COMPETITION: Share a photo of your #poochpassenger and win!

Do you have a dog which is the perfect driving companion? If you do, the #poochpassenger campaign from The Car Buying Service is something you should definitely give a go!

All you have to do is share a fun photo of your four-legged travel companion enjoying a car journey on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #poochpassenger to be in with a chance of winning a £50 Pets at Home voucher.

The Car Buying Service are also donating £1 to Manchester Dogs’ Home for every entry that gets submitted so regardless of whether you win you will also be helping out a worthy cause by entering the competition. For more details on the campaign, full terms and conditions and to see all the entries so far, visit www.thecarbuyingservice.co.uk/pooch-passenger

November 2014

Recently, the Naturally Happy Dogs team were delighted to meet innovative Dog Trainer Claudia Fugazza and learn more about her amazing new training technique based on social learning. This month, we are thrilled to share what we learned about the Do As I Do method with you.

We also bring you other advice from top trainers: Nando Brown tells us How to Socialise Puppies, Dima Yeremenko tells us about the Benefits of Hand Feeding and Brenda Aloff talks to us about Being the One in Control.

We learn more about the sports of Canicross, in particular Harnesses, and how to teach the Push in Treibball.

Angela Cavill tells us about the work of Dog Show Secretaries, and finally, we find out about the Socialisation element of the Kennel Club Good Citizen Dog Scheme.

Scootering and Bikejoring

The day was glorious when we set off for Colchester to meet Kerstin Dimond. She is a keen fan of Bikejoring and Scootering and runs www.dogucation.co.uk.

For anyone who’s not come across either of these sports, they are, like Canicross, a harness sport where dogs and their owners can keep fit together. However, whereas in Canicross the person runs, in Bikejoring and Scootering the person is either on a bike or scooter.

Kerstin told us all about the sport, its history, rules and regulations etc and showed us the equipment. Finally, she introduced us to her Pointer Prussia and gave a quick demo of the sports in action. If Prussia is anything to go by, the sports certainly seem to conjure up plenty of enthusiasm and keep the dog fit. He bounded about with endless energy clearly in love with life.

Oh, to be a dog!

We hope to see the whole group in action sometime in the next few weeks.

Gearing up for Discover Dogs

We are getting ready for Discover Dogs in Earls Court on 8th and 9th November, we have our goody bags ready for new subscribers and are looking forward to it already. Discover Dogs is a fantastic place for choosing a breed, or simply getting your fix of 'dogs'. There are some great demonstrations and the other attraction - the shopping! Everything you could ever want for your canine companion is likely to be at the event!

You can buy your tickets now from www.discoverdogs.org.uk

Tracking and carting

We have spent a lovely weekend learning about two canine activities, and puppy Skyler has had a lovely time.

First was a trip to see Heather Donnelly who told us all about the UK Tracking Dog Association. Tracking is one part of Working Trials but some breeds and types of dogs are unable to do some of the other aspects of the sport, so the UK Tracking Dog Association are splitting off into their own organisation, running training, courses and competitions for just the tracking aspect.

Puppy Skyler had a go at her first tracking lesson and apparently is a natural!

Then we went on to see Pete Garrard and the Midland Bernese Carters. Bernese Mountain dogs are gorgeous creatures and it was lovely to spend time with them, seeing them do what comes so naturally to them and what they obviously enjoy - pulling carts. While carting used to have a very practical purpose, it was outlawed many years ago and the dogs these days just pull very light carts for demonstrations.

October 2014 - Meet our new puppy Skyler!

We have a new office dog! Adorable little Skyler has joined the Naturally Happy Dogs team, she was dumped on a doorstep at about 6 weeks old, Kevin and Sally fostered her for her 'stray time' and have decided to keep her.

This month, she makes her first outing into the world of film in Puppy’s First Clicker Lesson and proves herself a real pro. In addition to the use of the clicker, we look at other training aids this month: the use of the No Pull Harness outdoors and find out how to Hand Feed Effectively.

If dog sports appeal, you can find out what equipment is needed for the sport of Canicross and how to teach the “out” in Treibball. 

There are more videos from some of our popular series: Dog shows: How to Manage a Show and Working As… - an Alternative Vet.

Finally, we bring you the first of a new series which looks at the Kennel Club’s Good Citizen Dog Scheme. This month, Dog Trainer Gillian Clow gives us an overview.