Dolly Dolittle pet services

15/01/2025

15/01/2025

Oh my goodness gosh Lordy lord 🙃😩🥹

I just can’t deal with this pic Bruce’s mumma sent me 😩🐾🫶🏼
“Bruce loves his sprout” I got him for Christmas 🎄

Love him so much!

23/12/2024

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Until a year ago, I was a trainer with a very force free approach. I didn’t believe there was a place for aversives in dog training. I didn’t have a dog that required them. Lucky me!

Until I got this chap. My very much adored kelpie, Evo. Bred to move HUGE flocks and herds of livestock out in rural Australia. A hard-headed dog, with a mega independent streak.

I worked hard with him. I’m a trainer. I laid my foundations, as I have done successfully with my other 4 dogs before him. They worked, to a point. And then, they didn’t.

I was fully prepared to give him a breed-appropriate outlet. Alongside the other work I give my dogs, I have my own sheep, meaning I can work my own dogs regularly on stock. However, my small flock of flighty sheep was far too jumpy for him to work, and he was becoming dangerous out and about in any sort of proximity to sheep.

So, you may say, just keep him on a lead! Problem solved. Well, not really.

Management can and does fail. I have heard it from countless clients. I have had it fail myself.

I also live, with sheep on my property, and surrounding it on 3 sides. Everywhere we turn, there are sheep. There’s no avoiding them.

Keep him on a lead in the garden? We have a large garden and keeping him on the lead would be unfair. He’s an incredibly active, working bred dog, who would end up spending his entire life on a lead.

We also encountered prey drive issues out and about, particularly around deer. His recall was fantastic, but once we moved, our walks were either full of deer, or sheep and he could rip a long line out of your hands to chase something particularly tempting.

So, I decided to bite the bullet and e-collar train. Controversial, particularly online.

But, the absolute best thing I ever did.

The alternative solutions I had suggested were:

Keep him on the lead - I buy good quality leads, but they have failed on me before
Move house - we’ve moved to a dream house, not an option
Avoid places with sheep etc - hard when they’re in the garden
Long line - he could still pull a long line out of reach
Train him - he was trained to a very high level and we had reached the limits via force free methods.

Management fails.

I went through the process of conditioning him properly to the e-collar. I spent ages ensuring I got it right, he understood what was expected and that he knew how to switch it off. I invested in a pricey bit of kit, and I went about it by the book.

It’s transformed his life.

He can romp around the garden, he can walk through my sheep without batting an eyelid, he can walk off lead on the hills and he can enjoy walking in the forest even when deer run out in front of us.

For him, that wasn’t ever going to be an option without it.

Nothing was more reinforcing than chasing.

And it was going to get him killed. He’d have been shot, or hit by a car, or lost. All because I wouldn’t open my mind to using different tools.

Am I suggesting every dog requires one? Absolutely not. But there are MANY cases where they save lives. It’s both saved and enriched his.

He’s happy, he lives his best life. He hikes everywhere with us, he’s well mannered and fully reliable off the lead. He knows the rules, and that’s the key.

He’s not suppressed. He can still go off and be a dog. He tears around the garden with our other dogs, he sniffs and does dog things. But he’s safe when doing it all.

I see a lot of judgement towards these tools from people owning dogs who would never require these tools. That’s great. And that’s also not a problem. But it is completely unfair to demonise the use of a tool which you haven’t taken the time to fully understand. I was 100%, without a doubt, against them before I took the time to understand how they worked and how they were used.

It’s imperative that they’re used with a trainer well versed in using them. It’s also crucial that the equipment used is good quality and not something cheap from Amazon or eBay. It’s an investment, but one that is so necessary for a lot more dogs than you might realise.

Take the time to understand others’ points of view. There is truly not a one-size-fits-all approach in dog training and my change of opinion has opened up a whole new world for all of my dogs ❤

Photo by Saffy Leyfield Photography

19/12/2024

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE 🎁🎄🐶

THAT.IS.A.WRAP 🫶🏼

Van update… it’s going in on Monday 6th January, it is un drivable so it’s unfortunately the only way I can do it!

BUT, let’s look at the positives here, it got me to the end of the year 🙃

So I will be fully back to work Wednesday/Thursday 8th/9th January and I’ll work the Friday just for fun to make up walks that can’t be done the Monday/Tuesday!
I’ll do what I can in my car like I have today of course 🩷
It’s a big job but once it’s done I’ll be good for another 100,000 miles 👌🏽

WE.GOT.THIS!
Life likes to test me but I smile on through! (after a teeny mental breakdown has happened 🤣)

I just want to say a MASSIVE thank you to all my customers, my OGs and my newbies 🐶

I’m so grateful and aware of how lucky I am to do a job I absolutely adore doing but it wouldn’t be possible without you lovely hoomans!

Thank you for being the bestests 😍🥹🙃

Have a beautiful Christmas and drink, drink lots because I’m gonna 🤣

Love from Lucy and of course Dolly 🩷

Ps- this is new boi Bailey 🥹
Last two pics… outtakes haha

18/12/2024

Today has been yet another day full of surprises and it’s not even midday 🤣
Started day, fine!
Picking up last two days for first group, ENGINE HAZARD FAILURE!
FML 🤦🏼‍♀️
Call the garage… lll be there once I’ve done this walk!
Do walk, slip on my ass, drop dogs home, go to Garage!
Work to be done second week of January £900 🤢

I’ll have to message customers for that Thursday as they need it for two days so will have to be a visit/solos from home day 🤓

But back on track for the rest of the day!
I need wine 🤣

17/12/2024

2 days, 11 walks til Christmassss 🎄

I am so grateful for my life, my job, my customers, my family and my friends 🫶🏼

Christmas is a special time for me, even more so now we’ve lost our dad 🪽
To spend as much time with family and the people you love and care about as much as possible!
To live for each day, and to be grateful for all that life has to offer, even the hard days because they only bring you extra light 💫

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to live and LOVE my life the way I do 🫶🏼

Ps- I love this picture from today 🐾🐶🫶🏼

09/12/2024

NEWBIE ALERT 🔔

Can we just take a moment for these two LOVELY “golden doodles” that joined our fur family today…

Drum roll for names….
Darcy and DOLLY!!! 😩🥹

Almost 5 years and I now have a real life floof in the name of “Dolly Dolittle” 💖

01/12/2024

Van life 🩷

28/11/2024

11 years ago today 🐈

My ginger ninja that would attack at any moment but was loved so much 🐾😍🐈

Had to wear long sleeves to interact with this beast 🤣

28/11/2024

🐈‍⬛🐾🐶🐾🐈‍⬛

25/11/2024

Exciting times ahead, opening up another walk means I have spaces available Monday-Thursday 😍🐶

If you are in need of a dog walker, feel free to message me and we can book in a meet and greet to get you and your doggos journey started with the Dolly Dolittle family 🩷🫶🏼🐶

Also offering cat visits and puppy pop ins 🐶

Please feel free to have a look at my google reviews 🫶🏼

13/11/2024

If anyone wants to see more videos of the dogs, please follow my TikTok, everything is taking days to upload and I figured if people want to see they can follow there 🫶🏼
Thank you beautifulssss

11/11/2024

So cosy 🫶🏼

11/11/2024

Dolly Dolittle mascot 😍

I got the pleasure of Arlo alllll day today to help his pawrents out and it was soooo lovely 🥰

Just love him 🧡