Top 5 dog walks in West London: # 1 Chiswick House Gardens

Now that the sun is shining, the sap is rising and the skies are blue I thought I'd make a list of my top 5 dog walks here in sunny West London.

Yesterday, in the glorious spring sunshine, we managed a quick jaunt over to Chiswick House, which is one of my favourite places to go for a walk. Let me be clear on this one: I totally, absolutely, love the gardens there. I love the contrived formality of their statuary, I love the pretty lake with the woodland walk and the modern cafe, where they make great cappuccinos and leave out bowls of water for the dogs. I love that everyone else is there with their dog, and I love that they make it really clear where the dogs are allowed to go and when they're supposed to be on a short lead, a long lead or are free to go rollicking around at their whim. It's brilliant!

Chiswick House

The villa, finished in 1729, was built by Lord Burlington to show off his art collection and act as a venue for some stonkingly good soirées.  As originally conceived it had no bedrooms. Its sole raison d'être was to function as a party palace. His Lordship had been on the Grand Tour, fallen in love with the work of Andrea Palladio, and then decided to build Chiswick House as a homage to the Master.

He set to work with William Kent, and they created the villa with its beautiful gardens, out of which the English Landscape movement was born.

Serpentine Lake, Chiswick House Gardens, London

Lord Burlington was also a great admirer of the seventeenth century architect, Inigo Jones. In 1738 he acquired this gateway that had been designed by Jones for Beaufort House in Chelsea. It was re-assembled here at Chiswick and now leads grandly out to the Italian Garden.

Gateway designed by Inigo Jones, Chiswick House Gardens

Did you see the Duchess starring Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes? Maybe you've read Amanda Foreman's brilliant book about Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, on which the movie was based.

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

Well, this is where Georgiana held her very best parties. Back then they built wings with sleeping accommodation so that they could stay overnight, but these were knocked down in the 1950's to bring the building back to its original form.

Georgiana described Chiswick House as 'my earthly paradise'.

Chiswick House

Walking around yesterday in the sunshine I saw exactly what she meant. There were loads of other people and their dogs gambolling around enjoying the opportunity to swap their overcoats and scarves for flip flops and T-shirts. The lovely weather was infectious and everyone seemed to be in a good mood.

We ambled around the lake, crossing Georgiana's classic bridge, built by her husband, the fifth Duke.

Classic Bridge, Chiswick House

Did you notice the little coots building their nest in front of the bridge?

Coots nesting in Chiswick House Gardens

Georgiana's son, who became known as the Bachelor Duke when he failed to take a wife, built the magnificent conservatory and the Italian garden when he inherited the estate from his father.

The grand conservatory, Chiswick House

The Bachelor Duke was an avid camellia collector, and if you visit during the month of March you can go and visit his historic collection of camellias while they are in bloom. I have written more about the Camellia Festival here: Camellia Festival.

I always enjoy the contrast between the formality of the statue lawn bounded by the Exedra hedge, and the informality of the landscaped parkland dreamt up as a more perfect version of the natural world than Mother Nature ever conceived.

I admire the beautiful ladies from Venus on her pedestal, struggling to cover her modesty in the Rosary Garden ...

Venus in the Rosary Garden, Chiswick House Gardens

... to the Sphinxes on the gateposts ...

... to the sculpted Terms in the inner courtyard.

The face of a sculpted Term, Chiswick House Gardens

And then in the quiet moments, when my family race on ahead without me, I enjoy letting my imagination run free to conjure up some of the splendid parties that happened here all those years ago. The Prince of Wales (later George IV), the Shah of Iran, two Tsars of Russia (Alexander I and Nicholas I), Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the Kings of Prussia and Saxony and an assortment of Whig party big-wigs have all wandered idly here in the sunshine of long-forgotten summer afternoons, smelling the flowers and admiring the views. Musicians have played for their entertainment, the most exquisite delicacies have been laid on for their consumption, garlands of flowers have been woven through the branches of the trees and exotic animals have been imported for them to marvel at. And sometimes, when you're here late on a summer evening and there's a hint of dusk dropping down on the quiet air, you can almost catch the echo of their laughter: a ripple through time from a lavish soirée all those years' ago.

Anyway, enough whimsy: if you'd like to go for a ramble around my favourite stomping ground you can download a site-plan here: Site map for visitors

The closest underground stations are Chiswick Park and Turnham Green.

If you come by car there's a convenient car-park just off the A4. It's pay-and-display and, from experience, the traffic attendants are pretty quick to give you a ticket should your time run out. They also get a bit twitchy and ticket-tastic if you don't park in one of the outlined squares. Parking on the grass or the cobbles is a no-no unless you're in the business of collecting parking fines. Here's the info sign so that you can come with the right coins to pay the meter.

  Happy hound-walking,

Bonny x

5 new puppy must-do's ...

