Zoë Bowyer

Being a dog owner is great … apart from the barking. Gracie has a high-pitched, eardrum-bursting bark which she uses when she wants to bite her mother but can’t reach her mother because her mother is sitting on my knee.

Both dogs behave very badly when we are out for walks and they meet another dog – they bark and bark. I am thoroughly ashamed of them when they do it. People look at me like I am a bad person because I cannot control my hounds. Meanwhile, their pooches behave like perfectly domesticated doggies. But fortunately for me there are such things as balls and stones (Macy is a stone addict) and if I can get the ball or stone out in time, I can distract Macy and Gracie from the other dog. Though, sometimes that doesn’t work either. Sometimes the dog I am trying to distract them from likes balls and stones too. Macy doesn’t take kindly to strange dogs stealing her ball!

I think we’ll be getting a bit of a reputation down by the river.