The lifestyle changes that having a pooch in your lives comes on you slowly and insidiously, alongside the immediate joys of dog hair invading every inch of the house , the delight of early morning  wanderings and the knowledge that whatever time of the year you will be guaranteed the most effective live  hot water bottle /electric blanket substitute that has an uncanny knack of taking over the entire bed, you also  find your social life begins to change irrevocably to accommodate your new best friend .

For us, that meant weekends and holidays, once the territory of short breaks and poolside in foreign climates were transformed. Wardrobes began to dominated by copious amounts of polar fleece, thick socks, and sensible walking boots as days out and time away were all planned around the small fluffy one’s needs, specifically a bit of a walk, and quality(ish) time spent with his owners.

However Bruce was not to get it all his own way and we began to find that although we may have lost the long lazy pub afternoons with friends, a dog day was not necessarily a dry day and being a fan of ‘proper beers’ the opportunity to sample new hostileries and their wares were emerging …

Not having a dog in our lives for seven years till Bruce joined us a year ago we had not appreciated how the attitudes towards dogs in Pubs has changed for the better in the years we have been dogless.  It also appeared that, against a backdrop of Pubco owned bar closures the small independent breweries and micropubs,  were bucking the trend and beginning to thrive and prosper. These type of operators outlook was to go back to idea of the local as being primarily about the people and the beer – not themed pubs dominated by loud music or food driven , and with that we were noticing that a more positive relaxed welcome for canines in pubs was part of that sea change and one that we as dog owners heartily welcome

Using the net to research ideas for ideas for days out to go with his Lordship however met very much with a blank , plenty of proper walking sites but little about actually catering for the mutt . Look up dog travel blogs and all that seem to be about were professional ‘influencers’ (as one who can rarely influence even my own canine I am truly screwed on this front   with a professionally  coiffured  Instagrammable lap dog who were obviously writing trade pieces and in the main from the horrible faux ‘cute’ throwable up-able ‘doggy writing ‘ .perspective ….just noooo !  Specialist Dog Pubs site’s also failed to impress offering poor quality subscription based content or just being ridiculously out of date ….

The Idea for 4PP was born …

After several months mulling  the idea over , actually getting my grand derriere into gear and producing something myself, it was a chance conversation (quelle suprise) in a pub in Huddersfield with the late  renowned beer blogger Richard Coldwell who god love him , persuaded me to be brave go for it and put together our own site

Richard was heavily involved in CAMRA ( the Campaign for Real Ale ) and one web resource that we have found invaluable when planning is theirWHAT PUB  site and app – its a cracking volunteer run directory CAMRA members providing field reports and is insanely accurate – opening times , distance to other pubs in the area , beer ranges and of course mutt friendly- ness ! Even better it’s FREE ! Show them some love – hell even join, it’s only a few quid a year with some money off beer tokens thrown in !