Do you want to learn more about travelling with your pets? Find out the coolest local spots that you and your pups can both go to? See some really stylish pet apparel?
This week’s interview is CHOCK FULL of amazing content with Mackenzie Drinkwater.
Mackenzie does it all – she makes fabulous dog clothes, competes in dog sports, travels all over with her pups and still finds time to help the community by compiling all of the best dog-friendly spots in KW region.
Find them here –
Instagram: https://www.
Facebook: https://www.
Instagram: https://www.
and on Spotify: Dog Friendly KW Podcast
Now, let’s get to the interview!
Transcription:
Laura Wombwell: Hi there, it’s Laura from Laura Wombwell Photography. And today I am so excited to be joined by Mackenzie Drinkwater. Mackenzie is the owner of Little Dears Apparel, and one of the founders of Dog Friendly KW. Mackenzie, I’m so excited to have you here.
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Hi Laura. I’m also very excited to be here. There’s nothing more I love than talking about dogs.
Laura Wombwell: Excellent. Well, let’s jump into the good stuff right away then.
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Perfect.
Laura Wombwell: So, you have two incredible dogs who live with you. What can you tell me about these wonderful ladies?
Mackenzie Drinkwater: I’m a little biased but I also think they’re wonderful. So I have Miss Willa and Alydar. I’ll grab Alydar for us to see, she’s just hanging out right here. So these little girls are Italian Greyhounds. They are essentially a Greyhound in miniature. And they are just the sweetest dogs in my opinion on the planet. They’re very calm dogs. They’re very, how do I say it – they’re high maintenance, but they’re low maintenance. They’re high maintenance in the sense that the clothing is a necessity and not only does it look cute it is a need because they chill easily. But they are also low maintenance in the sense that they’re pretty lazy dogs. Like they just kind of laze around all day and I never really realized it until I started working from home. I’m like, wow, I really need to wake these dogs up in the morning. But yes, Willa and Alydar are sisters. They’re only about nine months apart in age. They have the same dad and I just love them to bits. I do as much stuff as possible with my dogs. That’s kind of the reason I wanted a dog. I wanted to be able to do things with my dog and that’s where, yeah, that’s where the journey began. The dog sports we were doing and the dog shows we did, and things like that and it’s been just very rewarding. I just love these guys. They’re so great.
Laura Wombwell: Wow, so you mentioned that you are involved in dogs sports. Who is competing and what are they competing in?
Mackenzie Drinkwater: So we have Alydar here. She used to, when dog shows were a thing cuz now, Covid. So, Alydar was a show dog and she did confirmation and she actually, in 2019 she was the number three Italian Greyhound in the country. So she did really, really good. Yes, we had a lot of fun. We travelled all around, well, not all around, but we went all over Ontario. We went out to PEI, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. She also got her American championship. So, we used to travel all over with these guys. That’s where I like a lot of my travel experience with dogs comes in because, yeah, we’ve taken literally planes, trains, automobiles, stayed in hotels everywhere. Places I didn’t even know existed and that was really fun. Willa did do dog shows at the beginning. But Willa is more of a, as you can see, Alydar just kind of chills. She’s very laid-back. Willa is more of my fun dog. She’s more dog-like. So she loves running. She loves anything to do with me and any sort of training. So what we decided to do is that when she was a puppy she was about 11 or 12 months old, I started her in dog agility. And I did that because, first of all, I thought it looks amazingly fun and I said, I want that. I want that connection with my dog. I want to be able to do all those tricks and stuff. So we started there and then we took a little hiatus while Alydar was doing her dog show stuff and then we just recently got back into it last year. and Willa just absolutely loves it. Its just something that her and I do together, and she just every time we turn into the parking lot of where we practice agility she’s just going crazy. So it’s her favorite thing. Another thing we got into was the Sprinter. So the Canadian Kennel Club puts on a sprinter and it’s a hundred meter dash and it’s essentially how fast can your dog run and that was really fun to do because they’re sighthounds. They were born to run and just to see their little legs, like, fly to see if people were like, wow, those dogs are so fast. It was just so rewarding just to do stuff and that’s what they were bred to do. So those are a couple of the Dog Sports that we’ve been heavily involved in and they, honestly like, just blossomed organically like I started, I loved it, the dogs loved it. Of course, I wouldn’t do it if they didn’t and then It was just like kind of organically grew from there. And now yeah, we’re practicing agility a couple times a week and we’re doing stuff at home.It’s kind of crummy out so we’re doing a lot of trick training and stuff inside. But, yeah, when the weather gets nice, we’ll be out and doing some more lure coursing and stuff like that. So that’ll be a really fun new activity that the dogs can try.
