Soul Touched by Dogs

Anke: Welcome to the Soul Touched by
Dogs podcast, the show for dog lovers

who see dogs not as toys or tools, but
wise souls worth our respect and care.

I'm Anke Herrmann, and I'm your host.

I talk to wholesome humans, people who
do great work for dogs and their people.

So come and join us for
today's conversation.

Hello and welcome, Inez.

I'm so excited to have you here.

I, I

Inez: am, I'm very excited too.

Anke.

Thank you for asking

Anke: me.

Yeah, I, I knew right from the start
I wanted to have Paul some Newmans on,

on, on this show, and the first person
that jumped to mind for me with you,

so I'm super happy to, to be here.

We've kind of known each other little.

On social for quite a while, and so
I'm really, really excited to share

you with other souls touched by dogs.

So while, why don't we just start
out, give people like two minute

birds eye, like where are you
based and how the heck did you get

Inez: into all the dog work?

Oh gosh.

Well, okay, so my name is, is Robinson.

I'm originally from the uk,
lived in Spain now since 1995.

I can't even work the mess out on that.

So I just say 1995 now.

Um, February, I came over with my
two young kids, my husband at the

time, and, um, lived on the coast.

I now live in.

And in Elle Grande.

And, uh, when, um, I came out, I
originally came out with my first ever

dog and she passed away when she was 14.

And then I was dogless for quite a while.

A single mom.

It was just, it wasn't
the right circumstances.

And when Pat and I got together,
uh, this is all his fault.

You see, when we got together,
he said, I'd like to get a dog.

Um, my ex-wife really wasn't very
keen, but I'd like to get a dog.

So we started off with a, uh, golden
retriever who needed a new home.

He was 11 months old and
Charlie loved him to pieces.

And he was great.

And then, uh, when he was about six, we
were, we felt ready for a second dog.

Second dog we got from
a local rescue, aaa.

And she was also a golden retriever.

She'd been used as a puppy
farm bitch, um, really badly,

extremely underweight, very poor.

And two vets said, you'd be lucky to be
lucky for her to live another six months.

She was that broken and
her organs were going.

Everything was was bad.

So I started researching a little bit
about dog nutrition and stuff like that.

Um, and basically we brought her
back to life and she lived for

another seven and a half years.

So, and, but through her, whilst
I understood people abandoned

their dogs, they were starving
dogs, I didn't really know, didn't

really know what was going on.

But through her, I saw what was going on.

So from her, There was another dog I got.

I ended up getting onto some of
the Facebook groups and things,

and there was another dog that
48 hours from being put to sleep.

Beautiful dog.

She looked like a golden retriever.

In fact, it says golden retriever in her
passport because my, I showed my husband

and he said, we can't let that happen.

We went straight the
next day down to pound.

We took her out.

We, she's still with us now.

She's somewhere between 14 and 16
years old, because they said she

was between four and six back then.

And we're not a hundred percent
sure of her, of her age.

And, uh, it sort of went from there.

And then we started seeing more dogs
and more, more dogs needing help.

And some of them were, came
in as fosters and stayed.

We ended up with eight dogs.

We were, uh, we had seven dogs.

We were living on the coast in a townhouse
with a small 35 square meter garden.

Both working from home,
both taking them out.

And one of my dogs, uh, was one
of the neighbors got arrested.

Uh, all the sorts of stuff
that goes on in in Marvea.

And um, the police said, do
you want to take this dog?

And they had a five month
old Belgian Shepherd mal.

And I'd become aware of
the breed and thought.

Too much dog for me.

I don't really wanna get involved.

Anyway, took him on and I fell in
love with that particular breed.

A lot of training with
him, a lot of brain work.

'cause we didn't have the
space for them to run.

They went out once a day for walks,
uh, for the actual physical exercise

they played inside the house.

And then we moved up to Arin El Grande.

So that's how I got involved with dogs.

And then I got involved with dog
rescues and now I have my own

little rescue and I specialize more
in the Belgian Shepherd Malinois.

And we have seven dogs at home.

And a cat who thinks she's a dog.

Anke: As a husband somewhere.

I like that.

That's an episode for another day.

Like we're gonna pop something
in like that was a real sort like

all of that is Liket has a book.

T has a

Inez: book.

Tig might be a second
book coming out soon.

Anke: That's, so, that's amazing.

Amazing.

She's

Inez: working, she's
working on another book.

That's why she's been so quiet lately.

She's, uh, she's working on
another, not another book.

That's incredible.

Um, so, so through my dogs, um,
I, with Max, it was actually

what happened with Max one day.

He had a collar on normal collar.

Went to go outta the house and
some kids were walking past

on the private urbanization.

Anyway, I stopped.

He snapped around and
came outta the collar.

Take him outta the collar because
his neck was thicker than his head.

