Category Archives: golden retriever

Heavy Snow In Brighton

Posted on December 18, 2009 | 6 Comments

Buckingham Street, Brighton, snow

Our little part of Brighton is pretty treacherous when it snows and so it was a ‘local streets’ dog walk this morning. There was no way I was getting the car out. The roads turn into ice rinks and there are lots of steep hills so better safe than sorry. Let’s hope it clears soon and we can get back to the woods.

I noticed a few cars and vans had been abandoned on icy street corners as drivers had thought better of it -leaving their mobile numbers in the wind screen just in case their vehicles were in the way.

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I took Georgie and Jessie out separately thus avoiding falling *** over **** if one of them saw something exciting on the other side of the road. As it was, they were pretty good and took it steady, leaving me to focus on keeping upright as we walked on some rather steep and icy pavements.

Jessie wore her red Cesar Millan backpack to give her something else to focus on and I took her out first to get rid of some of that energy.

black dog with red backpack in snowy street

Georgie came with me to our local churchyard and she LOVED it. She mostly rolled around in the snow and ever so often took off, running in large circles scooping up the snow in her mouth. Pure joy!

golden retriever playing in snowy churchyard

And I’ll finish with a few miscellaneous pics from this morning. First a gorgeous wire fox terrier we met who was enjoying the snow as much as Georgie. If her owner visits this page – I’ve forgotton your dog’s name – sorry!

wire fox terrier with snowy muzzle

I just liked this cool car!

stylish pink car in heavy snow

And finally a little sparrow feeding on our patio – thank you to Joan for the ‘feeding platform’!

sparrow feeding in snowy garden

For more gorgeous pics of dogs in the snow visit our website. If you have a priceless dog photo of your own enter our December competition.

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Posted in Brighton, dog walks, dog walks brighton, dogs playing, East Sussex, English weather, golden retriever, neighborhood, neighbourhood, snow, snow dogs, winter weather

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Early Autumn in Stanmer Woods

Posted on September 17, 2009 | 2 Comments

What a beautiful walk this morning – sunny and fresh with a crispness that promises cooler days to come.

The sun was throwing strong shadows around and Jessie stood still obligingly, enabling me to catch these shots. Notice how autumnal the ground looks.

First her upper half:
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Next the bottom half:
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And finally a glimpse of the real thing:
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It’s so beautiful here and it’s changing rapidly. The ground is providing Georgie with a damp bed of leaves to roll in at the beginning of each walk – the damper, the better!
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Such a contrast to Tuesday which was wet, wet, wet – not many of us around that day but still a treat to be outside in the fresh air. We did get soaked though!

Click here for lots more Brighton Dog Walks on our website Out And About With Your Dog..

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Posted in Autumn, Brighton, dog walks, dog walks brighton, East Sussex, English weather, english woods, golden retriever, shadows, Stanmer Woods, Sussex, The Fall

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Gardening with dogs around

Posted on May 4, 2009 | 8 Comments

1honeysuckle-toppledover1We had a beautiful Honeysuckle on our patio.

Admittedly it was very big and practically took over the small garden that we have. Mark felt it was too much for our space and was encouraging me to think about replacing it with something smaller.

Anyway, I got home yesterday to find it had completely toppled over and was being propped up on the canes that protect our new carrot patch from G and J.

Maybe this was a sign?

So out came the secateurs and down came the Honeysuckle.

Georgie quickly settled down as the leaves piled up. I kept adding honeysuckle branches but she was quite happy in her little space.
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Jessie on the other hand is never able to relax if something as exciting is going on. She likes to be in the thick of it.
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“Mmm, I think I’ll try a little snooze over here now”
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Georgie ‘stretching her legs’ . . . (this is why I take them on long walks every day!)
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The patio was getting quite full by now but there’s still space for Jessie to see if there’s anything interesting around – can you spot Georgie by the door?
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And finally, here’s the Honeysuckle in its early days before we let it go wild. It all looks rather pretty, doesn’t it? Must keep an eye on this little space. It can so easily get out of control.

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Posted in dogs, garden, gardening, gardening with dogs, golden retriever, honeysuckle, patio, pets

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Bluebells on our dog walk

Posted on April 26, 2009 | 12 Comments

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Fantastic – it’s Spring which means the bluebells are doing their glorious thing. Our woods in Stanmer Park, Brighton, are full of them and everywhere is transformed. Here are some pictures from yesterday’s dog walk with Georgie and Jessie.

Jennie, when are you coming over? ;)

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Posted in bluebells, Brighton, dog walking, dog walks, dogs, England, english woods, golden retriever, Stanmer Woods, Sussex, woodland

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Wordless Wednesday-English woodland in April

Posted on April 15, 2009 | 7 Comments
Georgie and Jessie enjoying the cool of the woods

Georgie and Jessie enjoying the cool of the woods

Bluebells coming through

Bluebells coming through

Sunlight through the leaves

Sunlight through the leaves

Looking up to the beautiful blue sky

Looking up to the beautiful blue sky

These photos were taken this morning on our dog walk in Stanmer Woods. The bluebells are peeping through now and it was really beautiful there.

