Hi folks, yours truly back from a quick jaunt down to the Mediterranean with friends and the dogs.

Holiday season is in full swing over here and the place was packed with tourists, many bringing their pooches with them.

As we walked up and down the shopping arcade so the girls could look at Tackarama (an Aussie expression which I love) I noticed not only the reaction of other dogs to my two, but also theirs to this brand new place packed with strangers and other dogs.

I couldn't figure out the pattern to how Kez and Pru reacted - either quiet and an air of "Please God don't hurt me" or occasionally a Travis Bickle "You talking to me?" bristling.

Did big dogs do it? Black dogs? One dog on it's own? None of these fitted the profile. I used to think that Kez got brave when he saw a smaller dog, a tactic which backfired on him once when he courageously barked at a little dog, only for him to discover to his horror that it was in fact a Newfoundland that was far away. He turned tail and ran behind me, looking out at the monster from between my legs. It was a proud moment for us both...

Anyway, the point of this blog was that as a dog listener I fortunately knew the right answer to the situation, which was it did not matter how the dogs reacted, rather how I reacted that was important.

In fact, that's the key to walking dogs wherever you are, holiday or not.

If a dog looks to its leader for reassurance and the leader is calm, then all is well. If the owner makes a fuss, then even if the dog does believe in the human's leadership, it will think there is a problem.

So I made nothing of it... and bought a beautiful painted shell ashtray... which makes no sense as I don't smoke. But when in Rome...  Cheers, Tony Knight