Laura Wombwell: Amazing. So, when traveling is a thing again, do you see yourself going back on the road competing? And how is it traveling with your dogs?
Mackenzie Drinkwater: So yes, Alydar I may enter in a few small dog shows just for fun. Just because I only have two dogs and I have friends that I can show their dogs. But it is so much more fun when it’s your own. But hopefully, fingers crossed, if we practice enough in the summer, maybe we can do some more like agility type competitions. So we’re hoping to enter some trials and traveling will be involved for that. So we will be, you know, traveling through Ontario looking for four different trials to enter, which will be really, really fun. That’ll put us right back on our little dog traveling adventures. It was so funny. Obviously, not last summer but the summer before, pre-Covid, every weekend, everybody would say, oh Mackenzie, what are you doing this weekend? I’d be like, oh a dog show, oh a dog show. But now I’ve broken that habit because it’s been so long. But yeah, I can’t wait to be able to, like, just travel and be more dog stuff when the weather gets a bit nicer and when restrictions hopefully loosen up a little bit.
Laura Wombwell: Did you find it challenging to, like when you would travel at a distance, find accommodations that were okay with pets being there?
Mackenzie Drinkwater: It depends. We’ve always been really lucky and I think it’s partially because we have small dogs. So, a lot of places like hotels I’m thinking of in particular, they will say, oh you must have you know, two dogs under 60 lb each or something. They’ll have a really strange restriction on the size of dog that you can bring. A pet fee is $40 a dog or $80 for you can have as many dogs as you want and, for me, I got very, very good at finding what hotels had the best of the restrictions, I should say. But my favorite thing to do is to find airbnbs. So airbnbs are honestly the best because not only are they different, a lot of them you can find with, like, a fenced-in backyard. A lot of them don’t have a limit or even a pet fee associated. So, a lot of the time I will try to find an airbnb. If that’s not possible my, like, go-tos are Delta or a lot of Holiday Inns are dog friendly, things like that. So you can just make sure that you just read the fine print. I use a lot of booking websites like, you know, Hotwire or Booking.com and you just filter for dog or pet friendly and just read the fine print or else you’ll be paying a heck of a lot for a dog to come stay with you because some of them it’s ridiculous. It’s like these dogs are cleaner than most people. What are they going to do? You know anyways, I’ve found a sweet spot for finding a nice place to stay, but I highly recommend Airbnb to anyone who’s looking at traveling with a dog.
Laura Wombwell: That’s excellent advice. I think there will be more and more people that, you know, who have new pets through the pandemic looking for options where they can bring all of the members of the family. So that’s fantastic to know.
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Honestly like, yeah, if I’m going away somewhere. I want to bring my dogs. I love experiencing new things with the dogs. So, that’s great. I really hope, you know, the more dogs out and about the better.
Laura Wombwell: So speaking of things that your dogs have encouraged you to get into, Willa and Alydar are always fantastically dressed. And from what I understand that kind of sparked a passion in you.
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Yeah, so it was funny. So, ever since they were little so Willa’s almost 5 and Alydar is 4, I’ve had to dress them and it kind of comes with the breed and I’ve always been also pretty, like, crafty and artsy, like I went to art school and stuff. So it’s funny. So, during the first quarantine, I started to sew and I did it just like as a creative outlet. Like I just wanted to know to keep busy and you know, you’re locked in your house and might as well pick up a hobby. And so I started and, yeah, I made my first garment and I was like, oh my goodness. This actually looks really good. I was so shocked with myself and I took a few photos and I posted it on my dogs’ Instagram, the Little Dears account and I had so many people being my oh my gosh, where’d you get that? Where’d you get that? I love that, blah blah blah and I never really thought about it. I was just like, oh I made it, oh I made it, and then as time went on I kept making more and more things. I just kept getting that same question. And then I was just like, you know what, I love this, people like what I’m making and you know, I get so much joy seeing the items I make on other dogs. Like might as well, just like, I was a little nervous but I was like, you know, I might as well just like make a little side hustle and just do it. So a couple weeks ago, it’s only been about two weeks, I started an Instagram. So that was Little Dears Apparel and I just said to myself, you know cuz I have a full-time job, I’m like, I just would love this to be my little side gig. I love sewing in my free time. I just will do everything just over Instagram, and you know, word of mouth slash what is my current following on Little Dears and we’ll see how that goes. And it’s been awesome. Like, I actually had to like cut off orders because I got too many and I was just like, oh my goodness, I can’t keep up! So, I actually had to cut off orders and I was worried. I like, you know, like you’re brand-new and you’re like, oh, I wonder if anyone’s going to actually buy these. I’ve had such a wonderful response to what I’ve done that I, like, I just want to do it all the time. So yeah, it’s been awesome. I never thought that I would be you know, sewing, as much as I am, but I absolutely love it and Willa and Alydar get to be my little models.
