We are very lucky to have a great facility for dogs near us which we paid a visit to recently with our lurcher Scooby.

We don’t let Scooby off-lead when out for his usual walks for many reasons:

• We live in a town with a lot of traffic
• He is very very fast
• He is a hunting breed so all small things are prey!
• He has a very strong prey drive to the point he switches us off when we call him
• He is reactive to a lot of other dogs

All this might make him sound like a nightmare but he is far from it. I’ve never known a sweeter or funnier dog. How many teenagers do you know who are woken up daily by their dog shouting a very clear ‘hello’ to them? Thats what Scooby does! (He also does it when he thinks you are ignoring him or when we get back from an outing of any sort).

If he thinks you are upset, he will do something ‘silly’ to cheer you up.

He loves cuddles – even though the ‘experts’ say dogs don’t do cuddles.

He is a stealer of sausage rolls, a hater of postmen and we love him.