Wonderful West Wittering Whippet Walks
I recently came across a profile on Twitter called 'The Whippet Hotel' who offer day care and boarding for Whippets and other pointy nosed hounds. I noticed a link on their website for 'Whippet Walks' and decided to find out more!
The Whippet Hotel & Whippet Snippets Beach Walk is held at the beautiful West Wittering beach in Chichester, West Sussex every month to six weeks. These walks bring together owners of Whippets and other pointy nosed breeds for a 1-2 hour long walk along the scenic coastline. I took Sterling (my 6 month old Whippet / Italian Greyhound cross) with me to see what all the fuss was about!
This particular walk, held on 2nd October, was the last late afternoon walk for 2016 and i was told that they will be held in the mornings now until Spring/Summer 2017. When we arrived (a little late!) we walked past the groins to be met by what looked like 100's of owners and their hounds!
We we're advised on the website that there were some rules for the walk:
- Hounds are kept on their leads until past the groynes
- Speedies and larger hounds lead the group
- Oldies and puppies are let off after the Speedies have moved off
- Put something on your hound to make him or her instantly recognisable amidst a sea of pointy faces as it's easy to think you've got an eye on your own dog only to realise it's not yours!
- Please don't feed other hounds without checking first
- Even if it wasn't produced by your own hound, that everyone picks up any poo they see.
Sterling was very eager to catch up with the rest of the gang!
We eventually caught up with the oldies and puppies and Sterling instantly found a couple of even sized hounds to play with. It was one of the first times he's had the chance to have a big run about with other whippets so he was having the time of his life!
It was a great place for him to come and interact with lots of other dogs - I'd definitely recommend it for owners of young hounds looking to help socialise their pup.
As the walk went on we saw the sun start slowly setting and the hounds started to calm down a little (most of them anyway!)
We had the please of meeting Kerry from Whippet Snippets Photography who was out taking some shots of the walk as well.
Heres a great shot she took at the beginning of the walk!
The Whippet Walk was a great experience for Sterling and I and we will definitely be back for more! If you need info on the next walk you can find details on The Whippet Hotel's website - http://www.thewhippethotel.co.uk/whippet-walks
To find out more about Whippet Snippets Photography, visit Kerry's website - http://www.whippetsnippets.co.uk
