January 30th 2010
Daisy and I are in (very) sunny South Africa. The weather is lovely and day one of the clinic is over. We have 26 people on the course and a nice variety of dogs, some of which are worried by thunder. Hopefully their owners will have picked up enough skills by the time the summer storms come so that they can help their dogs through what can be a very distressing time. It has been a few years since I was last here and it is great to reconnect with some old friends. 
The clinic is held on a property owned by a wonderful lady named Carmen who I met when I was last out here and it is so lovely being able to catch up with her again. Carmen is a gifted dog trainer and she owns a stunning wolf/Malaumte cross called Barrick. Whilst I would not generally recommend the wolf hybrids as pets, if anyone is going to raise a confident, calm and friendly mix it is going to be Carmen. I can’t wait to meet him later in the week.
As I have written before, I keep bumping into people that I haven’t seen for ages and on the flight over I was stunned to see Sam Maxwell (Richard’s wife). What a small world! Brilliant to see her again - it’s been far too long.