School Trip to (not quite) Bibury...

Thor, Fergus, Ted and Alice all packed their bags and travelled to the charming village of Bibury in the heart of the Cotswolds. Arriving in the car Alice soon realised that it was a hub for tourists! After getting the dogs out of the car and being swarmed by people wanting to either take photos or pet the dogs she decided to swiftly move on. Luckily due to the vast amount of land around Bibury there was a lovely public footpath among the fields.  The surrounding area was beautiful with rolling hills where they could properly explore and run free. Fergus and Ted galloped in the long grass whilst Thor who is a little smaller jumped like a baby gazelle!

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It was a very hot day, so we were all grateful to find a shady spot in the woodland to rest and munch on some grass (not Alice). On the way back Ted found a water trough which he was very proud of and it was a classic school photo with Thor insisting on not sitting still long enough! We already can’t wait for the next excursion!

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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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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!!