PupTalk Adventures
Our adventure days are enjoyed at a private, 40-acre property, consisting of trails, pastures, creeks, and ponds.
Each dog’s age and temperament are taken into consideration when creating our groups. We provide the proper activities, along with downtime, for the younger and older members. We are membership based and each member has a reserved day(s) in the week, keeping our groups consistent and well bonded. As we work and adventure together in a structured way, the crew learns how to properly socialize and sharpen up commands. Everyone goes home fulfilled and happy after a day with their friends.
Meet Heather
Hello! I’m Heather Wood. I created PupTalk in 2011 solely for my love of dogs and the outdoors. At first, PupTalk was a professional dog walking and boarding service. After learning and understanding more about what truly fulfills the dog, PupTalk evolved into a structured hiking service.
I believe how we spend time with dogs is extremely important for achieving growth and connection. At our property, dogs are free from human/city distractions and are able to lean into their roots. This slows their mental load down and allows them to decompress, process, and enjoy more.
Living with presence and slowness has been one of my greatest lessons while working with dogs. I choose to live by ‘dog time’, not ‘human time’. And of course, outside, with movement.
My priorities with the pack are focused on spending time doing what dogs naturally enjoy, and building confidence through it all. I focus on how dogs (genetically or otherwise) truly feel about life and situations, and recognize behavior can follow big feelings.
I feel naturally in-tune with dogs and have an energy and relationship based approach to dog ‘training’, that I prefer to call, guidance or handling. Above all, I agree that with awareness, patience, structure, adventure, trust, and care, dogs will thrive.
I value having real relationships with clients and spending time with the same dogs year after year. It makes me so happy to see them build such strong bonds.
My family and I live 25 minutes from downtown Portland, on our 40 acres surrounded by trails and pastures, where we hope to one day fill with other animals and foster dogs. We spend most of our time outside, with our dogs and two children, Arlo & Bode. We love camping and haul our trailer to magical places as often as we can. You can always find us talking about old vehicles, travel, adventure sports, dogs, music and dreamy life goals. Becoming a Mom has also taught me so much about caring for others and what truly matters in this world.
I’m a dedicated rescue advocate and have three dogs that I consider my best friends. Nora, my senior, is a beautiful mix from Warm Springs. Hawkeye is a blue heeler I rescued as a puppy from NWDP, and Red Dog, our other heeler, is a foster fail that was living on train tracks outside of Portland. I also have a cat, named Munch, and a flock of chickens.
“Having acquired two Vizsla puppies (siblings, no less), I wasn’t prepared for just how much energy and demands they would have. Draco and Athena thrived under Heather’s care, looking forward to hearing her truck pull up outside the house with all their canine friends on board. Trips to the beach and camping at Mt Hood were favorites and, because of my work schedule, they’d often spend a week or two staying at her house. We moved to the UK recently and we miss her so much – the Vizslas are now 6 ½ years old. I cannot speak highly enough of Heather, not just the calm, gentle way she handles the dogs in her care (how does she get them all to sit for a photo at the same time?) but her quiet, confidence and wonderful sense of humor.”
