Thundershirt…. The anxious dog solution!
Posted on April 28, 2012
We have had the Thundershirt for a month now. Its been used a lot!!
We bought it originally for Dave to make him less fearful of dogs and people when out walking. It has been used alongside one to one training. Dave no longer barks at people when we go out (except the occasional person with a walking stick or other strange objects that he isn’t yet used to). It hasn’t stopped him barking at dogs, but he does calm down quicker now after seeing dogs. He is certainly calmer when he’s wearing the coat.
Secondly we have tried the coat on Betty. Betty is fearful of strangers of every shape and size. She nips when she is scared and bites if she is terrified. We try to walk her in quiet places so that she doesn’t meet many people, and no dogs. She was more relaxed when wearing the coat, we are going to continue this as Betty is our next training focus after Dave.
Thirdly, the coat was tried on Blossom. Blossom suffers from travel sickness. After seeking advice we decided to have her sit in the footwell (she usually would sit in the back on the seat wearing a dog seatbelt. We also put the coat on her to make her feel more safe. We managed a successful trip to the groomers without her being sick, and she didnt even dribble like she would normally do! We were so happy! She loves to go out but being sick ruins the fun for her. On the way to the groomers she sulked a bit at being in the footwell, but on the return jouney she accepted it as the new normal. Hoping to continue with this and hopefully be able to travel longer distances with her soon!
So all in all, we are very happy with our thundershirt! It has been lovingly named the ’stress vest’ in our house. For £35 (petsathome.co.uk) its such a small amount of money, and has resulted in happy dogs! I’d recommend it to anyone, along with positive training 
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Dave…
Posted on March 23, 2012
Oh Dave. Where to start?
Dave is Blossoms son. Her only surviving puppy. His birth story was traumatic. He had four litter mates, 3 died at birth, and one lived to just 18 days old.
Dave and Bianca
After such a hard time raising him, how could we possibly let him go to another home? And so here with us he stayed. Having no litter mates growing up, he didn’t really know how to be a puppy. And so we bought Betty. She is two weeks younger than Dave, and they have been inseparable since they first met! But this meant we now had four dogs. How does one person cope with four dogs???
Dave and Betty didn’t get enough socialisation as babies, and so, they are difficult to take out for walks. They are now two years old and we are finally getting around to doing the training they have lacked. Three weeks ago Dave started one on one training with NuttyMutts. He reacted to EVERYTHING while out walking, he would bark obsessively. In just three weeks he has come such a long way. He now doesn’t react to some of his petty triggers, and rarely barks when walking past people. He does still bark at other dogs, but not to the level that he would bark in the past.
I’m really really proud of him!! He isn’t finished with training yet, and I will be detailing his progress here on the blog.
Yesterday we tried out the thunder shirt. This shirt is designed to help dogs to remain calm… there will be a blog post about this shirt coming soon!
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Wow 2012…
Posted on January 14, 2012
I can’t believe I haven’t posted on here since 2010!
I don’t know where to start to tell the story of where 2011 disappeared to….
Basic changes are: the major renovations are finished, smaller renovations are still ongoing. We now have five dogs, not four! Betty and Dave had a litter of puppies and we kept one, Frankie. I lost another grandparent but gained a second cousin. My best friend is expecting a baby (you can expect hundreds of photos of the baby to appear on here!), I got addicted to tumblr. I made friends, laughed, cried, smiled, relaxed, rushed around, sorted out my priorities, got ill, got better, and lived a full life!
I order lots more of that for 2012….
Oh and I started a new photo a day using just my iphone, lets see how that goes 
Wish me luck!
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10.10.10 at 10.10am
Posted on October 11, 2010
I don’t need much of an excuse to take a picture, 101010 at 1010am seems a good enough reason for a quick photo yes? We had a late breakfast on a lazy sunday and finished painting the living room. Now for new flooring! This room WILL be perfect by christmas! I hope!!
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365 Days!?
Posted on October 10, 2010
At the beginning of this year I started a 365 Project. Basically, I decided I would take one photo a day for the whole year. I guess when I started this project I didn’t really think it would be that hard, I mean, I’m almost always taking photos anyway. But oh how wrong was I? It just seems never ending. Some days I’m uninspired and don’t feel like carrying a camera around with me.
I would say though, to anyone thats thought about doing it, do it! Its not easy but it is fascinating to look back through the year and see how life really was. Some days all I do is take a snapshot of my dog sleeping in a funny position, but some days are actually that simple. One of the days was the day my Nan died, I took a photo of a plaque that has been in her house for as long as I can remember. Little details that I otherwise wouldn’t have bothered to photograph and likely the memories would fade in years to come. Now I have little photo memories for my whole year.
Anyways, here is one photo from my cornwall holiday, because I know I will never get around to writing a blog post about it:
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I’m a big brave dog…
Posted on August 19, 2010
I have been saying for months now that I was going to cut my hair off for charity. Well, I finally did! And on stage too!
My sister was running a fundraising gig for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance appeal, and on the night I made a spur of the moment decision that I would have my ponytail cut off on stage! We had the audience make donations first and explained that the money raised would go to the air ambulance and the hair would go to Locks Of Love.
My hair before:
My hair being cut off!:
And finally, my new ‘do’:
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I love this kid!
Posted on July 27, 2010
I babysat my friends little boys again recently. I like to take them some fun things today and on this particular day I took window pens! The kids had never had any of these before, and were a bit unsure of them at first. But once we got going they were enjoying drawing on the patio door. However, Callum got upset when he realised we were going to leave the drawings on the door. He was scared his mummy would be mad at him! So he took some baby wipes and set to cleaning the windows!
Haha, bless him
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Princess’ Birthday
Posted on July 22, 2010
Yep, we call her Princess sometimes. Because she IS a princess, u know.
For her birthday she chose to celebrate with her family, a picnic by the water. What could be more perfect? And it was perfect, even the gatecrashing cows didn’t spoil the fun. Nor did the wind and light rain. We laughed, played games, blew out candles, toasted marshmallows (why have I never done this before???) and had lots of fun!
Here are some photos documenting the fun:
Last minute costume changes in my aunts boat!
People pretending to be celebrity chefs
Making funny faces while playing rounders
Shielding candles from the wind
Capturing funny faces while the cows come to gatecrash
I wish my birthdays were as fun as this!
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The big Finland post part 2
Posted on July 22, 2010
K its taken me ages to actually get around to posting the second part of my finland pictures, but its better late than never right? I really miss Finland now!
This pathway here is my favorite spot. It has perfect light, beautiful trees and happy wandering memories!
Sara loves her bunny
They show some REALLY weird tv shows in Finland. This show just had music and a guy running naked and lost in the forest Straaange
Lensbaby makes weird pictures, but its so fun to me
I had such a great time in Finland. I sometimes wish I could live there.. its so dreamy and perfect. A nice peaceful town, friendly people. Gorgeous scenery! And my friends! I would miss my family though.
Can’t wait to visit again soon
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A few (four actually) things that make me happy!
Posted on June 18, 2010
Every evening, my four furry friends like to snuggle. Every evening always the same, just in slightly different arrangements.
Sometimes with us humans:
Sometimes just with each other:
Sometimes under blankets:
And sometimes just to have someone to sleep on:
But every night, the same plan. Four dogs and a few humans all snuggled onto one sofa And that really does make me happy!
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Look at that VIEW! Glorious. I tried 365 a couple of years ago – couldn’t get through 2 months LOL.