Some Good News For A Change

For months now everything happening out there in the world and being covered in the press has been so depressing. It seems that they can only report on people such as ‘St Jade’, The Beckhams, Jordan and Peter Andre not forgetting Madonna and her divine right to adopt any child she wants because of who she is and the size of her bank balance. And now of course we have the scandal over expenses for MPs. Enough has been written about this by people far more eloquent than me and I’m sure that there’s more to come.

So it’s time for some good news. I’m getting a new puppy! Sadly due to the passage of time and the natural order of things all my dogs have gone to that great kennel in the sky. It leaves a huge void in any dog lovers life but to someone like me who spent every waking moment with their dogs at work and at home it’s indescribable. I find myself looking to my left hand side ready to give a little tickle on the top of the head and there’s nothing there.

I obviously urgently needed a new dog and have been looking. It’s got to be a good dog because it wouldn’t be fair to those dogs who have gone before to have second best. I’ve done my research and had a lot of disappointments but now everything has come right. A Labrador cuddle muffin called Phoenix, one of a litter of seven will be my new best mate. The timing of the birth couldn’t be better either. I am off to Australia shortly for a few weeks during which time I hope to meet some colleagues from the Southern Hemisphere and see some dingoes. On my arrival home it will be just the right time for Phoenix to leave the litter and come home with me. Once he’s had all his jabs we will be going to a remote cottage in Yorkshire for a break and there he will be able to play with my daughters chocolate Lab, Treacle. Exercise at this early age will of course be carefully monitored, he will still be a baby.

As with all my dogs, Phoenix will be raised using the kind, natural, non confrontational methods that I experimented with in the late 1970s but started really having great success in the mid 1980s which culminated in a Chief Constables Commendation in 1988. As you can see this is not a new method, canines of all sorts have been using it forever. It’s only in the past few years that we humans, top of the food chain and so much brighter than dogs (yeah right) have realised that we can interact and communicate with our best friends without bellowing and ripping their heads off.

In earlier posts on this blog there are some frightening video clips of a younger me with hair working a dog. I hope to have a video diary of Phoenix and his progress. Watch this space.