Maybe you remember Sable, our black labrador? You may recall that she has failed in her audition for the role of fishing companion but had a lot of fun in the process. Well, it turns out that she has a few areas that she needs to work on beyond he tendency to launch herself into the water and spook the fish I am trying to sneak up on. For one thing, she eats grass and I thought she had it in mind that she was actually a sheep before, more recently, noticing a strong preference for chewing on wood. Maybe she now self-identifies as a beaver? Whatever she is, it seems to us as though she could use some training and so we enrolled in a dog training programme that kicked off a couple of weeks ago.

I don´t know what Sable has learnt about how to be a good girl in the two classes we have completed so far but those classes have certainly taught me a very important thing about dogs. You probably know this already, but if you provide the right kind of incentive you can get a dog to do just about anything. If you carry a pocket full of treats you could get your pooch to play Chopin on a grand piano. It´s just a matter of time.

To be fair, Sable does nearly everything that I want. If she is off the lead when we are out in the campo and I need her to come back she will oblige and, for me, this is what counts more than anything. She will sit too, if that´s of any value to anybody. She responds to her name which is a good thing. I guess she just needs to understand what species she belongs to. That may take longer, but there´s no worries.

I have plenty of treats.

We´ll get there!