Laura Wombwell: I think I actually have a bunch of photos here that we can take a look at of some of your creations. Let me pull these up here. So, now, was this one of the earlier garments or is this a more recent garment?
Mackenzie Drinkwater: That was the third item I ever made. The third and fourth technically, I guess, cuz I made two most of those because I didn’t know how to use a sewing machine. So this is so funny and embarrassing at the same time. But over the Christmas break. I was at my mom’s. She lives alone and we quarantined, and then we went visiting my mom. And the whole time, she just taught me how to sew because she is very proficient with the sewing machine. And so the whole time I just sewed. And yeah, so these two items were actually hand-sewed by me. All the other ones I create now are done on a machine which is much more time efficient. Those are literally like the third and fourth items I made and they didn’t fall apart, so that’s a win!
Laura Wombwell: Guess it must have been good practice having to do everything twice.
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Exactly, no, funny, it was, yes.
Laura Wombwell: I have a Chihuahua so I know that there are tons of places where you can get pet apparel. There’s lots of mass-produced stuff you can get on Amazon. What do you think sets apart Little Dears Apparel?
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Well, first of all, it is handmade by a real human. I hand make, I hand cut, I piece together every item. I also take your dogs measurements. So, for example, I just, when I first started out I started I was just doing Italian greyhound wear and then I had a couple people reach out with I have like a toy poodle and I had actually like a lab reach out. I had a bulldog reach out and they’re just like hey, can you please make us something? I was just like, you know what? I’ll try.
Laura Wombwell: Wow, so even big dogs too.
Mackenzie Drinkwater: I just started last week. So yeah, I I tried to keep it in the niche the Italian greyhound where but the Kitchener-Waterloo folks have just, they’ve been so wonderful and so excited for what I’ve been making. Like I cannot not make these dogs something. So what sets me apart is, I think, is my choice and fabrics. So I do choose a lot of really nice designs in my opinion. I really like them. I think they are a little bit different, not your average fabric. And again, I hand make and make sure that it will fit your particular dog to the best of what I can produce for you and everything I’ve made so far has fits perfectly and I’m so thrilled. I’ve had orders go to the Netherlands, to Michigan, to where was the last one, Montreal? They’re starting to, like, spread out. Oh, Norway, I had an order from Norway, which is so cool. So, anyway, it’s just really neat to see people get excited about the things I’m creating and I, I just, yeah, I love making them.
Laura Wombwell: Fabulous. Well, they are gorgeous.
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Thank you.
Laura Wombwell: Speaking of your fabric choices, I know Miss Willa is wearing one of your new ideas.
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Yes, here Willa. Come here baby, want a treat? Give me one second. She’s like, I know you don’t have treats anymore. Yes, so I started a little mini project which is upcycling human clothes into dog clothes. So this is a shark. The coolest sweater. It was a man like a men’s sweater that I had lying around and it was literally just collecting dust and I was like, you know what the sweater is too good to just throw out. I need to make something. So I made Willa this little hoodie, which is super cute. And it has her little shark on the back, which is very very cute. Since I’m hoping to expand that because if the clothing is already there then I might as well utilize it, which I think will be really neat, and it will also offer more like one-of-a-kind items as well, which would be really cool. I think, you know, having just one-offs or two offs to offer would be quite interesting. So, yeah, we’re practicing, aren’t we?
