I've been having a bit of a play around on the site today (slow mail day) and decided to do a search on some common tag words. If you want a reason to smile just put 'smile' into the search box and see 100 happy dogs. I loved Sirius Black's black and white smile, take a look as I can't get the link to work directly to his kennel. Emily looks like she's having a real giggle to herself, http://www.doggysnaps.com/kennels/colglyn/emily_howard_stepdad_/emily_smiling_.htm perhaps about the miracle wrinkle cream she's been using for months! Just look at the size of that Staffie smile and tongue, is she looking at an ice-cream perhaps? http://www.doggysnaps.com/kennels/doggy_gal/lassie/staffy_smile.htm.

If you want to get a selection of pics and dogs that you wouldn't normally see, put any word that takes your fancy into the search and see what you get.  Don't forget to tag all your pictures to make sure they get as much exposure on the searches as possible. Just 'edit' your pictures, 'add tags' and 'save'.

I feel ambivalent about dressing up dogs, indeed I had one member who disliked it enough to ask me to remove images of dogs wearing anything other than their collars from the site, (and I can understand their point of view). 

My dogs let the children put a pair of sunglasses on them, or maybe a baseball cap for a minute, (if that) but I can't see us ever going as far as buying a fancy-dress costume for Barney or Betty. Apparently this is big business in America with dog parties, puppy showers and even dog weddings! No self-respecting startlet is seen out without her designer-clad pooch safely ensconced in their Gucci or Vuitton dog carrier and this trend, the dog as fashion accessory, makes me very uneasy. Is dressing your dog in a costume the first step on a slippery slope that our 'celebrities' are already half way down? Are we demeaning the noble hound?

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It has finally stopped raining and I have wheeled the lawnmower out for the first time since last Autumn (started first time). Barney just loves following me around while I cut the lawn, bowing and leaping in front of me, trying to get the lawn mower to play. It's nice to be able to give them a good brush outside in the sunshine and play fetch on the back lawn - I'm getting really good at retrieving.

We are still walking around the airfield (as everywhere around here is still a foot deep in mud) and Barney invariably finds something nasty to carry proudly back to me; half a rabbit, a desiccated hedgehog, a picked-clean carcass of some small animal, and I have to catch him and get him to drop it. This can take a while as most things start to fall apart as soon as I start to pull and I don't really want to touch whatever it is he has in his mouth. Today was a bit different - he ran off into the long grass and came out with, what looked like, a large stick/branch. He couldn't really run with it and was even more excited with this find than usual. As he knows I'm going to take it off him, as soon as I get near enough, he kept ahead of me, and it took me a while to realise that it was a leg. Now don't panic, it wasn't human, but the front leg of a large deer with hoof attached. After a bit of persuasion (and due to its weight) Barney did decide to leave it. On the way back to the car he races off again and comes back with the other. I didn't hang around for the head and antlers! What's the strangest thing your dog has ever brought back to show you? Email me at editor@doggysnaps.com or leave a comment for others to read on this blog.