Henley: April School Trip

The prefects Thor, Fergus and Nelly enjoyed Woof + Whistle’s 13th monthly school trip, this time to Henley on Thames. It was a bleak start with a bit of drizzle, and a whole lot of ominous clouds. All the dogs trotted along the towpath right next to the river and Nelly fell in straight away. She is such a liquid noodle that she rolled right over some fox poo and plopped into the water! Luckily Alice was there to graciously fish her out, and Nelly wasn’t the slighted bit phased, cantering off to join Thor and Fergus.

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There were lots of rowers to watch, with boats constantly going up and down the river. The troop walked down to Mill End, then back down into town. Fergus especially enjoyed seeing civilisation! The dogs found an inlet with about a foot of water which looked perfect to swim in. Thor and Fergus ummed and ahhed for a long time about taking a dip, eventually deciding it was to great a risk to take!

All three were on their most excellent behaviour, and loved saying hello to all the towny doggies on their afternoon walk.

Stowe (School Trip #8)

October’s dog outing sent us Northwards to Stowe. Fergus, Gus, Ted and Thor came along to sniff one of the most remarkable legacies of Georgian England.

The huge National Trust owned gardens and surrounding parkland are a maze of temples, monuments and pavilions. Our dog pack loved discovering what really old buildings smell like and bounding down the open valleys! We were gifted with blue skies and beautiful Autumnal light, so lots of fun was had by everyone.

These four all get along so nicely now it’s the sweetest thing! Although Ted did find a particularly great stick, and barked a lot to let Fergus know who’s it was. On the drive back Gus and Thor, very adorably, had a snooze cuddled up together like brothers.

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The dogs very much enjoyed the Circle of the Dancing Faun, a set of funny statues of shepherds doing a country dance. Alice also evidently also very much enjoyed the figures!

Cobstone Windmill (School Trip #7!)

Chester, Fergus, Ted and Thor all joined us for this months outing to Cobstone Windmill in Buckinghamshire. Although it was very windy, we were lucky enough to have some blue sky and sun for the afternoon, and the dogs had a great time playing together in the woods and fields.

The windmill was famously featured in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and the cute little village of Turville at the bottom of the hill was the setting for The Vicar of Dibley. The walk up the steep hill to the windmill is well worth it for the beautiful view across the village! The humans got fits of the giggles as they kept rolling over beech tree nuts halfway up and (consequently falling over a lot), but the dogs were nimble as ever!

We tried to get the pack to sing along with us about flying cars, but they weren’t having any of it; there were interesting things to sniff and hills to bound up and down! However we did just about manage to get a photo of them all in front of the Windmill!

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Aston Rowant (School Trip #6)

For August's afternoon outing we made our way to Aston Rowant Nature Reserve with the same crew as last month (Ted Gus and Thor), plus Lola! The reserve is located just on the edge of the Chilterns, and has really beautiful grasslands and views, despite it's proximity to the M40. We had fun spotting all the red kites, along with chalk hill blue butterflies and green woodpeckers, as well as walking the sculpture trail which had some hilariously bizarre wind-up listening posts. 

Obviously the dogs didn't care about the views, wildlife or M40, they were simply happy to run around a new place! They had lots of fun together, Ted and Lola bounding around like little lions and Gus and Thor playing nicely. There was also a tremendous number of blackberries of which Lola, being no stranger to wild foraging, snaffled an impressive number! 

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Cheese Wharf

What a wonderfully fantastic day we had this week at Cheese Wharf! The sun was shining, the flowers were in bloom and Fergus, Jax, Thor and Wilbur were absolutely raring to go. We found the location for this month's excursion on a wild swim website and it looked like the perfect place for our doggies to have a play in the river. Located in Lechlade, in the nineteenth century it was a bustling wharf where cheeses were loaded onto barges and taken down the Thames to London. Today there is a tiny spot for human swimmers, and the other side of the bank is nice walk along the meandering river, past the old concrete wharf and to another river lock. Alice enjoyed frolicking in the buttercup filled meadow with her friends, and the dogs had an inordinate amount of fun running up and down a small bridge. 

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With only a small amount of coaxing (no treats needed!) we managed to arrange the dogs for the class photo, although Wilbur was chewing very intently on a bit of grass that he deemed more important than smiling for the camera. There were lots of spots along the river that Fergus and Wilbur went swimming in, although Thor and Jax weren't feeling it and just stopped for a drink. The whole walk was beautiful and we will definitely be going back to take a swim ourselves! 

Windrushed in Swinbrook

For this month's dog adventure we travelled out to Swinbrook, a little village to the West of Oxford with some beautiful houses, a huge valley, and the river Windrush. This time we had Jax, Pepe, Ted and Wilbur along for the ride! Although this week we had been promised sunshine, we were blessed with wind and grey clouds! We both marvelled at how accurately the river was named, as the wind was rushing through the valley past us... However upon further investigation it’s actually because the river winds through rushes for most of its course. 

