in and around Folkestone. So first up is Brockhill Park.
Where to find it: Sandling Rd, Hythe, Saltwood CT21 4HL

This is such a lovely walk! You'll find Brockhill park just off Sandling road in Hythe and there's easy parking. The park has accessible routes for wheelchairs and buggies and the vegetarian cafe is accessible too. There are toilets there too, plus ample parking in the onsite car park. Dogs can be off lead throughout some of the park (it's signposted where they have to be on lead) but you'll want to keep your dog on lead if they're inclined to chase as there are lots of ducks around. Plus if you go near the fields it's definitely leads on as its lambing season. There's a beautiful lake in the middle of the park. It does get busy with people and other dogs at times so if you're not sure how reliable your dog's recall is, keep them on a lead.

13/03/2025

Looking for a list of local private and secure dog walking fields? Here you go!

Looking for Folkestone Dog Fields to exercise your reactive dog or train your puppy? We've got you covered with our list.

08/03/2025

Why we won't be at Crufts

To write this piece, I thought it would be good to watch some Crufts live, just a snippet of whatever was on, and see what I thought.

19/02/2025

Want an easy way to minimise your dog barking at the front door? Reduce the amount of times the doorbell rings! Its not cheating, its just going to make yours, your dogs and your posties life a bit easier. I ordered these signs at fairly low cost online (DM me if you want links) but I've previously printed off signs I've typed up and stuck them to the door.
I saw a neighbour had a parcel box outside their home for when they're at work and wondered why I hadn't thought of it to help with dog training sooner!
Super useful if you have a dog with feelings about the front door, delivery drivers or if they're likely to bolt out the door whenever it's opened. I'll let you know how well the parcel box works for us 🐶❤️

23/01/2025

Did you know we have a blog with nearly 100 posts on all things dog training and behaviour?! Hit the link below to have a flick through all our posts and learn more about your dog 🐶

Dog Training Puppy Training Kids and Dogs Folkestone Dog Science

15/01/2025

Just some of the lovely feedback we got from our walking clients in our end of year survey 🥰 in march we'll have been walking the dogs of Folkestone for 6 years!
We do have a few odd spaces available across the week so do get in touch if you are looking for small group walks 🐶❤️

14/01/2025

Perfect Recall: Teaching your dog to come back when called every time.
Sent straight to your inbox when you join our email list- sign up link in comments 🐶❤️

13/01/2025

Popped to see Doherty Dog Services’s lovely Duke in advance of me staying with him for a few days. He’s a complex soul bless him, don’t be fooled by this photo… he definitely didn’t want tummy rubs! If anything, he was telling me in the politest possible way that he would like me to go now 😂. What a sweetie he is though, I’m looking forward to our adventures in a few weeks time ❤️🐾.

07/01/2025

Form an orderly queue puppers, your favourite treat lady is back! Training books now open for February- get in touch to book ASAP!
Pic of baby Duke, just cos.

18/12/2024

This is spot on. We have to have realistic expectations of our dogs!