K9Fran

I put the link to this on my Facebook page, and said it was aimed at certain members of the family (i.e. Dave!) As he persists in feeding the dogs from the table - even the kids don't do that! His response was the complain because I threw some of Sunday's roast potatoes in the recycling caddy instead of giving them to the dogs.......

Brilliant!

My sons fiance may be interested, I've sent her the list and asked her to let me know ASAP

Just a quicky to anyone who thinks their dog doesn't like these kind of things - don't just put a few treats in at a time to start with - fill them - the more empty they are, the more attempts it needs to get a reward, and it it's too many attempts to start with, the dog will loose interest. To get them hooked they need to a get a reward almost everytime.

I only feed my dogs in dispensers - I don't think the ball thing would float their boats as neither of them can be bothered with a football if they can't hold it in their mouths.. We use Dog Pyramids, Buster Cubes, a similar one to this http://www.zooplus.co.uk/feedback/shop/dogs/dog_toys_dog_training/intelligence_games/172056 a Tug a Jug (which is the bottle one) - this is probably Barney's fav, as he works it like a machine and has several different stages all linked together to extract his food (not sure if this means he's really smart or really dumb, or just an engineer at heart) Kongs, and on order - the new Kong dog pyramid based thing -

I am looking for an adult horse owner within 8 or so miles of Bletchley who would like some help a couple of days a week on a regular basis with stable duties and other 'non riding' chores. I am a 50 year old Mum whose been around horses on and off most of my life, but now the children are old enough, I've got the free time to be able to do something for myself. I work Mon - Fri 09.00 - 15.30, so could do late afternoons or early mornings. Experience with stallions, youngstock, hunters and driving horses. Currently carrying too much weight to partake in riding, but interested in working with horses from the ground - free schooling and 'natural horsemanship' type tasks/challenges. I prefer cobby types, but happy to handle any type of horse or pony.

Straight into the arms of John James who was on site by coincidence

The cross over between rock and folk doesn't surprise me - look at Led Zepplin. My Spotify favourites play list has a bit of everything - Queen, Led Zep, Quo, The Osmonds, Bay City Rollers, the Carpenters, Abba, U2, Dire Straits, Glenn Miller (I love Swing), Vivaldi, Saint Seins, Duffy........... If I like it then I like it, I don't care what 'genre' it is.

well UBB started well, with Brian Dowling, but then they started packing the Celeb BB housemates in McCurick OUT!

Yes, that was what I was doing, but the opportunity to actually take the TOIL was never there - there was always something which needed doing, or somebody else in the office off/sick, so when my boss asked how much I was owed, it was nearly a whole working week...... I'm taking a few days annual leave now, but I've left on time (well, within 10 mins) both days this week.

Brilliant!

Thanks Peeps. hubby is an IT guy and says that trying to do my job on a machine which is also working as a server is going to be like trying to run through treacle,so I'm hoping this change will give me the time back I need to be able to work more effectively. I forgot to add, a 3rd member of staff was taken on just over a year ago, and turnover has doubled, but I'm still the only person doing post sales support and accounts.

If you look back over other threads, there has been some 'issues' between my boss and I over the fact that I often work 10/20 or even 30 mins + at the end of a day to get a job finished most days a week. Sometimes this is due to being requested to do the job late in the day, sometimes it's for my own personal satisfaction - I prefer to finish a job once I start it and feel stressed if I can't. My stress levels earlier this year led to depression (for which I am still being treated) and 2 weeks sick leave, from which I've only just caught up (by working overtime, which has totalled nearly a full working week) My boss has now said no more overtime unless it's authorised. Would it be reasonable to offer to do unpaid overtime for my own satisfaction and stress levels, so long as it's appreciated and recognised in some way. Part of me doesn't want to feel taken advantage of and the other part of me wants to be able to do a good job. Additionally, we have recently moved offices, which has greatly reduced my travel time - giving me an extra 20 mins a day, and my computer has been up graded from being the oldest machine in the office as well as being the server, so tasks should take me less time anyway.... Thanks

I think since BB1 Craig has more than won his prize back - he'a very estute business man and I believe he's a millionaire. Agree that the 'vote to evict' has worked against the biggest characters in the house, but glad to see Dave still in there. Re Josie and John James - I always got the feeling that John James was very in control of his emotions while he was in there, and did have genuine feelings for Josie, but was afraid of letting them get out of control - hence no kissing on the lips. I was surprised that he hugged JJ last before leaving the house.........

when they said the waterproofs were jumbo sized, they weren't kidding!

The local 'know it all' once asked 'what kind of dog is that then?' about my first dog (who was very probably a Labrador x Poodle), as a family we'd always joked that he was Lab x Wolf - a Canadian Wolf Hound - so that's what I told him....... then he asked what we called him - so I said 'allsorts' intending to go on and give examples of the different things he got called, but at that point the man walked off - convinced we had a Canadian Wolf Hound called Alsorts...

