By Brian Hicks
In these Covid times, dogs have provided company, solace and joy.
As humorist Josh Billings quipped, “A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.”
Sales of dogs have increased markedly, as have prices, and there has been a surge in their imports.
The Battersea Dogs and Cats Home was receiving 1,500 enquiries a day during the first lockdown. Nearly all of its dogs had been placed before then,
so there were few were left to rehome.
An alternative to owning a dog is to take someone else’s for a regular walk through borrowmydoggy.com.
The organisation was established in 2012 by a Danish lady, Rikke Rosenlund after she took care of a neighbour’s dog in London. It now has more than one million members.
There is a yearly fee of £44.99 for owners, which puts them in touch with borrowers and vice versa, and £12.99 for borrowers, including third-party and veterinary insurance for each walk.
I became a borrower over a year ago and was lucky to find two lovely, well-trained black labradors,
Wilf (3) and Marley (9), who live just half a mile away.
Wilf is addicted to sticks and balls. Marley has no interest as Wilf would simply take them off him.
Marley is very playful and sociable, sometimes a bit too sociable. Both are great water lovers.
I usually take them to Keephatch Meadows, a pleasant new parkland area with car park created by Wokingham Borough Council. It has three ponds to keep them happy and joins up with Piglittle Field, an area recently created by Bracknell Council and beside a bluebell wood.
There are other new paths and parklands in Wokingham, partly serving the new housing estates.
I had my first experience with a black Labrador when I was 11 and waiting for a bus. It bit me hard on the bottom, putting me off dogs for a long time.
When I got married, my wife suggested we get a black Labrador, as she had grown up with one. She also indicated that it would be good training for when we had children. I reluctantly agreed and we bought Henry from a breeder in Yorkshire.
I worked from home and would take him running most days. Labradors are great eaters and Henry never left any food in his bowl.
We once went to Tobermory on the Isle of Mull. There was a fish and chip shop in the town and I was looking forward to having some deep-fried haggis, a delicious Scottish speciality.
We were walking to our apartment with Henry on the lead, talking to friends. I took my first bite of the haggis, which was very hot, so I let my hand drop to allow it to cool. In a flash, the haggis was gone.
The high temperature was no deterrent to Henry, who consumed it all in one go.
We were living in Reading at the time, which was the centre of the jogging boom. Henry made up for the haggis incident by winning a bottle of champagne in an owners with dogs running race.
I also ran the Reading Half Marathon with him. Henry lapped up all the support and the many biscuits that came his way, but ended the race much heavier and slower than at the start.
Sadly for Henry, dogs were banned from this event the next year.
Henry was a great tea drinker and had a bowl of it most days. He charmed the man in the ice cream van, who always gave him a free cornet when he came, much to our envy.
Walking Wilf and Marley is like having Henry back again twice over.
As author M K Clinton said “The world would be a nicer place if everyone had the ability to love as unconditionally as a dog.”
