Sunday Schnauzers

Well it's been a low key day for the dog reporter as I have been feeling a wee bit under the weather from all the traveling in the snow last week. I played it safe and decided to do sunday papers, massive cups of tea and to spend good company with my friends schnauzers whom I am helping to dog sit. Chip and Tommy were very excited to see me arrive back to London on Saturday evening and have been glued to my side ever since.

I will be off again Tuesday for more filming for Friends for Life and really looking forward to meeting the last of our nominees. There are a total of six nominees this year and all with amazing stories about their dogs. It's going to be so tough but I am sure everyone out there will vote for their favourite. I have been asked numerous times already about what the TEXT numbers will be for voting. I don't know yet but as soon as I receive them I will provide on my blog. The Kennel Club and Crufts website will surely be the port of call for all the videos and numbers and as soon as I know when the videos will be posted for viewing I'll let you know.

I am still in awe of all the lovely people and dogs I met last week - Evie and Gem, Steve and Farley and PC Sampson and Anya.

It's nice to focus on the positive about dogs rather than the negative. Sadly there was a lot of front cover papers dedicated to the story of a little baby boy this morning. I don't need to reiterate the story here as if you read the news or saw the TV than you know the story. My heart goes out to his family for their tremendous loss this weekend. It saddens me deeply on many levels as we hear these stories in the UK media too often.

My aim with my creative output is to always promote the positive stories about dogs. There will always be the negative and the positive in the world. I have chosen to stay in the positive and to champion and promote the positive stories we don't often hear so much of. I really believe we have a choice to what we buy, what we listen to, what we read about, what we can write about and certainly what we can promote in our own little way. I believe in the power of one - we all have the power within us to make a difference and create a huge positive change (no matter how small or insignificant you might think it is at first). There certainly are a lot of people making money on selling fear. Every day is a gift that we have with each other and of course with our lovely dogs. I just want to remind myself and anyone out there that may be reading this blog that we ALL have the power within us "to make a difference for dogs."

The Dog Reporter©

It's PC to support police dogs

I mean it's pawlitically correct to support all police dogs especially in Wiltshire. Today was another cold but fantastic day dog reporting. We traveled down to Wiltshire to visit PC Neil Sampson and his heroic dog, "Anya." Anya is a pedigree German Shepherd trained to be a working police dog. If you live in England you may have read about PC Sampson's amazing story last year. Anya saved his life on a routine call one night. Again I don't want to spoil the story so you must tune into to watch Crufts online and view all the Friends for Life 2009 stories. It's going to be really tough to vote as all our nominees are such heart warming and lovely stories.

www.crufts.org.uk

We had a demo of Anya's work and you can see from my pictures how incredibly fit and strong she is! (don't worry the guy in the picture is not a real criminal just another fellow police dog handler named Steve)

We are very lucky to have had the opportunity to meet and interview Neil especially after all the snow Wiltshire had the last two days.

Dogs are the most amazing creatures and they are a lot smarter than we realise. PC Sampson really gives his dogs a lot of credit to keeping him and his collegues safe.

We finished up early afternoon filming and the Crufts production crew stopped off at the lovely little village of Avebury which has stones similar to Stonehenge (just a lot more of them) We stopped to take some photos and of course I went over to watch people sledging down the hill with their dogs watching below. The dogs were having just as much fun as they were!

If you ever visit this part of the country than you must stop through this lovely english village. It has picturesque landscapes and of course lots of dogs :)

The Dog Reporter©

Steve and Farley

Another superb (but cold!) day filming Friends for Life for Crufts 2009. Today I went to a little village in Leicester (yes pronounced LESTER ;) to meet Steve and Farley. Steve is a disabled service man who served in the British Army in his 20's. He was just about to finish his post in Northern Ireland when he was caught in a bomb blast and lost both his legs and an eye. Steve is such an inspiration. (I needed some more kleenex today) I won't tell you too much - again you need to tune into Friends for Life in a few weeks to hear more about Steve and Farley's story.

Steve is this tough looking guy but such a sweet heart. Farley, a strong, fit for function and fit for life pedigree black Labrador is the perfect fit for Steve and his family. Farley was so happy to meet me and he managed to get quite a few good belly rubs from me during the course of our filming. Today was one of those days where I felt gratitude but also so much admiration for someone who has a tough lot in life but chose to make the most of it. Steve is funny, kind, adventurous, full of love for his family and of course Farley who helps him around the house.

I hope to do HALF the things that Steve has already accomplished in his life since losing his legs. These are just some of the amazing feats Steve has done recently ... helping other service men, jumping out of a planes, sailing the atlantic, learning to swim, riding motorcycles, playing wheelchair basketball just to name a few things!

Well I can go on and on but there is more filming to do tomorrow so I must start preparing for pre production and get underway with some sleep. I am so grateful for dogs, getting to work with dogs and being able to meet incredibly inspirational people like Steve.

Support Dogs for the Disabled www.dogsforthedisabled.org and don't forget to check out all the Friends for Pets nominees in a couple of weeks. It's going to be a great show!

The Dog Reporter©