New look 'issue' style home page

The new look homepage is now live. Once we launch, this will be the look of the current month's issue, so we're getting you used to the feel of it now!

Please let us know what you think on Facebook, any feedback is much appreciated and allows us to make the site that is right for you.

Fourth free video is now up

Leading up to our big launch, we've just put the fourth free video live, please take a look!

If you like the video, please let us know by clicking the 'Like' button next to the video, or give us a feedback on our Facebook page.

We look forward to bringing you more great content in the new year, merry christmas to all our viewers!

First videos go live

Naturally Happy Dogs are very pleased to bring you your first 3 free videos!

Please visit our video library to watch Sally Rowe teaching the 'Sit' command, Kris Owen baking cheese biscuits for dogs and Lizi Angel explaining whether the dog is a true pack animal.

Please let us know what you think via our Facebook page!

The 'new look' website

Naturally Happy Dogs are pleased to announce that our 'new look' website is now live on www.naturallyhappydogs.com. Do have a browse and let us know what you think.

We look forward to bringing you the first few 'free' videos over the next couple of weeks, ready for our Big Launch in January 2011.

If you want to be one of the first to hear about Naturally Happy Dog News, sign up to the mailing list here.

Discover Dogs discovers NHD

Naturally Happy Dogs visited Discover Dogs in Earls Court today to start to spread the word about Naturally Happy Dogs. We spoke to quite a few natural dog product organisations, who all seemed very keen on the idea and teaming up with us to promote natural dog care.

We found some fantastic products such as a the 'Dog Poo Wormery' so that you can deal with your dog waste in an environmentally friendly way and the 'Beco Bowl', an eco-friendly dog bowl.

We have added a lot of new organisations to our natural dog products and services directory. If you know of any other organisations that should be included, please let us know.

Herbs and Pains

We spent today with Dale Pinnock who is going to be one of our regular contributors. He talked about the herbs that Nick Thompson had mentioned and explained to our cameras how they are good for arthritis, how they function in the body on a scientific level and why they might be helpful for such conditions. We look forward to meeting Dale again, you can find out more about him on our 'contributors' page.

A Day with the Vet Nurse

We spent today with a vet nurse - usually that would be a worrying thing, however today we were filming so a lot less stressful and a lot less expensive than most trips to the vet! We filmed Vanessa Warren showing us how to brush dogs teeth, how to remove ticks and what you should have in your doggy home first-aid kit

As Nature Intended

Today we filmed an article with dog trainer Davina from Cambridgeshire about how her dogs have overcome health issues by switching to a raw food diet. She also explained how she has been able to adapt it to her busy lifestyle.

Davina has a Black Labrador called Charlie, whose skin issues have improved by a long way on the raw food diet, a Jack Russell who is much calmer and less hyper-active on it and an elderly Yorkshire Terrier who was extremely fussy and had anal gland issues but now 'wolfs' down (sorry for the bad joke!) the food and has no anal gland issues. Her vet has recently said that she has the best teeth her vet has ever seen on an elderly Yorkshire Terrier.

Reiki for Scrumpy and Heroic canines

Today we met Reiki practitioner Rob fellows and filmed a case study he had on a Jack Russell called Scrumpy. Scrumpy was a very energetic little dog who used to run off, away from his owners to burn off some of his excess energy. After a few Reiki sessions, Scrumpy is much calmer and doesn't run away as often. Rob explained to our cameras what Reiki actually is it and the many different ways it can help dogs.

As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day, we then went on to meet an amazing lady called Isabel who writes books on dogs who save peoples lives, we are pleased to announce she will be reading some of those heart warming stories to you all in our future issues, however in the meantime do check her out in the directory pages under 'Other' then 'Books and DVDs'

Alternatives in Bath

Off down to Somerset today to film vet Nick Thompson on several features, subjects included pain and arthritis and how he uses acupuncture to help them and also some great case studies including one about a dog that couldn't pee.

Nick is one of our regular contributors and we very much appreciate his time when we visit his lovely practise in Bath. His vast knowledge and gentle way with the animals he treats make it a thoroughly enjoyable day of filming

Doing with dogs

Today we filmed Lizi Angel and her wonderful dog training called 'cyno-praxic' dog training or 'doing with dogs' . She explained to us the connection between wolves and dogs and talked about exploring the human-canine bond.