Laura Wombwell: I am completely obsessed with that hoodie and I think it’s such a timely idea because there’s so much textile that goes into landfill but why not turn it into something gorgeous that someone will love.
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Exactly, tell me about it! We’re moving next month and I’m even just going through my own clothes. I’m like, oh my goodness like I’m going to use that for dog clothes. You get so much stuff, right? Yeah, exactly. Might as well repurpose it if it’s there rather than exactly like you said, rather than adding stuff into a landfill.
Laura Wombwell: Wonderful. So in addition to Little Dears Apparel and traveling with your dogs and competing in agility and going to dog shows, you also have another venture.
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Yes. Yeah, the last one is a joint venture though. So I’m not alone. So, my best friend and I, we run Dog Friendly KW which is an Instagram account in the community and we decided to start that because while it was the beginning of the pandemic, well semi, it was July 2020, and she had just got a puppy and she was just like well, I can’t do puppy class. What can I do with my dog? So she reached out to me and she’s like, hey, there’s no specific dog friendly page or place I can go designated for the KW region, is there? I was like, actually no. I just know from experience and she said well, let’s start one. And I said “Great idea”. So that’s when Dog Friendly KW was born and, yeah, we just share other pups around the region, you know exploring Kitchener-Waterloo when it’s not a pandemic showing like what patios or breweries or hiking trails or other activities, you know, dogs can do with their humans and it’s been so fun to see what everybody is up to in the region. I found dog-friendly patios, I never knew where dog-friendly, which is semi-surprising because again I bring my dogs everywhere I can and yeah, it’s just been so great to see this little community bloom and it actually led us, during this time, to start a podcast. So yeah, it’s been a ride. It’s been really, really fun right now due to being in the red zone and being in the middle of winter, we can’t share as many dog-friendly spots as we would usually throughout the summer months, but now we’re just showing like canine enrichment. You know, what can you do inside with your dog, hiking trails, stuff like that, which has been really, really fun. But yeah, in a nutshell, that’s Dog Friendly KW.
Laura Wombwell: Dog Friendly KW sounds like such an incredible resource for all of the pet parents out there. It’s nice to just have that one stop shop for where can I go and what can I do with my dog? So, in doing Dog Friendly KW, have you noticed anything that maybe other municipalities have but we don’t have here yet, but you’d like to see?
Mackenzie Drinkwater: That’s a very good question. I feel like everywhere you go, there’s always different bylaws, we’ll say. So, Kitchener-Waterloo is dog-friendly, like, it’s awesome. I’m shocked how dog friendly it is. It’s amazing. But then, as an example, if you, if you go down to Goderich, they have a bylaw which I don’t understand, it’s a very gray area, where dogs are not allowed on their patios at all, and it’s like, really, like that’s strange, like why? And they’re, like, oh it’s a health concern. Well, I’m kind of confused on that. But honestly, I feel like, if anything, other areas could learn from Kitchener-Waterloo because, especially during Covid-19 when other extra patios were opened up and you know, we had a lot of like those parking lot patio pop ups and we had lawn pop-up patios happening. I feel like our community did such an amazing job. Not only, you know for the sake of their business, but for the sake of dog owners too, to allow dogs to come in and, of course, if a dog is going to be allowed, I’ll be there.
Laura Wombwell: Excellent. So given that you’ve done a ton of research about all these spots, where are some of your favorite spots in KW and the area to bring your dog? Can you narrow it down?
Mackenzie Drinkwater: So I love, I’m just going to put St. Jacobs as a whole.
Laura Wombwell: For sure.
Mackenzie Drinkwater: St. Jacobs is adorable in any time of year, but like in the summer it’s so nice. Like, you can literally walk your dog up and down the street and most of the stores are dog-friendly, which is awesome. They actually have stickers of like dogs on their door saying yes, you can bring your dog in. If that sticker is not there, then you’re not allowed to bring your dog in, so there’s no ifs ands or buts. Obviously they have Block 3, which is a great brewery – love them – and then down the road, they also have the Village Biergarten. So, that is a beautiful patio in the summer. I love bringing the dogs there. My husband and I will spend literally a whole day or afternoon in St. Jacobs during the summer months and it’s just fabulous. So that’s like my number one. I should have started from the bottom.
Laura Wombwell: It’s a whole day out with the dogs.