As those of you who've visited me here before will know I share my life with a lovely little canine chap called Maximus - or Maxi for short. I did an earlier post about him here: Puppy Angel.

The Mighty Maxi Moser

He's a constant source of love, high jinx and laughs in our house. He's only been around since last September, but it feels as though we couldn't live without him. Somehow his fluffy little face seems to be in every photo I take, everyone always inquires about him and I'd hate to pass the day without his cheerful, up-for-everything presence hovering somewhere round my ankles.

For those of you who are thinking about committing to a new dog here's a short list of my 5 top tips to make the transition to becoming a doggy household as smooth as possible:

1. Toilet training

Have a clear idea on what's going to be your toilet-training strategy and don't confuse the message. Be clear and consistent once you start. There are many different ways of tackling this particular issue. I wavered at first between two strategies, and almost made the whole business more complicated than it had to be.

A very good friend, who is proud mother to a beautiful little whippet girl, advised me to go down the puppy pad route. 'Buy puppy pads, scent them with toilet training spray and leave them by the door,' she advised me. 'Then when you see the puppy looking like he's going to do his toilet business whisk him off and place him on the pad. When he performs, congratulate him like he's just taken gold at the Olympics'.

'Ello! 

It sounded simple. I bought the puppy pads and we gave it a whirl, but somehow back in the balmy days of September (it's a hazy, dazy memory, but we did have some nice weather way back then) it seemed more natural to take Maxi out onto the grass at regular (very regular at first) intervals and praise him to the high heavens when the 'payload hit the drop zone'. I rewarded him each time with a doggy biscuit. It turned out that little Maxi is strongly motivated by food, and learnt very quickly as a result.

I had to be really vigilant for those first few weeks, and I must say that this hyper attention to his toilet habits felt as though it was verging on the neurotic.  I'd keep giving unsolicited updates in conversation about his bowel movements. Sad, but true. At one point I was convinced that there was something wrong with his bladder because of the number of pee pees he was doing. My husband, a character who is also strongly motivated by food and hence well equipped to understand the dog's psychology, pointed out that this was more likely to be a Pavlovian-type response - along the lines of: if I just squeeze something - hell, anything- out she'll give me a biscuit.

Anyway I persevered sticking to my "let's go to the garden" routine, and within a couple of weeks he'd got the hang of it. He now prefers going on grass, which is really useful if we're in someone's shed. The shed floor does not have grass so he understands that it is not a socially acceptable toilet. Yeah heh, result!

2. No - absolutely no - negative re-enforcement ever

Just try a bit of empathy here: imagine what it must be like if you're a little puppy who's just been torn away from his mum and his litter-mates. You've got to feel pretty confused and more than a little bit nervous about what's going on. Maxi was one of the smaller chaps in his litter. The breeder told us that he'd been bullied  by one of his much bigger brothers who used to eat all their food, until she intervened and separated them. When he arrived with us it took him a week to find his bark. He's a miniature schnauzer, and I'd been expecting him to have quite a barky personality, but for a whole week he didn't say a single word, not a sausage.

Our Nervous New Arrival

Now imagine how it would feel for this little chap if someone started shouting at him - or worse - for doing his pee pees in the wrong place. It doesn't take a huge amount of imagination to realise that this is not the way to go.

Maxi is sooo sweet that I could never be angry with him, and he starts off wanting to please. So all it took was to praise him, reward him and fuss over him for getting things right, and before long he was getting everything right.

Guess who grew up to be an Alpha Dog?

3. The No titbits feeding regime

I know this sounds harsh, but it's really not a good idea to spoil your new puppy with treats from the table. My father is the world's worst in this regard. My parents' doggy is an over-weight pooch as a result of all the biscuit-sharing that goes on in their house. My Dad loves, loves, loves his dog, but in the long run this is not a good way to go. Our processed food is really not good for dogs. Plus once a dog gets used to being fed from the family table he becomes a total nuisance at meal times.

Chow time!

Another thing to bear in mind when you're doing heavy rewarding for toilet training is to deduct the amount of treats from the notional amount that they should get at meal times. It's very easy to over-feed during this early period.


4. Have a dogs-only doggy snuggle zone

From the very beginning Maxi has had his bed, his very own space where he can go for sanctuary. In fact he's got three beds - one in the kitchen where we seem to spend most of our time as a family, one in his doggy room and another in my study where he and I seem to spend most of our time alone together. But the golden rule is that these are his places, to which he can retreat if the world around him is getting a little bit too busy/ noisy.

Which part of 'king-size bed' did she not understand?

My friend, the whippet mummy, got one of those folding crates for her dog so that she would feel totally comfortable when she had to go in it for travelling. This is a great idea if you've got somewhere to keep the crate in the house, and don't mind how it looks. I don't go the aesthetics of a crate myself, but each to his own, as they say.

