Brentford Women midfielder Maddie Phillips gives an insight into her 10-month-old Bernedoodle, Woody.
Named after the character from her favourite childhood movie, Toy Story, Phillips said Woody has “changed my life".
For Phillips and her partner George, getting a dog was always going to happen; it was just a matter of what breed.
“We knew we wanted a bigger dog; we went for the Bernedoodle because of the mix with the Poodle so there was less moulting, that kind of stuff, so he’s not as big as a Bernese, but he still has the same elements of a Bernese and all the personality traits of a Bernese,” explained Phillips.
Those personality traits include craving lots of cuddles and plenty of time spent outside playing.
“He’s a very intelligent dog, he’s quite a chill dog, he just wants to sit on you and get attention and cuddles,” said Phillips.
“He’s so funny, he’s quite cheeky; if our Crocs are sat by the back door, he’ll steal one of them and run outside with it because he wants to play all the time!
“He’s already 29kg at 10 months, which was expected; we obviously knew he was going to get big, but it’s just been so quick.
“You look at photos now compared to April and you’re like ‘Wow, he was tiny and now he’s massive’.”
Picked up from a breeder in Cornwall, Phillips said Woody is more Bernese than Poodle.
“He came from a Bernedoodle breeder in Cornwall… his parents were both Bernedoodles, his dad was an Aussie Shepherd Bernedoodle and his mum was a Bernedoodle; he’s more like 70 per cent Bernese from the mixture of parents,” she explained.
“He only has a tiny bit of Poodle in him, which you can see in his coat; he’s got a bit of a curly patch above the bum, but other than that he’s very Bernese. His face and all his features are very Bernese; he’s got massive paws and he was the biggest in the litter.
“He does this thing when he’s playing with other dogs where they bow, but if the other dog doesn’t do anything, he’ll just paw the dog in the face. It’s actually a Bernese thing, they do it a lot.
“He’s not made for speed, he’s in comfort mode all the time, he does not have a sport mode at all.”
For Phillips and George, Woody has helped them stay more present and keep an active lifestyle.
“It forces you to change your lifestyle and it makes you get out of the house at least once a day; It forces you to put your phone away and actually just be present with the dog,” she said.
"It forces you to change your lifestyle and it makes you get out of the house at least once a day; it forces you to put your phone away and actually just be present with the dog"
“When me and George go out, a lot of the time you don’t have signal because you’re in the middle of some random forest somewhere with the dog, so you’re forced to literally put your phone away and just talk, it forces you to be a bit more present which is quite nice.
“It’s weird how much it can change your life so quickly; now I just couldn’t imagine life without him. You go home and he’s so excited to see you, it makes everything better.”
Phillips said that sometime in the future, they’d like to find their Buzz to give Woody a best friend: “We want to get Buzz now that we’ve got Woody, eventually.
“We’re thinking maybe a Staff, because I think it’d be quite nice for him to have someone to play with.
“We see his cousin Rupert, my sister’s dog, quite a lot and they have the best time just running around and playing together.”