Lizi is going to be one of our 'regular contributors' (see more in our contributor section), she strongly advocates a holistic approach to behaviour therapy, helping owners to understand what dogs really need to be physically, mentally and emotionally healthy in order to reach and resolve the source of problematic behaviour, rather than train away the symptoms. We look forward to visiting Lizi again soon, especially with the lovely welcome her two gorgeous Black Labradors gave us!

Headcollars and Wheatens

Cambridge today to spend the day filming Ollie the Soft coated Wheaten terrier. Unfortunately, Ollie obviously wasn't too fussed about his debut appearance and had been having great fun foraging in the bushes the day before so we spend a little while picking bits of undergrowth from his coat before we could start filming - at least it shows that Ollie leads a full, fun packed life!

Talking about 'leading', Ollie sometimes pulls on the lead, if there is another dog that he wants to say hello to, or if he wants to investigate something. This can make walks unpleasant for his owner and put unnecessary strain on his neck so we decided to introduce him to a headcollar. Headcollars work by putting gentle pressure on the back of the next, naturally encouraging relaxation (like a pup being carried by the scruff of it's neck) and gentle pressure around the muzzle. Just like a horse halter - it becomes much easier to control the dog when you have the point of contact around the head rather than the neck.

Many dogs will initially fight the headcollar as it is a new and unusual feeling and some owners abandon it immediately as they don't like seeing their dogs in distress. In our video, we show how we gradually let Ollie get used to the headcollar, going only at his pace and rewarding him for accepting it. After some training, Ollie was happy to walk happily along the street wearing his headcollar, walking beside me and not pulling at all. All in all a successful day.

Website goes live

As you can see our website is now up and running! While we are waiting for the videos to be edited before we can go live and offer subscriptions, we are proud that we now have something for people to look at. All we need now is some directory entries and a huge stack of videos so that you can all get going with training your dogs!

Shaping, Luring and catching

What a lovely way to spend a sunny afternoon, we have been working with Swedish Vallhund 'Lady' (www.dalysdogs.co.uk/lady) showing how you can teach your dog amazing tricks by shaping, luring and catching behaviours using a clicker. While the theory behind clicker training has been around for years, it was Karen Prior, a marine mammal trainer and author of 'Don't Shoot the Dog!', who brought it to the attention of the dog owning public.

Clicker training is fantastic because it opens up a channel of communication between dog and owner and uses a positive reward as a primary reinforcer such as food. It speeds up learning and keeps it fun for both dogs and their owners.

Freddie update

We popped in on Freddie today - what a difference, it is so pleasant to see a nice quiet dog sitting on a bed than be greeted by barking! Freddie has also been getting better around other dogs, but this does take time so Freddie and his owner should keep up the good training. When we are up and running, subscribers to Naturally Happy Dogs will be able to send in their own questions or dog training issues for us to feature in future videos

Filming Freddie

Off to Harlow today to film little Freddie a Miniature Schnauzer who has a habit of running up to the front door, barking madly whenever anyone knocks. His behaviour showed me he was actually a little anxious of who or what could be the other side and he wanted to make absolutely sure that whatever it was knew that there was a 'big scary dog' the other side and that they shouldn't try anything funny! We taught Freddie to go to his bed and stay there for a treat. After he got the hang of this, we asked him to go to his bed when the doorbell rang, soon the doorbell should become the actual cue for him to go to his bed to get his treat and Freddie's house should become a much quieter place!

Freddie is also worried about other dogs so by using Lady, Dougal and Sandy as stooge dogs (see their profiles on our facebook page) we worked on getting them slowly closer. After a while and a lot of good praising and interrupting from Freddie's very patient owner, we got close enough for Freddie to have a sniff of the other dogs and they became friends.

Naturally Happy Dogs emerges

What a packed few weeks, having decided to start Naturally Happy Dogs, Caroline, Kev and Sally have had meetings, set up all the legal side of things, created the official company and somehow fitted in filming in there somewhere!

We have been reviewing some of the footage we took a while ago of a very cute little Cavalier King Charles puppy, teaching the sit, lie down and stay. She was very good and while she hadn't previously learned any commands, she picked these up very quickly.