I saw my best friend a few months ago and she asked me ( :D ) for advice on whether to get a dog. She and her husband are at home all day, she has had dogs when she lived with her parents and she is a very conscientious person - so would make a very good dog owner. The only problem was that she is a child-minder and decided that getting a dog was not a good idea because, owing to the layout of her house, she couldn't guarantee that the dog could be safely kept away from the young children. She thought this through and decided against.

I visited her house in Scotland at the weekend, for the first time in the 5 years that she had lived there and was I relieved that she had decided against having a dog :( The back wall of her house is about 15 feet from the edge of a cliff She does have a small part of the garden fenced off, so that the children can play safely, but the rest was, at best, about 30 foot away from a sheer drop :D I had nightmares hanging washing on her line, as it was only about 10 foot from the cliff and I had to put about 6 pegs on everything :D I could not imagine having a dog there at all - I suppose that, like everything, it would get used to it - but what a nightmare - it would cost a fortune to fence it all and spoil that glorious view :(

Thank goodness she isn't getting a puppy !

Daisy