MARS Dog Walking and Pet Visits

22/02/2024

Happy National Dog Walking Day! We have a busy day of walks and visits ahead 🥰

Did you know that Camberley is now Dog Friendly? This lists all the businesses you can go into with your dog 🐾

Coronavirus Information and useful links for Camberley

20/02/2024

Beautiful day with our Tuesday crew. In a couple of weeks once our new pup has settled we will be opening up a space on our Tuesday lunchtime small group walk for new clients who live in Hawley or close to Yateley Green. It’s important to us to assess each pup on our group walks first. These walks are perfect for friendly pups (who have passed the meet and greet and solo walk stage and settle well into the group) 🐶🐾

We’re keeping our fingers crossed it doesn’t rain tomorrow so we don’t get too muddy ☔️ But if we do we can dry the pups down and as always and wash their paws 🐾 🐶

15/02/2024

As it’s half term a couple of our pups are off this week spending quality time with their families so our first visit of the day was to a gorgeous 4 month old miniature labradoodle - who we know we’re going to have heaps of fun with as she grows. It was her very first visit from MARS and she was so good on her short walk 🐾

Our second visit was to our gorgeous rescue G-Dog and his big sister who played lots of games during the visit 🐶

And as it’s half term my children were able to join us for the last walk of the day - they adore meeting up with our regular daschund and he adores them just as much 🥰🐾

We hope you are enjoying your week 🐾 Niki 🐾

15/02/2024

Were giving a huge shout out to Sophie Bell from Animal Love Pet First Aid who has provided our MEGA first aid kit. Every eventuality covered! You can never have enough knowledge when it comes to pet first aid and Niki is signed up to this free seminar in July. We are also working alongside other local dog walkers and arranging our animal first aid refresher! It’s so important being clued up and keeping up to date. We can’t wait to share our first aid kit with our followers - and the great thing about the MEGA first aid kit that Sophie sells is that it gives tips on what to do in what situation and what everything in the kit is for.

We can assure you that your animals are in the best hands with MARS and we take pride in our small business 💜

FREE webinar - designing a pet first-aid kit. July 3rd 7pm.

This webinar will help you understand products/items and how to use them. And how to tailor a kit to your pet’s needs.

The focus is around dogs and cats, but I will discuss other species along the way. Of course there’ll be time for questions.

Limited spaces so be sure to book on. If you cannot make it you’ll be sent the recording.

Here is the link to book:

https://www.animallovepetfirstaid.co.uk/educational-webinars

14/02/2024

🐾 Small group walks 🐾

In the last couple of weeks we have had some lovely new MARS crew members join - one on our Tuesday group walk, and one our Wednesday group walk with the gorgeous M. We have spent time getting to know M since last year and we are thrilled she has some regular friends to join her on her walks 🥰🐾

These pups take it in turns going on the long line whilst they are still getting to know each other and we can’t wait to go on more adventures 🐾

12/02/2024

We’re so excited that this gorgeous little lady will be joining the MARS Crew this week after a fab meet and greet tonight 💜🐾 We’re looking forward to spending some time with this gorgeous pup and getting to know her 🥰🐾

08/02/2024

We wanted to share this useful information for our followers about Alabama Rot as there have been confirmed cases locally to us (Pirbright and Barossa).

Although we don’t walk in these areas (army land) we want our clients to know we wash paws down or will always advise doing so at handover if we have been in a muddy area.

It shouldn’t stop you walking your dogs but please be extra vigilant by wiping paws down. Alabama Rot can be avoided 🐾🐶

⚠️ Everything you need to know about Alabama Rot ⏬

What is Alabama Rot?
Alabama rot also know as CRGV, (cutaneous and real glomerular vasculopathy) otherwise known as Alabama Rot is a very rare, potentially life-threatening disease in dogs. Seen mainly in the winter and spring and mainly in dogs walked in muddy areas.

How can I prevent my dog from getting it?

Unfortunately, as we do not know the cause yet, research is ongoing . iI’s tricky to give advice about prevention.

However, washing your dog once they have been for a wet/muddy walk may help reduce the risk.

There was advice to owners about avoiding certain areas or types of land but the disease is across the UK so unlikely to be helpful.

What should I look out for?

Initially open wounds or ulcers that won’t heal; these often appear superficial and minor on the paws and abdomen, but can be the early signs of Alabama Rot.

Further development of the disease can cause an increased thirst and urination, then they may stop urinating, start to vomit, develop a “metallic” smelling breath, collapse and suffer seizures (fits).

It is important to remember that Alabama Rot cases are very rare in the UK. There have been under 300 cases in the last 10 years)

If you think your dog may be showing signs of Alabama Rot, or if you have any concerns about a wound or their health, please get in touch with us immediately!
Call 01252 750329

07/02/2024

What happens when we are first contacted for Dog Walking?

Last week we had a meet and greet for this gorgeous girl and booked in her in for a solo trial walk this morning to assess how she was on a walk. At the meet and greet we chat to owners to see if there are any “quirks” we should be aware of and also how they interact with their dog. We leave our registration forms to capture all the info we need about each dog that we walk, and discuss anything that the owner thinks that we should know.

