Dogs

18 Aug 2019

Barking friendly work places!

Has the world gone barking mad? Or has the world finally recognised the value of animals? Personally, I’d like to think that at long last animals are being recognised for the valuable contribution they make to our society.

As a little girl, I used to get so upset by other children throwing stones at animals and often got myself into trouble by standing in front of the stones!

Now let’s hope times have truly changed, as more and more workplaces are accepting dogs or creating dog-friendly environments. Millennials it appears are not only increasingly vegan but they also value having dogs in the office!

So if you want to create a dog-friendly office then here are some tips:

Consult your employees – see how many are in favor and address the concerns of those who are not. Ensure no-one is allergic or phobic.
Research – talk to other companies that have introduced a dog-friendly policy. Find out how many of your employees have dogs they can bring?
Get the board-on-board and ensure everyone agrees and backs you up.
Define numbers – how many dogs are allowed per day and which days?
Allocate areas – animals need to know their barriers and where they can go to relax, refresh, smell and communicate with other dogs, and be alone!
Ensure everyone knows the benefits – it’s been shown that animals increase productivity in the workplace.
Join Pets at work alliance they are there to help.
Ensure that the dogs that are brought into the office are content, enjoy the experience and get enough exercise, perhaps a group of employees could walk them at lunchtime if it’s cool enough.

If you do the research and define the areas you too can reap the barking-friendly office benefits. And don’t forget to follow us and let us know how you get on.

By: christina Dogs, Pet welfare Tags: dog-friendly, office-dog, petsatworkalliance

1 Jul 2019

Sniff Sniff Sniff

Photo by Marek Szturc on Unsplash

Many times I’ll see a dog owner pulling their dog away from a place with a really great scent! I wonder would you like it if someone pulled you away from the scent of freshly made coffee, a loaf of newly baked bread, or a bouquet of roses? Dogs possess up to 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses, compared to a humans 6 million. Part of a dog’s brain is specifically devoted to analysing scents, and proportionally speaking is 40 times greater than humans.

Dogs can detect odors in parts per trillion, Alexandra Horowitz, a dog-cognition researcher at Barnard College, in her book ‘Inside of a Dog’, writes; “While we might notice if our coffee has had a teaspoon of sugar added to it, a dog could detect a teaspoon of sugar in an Olympic-sized pool! “. Try listening to Alexandra’s very interesting Ted talk on how do dogs ‘see’ with their noses? Landmarks on lamp-posts, trees, stones, and pavements are an absolute story to your dog. When trained our dogs can tell you all sorts of things, they can help us find bombs, drugs, cancer, and many other things, so please just let them smell that scent on your walk!

Mark Scott from dog caring daycare; dog-stroll.co.uk actively encourages the dogs in his care to smell with the Sensory Garden he has created after attending a study on how dogs can self medicate. His sensory garden is a great example to us all of what we should and could do to keep our dogs interested and entertained with edible plants, tunnels, a straw pit, bamboo forest, and a willow dome. So if your dog is wanting to stop and ‘smell the roses’ then let them, you never know it may save your life one day!

By: admin Dogs

15 Jun 2019

The Rise of the top dog

Tamara Bellis

The British are animal lovers and in the past few years dog ownership seems to be ‘on trend’. And with this trend comes caring for your pet with the best food, beds, and attire. A few clever British companies have linked to this trend and are making accessories for dogs.

One such company is Ruby Rufus makers of cashmere for dogs! I’ve always wanted cashmere myself as I know it’s super warm and comfortable too. Businesswoman Ruby Rufus Isaacs started designing a collection of cashmere jumpers chihuahua’s to keep them cosy. Her friends liked them and wanted some too and when Pets pajamas online pet boutique saw them they wanted to stock them. Now stocked in Elphicks and many other luxury stores Ruby Rufus cashmere has been seen on many notable dogs including Kylie Jenner’s greyhound Bambi from Italy and Marc Jacobs dog Neville a staffy. Instagram-famous dog Tuna with over 2 m followers, loves this brand and with his tiny body and short coat he’s definitely in need of something to keep him warm. You can see him wearing Ruby’s designs at tunameltsmyheart.com. Ruby’s sweaters have become the very thing you want your little treasure to be seen in, for warmth and comfort.

Some people buy loads of jumpers so they can dress their pet differently each day, others just buy one practical cable knit. Her designs work for small and bigger dogs too.
Like us, Ruby borrows dogs as she also travels a great deal. We’ll certainly be on the lookout for stylishly dressed dogs. If you want your dog to be stylish and the ‘top-dog’ then check out

instagram.com/rubyrufus.

ipet photo

By: christina Dogs

25 May 2019

Sniff it out – dog detective finds lost Cats!

I was interested to read in Waitrose Weekend paper today that a dog has been trained to be a feline’s best friend.

Molly the cocker spaniel was rescued by ex-police officer Colin Butcher. The originator of The UK Pet Detectives, Colin thought it would be a good idea to train a sniffer dog to locate missing animals. But he wanted to get a rescue dog and he looked and found Molly, as the previous owner could not cope and was advertising her on Gumtree under the heading: ‘Owner cannot cope!’

Working cocker spaniel Molly needed a great deal of stimulation. As we’ve found with all the spaniels we’ve looked after previously for their owners during our house-sits. Most dogs need the daily stimulation of some sort of activity, searching for things, playing ball, retrieving as well as a lot of outside off lead walks and play too, preferably with other dogs. If retriever type dogs are under stimulated they’ll find something else to keep them occupied themselves, usually something destructive and disruptive!

