Did you know that a puppy has 28 teeth and that by the time it is seven to eight months of age it will have 42 teeth.

Its milk teeth will have fallen out and all those gaps between the teeth will have been filled in.

Its head and mouth are changing shape, its gums may be sore and it has good reason to chew on anything it can get at.

Don't blame the dog for wanting to chew on you, your children or the furtniture.  You and the children smell of you and that is very important and you are very soft and tasty. Don't forget that furniture is just a stick.

Don't blame the dog - just give him a nice tasting toy eg smear them with a little honey, vegemite or peanut paste with your finger.

Did you know a puppy grows (ages) from 11 to 20 times faster than a human being in the first year (10 times faster in the second year)!

This means that every three or four weeks in the first year, your puppy grows a year older.

If you want an exceptionally good dog you must develop its behaviour to suit your home in the first and second year of its life.

Don't let your children play tug-of-war with your puppy because the puppy will think that every time it sees one of the children, it is time to jump, nip at and get very excited with them. To the dog they are just other animals to play with and dogs play very roughly. Underestimating the dog's power, response to play and tenacity leads to children being bitten, especially on the face.

Don't despair if you have an older dog, we can tell you what to do to socialise and train it.

Did you know that dogs are now being trained to help people who suffer from epiletic siesures. The dog is trained to let the owner know 20 minutes before a fit will occur. He either barks or nudges the owner to warn them of impending danger.  If the owner is driving their car then they have time to pull over, call home, call the ambulance and receive help.

Dogs are now being used in more places for more reasons than ever before. In prisons for prisoner rehabilitation, in hospitals as calming agents for children and adults, for people in wheelchairs, for incapacitated people who are restricted to their home, for the deaf who can't hear their phone ring as well as the Police, Armed Forces, Drug and food detection and other services we see each day.

THIS IS YOUR DOG. -  Dog reflexes are faster than ours. His sense of smell is thousands of times better than ours. His hearing is six or seven times better than ours. He is an instant creature.  He sees moving objects at lightening speed and at that instant he is totally absorbed in it and you don't even exist. By comparison, we humans are far too slow.

If we understand our dog better we will not blame him or make excuses for what we call shortcomings. If we do understand our dog better we will train him better and live happily with our dog for the rest of its life.