Beautiful Bluebells

During lockdown, I had a really big burst of inspiration – I rediscovered the stunning bluebell woods within walking distance of our home. I went there as often as I could to document the lifecycle, which is really short, and get some shots of my hounds posing. It made me realise that it’s been a long time since I’ve felt that drive to photograph just for myself. I absolutely love my job – I think maybe when I’m photographing for clients that fulfils my creative need to a certain extent, but it means I forget to go out and photograph just for the fun of it! You can see my project here: https://www.furandfables.com/the-bluebell-diaries/

For this post though, I wanted to put together a little gallery of my favourite action shots, both from my project and from client shoots too, because who doesn’t love to see dogs having fun in such a stunning location. I hope you enjoy! (You can click on the images to view them bigger)

Do you have a favourite? I’d love to hear which one it is in the comments.

Kerry x

Sometimes, having to reschedule a shoot can be the best thing that can happen, just like this London Whippet shoot.

Meet gorgeous Ezra

It’s not often that I have to reschedule shoots, it’s usually weather related, so its even more rare to have to reschedule twice! Ezra’s humans were super relaxed about it though, wanting to make sure we got the best images from the shoot.

A Perfect Day

We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect November day! Lovely golden light, and the gardens at Chiswick House offered such an amazing array of colours so late in the year! It was also fairly empty, we didn’t see very many people at all! This location is walking distance for Ezra and his humans, so it is a very special place for them.

Ezra is very much attached to his humans, and not really fussed about anyone else, so I felt very privileged that he was happy for me to give him a good neck scratch.

On Lead but that’s okay!

You may not realise it, but most of these images were actually taken with Ezra on lead. As long as the lead is positioned in a certain way, then it’s quite easy to edit out afterwards.  But enough of that, look at his ears, aren’t they just amazing! He so reminded me of my own hound, Scout, when his ears did this.

Here’s what Ezra’s humans had to say about the shoot (I felt super comfortable chatting with them both, so I was quite surprised when I got this!)

“We’ve had the most amazing shoot with Kerry, with truly magical photos of our whippet boy – Ezra to keep. We’ve been following Kerry’s work for years and we knew if we ever have a photo shoot it must be with her, but as we’re both shy and a bit socially awkward – the idea made us nervous. When we finally decided to do it I was anxiously waiting for the big day, but Kerry made everything so easy. We hit it off right away, she was so nice, brilliant with our dog and she made us feel relaxed and safe. She chose beautiful locations and set ups and turned Ezra into a supermodel – she clearly has a way with dogs!

Overall it was a fantastic and uplifting experience and we’re truly grateful for the wonderful pictures we now have on our walls capturing the sweet personality of Ezra.”

Yesterday I sat in front of my iPad for about 10 hours or so in total. And all I was doing was looking at dog images. That’s a long time for anyone to look at dog photographs, no matter how cute!

But I’d registered ‘National Dog Photography Day’ earlier in the year and I wanted it to do well and not flop, I wanted people to rejoice in their obsession with taking pictures of their dogs, I wanted people to share their favourite images and why it meant so much to them. And share they did!

So here’s how the day unfolded and how #NationalDogPhotographyDay went viral.

A favourite from a @RedhoundforDogs at the start of the year. You can see Bertie and Shadow are just about to move, and George had been held in place to till the very last second. Scout of course, being a consummate professional as always!#NationalDogPhotographyDay pic.twitter.com/HqzxNvW5gY

— Fur & Fables (@JordansWhippets) July 26, 2018

It all starts with creating content.

No-one tells you when you have a small business how much you need to think about creating content to help clients find you. So not just selling what you do, but creating something interesting that people will enjoy. Over the last year I’ve been listening to PR Expert Janet Murray (and attended one of her events) and read The Million Dollar Dog Brand twice (an amazing book for any dog brand) and one bit of advice was too look at all the national/international ‘days’ that I thought my followers would be interested in, from dog friendly pancake recipes for Shrove Tuesday to creating a Valentine’s Day image with my hounds eating lamb spaghetti together!

https://twitter.com/JordansWhippets/status/1022404275065049088

Apart from the usual days that everyone knows, there are others, LOTS of others. From days that have been created to raise awareness – important days like World Lupus Day (10th May) & International Homeless Animals’ Day (18th August) to fun days like National Hot Dog Day (23rd July) & Take Your Dog to Work Day (22nd June) to the downright bizarre like Ugly Truck Day (yes really, 20th July) & Frankenstein Friday (26th October).

