On your marks

Today we filmed with our resident trick-trainer (and extremely hard-working editor) Sally Rowe, who talks us through the various steps to training your dog to go to a mark.  Big thanks to Katie Mardell who kindly brought her lively collie 'Poppy' down to the hall for filming

Double trouble

Today we headed down to film with Karen Lawe from the Deaf Dog Network, where we also met up with Dali, a deaf Staffordshire Bull Terrier currently looking for his forever home, and being looked after at Battersea.  This is our second visit to film Karen, and we thank her very much for her time, we are really looking forward to bringing you the first of her articles about the Deaf Dog Network and Living With a Deaf Dog.

From there, we headed on over to see Jez.  Once again we were very impressed at his professionalism and knowledge, he is always a pleasure to film.  Jez completed our December issue with a very detailed breakdown of the potential dangers around the festive period, and what we ought to look out for in terms of our furry friends.  He also filmed another two fascinating articles for the new year, so watch this space!

Discover Dogs 2011

What a great day we had on Sunday, filming at Discover Dogs show in Earls Court, London!  Firstly we met and interviewed Caroline Kisko, the Kennel Club's Secretary, who gave us a breakdown of some of the activities happening across the two days.  This fed into an interview with Faye Moore of the Young Kennel Club (YKC), who explained about the benefits of joining for children and young adults aged between 6 and 24, and talked to us about the team building days that they organise, including Outward Bound and Go Ape.  We hope to bring you these interviews very soon...

Next in front of our camera was Marc Abraham (aka Marc The Vet) who caught up with us in between his very busy schedule of seminars.  He talked to us about an issue close to his heart – puppy farming.  He has started a high-profile campaign called Pup Aid which has attracted the support of a large number of celebrities.  In this article, which we'll bring to you early in the new year, Marc explains how to identify a mass-bred dog, what problems they can come with, and what you can do to help eradicate this terrible practice.

To finish off the day, we interviewed Jo-Ann Essex and Lesley McFayden from the East Anglian Staffordshire Bull Terrier Club, who talked to us about Staffie breed generally, the great work they do with them in agility, and about the National Stafford Weekend.  We will bring that article to you in March of next year, in time for the National Stafford Weekend. 

We even found time to catch up with Joe Inglis on Joe's Vets Kitchen stand, very good to see him too!

Wow, time to recover now, and of course loads of editing!

Golden Oldies

Today we visited Jean Adams who has homed two adorable Jack Russell-Chihuahua crosses from the Oldies Club, a rescue organisation that re-homes the more mature rescue dog.

In this fascinating interview Jean talks about her experience with the Oldies Club, why she prefers the older dog to puppies, and also touches on the benefits of fostering.  We very much look forward to bringing you this article in the new year.

Jordan Shelley - after The One Show

Today we had the good fortune of meeting with Jordan Shelley, the dog trainer and fosterer made infamous by his recent appearance on BBC's "The One Show".  A furore followed that appearance with many from the dog behaviour and training world up in arms about his use of dominance-based techniques, in particular their use on national television without adequate information about how potentially dangerous they can be.

Many people, faced with the ferocity of opinion against them, would have faded into the background as quickly as possible.  Jordan, however, decided instead to seek the best advice he could get.  Armed with advice from Beverley Cuddy of Dogs Today magazine, and within a week of The One Show airing, Jordan was on a plane to visit and learn from the best – Ian and Kelly Dunbar.

The next two weeks saw Jordan attend the APDT Annual Conference, where he listened to some of the keenest minds in positive reward based training.  He attended Ian Dunbar’s SIRIUS puppy training classes, as well as his Science Based Dog Training (With Feeling) seminar, and spent the two weeks living with Ian and Kelly and their three dogs.

Upon his return, he agreed to talk to Naturally Happy Dogs on film about his experience, what he has learned, and how he intends to move forward with his newly learned techniques.  Please click here to watch this article.

Naturally Happy Dogs learns about feeding raw meat with BARF

Sittingbourne in Kent, and Naturally Happy Dogs are on the road to visit BARF Pet Foods UK, which offers the largest selection of raw foods and supplements available to the UK market.

Whilst the raw food market in Germany, where Managing Director Andreas Dauer moved from recently, enjoys a 30% market share, in the UK it only stands at around 1%.   When Andreas moved to the UK and tried to source some raw food for his Bernese Mountain Dogs, he realised that there wasn’t a huge selection available and seeing an unfilled niche, started his company just over a year ago.

