Like thousands of people, our family have been celebrating the achievement of our younger members as they pass their exams and make their plans for the future.

When you think about it, we start to celebrate their achievements from the very moment they are born and find a new born baby's sneeze wonderful and by the time that they take their first steps and actually walk, we become ecstatic.

Tragically as we get older we tend to fail to recognise achievement in the same way, let alone rejoice in it and nowhere is it more obvious than with our dogs.

It seems from the moment a dog joins a family it can be seen as a negative experience. 'Oh he barks at visitors, or the postman', 'He pulls on the lead, 'He jumps up at people', and 'He steals food from a plate'. The list is endless.

Success will come when we celebrate the fact that we are privileged to be able to share our lives with this most amazing of animals. A species that will show infinite dedication to protecting our family, even from our visitors, will ensure that we take the right route, ensure that all we meet know to respect the pack that they are coming into contact with and an animal that knows how to stay alive by taking advantage of any food that is available.

All of these natural reactions should be celebrated and once we realise that our dogs need guidance and help to know that they do not have to be the sole protector of our family, to take on the care of our family and provide for our family, then we can bring even more celebration into our own lives especially when we kindly take these responsibilities from our dog.

We can celebrate our dog's level of intelligence, intelligence which ensures it will recognise what we are offering them and be so happy to comply with the role of assistant, rather than the ultimate decision maker. We can celebrate our dog's devotion when we see their ability to forgive us over and over again and we can celebrate our own part in bringing peace, harmony and joy to our whole family unit. When we can actually celebrate these things, we are liberated to have true quality of life that both we and our dogs deserve.

You will have to forgive me now as I am off to celebrate finding the language of the dog, which is 'Amichien� Bonding' and more especially to celebrate having the good sense to actually use it, something that I will be doing with my own dogs, of course.

Jan Fennell
28th September 2011