Hi folks, yours truly here in a slightly frustrated mood.

Yesterday two little things made me realise just how much of an uphill struggle it can be as a dog listener to educate people on the obvious.

Firstly, while accessing my emails, I noticed an article entitled, "10 ways that animals think like humans" or something along those lines.

The first example was of meerkats and how they give younger members of the clan lessons on hunting scorpions. Now, while this is just like the behaviour of senior wolves giving lessons to their juniors, the conclusion drawn was that the meerkats are "every bit as clever as those on the car insurance adverts" (for those who don't watch TV, the ad features a computer-generated meerkat talking English with a Russian accent, asking people not to confuse their website, where they compare furry creatures with a site for finding cheap insurance - so obviously EXACTLY like meerkats in the wild). Sigh...

Then last night a comedian accused a psychic of having no real abilities after the psychic claimed that the dog told him it wanted to go for a walk. The comic stated that this was not valid, as ALL dogs want to go for a walk... I changed channel. Sigh...

It was then that I remembered something that Arnold Schwarzenegger said when asked if he thought he could become President of the United States, even though he was not born there so according to the constitution could not apply.

He said he liked to set himself impossible targets, as the climb was the interesting part, and ONCE HE ACHIEVED THE TARGET he would set himself another one. So in his mind, an impossible target is certain to succeed.

For anyone who currently cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel with their dogs behaviour or their dog training - know that it is there, even if you just haven't come out from around the corner yet.

That includes me too.

I mean, what is next in this humanising of animals - a head-banging penguin??

Click on the link below, you've got to watch this....
http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/22397/f01c5b1b/slayer_pingiun_.html

Cheers, Tony Knight.