One of those random days was about ‘Make up your own holiday’ and in a round about way, it got me thinking what national day would I create if I could. The obvious one would be my two favourite things! Dogs & photography.

I thought, why not give it a try? So I researched how to register these days and found Year Ahead which is an events database. I chose 26th July as it’s the birthday of Elliot Erwitt who is famous for his documentary photography of dogs and pinged Year Ahead an email. They asked a few questions as to why the day should be listed, and the event was created!

That was back in February, and suddenly the day was almost upon me. I hadn’t really done any preparation, I had no idea if people would pick up the hashtag so I knew I needed to kick it off. I asked some of my lovely dog business friends to help and on the 26th July we started posting and asking people to share their favourite images of their dogs, using the hashtag #NationalDogPhotographyDay

This morning I took probably my favourite ever series of photos. I can’t not smile when looking at his gorgeous happy face! Good timing for #NationalDogPhotographyDay pic.twitter.com/Ypix4srJ2K

— Woody & Wilma (@Cotswoldspaniel) July 26, 2018

It started off a little slow, I spent hours on facebook, instagram & twitter using my own images with text to try and engage people, retweeting posts by other people, commenting on posts on Instagram & Facebook. By mid morning it was picking up, particularly on twitter. And then it really took off. After lunch it had hit #11 on the UK twitter trending list, and people were loving the hashtag feed, because who doesn’t love a stream of gorgeous dogs, even Admiral Insurance dog Winston joined in!

https://twitter.com/JordansWhippets/status/1022521420931375104

By late afternoon a lovely chap from the Press Association contacted me and it was added to their viral page. I couldn’t quite believe it!

It was such an awesome day, I saw so many gorgeous images, and read so many inspiring stories.

https://twitter.com/HoneyGreyhound/status/1022403456378843136

Was it worth it?

So was it worth it? I got to spend the day looking at dogs so heck yes! When I set out, I had no expectations of how the day would play out so it was always going to exceed my zero expectations. For a small local business, it’s all about getting your name out there, apart from the exposure, nothing may come of it. Or, in a few weeks, someone will want a dog photographer and remember National Dog Photography Day and check me out to see if I’m right for them.

Huge thank you to everyone who joined in, I can’t wait till next year!!

Kerry x

https://www.instagram.com/p/BlshZwKlP49

I have always loved the idea of going abroad with the hounds but wasn’t sure it if it would be a real faff. I certainly didn’t want to go the ferry route, we have done that with Scout twice (once when he had to stay in the kennels – never again & once where he could stay in the car on his own, not ideal). So when we got the opportunity to stay at a friends property in Hautefort in the Dordogne, we decided to take the leap.

We looked into Eurotunnel and it seemed so easy! Why hadn’t we thought of this before? A few people have been interested in how the process went, so I’ll start from the beginning 😊

Passports & Rabies Jabs

Before we even looked at train times, we knew that passports and rabies jabs needed to be first on the list. Rabies jabs need to be done 21 days before travelling and it has to be done after your dog has been microchipped (which of course is a legal requirement now).

As with most things in the Jordan household, we left things a little last minute and did it about 1 month before travelling, and all at the same time. We are lucky enough to have a very patient and sensitive vet who did the relevant check over and took all the details for their passports which we picked up about a week later.

Considering we have 5 dogs, this wasn’t a cheap process, the bill coming up to around 450.00 (it would have been more however Shadow already had his passport). They will scan for the chip and make a note of the location, and take details of any distinguishing marks which all go on the passport (there is the option to add their photo too if you like!) and add all the rabies vaccination information. Double check all the details are correct before you go!

Ticks, Fleas & Sandflies

This is honestly the thing that caused me the most stress. I wont use any ‘spot’ treatments anymore after both Scout & Jasper lost fur that still hasn’t grown back and there was no way I was going to feed my hounds one of the oral pills which apparently keep ticks away for 3 months, the thought terrified me that is how long it stays in their system.

So I had two options: the collars or a natural remedy.

I really wanted to go with a natural remedy. Friends have sworn by Billy No Mates by CSJ, unfortunately you need to be feeding that months before you go away, and as I mentioned, the Jordan household can be a tad disorganised.

