What makes D4Dogs a little bit different

So what is it that makes D4Dog Professional Walking Training and Behavioural support a little bit different from other dog walkers or trainers?

Firstly we don’t walk more than three dogs per walker. Its safer, its easier to clear up after them and to maintain proper supervision. If we ever need to walk more than 3 dogs, we would employ an additional walker.

D4Dogs is perhaps the only service that offers four related elements – walking, sitting, training and behavioural support. This means we can provide dogs and their owners a wrap around support service. For many of the dogs we work with all three elements are needed to help them. As such we can offer training walk rates that are significantly below the cost of training or behavioural support, providing cost effective and efficient support for owners. Our Sitting service provides care for dogs in the owners own home while they are away, something that is especially useful with many of the dogs we work with, who may struggle with anxiety, fear and stress related behavioural issues. Being able to stay in familiar surroundings significantly helps some dogs cope with periods when their owners are away, for a single night or a fortnight.

We aren’t just focused on making a profit – a number of the services we organise or provide are free. Our monthly Big Dog Walk aims to bring owners of larger dogs (And the dogs!) together in a friendly environment where the dogs can meet other large and giant breeds, owners can share the joys and challenges of owning these wonderful dogs… In addition we use this to raise funds for good causes, in 2023 & 24 we are supporting Devon Dog Behaviour, Rehabilitation & Rehome a local charity that does amazing work for dogs most rescues can’t or won’t help.

We have launched Walkies! Helping your dog find a walking buddy – Devon. Again this is a free Facebook Group open to the public where they can find a dog to walk their dog with. Why set this up? Well it becomes clear when working with and talking to many dog owners that having a suitable dog to walk and socialise with, would be good for both dog and owner and would help manage quite a few issues, so why wouldn’t we try to set up something to help with this?

We offer Dog Owners classes – lots of providers offer puppy classes, but let’s be honest, its really the owners who need the support and training to be able to look after their dogs! Humour aside, most owners feel far more confident and empowered when they better understand their dog and its behaviour and don’t have to rely upon the often contradictory information online.

We also go the extra mile to support our clients and their dogs when they need that little bit of help, whether it is accompanying them to the Vets with their dog, transporting them and or their dogs to the Vets or just being on the end of the phone/messaging system when they need advice or reassurance.

What really prompted this blog was a recent event when walking one of our regular dogs, in this case a Golden Heeler. His owner had contacted me to say that he had had a bit of a bad experience with her, specifically a couple of incidents with a black Labrador and its owners. By chance I met the gentleman who owned the black lab whilst walking the Golden Heeler and she did behave in a way I’d never seen before, not really aggressive, but far too forceful in her interaction and barking in a way she had never done before in my presence.

Every dog is unique, albeit influenced by its breed or type and as living breathing thinking creatures we cannot ever be 100% certain 100% of the time how a dog will react or behave and for what ever reason, this dog, this Heeler behaved differently towards this Labrador.

The owner of the Labrador was obviously concerned and quite rightly advocating for his dog. We discussed what had happened and his concerns and I expressed my surprise at her (the Heelers) behaviour. Its fair to say, that if you walk enough dogs long enough, you will have a conversation with an owner of another dog that is about behaviour.

In this situation I wanted to ensure that the Labrador owners concerns were addressed and the issues were resolved as amicably as possible. So I offered to meet with him and his Labrador the next time I was walking the Heeler, so that I could manage her behaviour with him and ensure that her behaviour in future was going to be acceptable and appropriate. He agreed to this and we did meet up, the next week, we walked the dogs together for roughly 90 minutes by the end of which they were satisfactorily tolerant of each other.

I didn’t charge the owner of the Heeler for this, nor did I expect anything from the owner of the Black Labrador, what I wanted to achieve was resolution of the issue, which hopefully has been achieved.

It was simply the right thing to do for both dogs and their owners.

I think that illustrates why D4dogs is a little bit different.