When you go for a walk with your dog, you want to do exactly that, not be dragged along at 60mph or get constantly tangled up in the lead as he whizzes round your legs. So, let’s take a look at how we can achieve having our dogs walking nicely to heel on the lead, without any undue stress to either of you.

Whether you live on a housing estate in a built-up area and need your new puppy to learn to walk on the lead from the start, or you live in the countryside with immediate access to open fields, almost all of us will need to put a lead on our dogs at some stage. They aren’t usually best pleased at the idea, but it doesn’t have to be a battle of wills…

Anyone that owns cats that have access to the outdoors lives in fear of one day finding them on the road, a victim of a road traffic accident (RTA). It is, sadly, a regular occurrence even on the quietest of roads and with the most ‘road-savvy’ cats, but are certain cats more likely to become a casualty of our increasingly-busy highways?

There’s been a huge recent study on the statistics surrounding cats involved in road traffic accidents in the UK, so I thought I’d tell you about my own experiences concerning this type of traumatic event.

As dog owners, you will have heard a lot about this emerging disease, Alabama rot, in recent years – or, cutaneous and renal glomerular vasculopathy (CRGV) to give it its scientific name. There appears to be no cure and no sure-fire way of keeping your dogs safe. Until now. There may be a light on the horizon.