At the beginning of February, our cockapoo puppy Bertie and I left Yorkshire at the crack of dawn, bound for London. It was Bertie’s first time on the train – and to the capital. I was both excited and quite nervous about how he’d find the whole travelling experience, but he was a superstar!
He snoozed for the whole journey as the sun rose and we sped past houses waking up for the day. It was so calm and peaceful, and definitely a lot less stressful than travelling with children!
The folk at Bakers had invited Bertie and I along to a morning behind the scenes, so on arriving in London (and purchasing a very much needed coffee) we hopped into our taxi and headed to our final destination in Hoxton.
It was fascinating – and quite amusing – to attend an event for bloggers and dogs, as I’m so used to taking the children along to events in London! How things change!
During the morning we had a couple of informal sessions with two very lovely vets, where we discussed dog nutrition, what the labels on dog food actually mean, and even had an interesting chat about poop (with accompanying poo chart!).
I didn’t realise before the event that Bakers is made by Purina. The recipes have been created by a team of more than 500 vets, pet nutritionists and scientists to ensure the food is balanced. The dry food contains exactly the right balance of nutrients (carbs, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals) that dogs need to be healthy and is 100% complete, meaning that you don’t need to feed them anything else.
All of the ingredients found in Bakers undergo a series of checks before they are used, to ensure they are the right quality and safe to be munched.
The video below gives you more of an insight into how Bakers dry food is made:
Bakers have recently taken all artificial colours out of their range. They now only use colours that occur naturally; derived from plant and mineral sources. They have also just started making wet pouches for dogs too, which is great news for Bertie as he eats a combination of wet and dry food.
After chatting to the vets, which I found very useful because I was able to ask them a couple of things I haven’t had a chance to ask our own vet, we had a very yummy lunch and then started the Dog Film School training sessions.
The session was run by Sandra Strong who has trained many famous dogs for film and TV, and we got to meet Boo (aka Pippin) who is the face of Bakers.
Bertie and I loved the training session! He picked everything up so quickly and even had a little ride on the skateboard. We’ve taken a lot of the tips and advice onboard, and have been putting them to practice at home (the kids have loved joining in!).
Then it was time to jump back in the taxi and return to Yorkshire. We had an hour to wait at Kings Cross so we wandered up to Granary Square for a couple of photos, and Bertie ended up featuring on a number of passing students’ Instagram Stories! I’ve never had so many Londoners talk to me before!
Unsurprisingly, after an incredibly busy and exciting morning, Bertie slept the whole way home. In fact, he was so still that the man next to me on the train thought he was a handbag for the first half an hour of the journey… and jumped a little when Bertie started moving!
A huge thank you to Bakers for having us. We had a wonderful time learning all about Bakers dog food and trying out some new training techniques! Prior to the event, we hadn’t used Bakers dog food before. Bertie is still on puppy food, and when choosing a brand we opted for one that was recommended to us in our village pet shop, but we’re definitely going to give some of the pouches we were gifted a go!
You can find out more about Bakers’ full range on the Bakers website.
It looks like you had an amazing day and how cute is Bertie??? We use the bakers treats for our pup and she loves them!
Author
He’s adorable 😉 hehe! Aww that’s fab to hear!
Oh Bertie is a beaut! Very brave to do such a big journey with him tagging along but it looks like you both had a fab time
Author
Thank you! He’s such a chilled out pup 🙂 He did amazingly! No accidents either! xx
Oh my word, what a beaut! Glad you had such a lovely day and Bertie was as good as gold.
Author
Bertie was honestly amazing! I still can’t believe how chilled out he was! xx
Oh he is so gorgeous, I really really wish we were able to get a dog. We had planned on waiting until our daughter was a little older, but every time I see a dog I just realise how big the dog shaped hole is in our life!
Author
I’ll be honest, having a dog with small children is sometimes super stressful! Especially because H and Bertie think they’re the same species so they play fight A LOT… but there are some really lovely moments too - and we’ve found that we’re going out on adventures even more now xx
Oh my goodness how adorable, a little doggy day out! Bertie is gorge xx
Author
Thank you! He was fantastic on the train! xx
Ah looks like you had lots of fun! Bertie is a little cutie and looks like he was well behaved!
Author
We had so much fun! He was so well behaved! He’s a super star puppy - so chilled out xx
Your doggy is so cute! We’d love to have a dog but we have no room in our current flat!
Author
Ah that’s such a shame. He’s brought so much joy to our family xx
I love that you took your dog to a blogging event. I would worry about bathroom issues though lol. It sounds like Bertie became quite famous that day
Author
He didn’t have one accident! He was such a superstar! xx