Holly Willoughby was been issued a warning by a dog expert over her new puppy, Bailey, on today’s edition of This Morning (Tuesday, January 11).
The 40-year-old revealed that she’s recently been struggling with getting Bailey to come out on walks with her.
The Dogfather on This Morning
Holly welcomed a new addition to the family back in November – a Golden Retriever called Bailey.
Viewers of This Morning will be familiar with Holly’s pet pooch now thanks to his numerous appearances on the show. Bailey most recently bounded onto the show during the Christmas special that aired on Christmas Day.
However, it’s not all perfect with Bailey, as Holly revealed on today’s show.
Holly and her co-host Phillip Schofield welcomed Graeme Hall onto the show today to talk all things dog. Graeme is a dog behavioural expert and is appropriately nicknamed the Dogfather.
Discussing her own pup, Holly said she is “lovely in every single way”, but she’s “very lazy”.
Holly Willoughby’s dog troubles
Phillip and Holly listened as Graeme briefly gave viewers advice on their dogs. Some of the issues covered included how to deal with a dog’s separation anxiety and how to stop dogs from pulling on their leads so much.
Towards the end of Graeme’s appearance on the show, Holly aired her own concerns about Bailey and asked the Dogfather for some advice.
“I’ve got a quick question for you,” Holly said. “My Bailey, who is lovely in every single way, however, she’s very lazy and I find her very difficult to walk.”
“You take her out for a drag don’t you?” Phillip said. “I literally do,” Holly said. “She just sits there and will not move.”
“She’ll lie down and I’ll end up carrying her,” she continued. “The only way I can get her to exercise is if I take her to a dog park, let her off the lead, and then she runs around like a lunatic with other dogs.”
Whilst Holly was saying this, a clip of her trying to get a stubborn Bailey to walk played in the background.
The Dogfather’s warning to Holly Willoughby
“She’s basically doing it on her terms, isn’t she,” Graeme chuckled. “She’s like ‘I’ll run around when it suits me but if you want to, Mum, I don’t think so’.”
Graeme then imparted some advice for Holly, as well as provided her with a warning too.
“First things, Holly, be careful you don’t overexercise her,” he said. “Because with puppies, their joints are a bit susceptible when they’re growing.”
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He then said that no walk with her dog should not be any longer than an hour, as that would be “too much”.
“That being said, I think encouragement is the way to go,” he said. He gave Holly some tips on how to get Bailey to walk, for which the 40-year-old was very grateful.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she said as the interview drew to a close. “I’ll give that a go.”
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