www.naturallyhappydogs.com - The online dog video magazine

Sunday 30 October 2011

Dancing with Dogs

We have had a really nice day today meeting the lovely Mary Ann Nester from www.aslanagility.com and two of her dogs - Tico the Border Collie and Twizzle the parti-coloured Poodle. 

Mary Ann explained all about doggy dancing including the differences between Heelwork to Music (HTM) and canine Freestyle. We were treated to Twizzle's latest routine which included a very cute trick where he performed a 'spin' with all four legs inside a bowler hat!  

With the help of Tico, Mary Ann taught us how to teach our own dogs to walk around an object, to weave between our legs and even to walk backwards. We look forward to bringing you these videos in the new year.

Sunday 23 October 2011

Possibly the UK's most popular dog?

We were rather star struck today to meet a dog who is more popular than everyone at Naturally Happy Dogs put together! Minnie Antoniou, a Bichon Frise from Potters Bar was featured in the Times Newspaper having reached 4,400 friends...by the time we visited, Minnie's owner John had discovered that there is a limit on facebook of 5000 friends - as a result she now has a waiting list!

Following a career in sales, John started Minnie's page as a challenge to himself to see if they could reach 1,000 friends - they did within months and their fan numbers just kept growing. They regularly chat to their friends on facebook, including dogs in many countries including Russia and even a parrot in America! 

According to Minnie's profile page, her religious views are Woofnostic and her favourite quotation is 'A dog is for life not just for Christmas'.

Friday 14 October 2011

Gundog work

Today we met up with trainer and behaviourist Adem Fehmi from Dog-Ease to find out all about the work he does with gundogs and other 'high energy' dogs. Adem explained to us that these types of dogs were bred to do 'a job' and that when they are bought as pets and not given an outlet for their energy, they can sometimes develop behaviour problems. Adem has found that by teaching gundog work to his classes, their behaviour often improves a great deal.

We filmed some articles about what gundog training is, what it involves and how you can do some gundog training with your dogs to help to channel their energy into positive behaviours

Wednesday 12 October 2011

A day at the RSPCA

More filming for our Christmas issue today - we visited Anna White from RSPCA Southridge to find out what happens at their shelter at Christmas - it was lovely to hear all about how the staff and volunteers all pull together to make the day as nice as possible for everyone and all the animals in their care.

We also filmed an article about their adoption process and what they look for in potential owners.

While we were there, we met the Chairman of the "Friends of RSPCA Southridge" Terry Pavey and he told us all about what the 'friends' do and how much of a difference the thousands of pounds they raise each year makes to the older and unwell dogs in the care of the RSPCA. This will be a rather touching video which we will be bringing you early in the new year.

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Christmas 2011 filming

We visited the Roebuck Veterinary Group in Stevenage today to film vet Anna Marshall-Brown who explained to us some of the dangers of Christmas. We heard some of the details about why chocolate, raisins and anti-freeze can cause problems and found out what action to take if we ever find our dogs have ingested these things, but we also learned about the dangers of things like tinsel. We will be bringing you this video in our December issue so that we can all make sure we enjoy a safe Christmas with our canine friends.

Thursday 6 October 2011

Missing dogs and finding dogs

Today was an interesting day for filming but a sad one too. We met up with Jayne Hayes from DogLost to find out all about the fantastic work that they do. DogLost is a national network of thousands of dog owners and volunteers who are keen to help reunite lost dogs with their owners. If you have lost or found a dog, you can register for free as a DogLost Helper and log in to add details of lost and found dogs to our database and to get assistance with your search from our national network of helpers.

As part of our video, we also visited Heidi and Chantelle, owners of 1 year old Chihuahua x Jack Russell "Pickles" who went missing from their garden in Sarratt, Hertfordshire on Sunday 17th July. She is mainly white with some tan on and looks more like a Chihuahua. She is micro chipped and all her details are up to date on their site. Unfortunately, Pickles is still missing, there is a group on facebook called Please Help Us Find Pickles and their DogLost poster can be printed off from the DogLost website.

After that, we visited the headquarters of Retrieva tracking, makers of "The World's First Tracking and Anti-Theft Dog Collar" - a fantastic product that has been designed to withstand dogs swimming, disappearing down rabbit holes and even thieves with bolt cutters!

Saturday 1 October 2011

October 2011 issue goes live

As we say hello (or goodbye!) to the last of the summer sun, here at Naturally Happy Dogs we are very pleased to put our October issue live. In addition to what now seems to be a regular dose of our favourite behaviourist, Ian Dunbar, and our excellent natural vet Nick Thompson, we have the second instalment of our feature on the Bionic Vet.

Ian is his usual brilliant self teaching us the importance of phasing out treats during the training process, and Jez gives a very interesting insight into how to use the normal days food allowance as a reward, to encourage behaviours that we want and also to add interest into normal walks. Turid Rugaas on reading calming signals during training puts the finishing touches to a mammoth behaviour and training month!

Sally Rowe tells us the importance of handling puppies all over, and how this can help with trips to the vets further down the road, and we are very pleased with the very technical and informative article by Barbara Houlding on Canine Anatomy and Movement.

With the first article in our scent work feature making its first appearance this month, I think you'll agree it is an information-packed month again!

How do we fit all this in every month...?