Hello everyone and I hope you are enjoying the loosening of the lockdown rules. I finally got to see my lovely local hairdresser (hooray) and got my hair sorted out.
When I moved to Cranleigh I wanted to settle in a place where I could get to know people and buy from local independent businesses. I spent a lot of time looking for recommendations and talking to business owners before making my choices. Sadly, due to the COVID pandemic and all the lockdowns a few have closed, but a lot of the businesses I support are still going strong. As a local business myself, I have been so lucky to continue to grow and work with lots of new clients and their dogs. And I work with local trainers as well.
To me, it’s important to be part of the local community and supporting local businesses has become a way of life for me. I feel lucky to live here in Cranleigh and I’m beginning to know my way around. My dogs have their own local area too. In fact, because I don’t have a garden as such, I take them out to the same place three or four times a day.
Do they get bored? I don’t think so. I try and vary things a bit each walk so there are always new smells and interesting things to look at. And often we’ll visit a local park or woodland for them to have a longer walk. However, being somewhere local is not always ideal when you let your dog off lead. Because they know where they are and are more likely to run off and not come back. They get overconfident and so do we sometimes. On a walk I am always aware of “the point of no return” at which I need to put my dogs back on lead before they leg it! And that’s part of getting your dog to come back even before you let your dog off.
If you’re struggling to keep your dog local to you off lead, I’m running some monthly workshops on socialisation, loose lead walking and recall. Sign up to my newsletter list at my website to get the latest updates.
Enjoy the good weather and hope to see you all soon, Sara, Edie and Rupert.
Contact me, Sara Bridgeman on 07504 925341 or visit my website at: www.rewardsdogtraining.co.uk