Mackenzie Drinkwater: It is, it really is. I’m not sure if they’re going to do this next year, but the Marina in Puslinch, the Old Marina Restaurant, so it is a bit of a drive, it’s like 15-20 minutes maybe, but they had over the summer, they had a picnic area set up and it was in the grass and they allowed dogs and my husband and I would go there like once a week or once every other week because we loved it so much because the Marina’s food is very good. You’re like looking out on the water, the dogs can jump in
the water if they want after you’re done eating. So that was a really good spot. Fingers crossed that do that again this summer. I really, really hope cuz that was fabulous. Another place we used to go all the time was Abe Erb and I’m so sad. I’m so sad but were really good dog friendly spot, but, trying to think, there’s so many good spots even like Beertown Uptown Waterloo. There’s Score Pizza Uptown Waterloo. Both of those are really really great spots. Prohibition Warehouse Uptown Waterloo. You could do a whole circuit, there’s a lot. Those are all, like, really good spots to go with your dog. And of course I love Block 3. And if you want to go to Guelph, there’s also Fixed Gear, the brewery is very, very dog friendly and they are awesome. I think I named like, quite a few.
Laura Wombwell: And if folks want to find more places, they can just go to Dog Friendly KW and see the whole list.
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Yeah, follow us. We’re creating guides for people. So yeah, if you ever want to head on a day out with your dog, and yeah, come have a look and hopefully you’ll find some inspiration.
Laura Wombwell: And where can people find Dog-Friendly KW online?
Mackenzie Drinkwater: So we are primarily on Instagram. So @dogfriendlykw – all one word. We also have a Facebook page. So again Dog Friendly KW. If you want to listen to a podcast, we just launched on Spotify and we are called Dog Friendly KW podcast. So feel free to search that up. We just recorded episode and those are aired every Saturday at 11 a.m on Midtown Radio KW. And this is a lot of information, a lot of stuff. After they’re aired, they are uploaded. So if you miss it live at 11 on Saturdays on Midtown Radio, it’ll be on Spotify after the fact.
Laura Wombwell: That’s fantastic. We’ll finish off cycling back to Willa and Alydar and I’ll ask some quick top of the head questions for you. So okay. You ready?
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Yes, I think so.
Laura Wombwell: Okay, cat or dog?
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Dog.
Laura Wombwell: This next question, I think I’m probably going to know the answer to, favourite breed?
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Partial to my Italian Greyhounds.
Laura Wombwell: What is your dog’s favorite treat?
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Finnegans Deli. 100%. Local women-owned, boss lady. She is fantastic. All of the treats are just one or two ingredients – highly recommend. My dogs eat raw. They love their treats. They are fantastic.
Laura Wombwell: I can 100% stand behind that. I got some for my dogs for Christmas and they’re obsessed.
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Did you get that little pizzle shaped like candy canes and the little reindeer?
Laura Wombwell: I got the tripemas tree.
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. That was a hit over here, too. Yeah, she does really great stuff.
Laura Wombwell: All right. Next question. Are your dogs full of beans, full of dreams or full of something entirely different?
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Willa is full of, I was going to say, it’s full of beans and dreams because she always wants to be doing something new. She’s such a confident dog. I can throw her into any situation and shes like, okay, what are we doing? So she is a kind of a mix of both. Alydar is, she’s special. She’s just full of love. This dog would literally just lay on somebody’s lap all day and be happy as a skunk. She’s just, she’s just, with this her.
Laura Wombwell: All right. If your pets were to be played by human actors in a movie who would play them?
Mackenzie Drinkwater: This is funny because I’ve been watching a lot of The Office recently during these times and I used to say that Willa was Michael Scott. And then Alydar is like a mix of, like, Toby and Phyllis. So, if that resonates with anyone, is that good enough? Is that okay?
Laura Wombwell: That’s good, that’s good.
Mackenzie Drinkwater: I feel like I feel like, yeah, she’s a mix of the two.
Laura Wombwell: Poor Alydar.
Mackenzie Drinkwater: She is the love of my life though. She, like, look at this, like she’s just she’s just as happy as can be, just doing nothing.
Laura Wombwell: Alright, so our last rapid fire question – if money were no object and all the restrictions were lifted and we could do whatever, go wherever, what’s one thing that you would do to spoil your dogs?
