How to help your local wildlife even when walking your pooch!

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I have been actively trying to be more mindful and considerate of wildlife with my pack of four pooches, which is surprisingly easy to do!

Whether you live rurally or in a city, there so much you can do to help nurture the world around us to help reverse the damage done before it’s too late. Animal Friends Insurance’s ‘Tails of UK Wildlife’ charity campaign has been a huge inspiration to us; they’ve shared £100,000 between 10 incredible rewilding and rehabilitation charities across the UK, and although we can’t offer anything that substantial, I wanted to explore ways we can have an impact and do our bit with our dogs.

We are city people originally but relocated to the rural Kentish countryside a few years ago. We are lucky enough to live close to beautiful beaches, rolling hills and deep woodland, so it’s vital we take as much care of it as possible to continue enjoying it in all its glory. Of course we are making changes around the home, switching to eco-friendly products, compostable poop bags, using less plastic and purchasing more sustainable home and fashion items, but we have taken it a step further to incorporate our role as pet parents and how we can make changes with our pack!

Starting off with our boy Puggy Smalls! His favourite thing to do is a wheelie walkie at the beach. We like to go at least a few times per week, early in the mornings before it gets too warm and busy. As with many beaches this time of year, humans can be a little disappointing and leave a lot of litter around which can be so damaging to the environment and wildlife. Puggy is a friend to all, and wanted to do his bit, so we grabbed a litter picker and a bin bag and made it our weekly mission to pick up at least a bag of litter during our beach walks! It’s surprising how much there is around, and it doesn’t impact our walk in the slightest, Puggy still has heaps of fun in the sand dunes and my conscience feels a little better too. There are even giant bins at the beach so we can dispose of the rubbish before we head home!

Next up, our senior dachshund, Miss Pops. Pops loves to explore the woods at a leisurely pace, and she’s extremely well behaved off lead. But we are still mindful that although she is a good girl, with excellent recall, other animals in their habitats could see her as a threat. So, when we are mooching through deep woodland, where we can see badger holes and signs of wildlife, Pops goes on a lead or in my arms as we don’t want to disturb the locals too much! We often take a picnic on our walkies too, and it goes without saying that we make sure all our litter comes home with us. We pick up any rogue litter we see along the way too, to keep this woodland as nature intended!

Another small swap we have made recently is to swap out my shop-bought coffee, to a coffee from home in a reusable cup, so I can still get my caffeine fix on a walk, and I donate the fiver I’d usually throw at a coffee shop, to a wildlife charity that means a lot to me!

Did you know that we have lost over 19% of UK species since 1970? None of the small changes I’ve made impact our walks or making memories with our dogs, but if we all do our bit and make small edits to our normal patterns, the greater impact will be huge! My favourite part of walks in the woods is hearing the birds and watching the insects dance around, so I won’t take this for granted ever again.

Let’s nurture the nature we are lucky enough to have around us!

The future of UK wildlife depends on us all coming together and trying to make a difference, so I plan to nurture the nature that I’m so lucky to have around me so I can enjoy beautiful, diverse dog walks for many more years to come.

Follow Animal Friends Insurance on socials now to stay up to date with their ‘Tails of UK Wildlife’ campaign.