I mentioned in a recent show that Star, our Bichon Frise, has certain preferences. Call them preferences, or idiosyncrasies, or eccentricities. Whatever you call them, she has them. She has definite ideas on how her life should be; when she should go for a walk, when she should have access to the garden, when she should be on your lap, and so on. The basic rule seems to be that all these things should happen whenever she jolly well wants them to happen, thank you very much!

Usually on a Saturday I buy the Daily Mail. To be honest this has more to do with them having a good television listing magazine, and fun puzzles than it does with any political affiliation. If you want to know my political stance here it is : they're all roughly as bad as each other. Anyway, this weekend we fancied a change so we bought the Times. Shan't be doing it again.

Episode 82 of DogCast Radio is now available. This episode has an interview with one of those eccentrics you encounter occasionally in the dog world. Vlasidslav Roytapel is the Russian Dog Wizard. He now lives in the USA, although he has trained dogs all over the world, and currently he offers pet owners solutions to their problems.

Okay check this story out. Sarah Harding from pop group Girls Aloud has a new puppy. Aah! He's all cute, and he's so little he hasn't even got a name yet. Sarah described the puppy as her "baby" as she took him along to a meeting with her on the day she got him.

You know some people say that dogs and children don't mix? Well in my opinion dogs and violins don't mix. I have recently started to learn to play the violin. I can play piano a little, and quite a few woodwind instruments ( it's all the same basic concept - a tube with holes to make pitch variations), but stringed instruments have always eluded me. I was bought my first guitar when I was under ten years old. Now, quite a few years later, I still only know a few chords, and most of those I get wrong. I also take ages to change from one chord to the next.

So I decided to ask for a violin for Christmas. Not Christmas just gone, oh no, this was way