“For much of the week it was largely business as usual for Ruby, with short training sessions in the local Tesco store and a walk around the town centre, including time spent by some noisy roadworks. I was pleased that the pneumatic drills and diggers did not concern Ruby at all.

I have reduced the number of treats that Ruby receives during training, and I am glad that she has responded really well and was very focused throughout the visits.

At home, life has also returned to normal, and I am happy to report that Fergus, my three-year-old chocolate Labrador, has made a full recovery. Ruby also seems very pleased that this is the case, as she has her play-mate back and they have been chasing around the garden as if to make up for lost time!

In the later part of the week I attended an enjoyable monthly Puppy Class run by Claire Lush at the Dogs for the Disabled Training Centre.

We carried out a number of training exercises, including heel-work and the ‘stand’ command, which Ruby coped with very well. The heeling session was made more challenging by the introduction of bowls of food strategically placed on the floor around the training area, so we also had the opportunity to practice the ‘leave’ command as we walked around. Ruby was definitely tempted, but managed to avoid lunging into any of the food bowls – for which I made sure she received plenty of positive praise and some high value treats!

To finish the week, Ruby came along to the first hour of a Birthday Party that was taking place in a marquee in the village. There was a fancy dress theme, which was the 1980’s, and so Ruby spent time socialising with a host of celebrities including Madonna, Freddie Mercury, Michael Jackson, Cher and Top Gun’s Iceman.

Ruby did not appear to be star-struck in the slightest, although, when she saw Adam Ant with his painted face and highwayman outfit, she did have a quizzical look and tilted her head to one side.

Of course, in fairness to Ruby, in the 80’s we looked like that at Adam Ant ourselves!”