Karen

I know I don't post much nowadays, but I justed want to say to Yantan and Ruby how sad I am to hear about Tye. You did a fabulous thing in opening your hearts and home to a dog in need and I'm really sorry you didn't get longer together.

Griff I'm sorry to hear you are such a difficult situation. In addition to Owl's wise words above, I can recommend your local Citizens Advice. You can probably find out their opening hours online (might be open on Monday if you are lucky) and they can help you access the council's housing process.

Good news for Ruby, very pleased to hear that!

I've more or less called it a day on my family history and moved onto local history instead. Last years project was to take a photo of an ancient oak every week and make it into a time lapse video. This year I am using Twitter to highlight a different street in the town each week with photos and old postcards. The Abbey in the town was attacked by Vikings so there is the occasional reenactment of that on the green where the abbey once stood, I haven't been tempted yet to join in!

Welcome home Freddie! That made me smile, it sounds like a modern version of Heidi!

Clever girl Wispa!

Very excited for you Snow! I recognised his picture straight away, he has a very distinctive look about him.

I'm not good with the clicker but it has helped and the same sort of thing also helped prevent Fern from yapping at dogs we walked past. From memory we started with treats and a clicker indoors. Offer treat to dog and click as they take it. After doing that for a bit, add a word. We used look but you could pick something else. When you walk, start with saying Look when there are no distractions and offer treat and click when Cooper looks at you. After a bit he will hopefully look at you in case more treats are on offer - in which case click and treat. It's not an instant fix by any means, it needs working at and I would pick somewhere to start with where he is less likely to fail. Don't forget to cut his food down as you will get through loads of treats to start with. Fingers crossed!

Oooh Snow - look forward to seeing pictures of the new pointy nose soon! It's proper red hair that I fancy. I am definitely too old though and now the chemo has left my hair really curly I don't want to look like Ronald Mcdonald!

Change of hair colour Griff? I still fancy fiery red but I'm not brave enough!

Meg has had phases like that, she looks round every gate post and in every door way just in case there is a cat. Two things have helped - firstly a bold pair of cats who will walk right up to her and miaow (its the ones that run that look exciting I think) and secondly to do some clicker training. I'm not very good with my timing for clicker work, but I can see it makes a difference. We use "look", so every time Meg looks at me during a walk she gets a click, "look" and treat.

Happy New Year! We had lots of fireworks, mostly of the loud bomb variety. Luckily Meg doesn't seem to mind them despite her phobia of squeaky noises.

How is Archie doing Yantan?

There is a Facebook page for those who were DP lounge members and a new forum for a remaining few.

8 rotties! Good grief, your food bill must have been enormous. We now have Meg - a 12 year old lab/collie cross who came to us from the Blue Cross almost 4 years ago after spending the first 8 years of her life living in a shed. We are down to just 2 rabbits which is the smallest number in many years. There were still 4 rabbits a week and a half ago, but that's the penalty of having a group who are more than 13 years old. My new years task is to find a girl companion for Ginger Harry who is the youngest remaining one.