April 2012 hasn’t been great for gardening.  As soon as hose pipe bans were introduced, the heavens opened.  We are used to having April showers, but this was more of a deluge.

This gave us time to concentrate on Anya’s socialisation.  We have been visiting a number of dog friendly pubs, both in our neighbourhood and further afield.  It can sometimes be hard to know which pubs are happy to accept dogs, but now there is a very useful website that tells you – Doggie Pubs.  Just enter a location or drag the map to your area and choose somewhere you want to visit.

Jolly Sailor

The pubs we have visited have been all been welcoming to the dogs – some more than others though it has to be said.  In many of the pubs there have been loads of other dogs for Anya to meet in controlled circumstances and obviously plenty of people to greet.   We have been to pubs that are a trip back in time and others that are much more modern.  One has even decided to focus on the “dog” market, holding puppy training classes at the pub and organised dog walks which start with a coffee and bacon sandwich at the pub and end with a pub lunch – a very good move imo and one that other pubs really should consider in these days of declining pub attendances.  We like to find pubs with tables that are heavy enough to bench the dogs to while we eat.  It’s hard to eat whilst holding onto a lead :).

Hopefully the weather will improve in May and more time can be spent in the garden.  We only have four weeks before the first of our garden openings – time is going to fly by!