I already knew from past research that ticks and flees seem to be repelled by the smell of lemongrass and/or cedarwood essential oils so I decided to look into this a little more. That’s when I are across this blog: http://www.primallyinspired.com/easy-natural-tick-repellent-that-really-works-essential-oils/

Here was a woman and her dog who had been diagnosed with Lyme disease but didn’t want to use harmful chemicals on her dog and had a natural remedy!

I put a post up on facebook to see if anyone else had similar results but not many people had tried it. I then got a little scared because of the warnings regarding how much worse the ticks were in Europe to the UK and so, I decided to go down the collar route.

This honestly still made me feel uncomfortable, if you read the instructions you have to wash your hands after coming in contact with it, and yet we put them round our dogs necks. If I had something like a husky I don’t think I would have been so concerned, however my hounds have barely any fur round their necks.

The two main options that came up were Seresto & Scalibor. Seresto was out after a friend with a short haired Daxie said that her hound had lost the fur round it’s neck. This was turning out to be a nightmare! I bought the Scalibor after a another friend who is completely nuts about her hound and travels extensively recommended it. Thankfully I called my vets to double check with him; he told me that Seresto is the one he recommends as it has been registered, but if I wanted to go with Scalibor I needed to take it off before they go in water because it can be dangerous to small equatic life (seriously!?).

The good thing about Scalibor is that the collar has much more flex than the Seresto (which is much thicker) so it’s easier to slip over the dogs necks to take them off.

In the end, the hound hardly wore their Scalibor as I didn’t think it was necessary when walking round towns. They are supposed to wear them all the time to be effective, but instead I put a drop of Rose Geranium on my finger and rubbed it on their shoulder blades and top of the tail for when we were walking in low risk areas. I even put a few dabs on the hems of my shorts and on my shoes (it is an oil though so be careful of staining). Neither hounds or humans came away with bites of any kind. I am not saying that this is the right or correct thing to do, it’s just what we did.

Fun fact I came across: Ticks must be engorged from 24 to 36 hours before they are able to transmit Lyme disease and only 25% of nymphs and 50% of adults carry Lyme in the highest endemic areas. This might seem like a high number, but only 5% of dogs who are naturally exposed to Lyme disease become clinically ill. This means that if you find a nymph on your dog, the risk of Lyme disease in endemic areas is 1.25 out of a hundred and 2.5 out of a hundred if you find an adult tick on your dog. Of course, the risk will be lower in other areas. (Source: https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/ticks-natural-prevention/ – it’s a really interesting read and includes herbal methods to boost the immune system agains Lyme disease)

The Eurotunnel

This was the easy part, so easy that actually we somehow managed to bypass the lounge and the dog excercise area (which looks fab with mini agility courses), and found ourselves in the lane for the tunnel in the blink of an eye. Which is a bit of a shame as we decided to take the ‘flexi’ option which gives you access to their fancy new lounge – it did mean however that we had the fast track on boarding & it didn’t matter what time we arrived.

Our passports were checked on the way out but not the hounds.

You are loaded onto this huge transport train, one car wide, bumper to bumper and within 40 minutes we were at Calais.

The hounds didn’t seem to be bothered by the process at all, it was pretty quiet journey.

On the road

Here’s the great thing about travelling in France, once outside of Calais, approximately every 10-15 miles there were ‘rest stops’ usually signposted as Aire de Repos. Some are quite basic but most include pretty picnic areas with large grassy sections, and if you are lucky, you may get one with a lovely wooded footpath for you to walk your hounds.

There are a few toll roads but it’s well worth it as the roads brilliant. We went the week before the school holidays and only came across traffic when we went round the French version of the M25 on the way back. Generally we found the roads wide, smooth and free of traffic jams (and when I say ‘we’ I mean my husband as he was a superstar and did all the driving!).

For some reason, our old boy Jasper was over excited as soon as we got to Calais, which meant more stops than usual just to make sure he wasn’t too hot or needed the toilet.

The French Holiday

We were in a tiny place called Hautefort and it was my idea of heaven. Our home for the next week, the stunning Rediat Cor, sat nestled at the base of the impressive Chatau at the top of a hill. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect location after a hectic and sometimes stressful year so far. The lanes were one car width (although plenty of parking spaces) and every home seemed to have a beautiful array of flowers on their doorsteps and window boxes. Pair that with the rustic shutters and and stone buildings and it felt like a fairytale location. It was super clean, and get this, despite it’s rustic location, there were discreet stations for electric car top ups!

