German shorthaired and longhaired pointers

Today we travelled to Cambridgeshire to meet David and Eileen Winser and their German Shorthaired Pointers and the less common German Longhaired Pointers. David and Eileen have 3 Longhaired and 2 Shorthaired pointers and a litter of pups. It was a real pleasure to meet them and their very well trained and well behaved dogs. Even the 7 week old pups were demonstrating lovely recalls and sits! We should be bringing that video to you soon so do keep an eye out on our video library Breed Section.

Sex and growling!

We travelled to Buckinghamshire today to see the great Ian Dunbar at his seminar at Amersham Rugby Club. He very kindly spent much of his lunch break with us and we have some fantastic new videos on inappropriate sexual behaviour, unwanted toileting behaviour, playing tug and teaching 'growl' and 'shush'. Ian was, as always, a natural in front of the camera and we filmed these four great videos in no time, leaving him in peace to eat his lunch before returning to the packed venue for his last day teaching during this trip.

July 2012 issue is live

This month we feature the work of the National Search and Rescue Dog Association (NSARDA) Kent organisation. They are this month's featured charity, and we bring you a fascinating insight into the thorough work they do with this month's first article.

Also this month we bring you an interesting article about pet cremation, a sombre subject but one that all pet owners out there should consider in good time.

Our Canine Partners series continues with an article about puppy parents, and behaviourist Jez talks to us about guarding issues that can arise when you have more than one dog in the house.

TV vet Joe Inglis talks to us about nutrition through the various stages of a dogs life, whilst Victoria Stilwell talks about the process of introducing a baby into a family that already has dogs.

Our gun dog training series continues with Adem Fehmi with a 'retrieve' video and we see another grooming video about trimming feet featuring Jo Hart go live this month also... another action packed issue, well what would you expect!

Maybe next time

The Naturally Happy Dogs team attended the FSB Hertfordshire Small Business Awards 2012 Gala dinner along with a few hundred other finalists. There were some very strong entrants this year and a few businesses stood out as leaders in their industries.

Unfortunately we didn't come away with an award, however our framed 'finalist' certificates are up in our offices. We were very pleased and honoured to even get to the finals so we didn't leave disappointed. There's always next time and we'll keep trying!

Irish Terriers

Today we visited the lovely Ann Bradley and her Irish Terriers, which she breeds and shows.

It is rare for us to visit someone so organised, and Ann had prepared her answers in great deal making her an absolute pleasure to film. Her older bitch 'Lady' was a calm and thoughtful example of the breed, and helped Ann welcome us to the home, but gave us a false sense of security - Ann also has a number of younger dogs and they were anything but calm! An energetic and lively breed, they were a real pleasure to meet and film and were a credit to themselves.

We very much look forward to bringing you this article in our breed library, one of our best so far! Thanks very much Ann.

Ready, Set, Finnish!

Today we filmed another two breeds for the breed library, Finnish Lapphunds and Irish Setters. First we visited Elaine Short and her Finnish Lapphunds.

Elaine has 9 Lapphunds including the various colours that the Lapphunds comprise, and a variety of ages from 8 months to 12 years. She also had one bitch in whelp, about a week from full-term...we should have visited three weeks later! We wish Elaine all the best with the new additions to her canine family, and thank her again for her time.

Then it was onto visit David Bell and his Irish Setters. Again there was a variety of ages on show with their youngest dog being only 4 months old, and their eldest 13 years. David is the Chairman of The Irish Setter Association, England and with 40 years experience of the breed was very knowledgable. We thank David and his wife for their time, and very much look forward to bringing both of these breed videos to you soon.

June 2012 dog videos

Another month, another action packed issue goes live on the Naturally Happy Dogs website.

This month we feature the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, with an interview with Jo-Ann Essex and Lesley McFadyen from the East Anglian Staffordshire Bull Terrier Club, who are also our charity of the month this month.

We also have another interview with Karen Lawe all about training deaf dogs, and a great video about the training process that Canine Partners use to train their partner dogs. With another interview with Victoria Stilwell about the problems of anthropomorphising dogs, a fascinating insight into the canine cancer treatment option CV247, and another video from Mary Ann Nester about dancing with dogs, it is another very full month - see all our videos in this issue here - June 2012

But that's not all – we also feature the first in our series of dog grooming videos with groomer Jo Hart, who explains how to clean your dogs ears.

