home, Selene sat in the car for several hours, obviously not too pleased to be home!
 
Hector was castrated just a few weeks ago and was all over the place when he came home. He'd been troubling his      sutures and so had to have the dreaded  BIG  collar on to stop him. When we got home from the vet, he was quite agitated, so I sat down quietly in the hope he would settle. He then   proceeded to do something he'd never done before and climbed up onto my lap with his head resting on the back of the chair where he promptly fell asleep. Sorry Terry, but I really didn't have the heart to make him get off. However,    after an hour my legs and feet were     totally numb with all 33 kilos of Hector on them, so off he went. Next day, of course, he was absolutely fine. If only   humans had such powers of recovery!
 
We've now reached the stage with him which all you puppy walkers know, the dreaded time drawing closer when he'll have to go off to `big` school in
Leamington. Why do we do this to
ourselves?  He's a pup whom everyone loves to bits and we're going to be
desolate when he goes. I've come to
realise the best way to `get over` the departure is to have another baby dog sooner rather than later and start all over again ! We hope with all our hearts that this lovely boy does well and will
become the guide and companion for someone.

Sheila Stephens
Via email

Dear Readers

The following situation occurred when out with our GD puppy 'Woody' on a normal training walk which I hadn't encountered or heard of  before. Coincidentally another colleague had a similar experience so perhaps it is not such an uncommon situation as I first thought. Who knows!

One week prior to Woody going on to big school I took him into public toilets which I have often done in the past, although never into this particular establishment. Asking him to sit and wait in the toilets has never been a problem during his training but unfortunately on this   occasion I failed to notice that the electric hand dryers on the wall were AUTOMATIC.
The result was, to say the least, dramatic for as he went to sit down one started up and took Woody completely by surprise. Up to this stage in his training he has been completely bomb proof but the combination of wind AND noise was a complete shock. He took himself to the opposite corner of the room post haste! Try as I might I couldn't persuade him near them again even when they were off. I took him into more familiar toilets soon after and he finally but   reluctantly crept in with great suspicion.

Unfortunately, due to the lack time before he left, I was unable to re-train him and he is now with the Worcester training team under the  guidance of Holly Wakefield who now has job of making him, once again, bomb proof in this department.....though presumably not in the men's toilets!
I hope this story may be of some interest to the readers of the excellent Puppytails magazine.

Best wishes and regards
Peter Astley
Thornbury, South Gloucestershire.