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Posted in Brighton, dog walking, dog walks, dogs, England, english woods, golden retriever, spring, Stanmer Woods, Sussex, woodland, Wordless Wednesday

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Barking in the fog

Posted on April 4, 2009 | 2 Comments

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It’s rather unnerving arriving at your destination only to find thick fog ahead. This was the scene this morning.

Before I knew this walk well, and whenever the fog descended, I used to keep to a very flat circular area in front of the carpark. I’d gather pieces of chalk and make a kind of arrow pointing up towards the carpark in case I got completely lost.

Now I know my way round really well and I’m not afraid of stretching further afield when the weather’s bad. Even so, it’s still a little scary seeing figures in the distance. Georgie barked at these people, which she never normally does, as if to say, ‘Friend or foe?’ Look carefully at the photo and you can just make the three figures out.

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As we carried on with the walk, the fog lifted a little at least in the immediate area we were walking. I took this of Jessie because I noticed the wild bunch of daffodils just sitting on ther own.

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By the time we got back to the car, my gloves and hat were off, jacket unzipped and the sun was out. It was as though the fog had never been there. We went from winter back to spring within an hour and a half. The joys of English weather!

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Posted in dog walking, dog walks, dogs, English weather, golden retriever, mist, spring, Sussex

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Blustery Dog Walk

Posted on March 26, 2009 | 3 Comments

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The blue skies and warm weather of the last fortnight seem to be over for the time being. Back to furry ski gloves, fleecy hat and waterproofs.

For the dogs it’s perfect weather of course – neither too hot nor too cold and a fresh blustery wind to ruffle the fur.

Here are a couple of pics from this morning. I found a nice sheltered spot and plonked myself down on the grass. As soon as I do that, Georgie, the Retriever, starts digging frantically a few cms from where I’m sitting. She seems to have a surge of energy whenever I stop on the walk and as you can see from the photo below, digging with her paws is mixed in with poking her nose and mouth in the earth! This photo isn’t cropped by the way. They both just like to get as close as possible and this is how it came out. I thought it was funny!

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Posted in dog walking, dog walks, dogs, English weather, golden retriever, Sheepcote Valley, Sussex

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heads down – follow your nose

Posted on March 20, 2009 | 2 Comments

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I walk with a great dog walker on a regular basis. One of the things Karen likes to do is throw a handful of treats on the ground and let the dogs use their noses to find the goodies.

‘The Find’ proves how balanced packs behave – there’s never any fighting or disputes over food. Just a group of dogs with their heads down searching frantically.

I remember the first time Georgie (my Golden Retriever) was asked to ‘find’. She sat in front of Karen, as good as gold, waiting to be fed by hand as usual. Now, as you can see, she gets stuck in with the rest of them.

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Posted in dog walking, dog walks, doggy pals, dogs, golden retriever, pack of dogs

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The sheep at Sheepcote Valley

Posted on March 11, 2009 | 2 Comments

Well today started off with – joy of joys – a puncture. So before we could visit the sheep at Sheepcote Valley, the tyre had to be changed by the very nice man at the AA. Thank you to the person who left a 3″ nail in the road that caused the problem.

Now Georgie and Jessie have met sheep before. We had a ‘dog-friendly’ holiday in Scotland – on a sheep farm. This was the one piece of information missing from the description and had we known, we wouldn’t have gone there.

On the first morning of our holiday, we’d let Georgie and Jessie into the front garden, which we assumed was safe and enclosed, only to find the whole area around the house surrounded by sheep. By that time it was too late, the two species had met and two dogs and two sheep ended up in the sea. Everyone survived but after that, the dogs had to be tied up on long leads whenever they went into the garden.

Here they are in the amazing ‘front garden’ of our holiday home safely tied to the picnic table.

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So when I discovered that sheep were being brought in to graze our local patch I thought it was an opportunity to do the ‘sheep thing’ again.

It was a while before the dogs noticed them. But when they did, the same excited barking started and Georgie, especially, thought she had new friends to play with.

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What I didn’t tell the dogs was that there was a low voltage electric fence surrounding the grazing area. Sure enough, both dogs got too close and both got zapped. And this was actually what I wanted. Not pleasant I know but certainly effective and I’m hoping they’ll now make the association between sheep and that nasty shock they got today.

I may go back tomorrow and see if they remember. Probably not an ideal way to cement a life long friendship, but one way of making my dogs just a little more respectful of sheep then they were.

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Posted in dog walking, dog walks, dogs, England, golden retriever, sheep, Sheepcote Valley, Sussex

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Friston Forest

Posted on February 20, 2009 | 4 Comments

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Today we hooked up with Ali and Nat and their lovely handsome Golden Retriever Monty (on the right).

Friston Forest is about 45 minutes drive from our house and we go there every couple of months – what a treat. It’s so beautiful there – long footpaths, no sheep, fantastic views over the East Sussex countryside and the dogs LOVE it!

These are some of the pics fom this morning’s walk.

Here’s the handsome Monty:
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What a wonderful way to spend a morning :)

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Posted in dog walking, dog walks, doggy pals, dogs, England, golden retriever, Sussex

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