‘Isn’t it wonderful how dogs can win friends and influence people without ever reading a book?!’ E.C McKenzie.

Hi and thank you for wanting to find out more about Harbourside Hounds!

Harbourside Hounds is a new brand of enriched, coastal dog walking, doggie fun days, professional pet care and dog therapy, based in Emsworth and the surrounding area. It is run by me, Helen with my wonderful crew companion, Henry the working cocker spaniel.

I rekindled my childhood love of dogs around seven years ago, as I found an opportunity to spend my weekends with dogs through volunteering with Canine Partners and their dogs in advanced training. This confirmed to me that I should take the next step and get a dog of my own, and so Henry came into my life in January 2012 and since then, we have not looked back!

As I had then spent over twelve years working as a teacher with children and young people with social and emotional difficulties, I already knew that Henry was not going to be an ordinary pet dog, but one that I would invest my time in to train, take exercise with and for whom would have a special job to do. Little did I know, he would bring so much to my life and touch so many people.

I had witnessed some magic moments of how the presence of a dog can positively change an environment when I had included my canine partner dog in some of my individual teaching sessions and this really inspired me to want to learn more. After then deciding I wanted to study for an MA in Education and use dog therapy with young people as my focus, I was lucky enough to be awarded a Goldsmiths’ Teachers Scholarship; this was to enable me to travel to the US to investigate some of the forward thinking dog therapy programmes that run for disadvantaged young people there.

With some inspiration and vision, I came back to combine my insights from the trip with research for my MA and set up an innovative dog training programme at my school. If you are interested to learn more about my experience and the benefits of dog therapy, please do visit my dog therapy page.

What I can say is that Henry, like all dogs, is an excellent teacher if we choose to observe and understand them. Needless to say, he has been a willing and loyal companion throughout all our adventures together, something that you as a dog owner will know all about!

So now we are ready to em-bark (sorry, I could not resist!) on our new venture and we hope to share our skills and passion for dog walking in the local community here in Emsworth.  Hopefully, making many lifelong human, canine and four legged friends along the way! We are so looking forward to meeting you.

Helen and Henry xx