About
The Bristol Hound
I'm Sarah, and The Bristol Hound is built on three things I care about a great deal: teaching, dogs, and this city's community of people who love them.
Where this all started
Teaching has been part of my life since I was a teenager. I spent years as a ski instructor, working with everyone from four-year-olds taking their first wobbly turns to sixty-year-olds finally getting round to learning. Watching someone go from nervous to confident, at any age, is genuinely one of my favourite things to be part of. A knee injury eventually took me off the slopes for good, but it never took away the pull towards teaching itself.
A couple of years ago, I got Teddy, a Shollie (a German Shepherd and Collie cross), and it's honestly one of the best decisions I've ever made. Somewhere in the middle of long walks and figuring out how to actually train him properly, the teaching instinct I'd shelved found a new place to go.
For the past decade, my career has been in marketing (mostly content, events, and community work). I've spent years building audiences, running campaigns, and getting people genuinely engaged with something. Those same skills are exactly what's gone into building this site and the community around it.
What I'm doing now
Join me on my journey to becoming a dog trainer. I'm currently working through my IMDT (Institute of Modern Dog Trainers) certification, bringing together my background in teaching with the love for dogs that Teddy sparked. I'll be sharing what I'm learning along the way, and I hope you find it as useful as I have.
That means the training content on this site is written from inside the process rather than after it. It's grounded in proper coursework and real experience with my own dog, documented honestly as I go. If something's more serious — reactivity or resource guarding, for instance — I'll always point you towards a qualified trainer or a vet rather than guess.
What this site is for
The aim is a genuinely useful resource for Bristol dog owners, built by someone who's doing the work in public rather than claiming to have it all figured out. In practice, that means:
- —A directory of dog-friendly pubs, cafes, restaurants, shops, and walks across Bristol, built from real visits and kept up to date
- —Blog posts about good places to take your dog, alongside the occasional post on everyday life with one in this city
- —Training content written as I learn it, including IMDT lessons and what I'm actually trying with Teddy
- —A growing community section pointing towards the people and groups already doing good work for Bristol dogs
If any of it helps you find a decent pub, a better walk, or explains a term you hadn't come across before, it's doing what it's meant to.
Get in touch
If you have a recommendation, spot a mistake, or just want to get in touch, email me at woof@thebristolhound.com. I read everything that comes through.