5. Make sure you have 100% buy-in for Project Puppy

Our principal obstacle in buying a puppy was my husband, who was very, very reluctant. "What will we do with him when we go away?" he'd ask. It took a lot of persuading/ cajoling to convince him that there were ways and means of travelling with your pet or arranging for him to be looked after when you were away.

But when Maxi arrived my husband was over-the-moon in love with his dog, and it was little Emi, my son, who voiced concern that we might love the new addition more than him. This was a bit of a shocker for me. Admittedly I was suffering from a very pronounced case of puppy-love, but nothing - not even Maxi - could take little Emi's place in my heart.

The very best of friends ...

So I sat him down and explained that, whilst I loved Maxi very, very much, there was no one in the world who could ever knock him off his number one slot, and that we had bought Maxi for him. Over the course of the next few weeks I found as much to praise Emi for as I did Maxi. And you know what? Children are a lot like dogs: they respond best to positive re-enforcement as well.

I'll do whatever it takes to fit in around here ...

Anyway, whatever you do, please remember that a puppy is not just for now: a puppy is for life. It's a really big commitment.

Bonny x

Walpole Park and my dog-walking worries ...

Walpole Park, in the centre of Ealing, is our local park. Normally it’s a great little spot, but this winter it’s being renovated, and it’s shrunk to half its normal size (argh!). We’ve been fenced out for our own safety while they carry on with the work.

[

The park adjoins Pitzhanger Manor, which was built by the famous architect, Sir John Soane, as his country house. You may have visited his town house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which is now a museum filled to capacity with all his bits-and-bobs. Old Sir John was a bit of a hoarder, although in his day they called him a ‘collector’.

In any event the idea behind this programme of work is to restore the park’s Regency landscape. I think that sounds amazing, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the finished result, but I’d like to know when that’s likely to happen, and when we can expect to get our park back. The work is being ‘phased’, and I’ve not been able to find any firm finish dates on the Internet for when any of the phases will be finished – other than the vague suggestion of early 2014, which I would have thought ought to be sometime now.

We try to walk to and from school when the weather is nice, and when we don’t have too much games kit to lug back and forth. A quick detour into Walpole Park on the way back allows Maxi to have a run off the lead over the open grass before my workday begins. Recently, however, I’ve had to keep him tied up because of all the heavy plant and machinery that’s always motoring around in there. Some mornings it feels a little bit like we’re taking our morning constitutional in a working quarry.

The Serpentine has been drained and the ornamental gardens have been dug up with the result that it looks as though they’re trying to re-create a WWI battlefield, complete with muddy trenches in the fenced-off zone. The next photo’s a bit out of focus because even my camera was losing the will to live when presented with this scene of destruction, but you can hopefully get an idea of what I’m banging on about. And I have to say, as an aside, that the vague early 2014 finish date is beginning to look a bit optimistic. Call me a cynic, but it doesn’t look like the ducks are going to be paddling in this pond any time soon.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not having a go at the Council or whoever’s in charge. I liked the park how it used to be, and I’m sure I’ll love it with all the fancy Regency-era improvements that have been promised. All the people who work there have been unfailingly helpful and polite to me. The vehicles drive slowly with lights flashing, and there’s usually a lookout guy walking in front to make sure that they don’t run over anyone or their dog. I’m just saying that I’m really looking forward to when we get it back again – all of it.

Bonny x

Puppy Angel

Do you believe in angels?

I  do. They walk amongst us every day. They come in all shapes and sizes, and they have a tendency to show up and help us out when we least expect them to.

A little furry angel recently entered my life. He's a puppy, and is just the gentlest, sweetest little person you could ever hope to meet. Forgive me, but when I talk about my dog, ‘he’ can never be an ‘it’. His name is Maxi, as in Maximus, even though he’s really a bit of a Minimus, standing the height of a decent bottle of red to the top of his curly brow.

The idea was that he would be my son’s dog. And my son loves him, and truly believes that he is his dog. At night they even snuggle down and go to sleep together, but you know, on the quiet, he’s really my dog.

All day long, he’s there by my side. I type away, and he snoozes on his beanbag, chews on random objects - my slippers/ bookcase (bizarre)/ the leg of my desk or plays with his toys as we listen to playlists on Spotify.

When it’s time to do the school run I pull on my boots and we take a detour through the park. I’ve never been much of a Gym Bunny, but I’m always up for a walk in the fresh air, even when we have a grey West London drizzle. It’s great. He chases around, barks at the big dogs and then runs behind me for safety when they bark back. As angels go, he's definitely one of the cheekier ones.

Maxi fills my days with fun and affection, and he has slowly reinforced my faith in humanity. You know that people aren’t that bad when they can't help but smile with delight at a cute puppy romping along the pavement. And the number of folk who want to stop for a chat … ‘How old is he?’ … ‘What’s his name?’ … is unbelievable. All that big city reserve just melts away.

So here’s to you Maxi, my very own little household angel.

Bonny x