Next is a solo trial walk where we check:

🐾 How each dog responds when we come into the house without the owner around.

🐾 How comfortable each pup is getting into the car and travelling.

🐾 And we also check if they are nervous or unsure on a walk with a brand new person. Some dogs don’t react the way owners think they will - even the most confident dogs!

This is so important for a dog walker to do and MARS would never introduce a dog we didn’t know to other dogs in our group.

If the solo trial walk is successful we will introduce our group pups and see how they get along. If a dog is particularly nervous with a new dog walker and a new routine, we spend time getting to know them on regular solo walks (30 minutes) BEFORE they come out on a group walk with us. We are not about adding as many dogs as we can to our group walks and every dog will receive the best experience under our care. We see ourselves as a care provider above anything else and want to ensure that our clients and their dogs are happy 🐾

We hope that gives you a little insight into MARS and what we do 🐾

06/02/2024

At the end of every day our crates are cleaned throughly ready for the next day 🐾 And all towels and bedding are washed at the end of the week - each pup walked by MARS has their own bed for the week to travel comfortably in our crates. If they aren’t in a crate they are safely strapped in and two dogs from different households will never travel next to each other 🐾

We pair dogs together carefully and we won’t add to our groups unless we are 100% confident the crew will get along. We take the time to get to know all the dogs we walk as we understand how important they are to our clients 😊🐾.

We have some new pups joining us over the next few weeks after a busy time of meet and greets and can’t wait to share.

Today we also had a summer booking for daily cat visits for a couple of boys we visited in August 2023. If you’re looking for cat visits over the summer please contact us soon or we will get booked up 🐾

02/02/2024

This lovely boy is one of our regular ad hoc pups. We had a lovely late afternoon stroll and we got a couple of action shots - he loves to shake his head just as the photo is being taken 😂 📷 And just look at those ears! We know we’ve said this before but ears have to be the most expressive, lovely part of a pup and our absolute fave 🐶

That’s us signed off now for the weekend. We met a lovely new pup this evening who will be having her trial walk next week and 2 new pups are also starting with us next week so keep your eyes peeled for pictures 🐾 Whilst we settle our group walk new pups we won’t be accepting new regular dog walking clients but books will open again once they are settled. Happy pups are our number one priority and we hope our clients agree they need to come first 🐾 We are however open for any ad hoc early evening or weekend walks but all pups need to be registered with us. We offer weekend pop-ins and walks to all registered pups, subject to availability.

Don’t forget that we also offer a pet care service for cats, rabbits and any other family pet who needs to be cared for and we are accepting bookings for 2024 📅

Have a lovely weekend 😃

01/02/2024

Thursday is the day for regular solo’s and our gorgeous adhoc pups 🐾 Another busy day but the weather has been perfect 😍 Oh - and we got to use our new “I’m out with my dog walker” ID Tags too 🦴

Three of our solo pups are going through adolescence. They are all male. All of a similar ages and all going “back to basic” training in one form or another! I will share tips in our group over the next few days which look at how we are dealing with:

- Excitement/Jumping
- Nerves
- Over Stimulation/Excitement before walks

Enjoy the rest of your week 🤩 We have another meet and greet booked in for tomorrow and an ad hoc walk for one of our lovely regular adhoc boys 🐾

30/01/2024

What a lovely day. We are very happy to introduce the newest member of our crew who will be joining our Tuesday small group walk as of next week after a successful trial this morning 👏🏼🥰

We’ve covered lots of steps today!!

Here are a few of our favourite pictures. We have another super busy day tomorrow 🥰🐾

29/01/2024

A productive Sunday for the MARS Crew. The pup fell asleep on my hand so I obliged and let her use me as a pillow 😴 THEN I was In-cat-acitated for a while whilst my 17 year old cat had a well deserved snooze on my lap so I took time to order some ID Tags for MARS dog walks. THEN I prepped all the treats for the week whilst my supervisor kept me in check. She loves a Sunday and takes her role of “Chief Treat Tester” very seriously. I’m sure all our pups would agree that she is very good at her job as the whole crew love them 🐾🤩🐶

27/01/2024

Bringing a carrot for this boy brought so much joy on Thursday 🥕 We have been working on calming him down when we first arrive so he is calmer leaving the house for his walks. Not only did he use up some energy playing with the carrot, he also played a snuffle game and it was a game changer at the start of his walk 🐾😊

Have a lovely weekend

26/01/2024

On Mondays & Friday’s I work in a school as a teaching assistant. What other job could you turn up to wearing your pj’s and no one bats an eye lid? (Well, apart from dog walking 😂) And my pup was loving them and brought me her teddy before snuggling up to me 🐶🥰

25/01/2024

Hidden Mickey’s aren’t just found at Disney - we’ve managed to find a couple on one of our crew too!

23/01/2024

Fun with the Tuesday crew 🐾 And our lovely girl “M” has a lovely new coat 🥰 It was perfect for this weather!

Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day of walks and visits 🐾

Next week we have a trial walk for a lovely boy to join our Tuesday small group walks so watch this space over the next week 👀

20/01/2024

**Sharing Saturday** If you have used MARS for pet care and dog walking could we please ask for you to leave a review on our page?

It would mean so much to our small business if you could take time to review our services 😃 Thank you 🙌🏼🐾

19/01/2024

The many faces of this gorgeous rescue “G” during a visit 🥰 Wouldn’t have him any other way and our journey has been such a special one to get him to this point.

The most important thing is making sure he trusts the humans around him - no matter how long it takes 🐾 His cheeky side is definitely out a lot more than his sulky side and we’re here for it 🐾

We hope you had a lovely week.

We have a trial booked in next week and are very excited for a new pup to join the crew 🤩🐾

16/01/2024

Just look at this gorgeous girl 🥰🐾 She had a lovely walk today and got to say hello to lots of dogs along the way (with permission from owners of course 🐾) We especially loved a large poodle called Ted who was having the time of his life saying hello 🐩

This lovely girl is still looking for a friendly pup to join us on her walks on a Tuesday and Wednesday lunch time. We have a meet and greet booked this week and are currently working with another pup (who is friendly with dogs but settling in to having a dog walker 🥰) who will be joining us when he is ready. The important thing for MARS is to match the dogs on our group walks carefully and get to know all the dogs we walk 🥰🐾

15/01/2024

How Cold is too cold? Please see the useful information below in relation to these freezing temperatures expected this week. For smaller breeds please make sure they have a coat available for their walks 🙂 Wednesday is supposed to be very cold 🥶

‼️ With the sudden drop in temperature we wanted to share this with our followers ‼️

The Pet Health Hub has shared this handy chart to help decide when dog walks could be unsafe over winter.

As always the dogs we walk are our number one priority and just like when the weather is too hot - we will always consider the below on the coldest days. Fingers crossed the temps won’t drop too far into the minus figures but anything under -2 is likely to involve a shorter home visit as per our service agreement (this is all dependent on each pups age and breed etc) 🐾

If your pup has a coat/equifleece please leave it easily accessible for us during these cold spells ⛄️ ❄️ Thank you

14/01/2024

Yesterday we had the pleasure of taking this lovely boy out on a walk so his lovely owners could have a family day out.

He was registered on Friday at our meet and greet and had his first walk on Saturday. He was amazing and such a lovely pup full of smiles and the best thing is that now he is registered and part of the crew our clients can book last minute 🤩

13/01/2024

We are booked in for cat visits for this weekend. Lots of play with these boys and we solved the mystery of which cat is opening the cupboards 😂 We have been visiting these boys for a few months now and know their personalities so well! And our ad hoc service means that our client could book us in last minute as they were already registered and we had availability 🐾😊

13/01/2024

Lovely visit with these two boys this morning. The mystery of which cat it was opening the cupboards was finally revealed after months and he even posed for a photo 😂 Lots of play time and fusses 🐾

We’re looking forward to a dog walk this afternoon and an evening of The Masked Singer 🎵

11/01/2024

A busy Thursday of solo walks and visits 🐾 Still got lots of steps in 🐾🥳 And the best thing about the cold weather is that the mud is frozen so we take that as a positive. We’ve been sinking in the mud for weeks 😂

And sooooo much progress made again with our home visit rescue pup who let Niki stroke his back. This is a HUGE achievement and Niki is so, so proud of him - it just goes to show that taking things slowly and having patience is what works - it’s taken 5 months to get here 🥰🐾

10/01/2024

Hello!!!! It’s been a lovely week so far and the weather has been ok even though it’s been soooooo cold! 🥶 I don’t actually feel it until I’m home trying to warm up 😂 These pups have had a lovely time.

Another busy day ahead tomorrow and we’re looking forward to our cat visits over the weekend 🐾

08/01/2024

Daily Pet Visits - OPEN FOR 2024 BOOKINGS!

Are you going away on holiday and need someone to pop into your cats (or other pets) once or twice daily?

Would you like your pets to be cared for by someone who will give them the attention and enrichment they need? MARS Visits are tailored to each individual pet/pets and we really get to know the different personalities of your pets, leaving owners with peace of mind & daily updates & photos 🐾 Our services can include putting the bins out, collecting & sorting post and anything else you may need (covered in our registration form). We are fully insured and completely trustworthy 😃

We have dates available for 2024 but don’t delay in contacting us for a quote if your holidays are booked. Once you are registered with us you can book us on an ad hoc basis throughout the year subject to availability 🐾

08/01/2024

‼️ With the sudden drop in temperature we wanted to share this with our followers ‼️

The Pet Health Hub has shared this handy chart to help decide when dog walks could be unsafe over winter.

As always the dogs we walk are our number one priority and just like when the weather is too hot - we will always consider the below on the coldest days. Fingers crossed the temps won’t drop too far into the minus figures but anything under -2 is likely to involve a shorter home visit as per our service agreement (this is all dependent on each pups age and breed etc) 🐾

If your pup has a coat/equifleece please leave it easily accessible for us during these cold spells ⛄️ ❄️ Thank you