This is how naive I was about dogs when I
was like a, I would call myself a normal

dog person back then, and so I'm standing
there holding this lead and a collar goes.

Like this.

He's going, woo hoo.

I'm going Go go for a run.

And he's jumped up at these kids.

They've fallen over.

Parents are going crazy.

Max has rent them run off.

I haven't shut the door.

The other dogs are
coming out to say hello.

It was, it was, honestly, it
was pandemonium, chaos, panic.

It felt like a lifetime,
but it was about 30 seconds.

Um, child.

The child was okay a little bit, a couple
of scratches and things, but nothing,

but it made me realize I had to be
very careful and Max was also starting

to really pull, uh, at 11 months old.

Now, my fault, I hadn't taught
him properly to loosely, you,

you, you sort of expect your
dog to walk properly beside you.

So I looked around for harnesses and I
found a lady who made a very specialized

harness that she had developed a no pull,
no escape harness, bought one for him.

Then bought one for all the other
dogs because it was amazing how it

took some pressure away from the neck
that he stopped pulling completely.

He was more comfortable, he was
more listening to me, et cetera.

So fast forward a few years, we've moved
up to Arin and the lady passed away.

I got on with her very well.

I was, I was passing business
to her because being in rescue,

people would say, my dog's pulling.

Can you help buy this, buy this, buy this.

It's brilliant.

It's brilliant, it's brilliant.

They last forever, et cetera, et cetera.

And she passed away.

Just old age and I was waiting that
somebody was gonna take, take the

reins up because over time as I'd
taken rescues on, I was giving a, a

harness away with one of my rescues
for safety and security and everything.

So I got down to the one last harness.

I wasn't letting go of that, and it broke.

So stitching came undone and I'm, I'm.

And a year after she passed away,
still nobody had taken up the reins.

Nobody had, nobody was making
anything, anything the same.

I tried other, other makes and things.

Nothing is good.

So in the end I thought, right,
well, I'm gonna have to do it myself.

So I bought myself a little
secondhand sew machine of, uh,

marketplace, Facebook marketplace.

Found where I could get the
webbing and the bits and pieces

because I still had the one.

So I was able to get all the
bits and pieces and the hardware.

Not a clue what I was doing.

Um, trying to get this sewing
machine to work that nearly ended

up out of the window a few times.

I can tell you I was in
tears of frustration.

I had to walk away from it sometimes.

Kill this machine, sit
down in there, YouTube.

What do I do here?

Right?

Okay.

Get it to work.

Get it to work, get it to work,
and made my first harness.

And then I made another
one and I gave it away.

You know, it sort of started to build
up a little bit of a reputation.

And now I have, uh, two sew machines.

They're right next to me here
actually on, on the dining table.

This says, I've work
from, my work from home.

If you saw this table, it
looks so clean on the screen.

Anke: That's like studios.

I know, I know, I know.

I've got a

Inez: whole rack of webbings and
different colors and strengths and

thicknesses and all the rest of it.

Um, and I make them, and, and
it's developed from there.

People now ask me to make, uh,
There are special clips that go

around the backseat of a, of a car.

So they then clip onto a
harness for safety in the car.

Somebody asked me to make three of those.

I made three of those.

I've got some orders from it, from
posting that I make personalized colors,

um, and all sorts of different things.

I can do different designs and things.

I do the stuff.

And we're

Anke: gonna obviously have the
link to all of this below here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I'm really curious because I got
like, I've never liked like collars

for my dogs, you know, I always
thought like, I wanna, you know, if

something happens, you know, and like,
I don't wanna pull 'em by the throat.

So I always thought, and I got a
lot of slack like in, in Grenada

and oh, you know, if you have a
harness, the dog will pull more.

And I'm like, that's not
my experience, you know?

So what, what, what's special
about, 'cause yours have like a

really interesting construction.

There's this kind of thing
around the waist and Yeah.

So they're not just, um, so
what, what's the piece that

kind of stops them from pulling.

Or what's the, like, which
piece of, of the design?

Like

Inez: how does it work exactly?

So the harness, uh, if you think of
a standard harness that goes sort of

onto the shoulders and down through
the chest, okay, it's called a Y front.

Now, the, if, if you have a clip on
the back, Yes, a dog can pull because

it's like a, they, they're like horses.

They, they don't pull, they push into
the collar, so they will hunch down.

This is what Max did with his collar.

He pushed into, and he could
drag me along with my trainers,

and I'm skiing behind him.

Um, and he was, he wasn't even a year old.

I thought, well, that's my responsibility.

If he goes, wants to go to
somebody, I can't stop him.

So if this is the head of my hand,
is the head of the dog, Uhhuh,

it comes through like this and
it come, then it comes underneath

the, the chest and around the back.

And then there's a waist part.

Okay.

I can always show a picture.

It's a bit difficult, but the, the
magic bit is, is this bit here and

it's, it's, it's called a Martin Gale.

