I am training my bunny Floppy to have better food table manners. Until recently whenever I put his food bowl down in the cage he dived into the bowl and splashed food all over the place. Food got wasted and cage became a mess. So I started putting bowl down and I said: 'Yes' when he started eating calmly and gave him a gentle pat. Any time he started trying to dig into bowl I took bowl away so no food. First few times he looked at me in disbelief but he's starting to get it now. It does make feeding time a bit slow but it's been the only way to go. I bought food blocks as well so if food is in a block shape he obviously will take longer to eat and no chance to splash it around. I realised that before I used to listen his messy manners and come running to his cage to check what went on, so he was getting attention. And any attention was better than no attention for him. But it's changing now...

My horse Bounty had a very bad cold 2 weeks ago and I had to treat him with a course of antibiotics. His vet was interstate attending a course so I had to use a new vet. I get a bit aprehensive if I cannot use him. I totally trust my horses' vet. But she was a female horse vet from Cranbourne what I thought was great. We do need more women horse vets out there. Horse vets are incredibly busy bees. Everything went well in the end. Bounty bad cough and runny nose is finished now and he's back in good health. He had airways inflammation. Luckily it wasn't contagious so James my old thoroughbred was safe. I can give them muscle injections no problem but with James I have to hide the seringe and needle otherwise he's out of there in a flash. I usually do it on him while he's eating. He's so much into food that he doesn't even notice it coming.

Longer working hours, economic recession times, med and high density population in urban areas of Melbourne and houses been built with much smaller size backyards than before partially due to demand for smaller house blocks in residential housing development areas and popular trend for townhouses and units with small courtyards - have a huge impact on the way our pets live. Our dogs are getting less and less space for exercise in their own house backyards. And many people can't find the time to take them out on proper walks, to the dog park, the beach, the woods and to the bush for a run. So these dogs are getting terribly bored at home with nothing  to do and nuisance behaviour like excessive barking, digging and destructive habits can be generated from lack of proper physical and mental stimulation in their lives. People should ideally research about which type of dog would be suitable for their lifestyle and family situation before they act on impulse and decide to buy a dog without much previous thought or consideration. We all love pets and dogs but responsible pet ownership is vital in todays' society. We have a duty of care with our pets. They have special needs and we need to learn and inform ourselves about them. I work as a dog walker and trainer and there are few areas in which if you walk a dog on the streeet path you'd have most of the dogs on that strip barking very loud at anyone passing by, not simply been territorial about their house but highly reactive to the sight of any dog going past, not friendly at all. It's getting much worse very quickly. I remember few years back when I'd go past many houses and the dog inside the front garden would come towards the front fence wagging its tail to say a friendly 'hi' to the dog passing by. This doesn't seem to occur very often anymore. Are these dogs meeting and greeting other dogs out there? Or are they only been lead walked on the streets and are not been given the chance to interact with other canines? Why is this happening?