I agree with the 'too nice'. My fav BB was 4 - Cameron and co, which was slated by most for being 'too nice' and this one has a similar feel.

I am rapidly running out of ideas - all I get out of him is the typical teenage shrug of the shoulders and 'I don't know' He's still being bullied at school, although it seems to be lots of 'low level' things from kids whose names he doesn't know (so he doesn't bother making notes in his bullying diary as he thinks if he doesn't have the bullies name the school won't do anything - I've tried to explain that the idea of the diary may be so the school have a better idea of what he's going through, and not a record of names so they can dish out any punishment) He's overweight, and we've been doing the Slimfast diet together, I thought he was doing really well and he appeared to find it easy to keep to, until I left my netbook web cam while I was out yesterday, and found out he's been raiding the fridge, as well as mixing up the Slimfast powder into some kind of glop and eating it by the spoon full..... He also fell over in the school play ground on the 1st May and twisted his knee. We took him to the Dr after a few days as it didn't seem to be getting any better with rest, ice, compression and elevation at home. His advice was it could take 6 weeks, we took him back after 6 weeks as it still wasn't any better ( I take him to the school gate in the morning and he's allowed extra time to get to lessons) and were told well it can take longer.... He's fed up with not being able to do anything, not being able to walk to school or exercise. He's been having anger management sessions at school because he retaliated to a couple of the kids who've been bullying him. The final straw came this evening when he pushed his dining chair back without lifting it, and the leg broke. He didn't fall on the floor, but as he turned to pick the chair up, Barney the Labradoodle jumped up behind him and ate his Spaggy Bolognaise #3 son followed him into the living room to offer him his portion of Macaroni cheese, and that got thrown on the floor All he seems to be able to say is that every time things start to improve, they get worse again, and he doesn't know why. He almost wishes it would stay down as he's struggling to cope with the ups and downs. My feeling is he's depressed I am currently on anti depressants and have already had one 6 week session of counselling and am about to start another with my local Sex abuse survivors group. His Dad is also supposed to be taking anti D's, but often doesn't He's supposed to be starting counselling soon too, after he found out earlier this year that his Father died a year ago and he only found out earlier this year because a friend of the family tracked him down on the internet. Does anyone with teenagers have any advice?

He reminds me so much of my middle son (whose just turned 15 BTW) - there's something about the way he moves, his mannerisms (like looking down and away and then making eye contact), the furrowing of the brow when he's thinking - I too think he's smitten with Josie, and she doesn't want to admit how fond of him she is - but that's why she gets so angry with him.

LOL - well, you may never get a chance to be thanked, if you are really lucky they will either get an L.E.A.D. and use it, or if the dog is really lucky, he'll be found a home through a responsible rescue where they will get him castrated and a home with experienced and responsible owners.........

Did anyone see Nathan and Govan trying to put up a deckchair in the background while everyone was in the smoking area yesterday on the highlights show - it was hysterical and the deckchair won!

You sitting on the fence again? I'm enjoying this series better than any other since Cameron in BB4 shabby is hysterical, I love Ben, Dave is very frank and I admire how he keeps his views, Steve will probably win I suspect, as he comes into his own as the number of occupants drops.

My dogs have always been done at home. Both sets of vets have used Cambridge Pet Crematorium. I think I am right in saying that they have a sliding scale of charges - they do have a multiple cremation, where several pets will be cremated at the same time, and you get a portion of those ashes returned to you. The individual service is more expensive. Both girlies came back to me about a week later, after a phone call from the vets to go and collect them - they now live in their boxes on top of the bookcase in the living room.

LOL - I nearly bought a freezer like that! I keep telling OH he needs to put his sweetie store in a safe place, as Barney has been practising his draw opening with one the Nina Otosson type games I bought a few weeks ago......

We've had Barney for nearly 3 years now. When he arrived he had no idea of how to behave in a house - the only thing he appeared to know was you do NOT put all 4 feet on a table or worktop, but the rest was fair game. He'd also never been taught not to steal food..... He'd tippy toe, just like Scooby Doo in the cartoons, towards his target, and then tippy toe off with his prize firmly in his jaws off upstairs or out into the garden where he'd bolt it down as quickly as he could. Now I'm not saying that he wouldn't still do that with a leg of lamb (or my youngest's toast) but yesterday 'somebody' (OH )left the garage side door open (aka The Larder) where we keep lots of dry ambient goods as there's no storage in the kitchen. B comes 'tip toeing' out with a packet of cereal - OH calls him and B happily hands it over in hope of a treat. Not so long ago, he'd have been gone, so take heart dear ones, there is hope, you just have to be consistent and make sure they know the potential reward is higher value than what they have at the time...