The Doggie Adventures

My pup Sadie - Born January 2014 - current age 3 years old.

We rescued Sadie at the age of 6 months old on the 6th of June, 2014. When we got said she was a crazy puppy, with no manners and horrible jumping habits, Bad licking problems and incredibly frightful. She had spent the first six months of her life shut in a garage because she was too much for her owner, who was pregnant with her second child. My sister and I just thought she was adorable and we couldn't understand why they didn't want her. However, we didn't mind because we wanted her and she wanted us.

The reason we found her in the first place was that, my sister wanted a dog for her birthday, a schnauzer to be particular. One night my mum was scrolling through trade me, look for dogs and then she came across my baby Sadie. She was a cross breed. She was advertised as a schnauzer, which was perfect because it was enough for my sister to say yes to her. However, when we met her, she looked nothing like a schnauzer, if anything she looked more like a Staffy, but that was ok because when we met her, we fell in love.

At the time we also had another dog, Leo, he was my mum's baby. He was 11 years old and a golden retriever x german shepherd. He was beautiful and lovely. We took him with us to meet Sadie because if they didn't get along it wouldn't work. Good news, they got along really well. Sadie's owners were happy with us and said that we could adopt her.

We were so ecstatic. However, we did have to wait like a week before we could go back and pick her up and I swear that week felt like an eternity. When we went to pick her up, we got her lead, collar, crate, bowl and bed.

A couple of months later my sister had gotten fed up with her barking and couldn't be bothered to walk her, so at one year old my mother took over full responsibility. However, I wanted a dog, and my mum could see this because every time she would walk Sadie I would go to.

On February 16, 2015, Sadie and I started up our first obedience class. It was on a Wednesday, and I absolutely loved it. I would go, rain, hail or shine. Now nearly two years later Sadie and I are super close and compete in obedience.

Love Natalee & Sadie.

Don't shop, Adopt. This slogan has been floating around the media lately, try to promote adopting animals instead of going to the pet store or a breeder to get your animals. This is because of the growing amount of dogs, in shelters just left to die. The most common breeds of dogs left to die in shelters are pit bulls, because of the labels put on this dog breed.

Every day more and more animal shelters are becoming high kill shelters, this is because of the over breeding, and the shelters can't cope and are forced to destroy these animals. The animal overpopulation is so bad that every year 3 to 4 million animals are killed every year and about 10 thousand every day. However, if instead of buying all your animals, you adopted them, the number of dogs being destroyed would be decreased substantially.

In the Netherlands and Holland, they became the first countries in the world to have no strays, and this is because in the past 200 years they have been aiming to get rid of strays. In the 1800's they had a massive outbreak of rabies and ever since they have slowly been decreasing the number of strays.

There are significant health benefits of adopting a dog. Most of the dogs you find in shelter's are not pure breeds and their for have not suffered the curse of interbreeding. Interbreeding affects 40 to 80% of pure breed dogs. This is because many people want the same breeds of dogs and with the high demand breed lines get mixed, and the interbreeding gets worse and worse.

Many people get these high energy dogs, like border collies and farming dogs and then have major problems with things like digging, destructiveness, escaping and much more, but how are we meant to fix this issue?

My first solution would be to get your dogs something like a Kong or treat ball, which you can pick up from your local pet store. These are my personal favourite and my dog just goes bananas for them. They're really easy to use as well. All you need to is get as many dog biscuits that will fit in your Kong or treat ball and shove in as many as possible them once you leave give it to your pooch and let the fun begin. However, this many only last an hour or so depending on your dog's food drive.

If your dog doesn't have a food drive, I wouldn't suggest this for your dog as they probably won't use it and they will still be left bored.

The second solution would be to make an ice lick, what this is - you freeze your dog's favourite toys, treats, bones and chicken broth in a cake tin. This is especially good for a hot summer's day. This is especially good for a dog with more play drive because they're gonna want to get their toys out so that they can play with them and keep them busy.

Personally, I like to freeze more treat than toys because Sadie has a really high play drive. However, this solution is completely customizable to your dog's needs and likes.

Hope these 2 solutions help you and your dog beat the daytime boredom.

Love Natalee & Sadie

My number one favourite would have to be Forest walks. There just so peaceful, hearing the birds chirp every morning, it's just magical. The best part is that it's super dog-friendly and you don't have to worry about the noisy cars or pollution. Everything about the forest screams perfection.

Personally, when I go for a forest walk, I love to go for long ones, it's a great Sunday afternoon activity, for just you and your dog. It can all so clear up your thoughts if you have a lot on your mind, it's a peaceful place to think ( Just make sure you don't lose your dog). Human's are not the only ones that enjoy the forest. It's perfect for your animals. If you live in the city, it gives them a time to go out and smell new smells and just be a dog, and yes this includes letting them get a bit wet and muddy, their dogs they love to roll in stuff.

One thing to be mindful of in the forest though is that you don't get lost since the forest all looks the same to an untrained eye, and the trails aren't always super clear. I personally think it's excellent to use an app of some sort to track where you've been and where you're going. My favourite app would have to be Strava. It tracks all your runs, rides and cross-training too. Upload your activities from your Garmin, Android or iPhone and Strava will automatically log all your workouts.

My second favourite would have to be the beach.It's a great place for your dogs to go for a swim and meet new friends. It's also a great place to go cool down as summer time approaches for both you and your dog, also who doesn't enjoy walking along a beach, sand under your feet, the sound of crashing waves, breeze through your hair. It's just overall great to go and cool down after a long hard week of work or school.

The only downside to the beach is that if you go to a famous beach, it's so overcrowded that you can't let your dog off the leash and you really can't walk that far, which can be a bummer. Which is why I suggest finding a quieter, smaller, less popular beach because sometimes popular isn't best.

This might sound strange, but the beach is health. The ultraviolet rays of sunshine can improve your sense of physical and emotional well-being by stimulating the production of vitamin D – this boosts our production of serotonin, the chemical that works to keep us feeling alert, upbeat and happy. This has the same effect on your dog. Especially because the happier you are, the happier they are, this is because dogs feed of your mood, they can sense your feelings.

My least favourite place to walk, especially with my dog. Think about it dogs have super sensitive ears and with cars and noises always going past, it can be incredibly scary. Another aspect of it is that they have to stay on lead and often when we walk our dogs purely on the lead we forget to stop and let them sniff. Letting your dog sniff is incredibly important because it stimulates that part of their brain.

When we walk along the streets, we forget to let our dogs do doggie things in a way; we almost walk with purpose because we're not enjoying ourselves, neither are the dogs. The dogs are getting dragged along at the end of the lead because all they want to do is stop and sniff and mark things but we don't let them.

Even though walking along the streets isn't ideal it's still better than not getting walked at all. However if you I would try at least taking them to a doggie park once or twice a week. Your dogs will thank you for this.

So take some time to go out and walk your dogs.

Love Natalee & Sadie