As the World's biggest dog show, CRUFTS, takes centre stage again for another year, a senior vet, who has spent the last four years working undercover in practices around the UK, has now lifted the lid on how his colleagues run their practices. In his new e-book, available to download from 21st March from petsnaturally.com, vet Peter Culpin doesn't pull any punches. After running his own successful practice for over 25 years, his eyes were opened when he began working as a locum in other vets' practices.

I believe that the actions of the RSPCA in Spaying and Neutering dogs as young as 6 weeks old may contravene the "duty of care" part of the Animal Welfare Act.

All the welfare organisations and responsible bodies I contacted, including Battersea Dogs Home, The Kennel Club and The Dogs Trust. Are rightly horrified at this practice.

I urge you to read this article explaining what the RSPCA are doing, and their response to my concerns and questions.

A Page of Pawses for Two Good Causes

Unique and innovative lost and found pet website PawTrax is trying to raise £10,000 to be shared equally between The Animal Health Trust (AHT) and University of Cambridge Veterinary School Trust (CamVet)

The idea is that visitors to the website buy squares on a grid and upload a picture of a paw at a cost of just £1 per square. The grid contains 10,000 squares each 10 x 10 pixels in size.

Everyone who uploads a paw can also add text, an additional image and a link to a website of their choice. These details then display in a popup when the paw is hovered over with the mouse.

“Whilst we only allow paws on the grid, the additional image and text could relate to a lost cat, a beloved dog or a company logo” said PawTrax Founder and Webmaster Peter Callaway.

Why not pay PawTrax a visit, Pick-a-Paw and place it on the grid?

www.pawtrax.co.uk

This is a common problem, often called food guarding, or resource guarding. In reality it is a natural innate tendency for dogs to protect what they perceive as theirs. Possession to a dog is 9/10ths of the law, some dogs will resource guard anything, and that includes us.

If we separated a human baby from all contact with other humans until it was five years old then that child would never learn the ability to speak or to empathise and converse comfortably. In most cases, it would be fearful and introverted. 0 to 5 years old is a critical learning period for humans. The old saying “give me the child and I will show you the man” holds more truth than we could ever imagine. We learn more during this period that at any other time in our lives. In relative terms 0 to 16 weeks is the equivalent in canine age.