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After snooping around some of the gorgeous stone houses, complete with tennis courts, and swimming pools, we set off for our circular walk through the valley and along the river. As you can see, the pooches and Alice were all jumping to get going! The doggos really loved having such a big open space where they could run around in circles together, as well as the river to have a paddle in! We managed to get them to stop playing just long enough to pose for a photo in front of St Oswald's Church. Jax used the blustery weather to achieve the perfect windswept look for his close up.

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Swinbrook was another great excursion with the Woof + Whistle pack! Keep an eye on your inbox for Tail Mail (our monthly newsletter), with details of May's adventure date and location, or to subscribe just enter your email at the bottom of the page.

Wags from Woof + Whistle!

Uffington Snow Covered Horse

Yesterday, very excitingly, we went on our first monthly dog adventure! For this excursion we drove to the White Horse at Uffington, a stylised prehistoric figure formed of trenches filled in with chalk. We were blessed with a beautifully sunny day and a car full of five lovely (and extremely keen) dogs. The countryside leading up to White Horse Hill was gorgeous, and as we drew closer we were sure the horse would be visible any moment, actually should be right here…? True to Woof + Whistle form we , and of course the patches of snow still dotted around were covering the ancient monument!

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Obviously our band of blonde dogs did not care or notice the lack of a horse one bit, and were simply overjoyed to be running around exploring new turf. They also seemed very taken with something which Oxford lacks; the hills! As we trudged up and slid down the hill fort, the doggys ran literal rings around us, with Pepe on the lead sometimes helping to pull us up, but more often nearly pulling us over. Our reward upon reaching the top was to be immediately battered by the wind, as well as a gorgeous view across the countryside. 

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Most importantly, everyone clearly had a fun time, so we're calling the first Woof + Whistle dog excursion a total triumph! Keep an eye on your inbox for Tail Mail (our monthly newsletter), with details of April's adventure location, or enter your email below to subscribe.

Wags from Woof + Whistle!

Testing Tractive

In the wake of the Beast from the East, we have had the absolute pleasure of a few warmer spring days this week. Perfect for a test run of the new Tractive GPS tracker. We chose Chester as our test doggy this time, mainly because he does love to pose for a photograph.

The tracker itself is relatively small, only weighing 35 grams, and clips onto a collar (for speed we attached it to a second collar, then popped it onto Chester at the beginning of the walk). It survived the usual hurtling across fields and rolling on grass that our dogs enjoy, and emerged from a swift dip in stream completely unscathed. Chester seemed completely oblivious to it, which was a plus! He had a beautifully sunny (but windy) walk, with lots of bounding about and some rough and tumble with Bear, Monty, Poppy, and Paddy. 

Probably the most testing part of the experience was us attempting to use the phone App. The live tracking actually worked remarkably well, it was quick to find itself and did appear to update every few seconds as claimed. We even managed to get a little pink squiggly line showing Chester running around in circles. The GPS seems to have good resolution, enough to track a detailed route even within a small area. However it didn’t keep drawing the route after about 10 mins of the walk, and only the live tracking (the blue paw-print marker) kept going for the hour. I think this was 100% down to user error though…

All of our dogs actually have really great recall and don’t tend go out of sight. However we can never be sure that one won’t get stuck somewhere, or run off chasing after a deer. The live location information will put our minds at ease, making us prepared should the unthinkable happen! Next time we will track the whole walk, so keep an eye on the blog for updates!

P.S Always remember to switch your tracking device off after a walk to avoid mapping yourself!! 

Crufts and Scrufts

In March I went to Crufts for the first time and it was an amazing experience. For a start it was on a scale I simply had not expected. The venue was vast; in addition to the main hall which was very smart and extremely green, there were areas where hundreds of stalls were selling everything imaginable in the canine world; even the programme was A3 size and over 120 pages. It was an event of high quality in every aspect.

The competitions were at an unbelievably high standard, especially the Agility competition where highly trained sheepdogs were running through and over obstacles with extraordinary precision and speed. It was interesting to see that certain breeds of dog seem to share characteristics: retrievers were laid back while collies seemed to be hyperactive. The dogs and their owners spend endless hours together to the point where their facial expressions and their physical stances appear to be the same. Pugs always seemed to belong to stocky owners while well built athletic men owned labradors and ridgebacks; it was easy to see who was with who. The whole show was fascinating, highly organised and very impressive.

By way of a contrast in mid-June I found myself in a sloping, muddy field in the village of Wolvercote on the outskirts of Oxford for a rather different affair. The atmosphere was one of an informal village fete; children were running free; there was no dress code or programme; it was all very informal and relaxed. However there were keenly contested competitions for many dogs to select the scruffiest of them, the one with the most appealing eyes, the best behaved and the most accomplished ball catcher! That last competition was won by a very versatile scotty who should certainly be in the England cricket team! People and dogs just drifted around meeting each other and it was a very happy occasion.

Crufts and Scrufts seem like totally different worlds for dogs and their owners but in fact the two events had many similarities. All the dog owners at both events were extremely proud of their dogs and definitely thought they were the best in show! There was hugely generous applause for all the dogs, even when they didn't get things quite right; the dogs then felt they had done well. And quite simply both occasions showed so clearly our deep love for our dogs and our wanting to celebrate them, their characters and their achievements.