I went to a training session of the Carry Ons Flyball Team yesterday to research for an article and get some interviews for DogCast Radio. It was fascinating and a lot of fun and I'm grateful to the team to having us there. One thing I noticed was how excited the dogs get when a race is on - the noise level went through the roof, but as soon as the race was over peace descended again. And those dogs are so fast. They race in faster and slower teams, but the difference between them is only around a couple of seconds.
 

You may have heard the interview with Lynn Jones in Episode 101 of DogCast Radio. I met Lynn, her husband Peter and their lovely dog Otto just before Christmas. Otto had been officially recognised as the oldest dog in the world, and they were all at Roden Dogs Trust to help raise funds for the charity.
 

Okay, this one is going to cause disagreement and discord, but will it do any good for dogs in the long run? Enforced microchipping is controversial, but I can't help thinking it would solve many problems - dog theft not the least of them. It would of course also allow the tracing of dogs back to breeders, so if health issues keep cropping up with dogs from a particular source, it will be evident and provable. Puppy farms are an obvious evil and must be stamped out one way or another.