We've had another busy few days full of filming too, so lots more interesting articles coming up in the next few months, stay tuned!

A TTouch of class

After what seems like a lifetime we have finally returned to film Jane Harvey, TTouch practitioner and proprietor of Harvey's Dog Training & Day Care.

Jane very kindly showed us round her doggy day care facilities, and also talked us through some more TTouch techniques including ear work. We have got some great articles which we look forward to bringing you in the next few months. We thank Jane very much and look forward to filming her again in the future.

We are finalists!

We are very pleased to announce that we have been shortlisted as finalists in two categories at this year’s Hertfordshire Business Awards run by the Federation of Small Businesses.

The winner of the event will win £10,000 in advertising from The Hertfordshire Business Independent and Archant Herts & Cambs.

In the past 18 months we have gone from strength to strength, with subscriptions costing just £4.95/month for over 20 hours of dog training and well-being advice, we are fast becoming one of the best value for money dog advice services and there is new content every month.

We are gradually branching out to our international viewers too, we already have subscribers in Australia , Denmark, Finland, Ireland and the US.

Secret projects, ssssh!

Today we met up with our behaviour specialist, Jez. We can't say too much at the moment, but we are working on an exciting project with Jez which will become clear in the coming weeks, watch this space!

Insurance matters

Today we had the pleasure of filming Neil from VIP (Independent Pet Insurance Specialist Brokers) about an important subject – pet insurance.

Neil is the Managing Director of VIP and has been in the insurance game for many years. He is also a contributor to Dogs Today magazine providing advice to worried pet owners about what their insurance covers. Neil gave us a lot of very useful advice about choosing a pet insurance company, choosing the right policy for you and your pet and also what to do if things don't quite go to plan.

May 2012 live

It is springtime and here at the Naturally Happy Dogs offices we are thinking about new beginnings. In particular, this month we are focusing on children and dogs.

We start off with a fascinating piece on the work of Lincoln University and their study into dog bite prevention for children. That is swiftly followed by an interview with Victoria Stilwell about introducing a dog into a family with children. Finishing off our 'young persons' theme is an article about the Young Kennel Club, featuring an interview with Fay Moore which we filmed at Discover Dogs last November.

Also in this month's issue, a very moving piece featuring Lorna and Eli, the Canine Partnership that we filmed as part of our feature on Canine Partners. We think this is our best article to date, you may well need a box of tissues to hand when watching this one.

Behaviour expert Jez talks to us more about chewing, in this article he talks about what to encourage your dogs to chew, and at what times. We hope to be working closely with Jez on a related project in the coming months, which we very much look forward to... watch this space!

TV vet Joe Inglis also makes another showing this month, this time talking about how to find (and keep) a good vet. Very interesting to see this from the vet's point of view – you might be quite surprised!

Our dancing with dogs feature also continues this month, with expert Mary Ann Nester showing us how to teach the reverse command, and our friends at the RSPCA talk us through the adoption process.

Another busy month, and we are hard at work preparing the next information-packed issue for June, see you then!

Give the dog a comb...

Today we met up with Jo Hart, a soon-to-be qualified dog groomer with a level 3 City & Guilds qualification in dog grooming.

Jo filmed three videos for us on our upcoming series of dog grooming articles. We look forward to bringing these to you in the coming months, beginning with "Cleaning ears".

Thanks to Jo for her time, and we look forward to filming with her again in the future!

Search & Rescue dogs in Kent

Today we met up with James Dunn of the NSARDA which stands for National Search And Rescue Dogs Association, on a farm on the Kent/Sussex border to film a training and assessment day with this charitable organisation.

NSARDA provide the Search & Rescue arm of Kent Search And Rescue, and are on call 365 days a year to provide their services as required throughout the Kent area. They are often called upon to search for vulnerable adults as well as missing hikers, and their service includes a high level of first aid training to provide medical assistance at point of discovery.

Entirely funded by charity and staffed by a hugely dedicated team of volunteers, they are often called upon to search all night and then return to their day-jobs the next day. We will be very pleased to bring you this article later on in the year, thanks to all at NSARDA for inviting us to their training day.

April 2012 is live

It's issue time again, and another packed issue is released, chock-full of the best information we can find from around the dog world.

