Catch-ups for fluffy friends

LISA Roulston and her cocker spaniel Nugget have turned puppy play dates into lifelong friendships.

Ms Roulston runs the Facebook page Wigglebutts of Central Victoria, affectionately named after her beloved dog breed’s tendency to wag their entire backsides with their tails.

“There’s a lot of crazy cocker spaniel owners in Australia,” Ms Roulston, who started the group four years ago, said.

“I’ve had Nugget now for 10 years, you scour the internet and look for other likeminded crazy cocker spaniel people, and I found one cocker spaniel rescue group that organised group catch ups, but they were all down in Melbourne.

“It was just too far to stick a silly dog in the car and drive to Melbourne for catch-ups for a couple of hours.”

When Ms Roulston realised there were a few cocker spaniel owners in Bendigo, she started organising catchups for fluffy friends and humans alike.

“We’ve got a good 20-odd people that come along to our catchups, and we’ve made many good friendships over the past four years,” she said.

“I try and organise a catch up once every couple of months, sort of the beginning of every season.

“It’s just a nice social group and all the dogs come along and have a bit of a sniff and play and wiggle their bums. There’s been nice friendships made over the years.”

The group’s next catch-up is this Saturday at the Harcourt Dog Park small dog enclosure from 11am to 12.30pm.