My Unique Family Home Boarding

My Unique Family Home Boarding Thatcham Berkshire Home away from home, loving family environment. 5* rated, fully insured and licenced under Animal Welfare Regulations No.26250

This is Wilson demonstrating what I can only describe as the perfect example.Legs out. Completely flat. Soaking up every...
11/06/2026

This is Wilson demonstrating what I can only describe as the perfect example.

Legs out. Completely flat. Soaking up every available square inch of sunshine like it was personally allocated to him. This is what we call a sploot — and if your dog does this, it’s one of the best things you can see.

A dog who sploots is a dog who feels completely safe.

The position itself requires full relaxation of the hips and lower back — muscles that stay tight when a dog is anxious, uncertain, or on alert. You simply can’t sploot your way through stress. The body won’t allow it. So when a dog spreads out like this, legs deployed in both directions, completely unbothered — that’s not just a funny photo opportunity. That’s a dog whose nervous system has fully switched off.

There’s a practical side to it too. Dogs regulate temperature through contact with cool surfaces, and the sploot maximises exactly that — full belly and inner leg contact with the floor. On a warm day, it’s actually the most sensible position in the room. Wilson, as it turns out, is not just relaxed. He’s efficient.

Watching a dog go from arrival energy to this, in your home, in your sunshine, on your floor — is one of my favourite things about this job.

That’s what settled looks like. 🐾

When Farley arrived, the monkey came too.He carried it in from the car. He carried it to his bed. He slept with it tucke...
10/06/2026

When Farley arrived, the monkey came too.

He carried it in from the car. He carried it to his bed. He slept with it tucked under his chin — paw over it, just in case. And he settled faster than almost any dog I’ve had through the door.

That monkey isn’t just a toy. It’s a piece of home.

When a dog arrives somewhere new, everything is unfamiliar — the smells, the sounds, the layout, the routine. Their nervous system is quietly working overtime, taking it all in, trying to establish whether this place is safe. A familiar object cuts straight through that process. It carries the scent of home, of their own space, of everything they know. In a room full of unknowns, it’s the one thing that makes sense.

This is why I always ask owners to send a favourite toy or a piece of familiar bedding with their dog. Not as a nice extra. As something that genuinely helps. The difference between a dog who arrives and spends the first few hours unsettled — pacing, panting, unable to rest — and a dog who finds their corner, puts their chin on their monkey, and exhales — that difference is real. And sometimes it’s as simple as remembering to pack the thing they love most.

Farley is a golden retriever with very good taste in comfort objects and absolutely no intention of leaving that monkey unattended.

He knows what helps him feel at home. We could all take a leaf out of his book. 🤍

Charlie new watering spot 💙He spotted the water feature, walked straight over, and helped himself from the top tier like...
09/06/2026

Charlie new watering spot 💙

He spotted the water feature, walked straight over, and helped himself from the top tier like he’d been doing it his entire life. No hesitation. No checking whether this was actually his water bowl. Just pure, absolute confidence that if it’s flowing, it’s his.

And honestly — I love this about dogs.

There’s a reason they’re drawn to moving water over a static bowl. Running water stays fresher, stays oxygenated, and triggers something instinctive — dogs are wired to seek it out. It’s the same reason so many dogs will ignore a full bowl indoors and make a beeline for a puddle, a stream, or apparently, a three-tiered garden water feature in Berkshire.

I do make sure it’s safe — clean, free from anything that could cause harm, checked regularly. Because that’s just part of thinking about the environment the dogs are actually living in here, not just passing through.

But mostly I just love watching them discover it for the first time. That moment of — oh. Water. Moving water. Mine now.

Charlie always goes straight to the fountain first.

Some routines just choose themselves. ☀️

08/06/2026

Two spaniels. One woodland. A nature documentary entirely of their own making.

This is Isla. She arrived like a small, beautiful, extremely determined tornado.Cocker spaniels are working dogs at hear...
07/06/2026

This is Isla. She arrived like a small, beautiful, extremely determined tornado.

Cocker spaniels are working dogs at heart — bred to flush, chase, follow a scent, cover ground. When that energy has nowhere to go, it has to go somewhere.
The solution was never to wait it out. It was to work her.

Long off-lead run in the woods. Nose down in the undergrowth, ears flying, covering twice the ground of anyone else on the walk — doing exactly what her brain and body were built to do. Smells to investigate. Squirrels to consider. Sticks that needed urgent assessment.

And then we came home. And this happened.

Sofa. Stillness. That expression — mouth soft, eyes bright, completely and utterly satisfied. Not tired in a depleted way. Tired in the way that only comes from doing something properly.

This is what a well-exercised cocker spaniel looks like. Not sedated. Not flat. Just genuinely, deeply content.

High energy dogs don’t need managing. They need working. Get that right and everything else — the calm, the settling, the sofa snoozes — follows naturally. 🐾

06/06/2026

Charlie and Hugo are playing chase. Lolli is playing “I’m coming, I’m coming” — and she means it just as much.

💕age is just a number 🐾

The padawan is enthusiastic. The master is conserving her energy for the important bits. 🐾
05/06/2026

The padawan is enthusiastic. The master is conserving her energy for the important bits. 🐾

On hot days, the walk gets shorter. The enrichment doesn’t.This is Charlie — one of our daycare regulars, who has been c...
04/06/2026

On hot days, the walk gets shorter. The enrichment doesn’t.

This is Charlie — one of our daycare regulars, who has been coming here since he was a bouncy, chaotic, extremely opinionated eighteen week old. He is now eleven months and marginally less chaotic. The opinions remain.

When the temperature climbs, the instinct is to feel guilty about cutting the walk short. But overwalking a dog in the heat — especially a young, energetic one — does far more harm than a quieter day at home. Paws on hot pavements, a body that overheats faster than we realise, a dog who won’t tell you they’re struggling until they really are. The walk can wait.

What doesn’t have to wait is the mental work.

A knotted tea towel with some natural air dried beef cubes tucked inside costs nothing and keeps a dog like Charlie genuinely focused for longer than you’d expect. He has to nose it, paw it, work out which angle gives him access, reposition, try again. It’s problem solving. It’s satisfying. And it tires the brain in exactly the same way a good run tires the legs.

Hot weather days are enrichment days. Licky mats, snuffle mats, frozen treats, knotted towels with something worth finding inside — these are not substitutes for a walk. They’re just the right tool for the right day.

Charlie would like you to know the beef cubes were excellent. He has submitted a formal review. 🐾

03/06/2026

The scene. The carnage. The innocent face.

Lolli would like it noted for the record that she was nowhere near this carnage. The actual suspect is currently at the water feature, washing away the evidence. 🐾

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RG184DL

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