Sarah Whitehead

Introducing Jackson. He’s a Chihuahua x Jack Russell. I know you think that’s a Jackahuahua, but to me it's a Chiwussell.

Here’s how we met.

There I was, doing a practical workshop for trainers at my local welfare centre. There he was, fresh in and anxious, trembling by the kennel bars. Our eyes met, my fingers touched his soft face, took in his shivering form and his attempts to meld himself through the bars to reach me. It was love at first sight.

Once out of the kennel, he proved to be even more charming. Gorgeous with people, cute, bright and sweet. At only five months old he was admittedly, snarling and barking at every other dog in the vicinity, like a miniature whirling dervish, but hey, what’s that amongst friends – it looked to me very much like the symptoms of having been in a kennel environment for last three weeks – and anyway, love is blind!

OK, well I don’t actually live in Windsor castle, but close enough to see it out of my upstairs window!

Windsor is a beautiful place to live – not only are we home to the Queen of England and her famous Corgis (my claim to fame was rescuing one from the middle of the road and returning it to the gate keeper, who was less than complimentary about it!) – we also have plenty of green fields, open parkland and woodland – nearly all of which is open to lucky British dogs owners to walk their dogs on.

Of course, this idyllic environment also brings its own training challenges. The woodland is the home of free-roaming deer, squirrels and other small furries. The open parkland also happens to be where the local polo clubs exercise their horses (plenty of scope for unruly puppies to engage in chasing and horse poo eating as a double-whammy), and the fields are often unfenced, with roads running alongside or livestock temptingly close.