You may have heard the interview with Lynn Jones in Episode 101 of DogCast Radio. I met Lynn, her husband Peter and their lovely dog Otto just before Christmas. Otto had been officially recognised as the oldest dog in the world, and they were all at Roden Dogs Trust to help raise funds for the charity.
 

Okay, this one is going to cause disagreement and discord, but will it do any good for dogs in the long run? Enforced microchipping is controversial, but I can't help thinking it would solve many problems - dog theft not the least of them. It would of course also allow the tracing of dogs back to breeders, so if health issues keep cropping up with dogs from a particular source, it will be evident and provable. Puppy farms are an obvious evil and must be stamped out one way or another.

Puppy farms or mills exploit dogs and inflict dreadful suffering on them in the process. There is no justification for buying from a puppy farm - it doesn't rescue dogs, it just lines the pockets of unscrupulous people. So how do you make sure you don't give your money to a puppy farmer? Dogs Trust has advice:

CHARITY WARNS PUBLIC IS BEING DUPED INTO BUYING ‘FARMED’ DOGS

Your dog can lose weight and have fun:

The Company of Animals’ Wins Award for Battling the Bulge in Dogs

Underlining The Company of Animals commitment to help battle the bulge in UK’s dogs its multi-award winning Tornado interactive dog ‘brain-teaser’ recently scooped another award as one of the “Top Pet Fitness and Weight Loss Products of 2009” by the Association for Pet Obesity in the USA.