I dunno why they're called Martin
Gale's, maybe some guy called Martin Gale

invented it in the first place, but it's
just a, is there's a piece of material.

So it connects the two shoulder straps
to the T piece that goes under the chest.

So basically what happens is when the dog
pulls this piece, Keeps the force coming

round so the person is behind the dog.

The dog will usually lunge forward.

This piece pulls the shoulder and
the bit underneath sort of together.

Not in a hard way, not in a horrible way.

Doesn't rub or anything.

Doesn't move, doesn't cause
any bald fur or anything.

But what it does is it
redirects the force.

So like a ship, you know where the
ship goes forward, you can pull

it round with a piece of rope.

Oh, tons and tons of ship
you can pull with a rope.

Same effect.

So the dog just thought the force just
is redirected, drown Pickle, who is

half mastif, if I put a collar on her
or anything else off, she trundles

and I'm behind her, no question.

Put this on her.

It is like walking a feather and
I can hold her with two fingers.

So

Anke: then you've got like
a least club clip in there.

So the, yeah,

Inez: it's just, it's just a, it's
just a D-ring at the front so you can

attach the leash to that, and that's it.

So you have the leash, it's at the
front on the chest, and it just,

Whichever side you are standing,
it redirects the dog ground.

That's

Anke: so cool.

Inez: Really, I, it's
a really simple thing.

It's a bit silly, but it's really simple.

Um, and I have the
waistband for two reasons.

What I found with normal harnesses,
because they're just around the

chest and the, and the neck.

Even if they are front clipping,
but they're solid, they, they

don't have this moving, moving
part is it can ride forwards.

So if the dog pulls backwards,
it can ride forwards.

And dog people don't realize they can put
their legs like this and then they're out.

I've had that happen.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

A lot people have.

So the waistband a stops
it riding forwards.

It keeps that balance Yes.

Of, of the harness of the
dog isn't uncomfortable.

It doesn't freak out that suddenly this
thing's being pulled over its head.

And the waistband stops
it from getting out.

So you have that added security.

Um, and some, some dogs, I mean,
I made a, a whole load for a

rescue they had with gal GOs.

They didn't want the foot no pull bit.

They wanted a big clip
on the back instead.

Um, but they wanted the safety,
as they call it, a safety harness.

This is a three point harness.

Yes.

So I make those as well,

Anke: especially gals, you
know, with a big chest.

Like it's, and they'd be
so easy to come out of

Inez: that.

Yeah, yeah.

Because standard harnesses
are made with standard things,

so the waist is, is too big.

For a gal go, and because I make them
to measure, I take four measurements.

So I, I give people a diagram, they
give me the four measurements, and from

that, and there's loads of adjustments,
there's seven points of adjustments.

So you get that perfect
fitting for that dog.

I

Anke: love it.

I, I totally love it.

I, I already know some people
on this list gonna love this.

Inez: And I ship, I ship worldwide.

Actually, I have customers.

I've got one that's going to
the States, um, this week.

Oh, that

Anke: is fabulous.

Yeah.

And, and so definitely we're
gonna pop the link there and Yeah.

And, and I think, I love the, I
mean, obviously, uh, you know, I

used to make, made to measure stuff.

Yeah.

Like dance costumes, but it's
like the made to measure makes.

The difference.

Inez: It makes a huge difference because
I'm, I'm unlike anybody else, you know,

I bought loads of stuff and you get a
collar and it doesn't, it's, it's okay.

It doesn't quite fit right.

Or a, you know, a harness and
you sort of, you can see it's

not comfortable for the dog.

It's like us, isn't it?

You know, like a bra you can not Right.

Fitting bra, it just ruins
your whole day, doesn't it?

I mean, there's no question

Anke: about So true.

The bra for the dog.

Have your heart bra.

That is funny.

I love it.

I love it.

Well, thank you so much.

Uh, I will have you back because we
have a whole bunch of other topics

to talk about, but um, yeah, I think.

I'll, and we'll put
apic, send me a picture.

'cause I've saw, I've seen pictures
where you have like the, you know, like

a, a black, shiny kind of dog where
you, you know, wears the Suki as Suki.

You know

Inez: where you can, that's eight dogs.

Really?

We have, we got eight dogs.

She's perfect.

She is.

She's sitting behind me Nice and quiet.

Doesn't move,

Anke: you know, just like send me a
picture as well so we can show, because

like this is gonna be podcast as.

You know, people might, but I
wanna, I want people to see what it

actually looks like, it looks like.

Sure.

And, um, and the link where,
where they can get it and where

can get in touch with you.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Inez: And um,

Anke: you know, make sure we have
lots of dogs in perfectly fitted bras

Inez: Oh, fantastic.

Thank you.

Anke: Thank you.

Take care.

Inez: You too.

Thanks so much for listening.

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K E at soul touched by dogs.

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