In our article which we will bring to you early in the new year, we hear about some of the benefits of the “Biologically Appropriate Raw Food” diet, how and why supplements can support it, and also how you can move your dog across to it from classic processed kibble.

November 2011 is live

This month we have some great videos including DogLost, Teaching your dog to roll over, an introduction to Galen Therapy, The benefits of Fun Scentwork, Environmental Enrichment for your dog,  Surgery for bone cancer, a look at chain collars and their alternatives and how we can use fish oils to treat inflammation. What a month!

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.

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'.

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

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.

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.

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!

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...?

September 2011 goes live

Our September issue is live! Visit our video library 'arthritis specials' as well as articles on Golden Retrievers, teaching 'paw', recall training, canine Bowen, innovative veterinary surgery and understanding-dog-emotions!

Filming 2 more videos - Scent and Rallys

Today we filmed Pam MacKinnon from www.talkingdogs.org.uk with Cherry a 6 month old Red Fox Labrador discussing Scent work. Dogs love to sniff and smell their way through the day. Why not harness this skill rather than fighting against it? Scentwork offers a great way to have fun with your dog and tire him out quickly. This can be done at different levels, from letting him work alone while you watch from the sofa to encouraging him to cover larger, more challenging areas.

We then found out all about a new type of obedience training they do called 'Rally'. This is brand new and includes updated and clarified station signs, clear, well defined rules and regulations, and a unique ethos with an emphasis on pet dog owners competing with their own scores rather than simply against each other, Talking Dogs Rally aims to bring trainers and owners together to have a hoot with their dogs.

We also filmed a great video with Pam teaching a 'find it' game that we look forward to bringing you so that you can try it yourselves at home!

Playing with puppies

We had another great day's filming today, visiting little Daisy - a 'whattie' (Westie cross something!) We filmed an article about handling puppies and Daisy was a little star. Daisy's sister was also very friendly and seemed keen to get in on the filming action so we got some great shots of them playing together. They really are both a credit to their breeder - both such friendly, happy little pups.

We then filmed a lovely Hungarian Vizsla learning how to give a paw and then on to a Rottweiler to teach a roll over and a hand touch. All three dogs were very quick to learn and filming went effortlessly. We look forward to bringing you the videos over the next few months.

August 2011 is underway

What a fantastic month! In this issue, meet Michael Ball and hear how his dog Freddie survived pioneering new hip surgery. Also hear how Turid Rugaas advises we can improve our dog's confidence by providing a variety of mental stimulation. Ian Dunbar talks about the type of walks that he enjoys the most and recommends for a happy, healthy pet, and Barbara Houlding explains how Veterinary Physiotherapy can benefit older dogs. Nick Thompson tells us how 8yr old Great Dane Sasha who was suffering from Spondilitis was helped with acupuncture and other therapies to help her to pee again. We also find out about the links between Castration and Behaviour and how TTouch can be useful in agility training.

New subscribers ALSO this month get a voucher for a KONG product up to £20

WGAS becomes WGAC

Something new is happening at Wood Green Animal Shelter in Godmanchester, UK...they are proud to be re-branding themselves and improving the possibilities they have as a charity to help dogs find new forever homes.

We caught up with some of the members of staff today to film an article for you on the charity's ethos and how they help so many dogs each year, from strays to abandoned puppies to adult dogs needing new loving homes.

With their headquarters in Cambridgeshire UK, the charity has built up a fantastic reputation locally and we are pleased to be able to support them to help increase their visibility on a more national and international scale.

Their 'new look' website can be found here www.woodgreen.org.uk

July 2011 is live

The July issue of Naturally Happy Dogs is now live and we have some more great videos for you. In Dominance: Fact or fiction?, Ian Dunbar discusses the existence of dog hierarchies and how the truth about dominance differs from the common beliefs.

As well as giving away a FREE KONG to anyone who signs up to an annual membership this month, we also have a great video by Lizi Angel about Kong toys.

We also have fascinating videos on Police tracking dogs, how to Bandage dog paws, how to teach a Basic recall, things to consider when Choosing a 'type' of dog, find out what happens at an Acupuncture session and see how TTouch can help improve a dog's state of mind ready for training.