So Molly spent 8 months training at Medical Detection Dogs charity who specialise in teaching dogs to recogise the scent of illness. Once trained Molly went out with Colin to search for missing pets. Molly firstly scents the cat’s fur and then she sits still when she has found the scent so that she doesn’t frighten the cat!

Molly now has over 100 finds under her collar. Colin is a busy man with over 30 calls a week and with Molly, by his side, it’s an enjoyable experience for them both. You can read their story in his new book Molly & Me which is out now (Michael Joseph, £12.99) thepetdetectives.com

By: christina Dogs Tags: lost pets, pet detective, stolen pet

11 May 2019

Bella and Daisy – May 2019

Working cocker spaniels

Every morning I’m greeted by the wagging tails and licks of Bella and Daisy, a wonderful enthusiastic welcome each day without fail. This mother and daughter pair of working spaniels are wonderful to look after. They need two long walks a day, preferably with somewhere to swim, either in a cows water trough, river or lake they don’t much care! As we love a good long walk ourselves this suits us perfectly and the four of us have some superb walks to discover new places. Bella and Daisy love to travel in the car and are very sociable, saying hello to anyone who cares to greet them. We’ve taken them to Studland Bay this time around and previously to Lulworth Cove, Corfe Castle and many other places. They enjoy anywhere new, with good scents, water and some lovely green grass to chew on! We throughly enjoy our visits and this time have had gorgeous sunshine. What more could anyone wish for? We are truly blessed to housesit for these two special little dogs.

By: christina Dogs, House sits

8 May 2019

Ella and Lottie – May 2019

In Ben Fogel’s new book he states that Labradors are “Kind, loyal, diligent, hardworking, biddable, gentle and faithful: I may be biased, but it’s no surprise that the Labrador is by far the most popular breed in the UK and indeed the world. One estimate puts the population in this country at more than 500,000. Jack Russell terriers, the second favourite, number 376,000.

I think many of us choose our dogs on the basis that we think they reflect our own personalities. They are like hairy ambassadors for the people we would like to be and this must be one reason families choose the Labrador as a role model for their children”.

Personally, I love all dogs but have probably looked after more Labradors, Retrievers, Standard Poodles and Lurchers than any other types of dogs during my lifetime. And I have to say I heartily agree with Ben Fogel’s assessment of the Labrador. Ella and Lottie epitomise the traits of this breed being very kind, loyal, biddable, gentle, faithful, fun and good looking to boot. Both Ella and Lottie come from good Labrador Retriever stock and have soft mouths, Ella particularly likes to carry anything that belongs to her owner Anne softly in her mouth, around the house and you’d never know the item had ever been in a dogs mouth at all! Lottie likes to carry a toy duck around in her mouth but is much more the hunting dog type and has been known to kill small animals such as field mice, squirrels and other small animals, so has to be kept on the lead near ducks! Lottie loves a good run in the forest with the many and varied scents that prevail there, luckily she comes back very quickly and obediently to the call of her name. Ella also loves woods, grass fields and flowers and although she has unfortunately had cancer, treatment for which made her put on weight she loves a good run out in the countryside and jumps into the back seat of the car very readily!

We greatly enjoyed looking after Ella and Lottie for Anne and Steve and would happily look after them again any time this is needed in the future. A more happy go lucky dog is hard to find and these two particularly are a joy to behold.

By: christina Dogs, House sits Tags: Ben Fogle, dog sitting, DogsittingHousesitting, holidays, Housesitting, labradors, pet sitting, secure homes, UK

26 Dec 2018

Cosmo Christmas 2018

We’re spending the festive season with Cosmo the West Sussex spaniel. He’s a wonderful fellow, very chilled at 15 months old. He loves his food, walks, rides in the car, all people and every dog he encounters. A more happy, cheerful fellow it would be hard to find. It’s a great pleasure looking after him in Langton Green just outside Tunbridge Wells in Sussex. We’ve walked into Tunbridge and had coffee and sandwiches and he was perfect. And we celebrated my birthday in a pub with my 95-year-old Dad and Cosmo sat at my feet the whole time and was no bother at all. If all our dog housesits are this well behaved it will be an absolute pleasure to look after our doggy and other furry friends.

By: christina Dogs, House sits Tags: Dogsitting, Housesitting

21 Oct 2018

Willow – Cockapoo – Hindhead 15th – 24th October 2018

As with most Cockapoo’s I like to jump and jump, just for the joy of life and all, walking on my hind-legs like a Meerkat. I love all humans, other dogs and am very, very curious! Quite intelligent, I always want to know what you are doing, getting into cupboards, the fridge, digging holes and generally creating mischief, my cute face, curly fur, and soft pleading brown eyes means I often get away with murder! At present I’m walked on my lead and harness, as I’m only 15 months old, but, I hope this will change in time, as I love to run and play, looking into forests as the smells of wild animals really attract me. Favourite foods are chicken and cheese, but I’ll eat anything you please. I’m lucky as I live in a house with three sons and they all love to play ball with me and take me for walks too. I’m presently being taken care of by Christina and Adrian in my own home and we’ve been on lots of walks and I’ve even been tired out some days so I’ve slept on Christina’s knee whilst watching the television.