White Horse Round 2 (School Trip #9)

November 26, 2018 Alice Pyper

This Month Alice revisited the White Horse at Uffington (as last time it was totally snow-covered!) Barley and Splash joined her as first time day trippers, along with regulars Fergus and Thor. This time they went up Dragon Hill to try and get a view of the White horse from afar.

Barley had so much fun bounding up and down the hills, with Fergus chasing her yelping with joy! Thor and Splash were happy to watch on in amusement. There were quite a lot of sheep around, but all four dogs were very well behaved on leads and didn’t pull Alice over, for which she was very grateful!

Stowe (School Trip #8)

October 24, 2018 Alice Pyper

October’s dog outing sent us Northwards to Stowe. Fergus, Gus, Ted and Thor came along to sniff one of the most remarkable legacies of Georgian England.

The huge National Trust owned gardens and surrounding parkland are a maze of temples, monuments and pavilions. Our dog pack loved discovering what really old buildings smell like and bounding down the open valleys! We were gifted with blue skies and beautiful Autumnal light, so lots of fun was had by everyone.

These four all get along so nicely now it’s the sweetest thing! Although Ted did find a particularly great stick, and barked a lot to let Fergus know who’s it was. On the drive back Gus and Thor, very adorably, had a snooze cuddled up together like brothers.

The dogs very much enjoyed the Circle of the Dancing Faun, a set of funny statues of shepherds doing a country dance. Alice also evidently also very much enjoyed the figures!

Cobstone Windmill (School Trip #7!)

September 23, 2018 Alice Pyper

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!

Aston Rowant (School Trip #6)

August 25, 2018 Alice Pyper

For August's afternoon outing we made our way to Aston Rowant Nature Reserve with the same crew as last month (Ted Gus and Thor), plus Lola! The reserve is located just on the edge of the Chilterns, and has really beautiful grasslands and views, despite it's proximity to the M40. We had fun spotting all the red kites, along with chalk hill blue butterflies and green woodpeckers, as well as walking the sculpture trail which had some hilariously bizarre wind-up listening posts.

Obviously the dogs didn't care about the views, wildlife or M40, they were simply happy to run around a new place! They had lots of fun together, Ted and Lola bounding around like little lions and Gus and Thor playing nicely. There was also a tremendous number of blackberries of which Lola, being no stranger to wild foraging, snaffled an impressive number!

West Woods (School Trip #5)

July 25, 2018 Alice Pyper

For this month's school trip we ventured into the North Wessex Downs to find a nice shady walk with two of the regulars, Ted and Thor, and also the very excited Gus! We chose the West Woods near Marlborough, a beautiful plantation of beech trees and former ancient woodland. In late spring it's covered with bluebells but this week it was lovely and green looking, which was a welcome change to the sun wilted savanna that is currently Port Meadow!

All three of them ran around very happily together, sniffing all the new smells and enjoying the much cooler air! As per usual something went awry, and 10 minutes from the car Ted came bounding along looking like he'd been dip-dyed in black! Somehow all our pups had found the only mud left in the south of the UK just in time for us to take them home! (Apologies to all the pawrents!)

West Wittering

June 28, 2018 Alice Pyper

Yesterday we had an absolutely splendid day at the beach with three excited Woof + Whistle members, Chester, Jack and Thor. Despite the insane heat wave that had taken over the UK the past few days, we of course woke up to low cloud and a rather chilly morning... Thankfully it cleared away by midday, in time for us to drive down towards the South Coast. It was a little cooler than in Oxford, with a slight breeze that made sure we all didn't overheat.

In the summer months dogs aren't allowed on the main area of the beach (in front of the beach huts), but there was still a huge amount of beach and sea for them to run around and play in, and lots of other new dogs to make friends with! We all went swimming together, with Chester and Jack bombing in at the first possible moment. Thor was a little more hesitant, but managed some very effective doggy paddling (although he didn't seem to understand that he could stop paddling in mid-air once we lifted him out of the water!!)

Puppy Therapy with St. Peter's College

June 3, 2018 Alice Pyper

As part of our quest to share the goodness of dogs, last week we took four of our pack to visit some of the undergraduate students at St Peter's College for some puppy therapy, with the welfare team and Alice's sister Sarah, who works at the college. A shocking 78% of students report suffering from poor mental health during their studies. Universities are not all fun and drinking: they are environments in which mental illness often goes undetected.

In our opinion, cuddling lots of cute dogs is just what is needed during the stressful exam periods! We chose some of our most adorable and people loving dogs, Fergus, Fudge, Jax, Wilbur and Thor, who all seemed overjoyed to explore the inside of the college and to be petted so much! Jax and Thor sat on everyone's laps, Wilbur bounded around happily, and Fergus' hair was the envy of everyone. Fudge excelled herself, winning over all the students and taking them for walks around the quad in search of food.

It's well known that stroking an animal helps reduce anxiety, but simply getting the students outside and focusing on something different for a couple of hours seemed to do a lot to improve their moods! Many of them also said it helped to remind them of home and their very much missed family dogs. More Woof + Whistle outreach coming soon!

Cheese Wharf

May 24, 2018 Alice Pyper

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.

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!

Birthday Pawty

May 21, 2018 Alice Pyper

We had an absolutely lovely Sunday afternoon celebrating Woof + Whistle's (and Fudge's) 2nd Birthday! We couldn't have asked for more gorgeous weather or more eager dog guests. After a stroll around the dandelion filled fields, and quick play in the river and only minimal chasing of deer, we all shared some dog-friendly and human-friendly cake.

A huge thank you to everyone, and everydog, who came along to pawty with us!

Windrushed in Swinbrook

April 22, 2018 Alice Pyper

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.

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.

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!