I came across Jon Buscall and Kennel Björkwood through Twitter. Jon is a Basset Hound breeder in Sweden, and I am currently arranging a good time to interview him for DogCast Radio. Jon has lots of interesting insights into being a dog breeder, and of course we are often told that the Swedish Kennel Club is a great role model for any Kennel Club to look to.

We've had some gorgeous St. Bernard photos added to the site today. You can see one at the top of this post, but there are more on the site. Check out Best Buddies, Time for a drink and Dr Watson. That last one is not a new one, but I love the comment, with the quick aside reference to drool and shedding! If you go to our St. Bernard breed profile page and scroll down there are more photos of listeners' dogs to see.

For a photo of a St Bernard with lovely calm eyes and such a benign expression, read the story of Rosie.

There have been some unusual dog stories in the news recently. Sophie Tucker the black cattle dog fell from her owner's boat amid stormy weather off the coast of Australia. Her owners assumed the worst when she didn't reappear. However, Sophie turned up months later on St. Bees Island after locals reported her to rangers. Apparently Sophie had swum six miles through shark infested water to get to the island.

I love living in Shropshire; the scenery is beautiful, the people are laid back, and there is lots of space to walk the dogs. Since we've been here I have listened more to Radio Shropshire, and appreciated the sense of community generated and supported by the station. So it was pleasure today to meet Jim Hawkins who presents the morning show on Radio Shropshire. We go to dog training classes with the same trainer (Jill Arnold, Paws4Thought) although at different times, and we have been tweeting back and forth on Twitter, so when Jenny and I were going to be in Telford at the same time as Jim was doing one of his sitting on a bench stints, it seemed a good opportunity to meet up. (Jim sits on a bench somewhere in Shropshire after a show once a week and includes the conversations in his Friday show.)