fitz

I posted something similar not so long back - as with the advice above, plenty of patience and stick with it. What worked for me was surprisingly enough being consistent and staying patient. Every time our dog pulled, I would turn around, walk back a dozen steps or so and sit her down until I was ready to start walking again. The first 3 or 4 days were slow going but after that she got the hang of it as did I, and 5 or so weeks later she's a changed dog. Not perfect, but light years ahead of where we were.

Yes, £25 for the year. After the initial indignation I quickly calmed down realising £25 was still good if it saved me going to the tip every month or so with garden waste.

This year we had to pay on top of everything else a separate payment of around £25 for the bin men to continue to collect our brown garden waste bin... Apart from that our guys are generally pretty good.

I'll have a go, been years since I last had a go.

At home we used cheap white undercoat before using the F&B colours. It was the Mrs choice, if I'd have had my way I'd have chosen something else, £750 in paint to do the house made my eyes water

Thanks for all the input, appreciate the tip regarding whacking as you go along, and the demolition sites for material. I hadn't thought about that. I'm probably going to have to do this in October now as I'm getting married in a few weeks and the next run of weekends are a bit full up.

I'm not sure. It might be worth checking. There could be an assumption that as the items are stored in a work place they are still a risk and need assessing. Do you have signs up near all the machinery to state who is trained to use them?

I'm not sure if they do. We had a bandsaw at our old work place, and only a family member was allowed to use it. One of the staff knowing they were not allowed to use it, proceeded to do so and lost the end of a finger. He got a few grand in compensation from the insurance company even though he wasn't allowed to use said machine.

The fee is probably there as a deterrent for business owners, ensuring H&S is not slack on their premises, and to ensure the changes happen fast. The £77 email would stick in everyones throat I bet, but without wanting to be rude - if your machines were in a fit state of repair, there would have been no costs to yourself at all. Chase the problem back to the beginning.

Unfortunately as mentioned above, HSE has replaced common sense. I run a factory with 50 staff. We pay for external H&S support to ensure we're doing the best we can by my employees. I work on the basis that I have to sleep soundly at night and use the external company to help us find solutions to some challenging H&S requirements. Safety of the staff is paramount, but there is still a job to be done. When I had the family business, we didn't have the financial ability to pay for external support, and had to use common sense to ensure everything was as good as it could be. HSE doesn't discriminate, if you are a small business with 5 employees they will visit and measure you in the same manner as a company who has millions of pounds in turn over. A lot of smaller businesses could use the help of the HSE but not the cost of the visit and documentation.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/foi/internalops/og/ogprocedures/inspection/inspection-procedure.pdf And here; http://www.hse.gov.uk/fee-for-intervention/what-is-ffi.htm So in short, yes it look like they can charge you for their inspection if they find issues

Thanks for the input - ok looks like I'll be getting my hands dirtier this weekend then and removing the carpet and liner.

Hi all After some advice from the more knowledgeable amongst us. I have an old pond in the garden which is surplus to requirements. I've drained it by cutting the plastic liner and have since folded the liner up and the carpet into the bottom and used some of the larger stones (roughly 10" x 8" x 8") into the bottom to hold this flat. That leaves me with a pond, roughly 3m long x 2m wide at the widest part, by 70cm deep at the deepest part left to deal with. I'd be looking after the pond is filled in correctly to lay patio slabs and use the area for seating / pergola etc. The pond is only part of the area - in case you were thinking that we were hobbits. My very rough plan of action as I see it: Fill in remainder of cavity with soil and rubble. Lay 5cm of mill waste on top and compact flat. Lay membrane to stop weeds. Layer of sharp sand and cement mix to settle the stones on, bobs your uncle etc. Does that sound about right? I'm most concerned about not filling the hole properly and ending up with a sunken patio! Cheers Fitz

depending on what phone you have you can download apps for free. There is also a website called, walk jog run (or very similar). You can use this to map your walk and see the distance you're travelling.

We give ours dry food, but every now and then we give them some tinned food mixed in as a treat if they've had a few really long walks. You could try the reverse. More tinned food with a few bits of kibble in to start with and gradually change the ratio. Cracking looking pup

So as a little update - she's walking much better now and I am too. She understands pulling means no forward progress and is grasping it nicely. Appreciate all the feedback and comments. This is just when we're one on one. It'll be interesting to see how she behaves at the weekend when its all 4 of us.

She's an Italian Spinone, although a petite one. She was the runt of the litter, amazing character with such natural friendliness. She's eager to please and wants to learn its me understanding what I should be teaching her and how that seems the be the stumbling block. Irritatingly its walking well on the lead that I have ducked for too long. Everything else she is coming on leaps and bounds.

Cheers, funnily enough today she got all around the block with a few return to starts. Its been a fault of my own doing. My first dog, and a severe birth defect for me of having zero patience which she's teaching me in abundance. I know this is extremely basic to some of you guys, with how your dogs can behave and perform, so I appreciate the feedback.

I'm not really for yanking her around. This morning was a bit more positive. Every time she pulled we returned to the spot we started on. In about 30 minutes we managed to get half way around the block. I say it was positive because towards the end she was paying a lot more attention to me, making eye contact etc. rather than just heading off in her preferred direction, also with each re-start we were getting a little bit further. Lets see what tomorrow brings.

Yes, she walks to the left hand side of me. I'll go back to basics and as she pulls, turn her around and head in the other direction. Repetition and patience will be the order of the day.

Most veg tanned leathers will fade in direct sunlight, so if you want to age it you can leave it outside for a bit! However, that won't do you much good if the leather is chrome tanned, as mentioned above its a lot more robust and the finish won't alter much. Be careful attempting colouring the leather yourself. Try a small area in a discreet area first to see if you like the result.

Cheers, we have one of those figure of 8 leads (one of many I've purchased to try), maybe its time to break it out of its packaging and give it a go. This is definitely my fault as she's so good off the lead and we have loads of fields nearby to walk around she's used to having her freedom and her way. Doesn't work that well if we want to walk to the pub!

OK cheers, how far do I take it though, literally walk back into the house and take the lead off, or just until she stops pulling? What I've found is that she'll walk ok in the opposite direction, but as soon as I turn around she'll pull again - even more than before.

I'm sure this has been done before, but for the sake of my shoulder and elbow I would love some help from the more informed amongst us. Meet Freddie; Don't be fooled, deep through this calm gaze is the devil. Perhaps not all the time, but certainly on the lead in groups. Freddie is 16 months old now, off the lead she is great, recall is very good and she has a lovely nature. On the lead she wants to pull me (mainly) in whichever direction we're all walking. It tends to be worse if Liz is with me and our other dog Hollie. If I'm walking Freddie she watches where Liz is and wants to follow. So this in my head makes Liz the alpha male and I'm the idiot on the end of the lead. From what little knowledge I have gleaned its my fault. According to the lady at puppy school I did all the wrong things with Freddie, rough play, letting her up on the sofa etc. So now to correct it. We've tried normal collar and leads, harness and leads etc. Regardless she will pull, even more so if she wants a dino-poo. I tend to keep her on the harness for now, even though it means she has better pulling strength for want of her doing harm to herself as she pulls on the collar just as much. After a long walk at the weekend she'll trot along nicely next to the lead, so she can do it. How do we best correct this? Do I simply stop and walk in the opposite direction when she starts pulling me on the lead? Should I be taking her out for more one on one walks? Thanks in advance.

From what I remember being told, short bursts of 5 - 10 minutes training sessions should be enough. Much more and they'll get bored anyway.