Posting days: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Saturday

Here’s Hairy One’s table manners score for the week.

• waiting without comment while her meal is prepared: 71%
• sitting quietly while food’s been being served until she receives the ‘eat it’ signal: 86%
• eating without barking at the imaginary scavengers: 0%
• restraining from post prandial spins: 50%

The scoring has been very strict. One tiny growl loses a point! So she’s not doing badly. Except for the scavengers. I don’t think it can be good for her to get so incensed that she barks and leaps at the wall between gulps of food. It would be quite funny if she didn’t get so worked up. I think we’ll leave the scavenger threats until she is a hundred per cent on the rest.

Grooming has been good this week. No snaps or snarls for at least a month. Last Sunday she allowed me to remove the last of three nasty mats from her rear end and only emitted a very small, low growl. I was amazed.

Now, when I present her brush for her to sniff, she not only trots to her bed as usual but actually wags her tail as she goes. I’m sure this is not an expression of her delight at the prospect of being groomed but anticipation of the Markies she will be given for being a good dog.

When I do something she doesn’t like, she  gives a little, low growl and I stop . Then I continue with her head, neck and shoulders which she doesn’t mind and gradually approach the sensitive areas with an even lighter touch and/ or an even softer brush.

When she is waiting to get up this morning, she nibbles various bits of herself. Not at all aggressively, which is excellent but as though something is irritating her. It can’t be the dreaded fleas as she was treated only two days ago. The inside of her thighs come in for special attention and feel quite damp by the time she finishes so later I have a tentative little brush at them. Unsurprisingly, she is alarmed and growls a medium sized growl.

I’ll have to go carefully there.

Isis came from the Aeza cat and dog rescue and adoption centre in Aljezur, Portugal. For information about adopting an animal from the centre, contact kerry@aeza.org or  www.dogwatchuk.co.uk