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Very, very good question. Other than, I know what I would do. I would hop in the car and we would go camping. Cuz my dogs may not look like it but they love camping. They love hiking and camping and I would go out East and we would take them to Cape Breton and we would camp like the whole way. We would go running, of course they love running. Obviously, we would run up and down beaches, they would get all the food. We’d pack all the Finnegans Deli for them and we just have a great time just exploring because honestly like these dogs, they just love being with people. That’s what they love and again, you can literally throw them into any situation. They’re like, okay, this is fun. So, yeah, we would definitely do a big camping trip.
Laura Wombwell: Excellent. Mackenzie, it’s been such a pleasure talking to you. So, to wrap up, what is the best way this community can support you both with Little Dears Apparel and with Dog Friendly KW?
Mackenzie Drinkwater: Honestly, just following us on Instagram would be really great, you know sharing and liking our posts because we, again Dog Friendly KW, we just love to support dog-friendly businesses around the area. So just commenting, you know, liking our stuff, letting us know we’re doing a good job. Listening to our podcast would be awesome just cuz we’re so new getting feedback, and things like that would be great. And then for Little Dears Apparel, same thing, if you could just again, I don’t have an Etsy or a website just yet just cuz this is so fresh like 2 weeks in. But if you follow you can keep tabs on on what we’re doing. I’m going to be making it a website come spring. So if you are interested to see what kind of fabrics or upcycled items I’m creating it’ll all be on Instagram. I’ll share, you know, what I’m up to on that. Yeah, if you ever want to see our adventures, you can always just follow us on Little Dears to see what we’re up to. We’re always doing something and right now it’s always in the area, but if you could just support us on social media that would mean the world to us.
Laura Wombwell: That is amazing. Well, thank you so much. It has been such a pleasure talking to you and also seeing will and alydar.
Mackenzie Drinkwater: They’re funny. It’s been so great talking to you to Laura. Thank you so much for having me.
Laura Wombwell: No worries. So, thanks for listening. This is Laura from Laura Wombwell Photography and Mackenzie Drinkwater from Little Dears Apparel and Dog-Friendly KW and we both hope that you and your pets have an awesome day.
out, but he’s healthy, he’s happy, he eats kibbles, he’s a good boy. Sunny is my other English Bulldog and her full name Sunny Skywalker. She had a full cleft palate. So I raised Sunny from the time that she was just over a week old. Tube feeding every couple of hours and she’s been definitely a medical challenge. So she’s had to have a number of surgeries on the top of her mouth to repair that cleft so that she can eat kibble and drink water like other dogs. She’s a good girl. She’s very healthy outside of her cleft. So that’s Sunny. And then we have two cats Ernie and Gordie. Ernie is an American shorthair, so like a gray silver tabby and Gordie is a little black and white tuxedo cat that came to me through Ladybird Animal Sanctuary. He was a stray cat on the streets of Hamilton. He had been hit by a car and unfortunately we weren’t able to save his leg. So I had volunteered to do the surgery for them and I just fell in love with him because he’s such a sweetheart. So that’s Gordie.
Laura Wombwell: Oh nice, and the cats and the dogs get along alright?
Dr. Renee Fleming: Yes, yeah, they all get along very well. Sunny, my puppy, the youngest one that she sometimes will chase the cats a little bit, but they can get out of her way quite easily. The cats are quite fast. So sometimes I come home and I’ll see one of the cats rolled up in the dog bed with the dogs. so they do love each other very much.
Laura Wombwell: Now, because you have a cat who has three legs does the cat need any special accommodations or does it keep up with all the other pets just just like normal?
Dr. Renee Fleming: He’s amazing. So there’s a saying in the veterinary community that dogs, most dogs and cats are born with three legs and a spare. Luckily for our patients when the need comes to do with an amputation most will do very well. Most people who see Gordie don’t don’t notice that he is three-legged because he walks so well, and in fact Gordie will be the first one up the Christmas tree when we put it up. Also has this really cute habit, he likes the kids’ mitts and gloves. And so at night you can hear him carrying mitts and gloves up the stairs and he chirps like he’s hunting until sometimes when my husband and I wake up in the morning there might be seven or eight, you know, miscellaneous gloves and hats at the top of the stairs that he’s carried up there. So certainly it doesn’t slow him down that he’s three-legged. As he ages, definitely, I want to make sure that he’s not developing osteoarthritis, especially with the, you know, the back leg bearing the majority of the weight and we try to keep him very lean, so that there’s no excess weight on the rest of his body.
