Happy Hounds

23/12/2025

Wishing all my clients
a merry Christmas
and a happy
New Year.
Lorraine.

13/12/2025

What’s safe and what isn’t. Please take
Just two minutes to read and digest.
Merry Christmas to you all and especially
Our fur babies.

We know it can be tempting to share your festive favourites with your pets, but here is some food for thought before you do 👀

If you can't resist sneaking the dog a few scraps from your Christmas dinner, make sure you know what's safe for them to enjoy and what is best avoided.

And remember, what seems like a tiny portion to us can be a lot for your pet.

[Visual description: An infographic displaying the safe and unsafe parts of a Christmas dinner for your pets. Safe foods include: boiled carrot and parsnip, broccoli, boiled or steamed greens, carrot or swede mash, lean parts of white meat. Unsafe foods include: gravy, stuffing, anything containing garlic, onion or leek, bones, chocolate, mince pies, panettone and anything containing currants, raisins and sultanas. Foods that are safe in small amounts include: roast potatoes, bacon, sausage and cranberry]

06/12/2025

Fantastic news! 👏🏻👏🏻

Woohoo - the Animal Welfare Bill is now law! 🎉

The new law aims to prioritise animal wellbeing, tackling issues including clamping down on puppy smuggling and stopping the importation of pets with mutilations (such as cropped ears).

Our 2025 PAW Report found that one in seven owners said their dog has at least one type of listed mutilation, including cropped ears - a cruel, painful, and unnecessary mutilation, which is illegal in the UK, that involves removing a dog’s earflaps to change how they look.

Not only does ear cropping have no health benefits for the dog, but it also affects a dog’s communication and can cause emotional trauma.

Learn more about ear cropping: https://pdsa.me/KXdy

This is a huge success for all involved in making this happen, and for pet welfare 🐾

[Visual description: A puppy playing with a rope toy. Below is a circle cut-out with photo of a different puppy with their ears freshly cropped. This image is covered by a big red circle with a cross through it.]

22/11/2025

Watch out for these.

🍄 Some kinds of wild mushrooms can be toxic for your dog. Here're some signs to look out for if eaten👇

Share our tips to help other pets stay happy and healthy this autumn. 💚

If your dog shows any of the above symptoms, please contact your vet immediately.

22/11/2025

Thanks max. Many people don’t really understand dog body language. I’m learning more and more.

07/11/2025

Not good for dogs!

For those of you already in Christmas shopping mode:

RAWHIDE IS POSSIBLY THE MOST DANGEROUS DOG TREAT ON THE PLANET!

The chews are made from cattle or horse hides and their journey starts with the hides being soaked in a toxic sodium sulphide to remove the hair and fat. More chemicals are used in order to split the hide into layers which is then washed with hydrogen peroxide to give the white “pure” look and remove the rancid smell.

Now comes the pretty festive colours and the glue to form cute shapes. On testing, these chews have shown traces of arsenic, mercury, chromium and formaldehyde.

If that wasn`t bad enough they regularly cause intestinal blockages, poisoning from chemical residue and choking. The chews go slippery when wet and are near impossible to get hold of to save a choking dog.

Leave them in the shop or if some well meaning person buys them for your dog put them safely away and then dispose in the bin!

31/10/2025

With Halloween and Bonfire Night round the corner, make sure you can spot signs of stress in your dog so that you know when they need your help.

22/09/2025

Good advice. Thanks.

If you notice something wrong with your dog’s eye, flushing it with saline solution is usually a good first step to take.

Then call your vet. Any eye injury will be classed as an emergency and you should therefore get a priority appointment.

It could also be useful to fit the dog with a cone/buster collar to stop them from scratching at the eye and making it worse.

17/09/2025

So many dog owners don’t know this.

A seasonal risk that you should be aware of.

22/08/2025

Thanks for the reminder!

Sticks are NOT a good dog toy – we’ve heard lots of stories of dogs being injured by sticks.

From life-threatening impalation or choking situations, to cuts, splinters and abcesses, it really is better to be safe than sorry and avoid the risks. There are many safe alternative toys, including rubber ‘sticks’.