How this journal is written and checked

Who writes this

Everything in this journal is written for PAWLY, a one-person dog walking and in-home pet care service in Luxembourg City. It is written by the person who does the walks, not by an agency or a content supplier, and it is written in the same voice used with clients.

That means two things. The articles reflect what actually happens in this job: flats, lifts, neighbours, working days that run to eleven hours, and the practical problems that come with them. And they are not a substitute for professional advice, which is the next point.

What this journal is not

It is not veterinary advice. I am a dog walker and pet carer, not a vet, not a veterinary nurse and not a qualified behaviourist. Articles on health describe how to recognise a situation and when to seek help. They do not diagnose, they do not recommend medication, and they deliberately avoid dosages.

It is not legal advice either. Articles on Luxembourg rules summarise published obligations in plain English so you know what to ask about. For anything with consequences, the authoritative sources are the law itself, guichet.lu, and your commune.

Where the information comes from

Luxembourg law and administration. The law of 9 May 2008 on dogs and its implementing regulations, guichet.lu, and communal pages. The specific points checked against those sources include: electronic identification within four months of birth; declaration to the commune; the places where a lead is compulsory, which are public transport, the common parts of apartment buildings, car parks open to the public, service stations, public events, sports pitches, cycle paths and sports trails; the power of a commune to designate off-lead zones; the list of breeds classified as susceptible to being dangerous, which is American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Mastiff and Tosa, plus pit-bull and boer-bull types comparable by morphology; the owner's training certificate, the ministerial authorisation and the dog's own training diploma; and the legal minimum of ten euros for the annual communal dog tax, with the amount itself set by each commune.

Travel rules. The European Commission and Your Europe pages on moving pets within and into the EU: microchip before rabies vaccination, a minimum age of twelve weeks for the primary vaccination, twenty-one days between primary vaccination and travel, tapeworm treatment between twenty-four and one hundred and twenty hours before entry for Finland, Ireland, Malta, Norway and Northern Ireland, and the limit of five animals per private vehicle for non-commercial movement.

Veterinary and behavioural subjects. Mainstream veterinary and behavioural consensus as taught and published in Europe, kept deliberately general. Where practice varies between vets, or where guidance has changed in recent years, the article says so and sends you to your own practice rather than picking a side. Neutering timing and diet choices are two obvious examples.

What we deliberately do not publish

• Medication names and doses. Those belong to a prescription, not to a website
• Invented veterinary prices. Costs vary between practices and over time. Where an article discusses money, it either uses figures fixed by law, such as the minimum dog tax, or PAWLY's own published rates, or it tells you to ask for a written estimate
• Specific requirements for individual non-EU countries, which change frequently. The relocation article gives the sequence and sends you to the destination's own authority
• Client stories, photographs or addresses. Nothing about a client's home, routine or absences appears here, ever
• Invented testimonials. If you see a review on this site, it came from a real client who agreed to it

How it is kept current

Articles touching Luxembourg law, travel rules and seasonal health are reviewed when the underlying source changes and at least once a year. Where an article has been checked against a published source, it says so and gives the month.

Rules change, and a site of this size will eventually contain something that has moved. If you find a statement that is out of date or wrong, tell me: info@pawlydogcare.com. Corrections are made quickly and without argument, because an article that misleads a dog owner is worse than no article.

Why this page exists

A hundred articles look authoritative whether or not they are, and confident writing is easy to produce. The honest position is that this journal is a well-researched summary written by a practitioner, intended to help you ask better questions and to recognise the moments that matter.

Anything with a consequence, a diagnosis, a treatment, a legal obligation, a decision about your dog's health, should be confirmed with the person qualified to confirm it.