Mutterings
Welcome to Mutterings; Proprietor (& former journalist) Sarah Mountford's collection of photos, articles, links, comment, videos, recommendations and understandings from the world of Mutts.
PERSONAL TRAINING – THE WAY AHEAD
Having dogs trained is great - but its value is a hundred fold when us owners can share the lessons.
A WELSH VISITOR
Neli from deepest Wales came to stay for a speedy visit last Summer.
HOUSE OF MUTT @ LUCKNAM PARK. YES!
Following an extensive search and lots of assessing as to where is positively dog-welcoming as opposed to just dog-friendly, we’ve found the perfect hotel to fill in the blank of our ‘stately home sketch’ (Some Serious(ly Fun) Quality Time)
FESTIVAL FROLICS
The House of Mutt will be at the Red Rooster Festival in Suffolk, Euston Hall from 1st to 3rd June. We're 'doing' dog while Duke Harry and his Red Rooster crew 'do' the best line up of Rhythm and Blues this side of the deep South!
SPA SESSION, DOGGIE STYLE
Puppy training stage #432 - or whatever we're at now - the hydrotherapy bath :)
ED SAYS …
Training dogs is a great skill - but to be honest, some people just 'do' dogs so well that dogs behave around them, come what may. So the real real skill lies in being able to transfer some of that magic power to us, normal, feet-of-clay owners.
NOT EVERYDOG’S CUP OF TEA…
Seeing dogs day in and day out as we do here at the House of Mutt, you get to understand them pretty well. And sometimes that understanding leads to situations that are slightly uncomfortable to acknowledge.
HOUSE IN THE COUNTRY
A heartfelt plea from one of our owners a couple of weeks ago about Charlie, a lovely old Labrador belonging to a friend of theirs who'd tragically died.
TIP FROM A’BROAD …
A lesson I learnt as a youthful officer cadet when I lost my dog on the thousand-acre Royal Military Academy Sandhurst training area - and was beside myself with un-officer'ly panic.
SOME SERIOUS(LY FUN) QUALITY TIME
CAUGHT ON CAMERA ….
HOW MANY STEPS?
Exercise, like baking, used to be one of those activities that lots of us liked to think about but not all that many actually did.
SEAGULLS, SPEED AND SANDY PAWS
KODI, A PUPPY IN LEARNING …
Last seen on this page in October when just 3 months old, Kodi is now 5 months, growing fast and ready for the next stage of training. She's a beautiful dog and, like most of her breed, very biddable, wanting to learn and to please. But that attitude comes with big paws, much bounce and a hearty appetite, so her lessons this time were about self control, learning to take responsibility for her own actions and giving herself time to think before she acts.
NATURE OR NURTURE?
BARBICAN BALL AUCTION
House of Mutt contributed a Duchess Silver Whistle to the Barbican Ball's charity auction in November.
CHRISTMAS CHEER?!
Papers are full of horror stories about the Christmas health hazards for dogs at this time of year (ie Daily Mirror 'More than 6,000 dogs are expected to have suffered chocolate posoning in 2016, a quarter of cases in December alone....').
HERE’S LOOKING AT YOU …
I spent a day in London last week studying Proprioception for dogs.
HOM’S MEAD HOUSE TRAINING WING, GLOUCESTERSHIRE
A picture tells a thousand words, and here's one of Mead House for those wondering where all the super dooper HoM training has been happening just recently.
FOR FAIRLY FREQUENT FLYERS…
A lot of our dogs are travelling fairly regularly now - whether that's going home to the States each summer, or just moving alongside frequently-moving owners.