Purple Pup

30/08/2026

Xylitol is an increasingly common ingredient in prepared human foods, especially in sweet things, but also peanut butter, and various sauces. Highly toxic to dogs, even in just a single lick. ⚠️⚠️⚠️

30/08/2026

It's grim up North! 🤣

I’m really sorry, but the situation is getting worse. The more of the North I see, the bleaker the evidence becomes.

Just look at this absolute misery from Boulby - towering cliffs, the scars of the old alum workings slowly being reclaimed by nature, Staithes lurking horribly in the distance, blue skies, blue seas and mile after mile of dramatic coastline. Honestly, how are people expected to cope with this level of dreariness?

I’ll keep documenting it, purely as a public service. But please, take the warning seriously: there’s nothing to see here. It’s grim up North.

29/08/2026

Sniffing is my very favourite natural dog behaviour.

And it's not just because it's Pepper's very favourite thing to do. 😉

There are SO many things I love about sniffing:

💜 Practically all dogs enjoy sniffing, given the opportunity.

💜 It's really easy to provide our dogs with plenty of opportunities to use their noses.

💜 The canine olfactory system is mind-blowingly, and endlessly, fascinating.

💜 Sniffing is really good for dogs. It lowers their heart rate and releases seratonin and dopamine.

💜 And scentwork is so much fun. For everyone.

But one of my very favourite things about sniffing is that it's the one natural dog behaviour that works alongside (almost) all the other natural dog behaviours.

👍 When and where a dog chooses to dig?

Probably, something to do with their nose.

Digging is a useful hunting behaviour and dogs have always used their noses to find things to eat. (They might also be able to hear, or even feel the movement of creatures below the surface.)

Perhaps digging is just a way to relish further investigation of a smell on the surface.

Or to find a place to cool down, or to stay warm. Canine noses are also fabulous heat detectors.

👍 Other hunting behaviours, like tracking and trailing, are literally all about their noses.

Here, their noses excel. Finding things is one of those incredible canine superpowers we can only marvel at.

Sniffing is a behaviour that makes dogs leaders, and humans followers. (And I absolutely LOVE that! 😁)

👍 Chewing obviously involves the nose, if only in the decision of whether or not to chew something.

👍 Foraging, and scavenging. Of course.

👍 Problem-solving is a natural behaviour for dogs. And those beautiful noses make dogs excellent problem-solvers.

They have a totally different perspective on the world. It's like they have access to a completely different dimension.

And they can solve lots of problems we can't solve for ourselves.

👍 Exploring. Sniffing is a dog's way of finding their way around the world. Their primary way of processing information in the environment.

Watching a dog follow their nose is one of my favourite things to do, ever. 🥰

But sniffing is not just fun for dogs.

It's serious stuff.

It plays a huge part in their wellbeing. 👌

Sniffing also influences social engagement, encourages curiosity, and underpins confidence.

In zoopharmacognosy, dogs can use their clever noses to choose the perfect remedy for themselves.

Dogs often use sniffing as a distraction, or to self- soothe.

In fact sniffing is a really helpful decompression technique. For a dog, and for their humans. Walking along with a dog who is relishing the environment through their nose, is a thing of real joy. 🥰

Stopping frequently on the end of the lead to sniff stuff encourages whoever is at the other end of the lead to just breathe. To slow down for a while. To be curious. To enjoy a few mindful moments.

On the other hand, it's one of the few natural behaviours you and your dog can take up as a fun sport to do together. Lots of different sports. 🤷‍♀️

Or even a career. There are dogs out there doing all kinds of amazing jobs with their noses! Finding cleverly smuggled contraband, truffles, burst water pipes, endangered species, and lost people or animals...

Using their noses to detect several human illnesses. Or to help someone manage an illness, or mitigate a disability...

And it's all a huge game for them. Because they absolutely *love* using their noses.

Really, it's my very favourite natural dog behaviour because it's just so incredibly cool! 😁

For dogs and their humans.

In all kinds of ways.

Let. Them. Sniff. 🙏🐾💜

28/08/2026

28/08/2026

Love this! A beautiful example of why we don't need aversive equipment to walk our dogs. 🙏🐾💜

27/08/2026

A dog's sense of smell is a truly incredible thing! They use their olfactory systems in so many different ways that are fundamental to their lives, including their perception and navigation of the world around them, their social behaviour, and their communication...

