Well, Tito’s trainer, Sharon, paid a visit again yesterday. She caught me on the hop as I had it firmly in mind that she was due today. Luckily she called me about something else first which gave me time for a quick tidy up (throw everything behind the sofa) before she arrived.

The kids and I walked across the park with Tito to meet Sharon and on the way back she commented that he was doing much better. It might sound silly that I was getting pulled along behind a four month old pup but Tito is the size of your average four month old buffalo already so he is quite capable of barreling me off my feet.

It’s quite reassuring to have Sharon in my corner. Tito is going to be a huge beast of a dog and with two small kids I need to know I am in control of him at all times. Perhaps because I am aware of this, I tend to tense up when I am trying to get Tito to walk beside me. The poor pup is yanked back into position every two steps and that is definitely no fun for him or me. So my homework is to learn the art of the loose leash.

The main job of a dog trainer is not really training the dog. It is getting basket cases like myself into line and showing us how we can train our own dog. Yesterday Sharon threw in a couple of hand signals which work beautifully on the kids too. Now all I need is a command that would have every one else in the house doing their share of boring housework and I would be walking on air.

You too can have your dog and kids trained in no time. Give Sharon a call on 699109837.

Congratulations to 16 year old Maxime Huscenot from Reunion for winning the Santa Pro Surf Junior after beating French Jules Thomet in the final.