Laura Wombwell: Wonderful. What is your favorite thing to do with your pets here in Southwestern Ontario?
Dr. Renee Fleming: My goodness, I think it’s hard right now because we’re not supposed to go anywhere. We really like to go hiking and having bulldogs, you have to be careful because you know, they are prone to overheating. So we like to go in areas where there’s lots of shade and there might be some, you know, water available for them. Actually living in Guelph, we’re so lucky because we have so many beautiful trails within the boundaries of the city. Admittedly, we tend to kind of stick to the Guelph Lake trails in the summertime. And, you know, we’ll take the doggos out there and let them, you know, swim at the river and that sort of thing. So, yeah, that’s what we like.
Laura Wombwell: Excellent, I have a couple of fun little quick questions for you. Do your best answer off the top of your head. So, cat or dog?
Dr. Renee Fleming: Dog
Laura Wombwell: Favorite breed?
Dr. Renee Fleming: English Bulldog.
Laura Wombwell: Obviously. What are your pet’s favorite treats?
Dr. Renee Fleming: My dogs love Greenies – love love love and actually to be honest my cats love the Greenie treats too.
Laura Wombwell: Excellent are your pets full of beans, full of dreams or full of something entirely different?
Dr. Renee Fleming: Definitely full of beans. All of them are full of beans. Yeah, for bulldogs, these guys are pretty hyper.
Laura Wombwell: Which human actors would play your pets in a movie?
Dr. Renee Fleming: Oh my gosh. You know, I can’t even. That would take me a while to answer.
Laura Wombwell: No worries. And finally, if money were no object and you could go anywhere in the world with no restrictions, what’s one thing you would do to spoil your pets?
Dr. Renee Fleming: Oh wow. To spoil them? I mean, it would be so lovely to take them somewhere where there was just like big open spaces to roam and water for them to frolic around in. I can’t think of where I would take them. All I can think about right now is that you shouldn’t fly with English bulldogs. So I’m sticking somewhere local!
Laura Wombwell: So finally, I want to wrap up – you are always so generous with your information on social media. So, how is the best way for this local community to help support you and your practice?
Dr. Renee Fleming: That’s a tricky question, I guess. I think what I do want people to be aware of, and I’m cognizant of this when I comment on posts of Dogs of Guelph, I really am posting or commenting because I want to help. I’m always happy to meet new people through my clinic but, you know, I’m fortunate that I can often help people online as well. So I think maybe less so about my business, but for veterinary businesses across, you know, just remembering that your vet should really be your first place where you do ask questions. So yeah, if you need something, you know, what you think about calling them first before reaching out on social media. I think that’s important. There’s a lot of well-meaning advice that gets shared on the internet but sometimes things are maybe not appropriate and it can be hard to sort through that. So you just remembering that always ask your vet clinic first and and they should be happy to help you
Laura Wombwell: And remembering that vets love pets.
Dr. Renee Fleming: Absolutely. Yes we do and I know it’s hard right now with the pandemic because you’re not in with us and you can’t see what’s going on. But I tell you, like, I’ll go out and get a pet and bring them in for an appointment or for surgery and they’ll beeline to the front desk because they want to greet the girls there and then they beeline to the treatment room because they want to see the technicians and the staff back there. I know there’s lots of discussion about, you know, anxious pets and that sort of thing but we really are trying to make it a real positive experience for the pets. And from from my hospital team to everyone out there – we know sitting in a car in the cold parking lot is not what you want to be doing right now and were doing the best we can to muddle through and want to thank everyone for their patience and understanding as we all kind of, you know, travel through these really unique times.
Laura Wombwell: Amazing. Well, thank you so much Dr. Fleming. It has been an absolute pleasure talking to you and I hope that you have wonderful continued success in your practice. Again, thank you for being so, so giving with all of your information. I’m sure everyone here in the community really, really appreciates.
Dr. Renee Fleming: It is no trouble. Thank you.
Laura Wombwell: Thanks so much for listening. I’m Laura with Laura Wombwell Photography with Dr. Renee Fleming from Guelph Animal Hospital and we both hope that you and your pets have an awesome day. Bye!
Dr. Renee Fleming: Bye!
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