I should know better

It`s all happening for Daisy. There seems to be no stopping her. A long dash down south, a stay in a delightful country cottage, a long detour through leafy lanes to avoid a jacknifed lorry, a rush into the showground....and all well worth it, as yet again Daisy, thoroughly enjoying herself on a bright windy day, excelled herself and won a fourth CC - that`s two CCs in about 5 days.

She is now enjoying a well-deserved rest at home. And if I know Papillon bitches of her age, she will be expecting unlimited privileges - and probably getting them too.

The others? Well, Ella and Velvet have qualified for Crufts.

Ella is having a problem with big dogs, which obviously live on a diet of fresh Chin. She has not accepted the advice of her best friend Velvet, who has assured her that all really big dogs live in secret terror of Papillons, and if she sticks with her, she will be OK.

At the last show, the Chin ring was surrounded by hounds. Big ones. However, Ella met one she could relate to. He was a huge Deerhound puppy - but he was lying down, at full length. He was totally laid back and fortunately did not get up. Ella was very sociable with him. After all, she could clearly see he was only about six inches high from the ground. How could one be afraid of that? Sometimes I think Ella is a few sandwiches short of the picnic - or maybe just very sweet and innocent......

After all, beside Merlin, most of mine seem like Nobel prizewinners.

At the end of a hot day at the Scottish Championship show, to which I had hauled myself with an impressive chest infection and a cough straight from the grave that could clear a ring in seconds, Daisy did it. And she is now a Champion!

Despite the heat, she behaved superbly and clearly had great fun all through. Adam, Lynda and I are delighted - and without our good friend Jacqueline who tirelessly provides transport and support, it wouldn`t have happened.

It`s a Cinderella story for Daisy, as you know, and all the sweeter for that.

I got home happy and exhausted and explained to Julian that he had sired another Champion.

He appeared to associate this news with the instant supply of extra food......

Why am I not surprised?

Life goes on, in a cold spring with lots of dogs. The warmer moments outdoors are spent in persuading Fidget that it is the destiny of every dog to walk on the lead. Fidget has totally conquered the training class - he walked straight out of his travelling box and greeted every dog there with the information that he was Fidget, a Very Important Dog, and then proceeded to check all the ladies for...availability. I could see he would be a handful.

This opinion was reinforced when he flatly refused the lead. A friend offered to help, using the well-tried bribery method, and half a pound of cheese later he had walked almost a yard. Very slowly. He went home with the satisfied expression of a dog who had won....and was full of cheese. I can see this will be a long saga, requiring patience and most of the contents of Tesco.

We met the same friend at a show this weekend. He came over to chat, wearing an oversized baseball cap. Merlin stared up at him. Merlin`s mental problems have often been aired here. I tried, as I often do, to work out the current processes of his pea-sized, contorted brain and realised that he was not at all used to hats. Clearly he was thinking - "This man has a deformed head".

I explained to the hat wearer, and he laughed and removed it.

Merlin was appalled. His jaw dropped and his eyes stared. The man`s head was not only deformed but part of it came off!

Before I could explain he had responded as he always does to emergencies. The whole hall was deafened.

As I carried off the screeching idiot, I reflected on the neverending variety of ways that male dogs can put years on a person.....

It`s entirely due to dogs that I am now 105.