Labrador Retriever

I suppose every dog owner thinks this, but I think that I live with the nicest dogs in the world. I'll give you an example of what leads me to think this. When our dogs are asleep, obviously we try to avoid disturbing them, but sometimes it can't be avoided, and sometimes it happens by accident.

The other night I was busy sorting out my clean dry laundry, and putting it away. I was walking into the bedroom with my arms full of "smalls".

Oh dear, Kevin McKidd has given us another celebrity example of how to get it wrong with dogs. Kevin is the Scottish actor you may have seen in the television series Journeyman, or the films Trainspotting, or Made of Honour. He has two dogs, which he obviously thinks a lot of, as he flew them out to LA with the family when they moved. However, Kevin's dogs are male and female, and he just didn't manage to remember to get them neutered.

Well, you know what happened don't you?

Episode 80 of DogCast Radio is now available. The first interview is with dog aggression expert, Susie Aga. It's always great to talk to Susie, as she has such wonderful insight into canine thinking and behaviour. In this episode she is giving advice in response to a listener's problem. Katarina Anthony is having problems with her German Shepherd, Bismakr, who is constantly vying with one of his companions, a Great Dane/Shepherd mix, for the position of top dog.

It sounds like Katarina is doing many of the right things to keep the peace, but Susie has lots of suggestions for further action.

When I walk my dog in the field opposite my house, I usually take along one of those long plastic tennis ball flingers. This is because I got tired of nearly putting my shoulder out to produce a throw that it took him three seconds to retrieve. These devices are marvellous and once you get the knack, you can launch that tennis ball really impressive distances.

I’m pretty good at it, even if I do say so myself. If tennis ball launching were an Olympic Sport, I would definitely make my national squad.

10. I’m not really a people person.
Dogs love people. It’s why they are so popular; they love us and we love them right back. That strong bond has been cemented over thousands of years, and is now unbreakable. There are a tiny minority of anti-social dogs, but that’s mainly our fault for treating or breeding them wrongly. In the main dogs can’t wait to meet – and lick - as many people as possible.

9. You go without me; I’ll be fine on my own./ Oh you’re home – I didn’t notice you’d gone.

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.

Sometimes blogs should carry warnings. Last Saturday I was catching up with my blog reading, and was working my way through my “favourites”. I was bemoaning the fact that one dog blog I regularly read hasn’t been updated since mid-October, while I opened the next blog, which was Stephen Foster’s. (http://walkingollie.wordpress.com/) I found myself looking at a post titled Leaving Ollie, and immediately alarm bells rang.