The more scientific investigation we see, the more we are learning about this canine superpower. But we still have so much to learn. It's really a very exciting time! 😁

One of the most interesting fields in canine science is the study of canine cognition. Cognition is all the ways our brains take in, process, and remember information, including things like knowledge, understanding, memory, and language.

Basically, cognition is thinking. 🤔

And dogs think a lot... with their noses! 🤣

Not only are their noses literally built around sniffing, not only do they have a large and complex part of their brain dedicated to olfaction, but the canine olfactory bulb is linked by tracts of white matter (bundles of axons, transporting messages super quickly) to various other parts of their brains.

A study in 2022, by Dr Alexandra Horowitz and colleagues, discovered five of these tracts linking directly from the olfactory system to other systems in the brain:

Piriform Cortex (OPT)
Identifying, learning, social behaviour

Entorhinal Cortex (OET)
Memory formation, navigation, time perception

Limbic System (OLT)
Emotion, motivation, survival responses

Spinal Cord (OCST)
Motor function

So all of those make sense. We know from our own experience that our sense of smell influences all of that.

But, perhaps the most exciting, and fascinating, discovery was the fifth canine olfactory tract:

The Olfactory-Occipital Tract (OOT)

A direct information highway between the olfactory cortex and the occipital lobe, which is responsible for visual processing.

And one of the most exciting things about the OOT is that it's a 'novel' tract, meaning it has yet to be discovered in any other species. Which says a lot, considering the huge amount of research into primates, say. Or, rodents. Or, humans. 🤷‍♀️

Because it doesn't make sense (to us) that smell would have anything to do with vision.

It makes me wonder what it must feel like to be a dog; how different it must be to live in a fluid, always dynamic, often turbulent world of scent, with a brain that sends messages directly from your incredible nose, right to your visual cortex...

It seems that dogs might indeed 'see' with their noses, after all. 😉🐾💜

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9398547/

27/08/2026

Sometimes, happiness is a piece of grass! 😁🥰

24/08/2026

POV As a nation of animal lovers we are poor at recognising pain in dogs.

This has been playing on my mind a lot recently. Maybe it is a case of the more you learn the less you know but since Beau's improvements post surgery it has made me question everything.

I am embarrassed and feel really guilty in not getting him help sooner. I put so many little things down to just being him but the results of his surgery suggest otherwise.

I have spent the majority of my life around animals. I have had horses since a child which I competed to a high level in both Show Jumping and later Dressage. I have competed my dogs in both agility and obedience.

I worked in animal chiropractic for over 20 years with both horses and dogs and so have watched animals move for as long as I can remember.

My skills were above average and yet I am still learning. I had to do a lot of research before getting two of my dogs diagnosed and treated for occult tethered cord. I likely wouldn't have been able to do this if I didn't have my chiropractic training.

I see so many struggle as the symptoms aren't clear cut and the dog isn't always lame. The symptoms may be considered mild or may even be missed due to people not knowing enough about both the condition and what pain can actually look like.

One of the stand out things with tethered cord is toileting issues. How many of us pay attention to our dog's posture when toileting, how often they go and how much urine is passed?

It is much more common to notice poorly formed faeces and many do look into this but unless the dog has a UTI or becomes incontinent which then affects the humans, it is often not even considered.

But imagine not being able to toilet properly and comfortably every time you need to go. I don't think that is mild. I think that would make your life pretty miserable.

Allodynia is another symptom often missed or over looked. This is a pain condition where normal touch or temperature are processed as extreme pain. The dog doesn't want to be touched. This may be all over or just parts of their body. Beau prior to surgery didn't like me brushing his back end, now he lets me. I had worked on cooperative care with no effect because it was pain related. Many would accept this as just who the dog is as long as it doesn't affect their work or behaviour.

I am not suggesting all minor issues are serious veterinary problems but if they aren't training can usually work through them. If you can't touch your dog in certain places and have consistently worked on this then maybe they are trying to tell you there is in fact an issue.

This then leads onto another problem where if a dog doesn't want to be handled they can be difficult for a vet to examine and this makes some not want to go to the vet in the first place.

Here we need good communication skills, an understanding vet, a good case history and an open mind to maybe needing deeper investigations than just a standard exam.

I could continue this post for hours more as these thoughts continue to come into my head.

I don't know what the answer is but at the moment my concern is that our dogs are being failed by not getting the help they so deserve.

The saying just because they can doesn't mean they should keeps coming to mind and also the more I learn the less I know.

It can be exciting to think there is so much we don't yet know but it is also sad for our dogs and so I think all I can do is strive to be better for my dogs every day. I hope you will join me in that too.