We had a whole list of recommendations of places to go, we only managed a couple as we were content to slow the pace of life a little and sit out on the terrace with the wonderful views and read books that had been stacking up for months.

For anyone worried about not being able to take your dogs in places in France, you needn’t. Everywhere we went, people went out of their way to make us comfortable, from a fancy restaurant down an alley in Perideux where we stopped for lunch (they moved chairs so we could have more space) to the lakeside cafe who brought water bowls to our table. Although we could see dogs were more than welcome in restaurants in the evening, we decided to eat in after we had to leave red faced when the hounds got too excited after seeing a cat. They weren’t settling down (I should have brought my Guru trip bones – hindsight and all that!) so we cooked in the house in the evenings. If we had only two hounds it’s likely they would have settled much easier, but with five, they just ended up feeding off each others excitement. We did find that the majority of places had outside areas too where we saw dogs a plenty.

A friend who visited France could barely believe that her two hounds were even allowed in a beautifully ornate hotels and restaurants (seriously, one was called Hotel Imperial Palace, yes Palace; think carpeted restaurant and marble staircases).

The dogs were on lead most of the time however they didn’t seem to mind as it was quite warm so they weren’t up to doing anything energetic. We visited the insanely pretty Segur on the way back from the vets which has a shallow river running through it – we let the hounds have a paddle to cool off and they then had a mental zoomies for a good half an hour.

Rediat Cor is at the base of the Chateau and dogs are welcomed in the gardens so I went twice in one day as it was so amazing.

Apart from a couple of hair raising moments (thanks to Shadow thinking that he was made of rubber) and the embarrassment of having to leave the restaurant, it was super relaxing. I felt so inspired taking early morning walks, usually with just one of the hounds, before anything opened. I’d go and sit at the local cafe and have a coffee watching as the town woke up, and felt really welcomed when after a few days they knew my order.

Here’s a link to where we stayed, I honestly can’t recommend it enough!: www.positivelyfrench.co.uk/index.html

Vets in France

We were lucky enough to have the details of a vet that the owner of the house uses. We called on the Tuesday to get an appointment for the Thursday (we left on the Saturday). Working tablets should be taken no less than 24 hours and no more than 5 days before you travel back to the UK. I’d recommend doing a search in the area you are staying and giving them a call before you travel to book your dogs in. Most receptionists will speak enough English to understand what you need.

Our vet spoke good English and was brilliant with the dogs. We found the price ridiculously reasonable – 5 dogs worming plus a 30 pack of calming tablets was 77€ – he went through and double checked all the details with me as the last thing you want is to get to Calais and realise something is incorrect!

One thing to note is that we tried to call on the Monday not realising it was a French public holiday so most places were closed.

The Hounds Pack List

Food: We packed Guru for the hounds (you can read why we chose this here) and a couple of times bought mince, chicken wings, eggs and tinned fish from the local supermarket as an evening meal (I also brought a tin of pumpkin and their golden paste).

Beds: We took the hounds favourite beds (Charley Chau Donut & Snuggle beds), a couple of The Whippet Company fleeces to throw on furniture or leave on the patio and two Charley Chau spotted blankets that we could take when we ate out. I kid you not, we got a roof box specifically for all the beds! We dotted them all with lavender essential oils before we left so that they had the benefit of the relaxing effect the entire way through the holiday. I also think its good to have something that they know from home.

Calmex: We got this from the vets before we went as Boo was anxious in the car after I had an accident last year. We have been working on her confidence however it was too long a journey to risk her being stressed the entire way. We tried it on a couple of journey’s before we left and she definitely made an improvement. It may be worth having something like this on standby (or for example, the pet remedy defuser) as even for the most confident of dogs this could be a strange experience. I’m glad we did as the weather was warm when we went and we had a few thunder storms so it really helped with Shadow.

Bandanas: We took bandanas for two reasons; one so that we could wet them if the hounds got too warm and secondly to dab essential oils like lavender on before the journey. Ours are from Redhound for Dogs.

