This time of year can get stressful for us all, so if you feel your dog needs a Christmas survival guide, then check out this one from Dr Roger Mugford in the Telegraph. I love his suggestion for a dog owner’s New Year resolution. (www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/christmas/3902388/Christmas-survival-guide-Pe...)

Do you ever see dogs tied up outside shops and worry about them? I do. Even though I live near a very small town, where dogs are probably fairly safe from theft, I still worry that they are clearly unhappy to be left alone. In their canine rationale of the world, surely they must feel abandoned by their pack.

Okay, I was going to write a blog about how many of the rescue shelters in Britain are reporting that they are filling up with dogs and can’t take in any more. But I wanted to blog about something happier, so I decided to talk about the upcoming movie of John Grogan’s book, Marley and me.

You can find a trailer and information about the film at http://marleyandmemovie.com/ and it looks like it’s a great film. Whether you’ve read the book or not you’ll enjoy the story of probably the naughtiest dog in the world. A Labrador of course!

The other day we returned from a walk in the dark, and I hurriedly let the dogs out of the car and in to the house. Then I was distracted by another task – possibly shutting the ducks in for the night, bringing in something from the car, or most important task of all putting the coffee on! Anyway, it meant that by the time I made it into the lounge both dogs were settled on the couch.

Mic Martin (www.micmartin.co.uk) is one of the dog trainers on the television programme Dog Borstal. Owners of dogs with problems of various natures endure the no nonsense approach of the show’s trainers, and emerge at the other side stronger, knowing more, and with a much better behaved dog.

Mic has trained dogs for many years, to perform many different behaviours, and is also the Patron of Support Dogs. At Crufts, in return for a donation to the charity, Mic will be trying to solve dog training problems.