This month we are extremely proud to be supporting Canine Partners, and bringing you the first video in our series covering this amazing charity. Hear from CEO Andy Cook all about the work that they do and the lives that they change.

In terms of dog behaviour and health, we have the likes of Victoria Stilwell, Dr Roger Abrantes, and TV vet Joe Inglis all making another appearance in our star-studded video library, and we have more dog training treats from Mary Ann Nester and Adem Fehmi. Last month's charity, the Pet Blood Bank, allowed us to film a donation session at one of their centres, and this video also features in this month's issue.

Topping all this off is an article with the Chairman of the Friends of RSPCA Southridge explaining the work that they do to help their local RSPCA centre.

See you next month!

Two more for the breed library

Today we filmed two more breeds for the breed library. Firstly was Diana Yemm and Mark Fox showing off their handsome Mastiffs. We were in luck - they had a litter of puppies to show us too, as well as an adolescent and a senior bitch - the full age range.

Then we visited with Lesley Busby who has been in Afghan Hounds for over 30 years. We got a great insight into this most majestic of breeds, and met her lovely two dogs.

Thank you to both breeds for inviting us to film your lovely breeds, we hope to have the finished videos in the breed library soon.

Din Dins and BATs!

On the road again, this time in London to film a great article about nutrition with Alison Daniel. Alison has spent a great deal of time researching the benefits of many natural ingredients, and has used this knowledge to create a range of supplements called Din Dins. It was clear how much Alison knew about her subject, and great to get some of it down on film. We look forward to bringing you this article later in the year.

Straight from there we went to meet up with Grisha Stewart, in between her very busy schedule of seminars and conferences she agreed to meet up with us to film a few articles about her Behaviour Adjustment Training, or BAT. As well as a general article about BAT and it's benefits, we filmed a session using BAT to treat a reactive dog who attacks the vacuum cleaner with amazing results. As always, we cannot wait to bring you these articles.

And if that wasn't enough, we also met up with Jordan Shelley to ask him how he has been getting on over the past few months and what he has discovered about putting positive reward based training into practice. 

Thanks very much to Alison, Grisha and Jordan, we look forward to filming more with you all again in the future!

Resting Pets and Pet Crematoria

Today we visited Matt Wallace from 'Resting Pets', one of the 30 pet crematoria registered with the APPCC, the Association of Private Pet Cemeteries and Crematoria. Matt showed us round their impressive facilities and talked to us about the various options and what to expect when the time comes to lay your pet to rest. A solemn subject for sure, but one worth thinking about, as it is during these times that making these tough decisions can be especially difficult to make. Thinking ahead can certainly help to ensure that you make the choices you would be happy with in the long run. We look forward to bringing you this article later in the year.

Crufts 2012

It is that special time of year again where many of the great names in positive and natural dog care congregate at the NEC in Birmingham for the greatest dog show in the world...Crufts. This year we had the great pleasure of being on the BARF UK stand with Andreas Dauer and his team. Andreas kindly let us promote Naturally Happy Dogs so we ran a special promotion for visitors to offer free memberships to those who stopped by. We hope you enjoy your memberships all those that signed up! It was great to see Joe Inglis on the Vet's Kitchen stand in Hall 3.

We hope to have our own stand at Crufts this time next year, watch this space!

March 2012 is live!

Another action packed month goes live today, and we are proud to bring our first article featuring Pet Blood Bank UK. This great organisation, based in Loughborough, provides vets around the country with much needed red blood and plasma, saving dogs lives every single day.

Training and behaviour stalwart and Naturally Happy Dogs veteran Jez presents the first of 3 articles on chewing, concentrating this time on the benefits. Other veterans in March's issue include veterinary physiotherapist Barbara Houlding with an interesting article on how physiotherapy can benefit hip dysplasia, and Lizi Angel with the second part of her A.L.O.N.E. T.I.M.E article covering separation anxiety. We also present the second article from Mary Ann Nester on competing in the canine sport heelwork to music.

This month we also feature BARF Pet Foods UK, a leader in the UK in providing raw foods and supplements, with a great article on the benefits of raw feeding. Karen Lawe from the Deaf Dog Network talks to us about living with a deaf dog, and we have a thought-provoking article from Gemma Blackwell on animal communication.

Remember to sign up as a subscriber - £1 from each subscription this month goes straight to Pet Blood Bank UK and new annual subscribers receive a free gift from www.hiltonherbs.com.