Dog of the Month - November

Here's November's Dog of the Month - Dexter!

Dexter first came to me in August 09 for boarding, then started dog walking with me in August this year, so he got his Walkies Award at the same time. I haven't managed to get such a good photo of a dog posing with his rosettes before! Dexter looks chuffed to bits. He also looks a bit mucky, but, well, if you're not mucky, covered in branches, snow or slobber can you really say you've had a good time??

Dexter's award was for being an independent free spirit, who ALWAYS (nearly) comes when he's called.

Our first meeting August 09, awww, so sweet and cute looking!

 And yes he is stuck. This is what I call a rescue dog. He followed the big dogs in, then couldn't get out and needed to be rescued. Normally when dogs do this they choose a bank with nettles on, so I get stung as well as wet and muddy...

Dog of the Month - August

Slightly delayed as usual, here's Barney, August's Dog of the Month!

Barney stayed with me a few times over the summer, and really mucked in well with all the dogs. There was some competition over tennis balls and toys so we stopped taking them with us after a few days. In their absence, Barney sat in the dog pond waiting for me to throw something, and when I didn't, he dived to the bottom and rescued a few sunken toys!

The main reason he won the award is his quick learning! One of my own dogs is a bit of a bicycle chaser, so when on a long weekend walk at first sight of a bike we all gather round for a small treat so Scamp doesn't chase. After an hour of this, Barney was running straight to me without me saying anything at all as soon as he spotted a bike. I was very impressed - I've been doing this since June and Scamp still hasn't quite got it...

Here's some of my fav pics of Barney. He's also been walking with me a year, so got his Walkies award at the same time.

The Walkies Award

This is a little rosette I give to the dogs after completely one year's 'service' with me. I think it's something to celebrate, our first anniversaries together!

So far we have five Walkies Award winners (plus one honourary) but I seem to have mislaid one of the 'presentation' photographs.

We have more award winners coming in the next few months, in the meantime, here's our current group of 'sophomores'.



Inky is looking a little bit sad as I can't find his photo with rosette.




Max




Bingley




Henry (honourary)




Benson



Scarlet (feeling peckish)

Dog of the Month - January

Humphrey has been walking with me for 8 months - he's a very cute Bulldog, nearly two years old now. He's a cracking personality! Very entertaining, and all the regulars in the park love him - even those without dogs can't see him without cooing over him.

He is very much the reincarnation of Tigger:

The wonderful thing about Tiggers
Is Tiggers are wonderful chaps
They're loaded with vim and vigor
They love to leap in your laps
They're jumpy, bumpy, clumpy, thumpy
Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun

This doesn't always go down very well with other dogs, although he did learn very quickly to be calm and controlled around the other dogs in his regular walking group. Every new dog though, got Tiggered.

Then, after a very quiet winter of calm walks, in January I started walking a very cute 10 month old Wire Haired Fox Terrier. Humphrey was very happy to see his new buddy, and very gently and carefully made friends. No leaping in her lap! I think it might be love...

So because of his very grown up and calm welcome for the new girl, not only did Humphrey win Dog of the Month for January, the awards were created simply so he could have the first one!

Sadly his time with us is coming to an end, but we hope to see Humphrey again in the future, and we will always remember him fondly.

His presentation photo is slightly whited out (and he's trying to eat his rosette), so here's a collection of photos from the last 8 months.

We love you Humphrey! xx