This summer saw us celebrate 5 years of Devon Loves Dogs, we enjoyed a great Waggy Walk at Mutters Moors near Sidmouth and stopped off at the gazebo for home made dog friendly cake for pups, which was wolfed down and traditional birthday cake for humans! We've had a quick look back at just what we've been up to over those five years. From small beginnings we've grown in reach and popularity and we must have met many thousands of dogs and their owners at a whole host of events, pop ups and Waggy Walks.

If you haven't joined us on a Waggy Walk yet, we run these walks regularly throughout the year, we usually start at 10am and walk for about an hour and a half, with lots of time for the dogs to sniff and play and owners to chat. We always walk with a member of the site team and we've run walks in a whole host of locations with lots of different people. We walk once a month on the Pebblebed Heaths with site manager Kim Strawbridge and we also walk with Jon Steward at Dawlish Countryside Park and other sites around Teignbridge. We've walked in lots of woodlands too with our friends at Forestry England; Stoke Woods, East Hill Strips, Trinity Hill and Morganhayes. We've been out exploring with the National Trust at Killerton, Ashclyst Forest, Orcombe Point and Salcombe Hill. We've also had some fantastic walks around Cranbrook Countryside Park with the Ranger team. 

You may have met us at an event with the Devon Loves Dogs gazebo and infamous "Pick Up The Poo" game? I'm not sure just how many kids we've played the poo game with? This game is incredibly popular and hopefully gets dog owners of the future fully engaged with the reasons why it's so important, along with some practise of how to do it too. We've taken the gazebo and poo game all over South East Devon, from small charity dog shows to Devon County Show and Bicton Lambing Day. We've also joined in the fun at the Big Doggy Day Out, Muddy Mutts, Bark In The Dark and the Great British Dog Walk to name just a few.

Of course, Devon Loves Dogs is a free membership scheme, open to everyone who owns or walks a dog. The excting news is that we've just reached 1000 members! A massive thank you to everyone who's joined and pledged to follow the Four Paws Code.

At Devon Loves Dogs we love finding new places to walk with our dogs and we're lucky to have some new locations to share with you. Dawlish Countryside Park has been open since 2017 and we love our Waggy Walks there. Did you know that a similar new park has recently been opened near Exminster too? Ridgetop Park has amazing views and has lots of space for our dogs to explore and sniff, we're just waiting for the car park to be opened so that we can run some Waggy Walks there. Next year will hopefully see us enjoying another new park, this time near Broadclyst Station near Cranbrook. Keep following Devon Loves Dogs to find out more.

Devon Loves Dogs aims to protect the most sensitive wildlife areas in South East Devon; the Exe Estuary, Dawlish Warren and the Pebblebed Heaths. We work with similar organisations in other areas including Dorset Dogs and Heathland Hounds in a wider group called SCCAMP, the Southern Counties Canine Access Management Partnership who work across the South of England. Together we promote responsible dog walking in the countryside.