Essential Oils: It’s only in the last 6 months or so I’ve really started to get to know and love the natural benefits of essential oils (thanks to Sam at Hoof to Tail Healing) and now I use them all the time for both myself and the hounds. I took lavender for their beds and bandanas to help them relax, I dabbed either cedarwood or lemongrass on their bandanas to help repel ticks (they are quite strong smelling so I left it for about 30 mins before putting them on), and then the rose geranium for ticks too.

Passports: If you are even thinking of taking your hound abroad it may be good to get this whenever you can as it lasts for 7 years.

Favourite Toys: It’s really good for your hound to have something that is familiar to him when you are in a new place.

Harnesses, Leads & tag collars: We took more leads than we needed just in case we lost one and made sure our tag collars had all the details visible & correct.

Portable water bowl: We had one in the house however we kept one in the car too with a litre bottle of water. Most places had water bowls available however my lot are a bit fussy and only seem to like fresh water and not ones that other dogs have used. Pampered much??

Poo bags: took way more than we needed so that we could put them in the car, pockets & bags all over the place.

Things we forgot

Jumpers: thankfully we didn’t need them, but I was worried on the way out in case the nights were a bit cooler. I also should have thought about their wax coats in case of rain!

First aid kit: We have a dog first aid kit at home and it was only after I thought back to Shadow’s antics of the week it would have been a good thing to bring. Thankfully we didn’t need it!

I hope you enjoyed our journey! If you have any questions about travelling to France with your dog, please do as and I’ll answer if I am able! Kerry x

The best harness fit for Whippets

Updated January 2025

As a commercial pet photographer, I have photographed 100s of dogs, I get asked quite a lot about these harnesses so I thought it may be useful for anyone who was thinking about one for their hounds, my experience is with Whippets but you can take a lot away from this article for most dogs.

Why I choose Ruffwear

There were two reasons I was looking at harnesses; my old boy Jasper was quite sensitive around his head when he had his inner ear removed, I felt a harness would be much gentler for him, and then there was Shadow.

When I first adopted Shadow, I realised that we would need a harness for some of our walks, basically wherever there was going to be any excitement, if he saw anything even remotely fun then he would leap four foot in the air and dance around like a maniac. Not great when the only thing he is tethered to is a collar round his neck.

It’s notoriously difficult find harnesses for sighthounds, most fits seem to be too loose because of their deep but skinny chests. I was pleasantly surprised by the RuffWear Front Range Harness, because of the amount of adjusting we could do at several points, it fitted perfectly. I also loved the fact that rather than being strips of thinner material like a lot of harnesses, this has wider, more padded sections and the front almost feels like a chest piece.

The front range harnesses are great for general walking, however Shadow learned how to back out of it. So I checked out the six point Webmaster – problem solved! Again this is super adjustable, it fits him really well and with the added benefit of the harness coming further towards where the waist tucks in, it’s Shadow proof. I went for the addition of the stomach protector as he had previously had trouble with an awful rash after going through long grass. Hey presto, I have the perfect harness!

I used the front range harnesses for all the other hounds with great success. I had the small size for all five hounds, that shows how adjustable they are as they are very different in height & weight! I can also pop them over  Redhound for Dogs fleeces, although they now have lots of great whippet coats and jumpers with harness holes.

I got asked quite a lot of questions about the fit, so I have popped a little video up here: Ruffwear Harness Fit

When do I use them?

We use them quite a lot, like if we are going somewhere super busy like DogFest or now I live in the Lake District, I really need that useful handle to help my dogs over stiles and do a bit of scrambling. Anywhere there is too much going on for us to be trying to direct the hounds from collars, somewhere like a dog event isn’t easy on their necks as they are constantly trying to hoover up dropped food or follow exciting smells.

Update January 2025:

This blog was initially written in 2017. I am still using Ruffwear and now I have moved to the Lake District, they are much more frequently used, alongside the Roamer Bungee lead they are indispensable! I’ve changed Bertie over to the Flagline Dog Harness with Handle as for some reason he didn’t like wearing the Webmaster, not an issue I have had with the other dogs, but he’s very happy with the Flagline!

If you have any questions about my experience with these harnesses, please don’t hesitate to ask, and I’d love to hear if you have them for your hounds too!

With thanks to additional models Buzz, Ozzy & Ollie who are also RuffWear wearers 🙂

Kerry x