Perkins Paws Dog Walking

16/10/2026

Happy 11th birthday Poppy 🥰🥰

Everyone loved the chicken!

16/10/2026

Happy Friday morning!

15/10/2026

🥰

13/10/2026

There’s a sock thief in the house 🤣

12/10/2026

5 had an adventure didn’t 🤦🏼‍♀️

12/10/2026

Monday morning…
Stayed dry so far!!! 👏🏻👏🏻

11/10/2026

A gorgeous morning for a basset waddle plus 2 extras 🥰

09/10/2026

Bottoms! 🍑🍑

08/10/2026

Hear hear!

I did not write this (wish I had!).

But it resonated with me because our field provides exactly this for the dogs we walk. It’s a safe environment for them to do all the things mentioned and come home to you as happy doggos ❤️

Your dog doesn't need a walk.
They need a chance to be a dog.
Because the idea of taking a dog for a "walk" is actually a human invention.
We decide that at 7am we're going to put a lead on the dog, walk a particular route for 30 minutes, come home and call that their exercise for the day.
But your dog doesn't know what a 30-minute walk is.
They don't care how many miles you've covered.
They don't know that you've got somewhere to be afterwards.
What they actually have are instinctive behaviours and needs that they want to fulfil.
They want to sniff.
They want to explore.
They want to investigate interesting smells.
They want to search for things.
They want to move.
They want to make choices.
They want to interact with their environment.
And depending on the individual dog, they may have strong needs to chase, retrieve, dig, chew, carry, forage or interact socially.

So when I take my dog out, I'm not thinking:
"How quickly can I get him around this route?"
I'm thinking:
"How can I give him opportunities to do the things that dogs naturally want to do?"
That's why I'm perfectly happy for my dog to spend five minutes sniffing through a pile of leaves.
To me, he isn't wasting five minutes of the walk.
That's five minutes of him getting to be a dog.

It's about understanding what our dogs need from us.
We can teach loose lead walking so they don't drag us around.
We can teach recall so they can have freedom safely.
We can teach them to disengage from distractions when we need them to.
But within those boundaries, I want my dog to have opportunities to make choices and fulfil those natural behaviours.
Because a "good walk" doesn't necessarily mean your dog walked perfectly beside you for 45 minutes.
It might mean they came home mentally satisfied, physically exercised and fulfilled because they actually got to do dog things.
Let dogs be dogs.

Perkins Paws Dog Walking

07/10/2026

Through the trees trying not to fall over 🤣