I must confess, since I made the move to work with pets from working in IT, conversations when I meet new people are MUCH more fun.  Tell someone you work in IT and you can instantly see a slight flash of horror on their face as they mumble something about Windows or rebooting PCs, or start quoting lines from the IT Crowd at you.  Tell someone you work with pets for a living and most of the time, their eyes light up, the phone is whipped out and you are regaled with stories (and accompanying photo evidence) of this person's cherished pet - which are always adorable. At some point, they may take a break to tell me just how wonderful my job must be, and I smile, nod and agree and internally start giggling at all of the times that it has not been quite so wonderful!

It is so easy to assume that because you are making a living out of your passion that every day must be pure bliss - which inspired me to write this post, all about the business of being a dog walker and why, on some days, I may be feeling a slightly stronger kinship with Cruella DeVille, than a Disney Princess surrounded by helpful animals... 

So right now I (Corrine) am in coursework assignment hell.  I have 3 major bits of work to submit to complete the Year 2 of my COAPE diploma.  I cannot WAIT.  And typically as I study, my brain is operating like a web browser with too many tabs and apps open - random and completely disjointed thoughts constantly surface and irritate me.  As I was searching for an email that I needed for my coursework, I stumbled across an email that I had recently written for 2 separate clients who both asked me when the best time would be to neuter their dogs. As it's been a while since I've posted a blog, I thought I would paste up my thoughts on castration from a behaviour perspective and my take on the information that is currently out there...

When families decide that they want to bring home a puppy, they dream of a happy, confident dog who is able to accompany them wherever they go in their lives.  Their new puppy is bright, extrovert and eager to get into everything with them – and they assume that this period will last forever.  Often however, around 18 weeks of age they start to notice changes in their puppy’s behaviour and they are confused as to why their outgoing and friendly puppy is increasingly fearful and maybe showing signs of aggression.  What has caused this change?