A few years ago my girlfriend and I thought it wise to galvanise our relationship with the addition of something small, furry and with no bladder control. I could be taking about a mini version of myself but I am actually talking about the purchase of a puppy.

We lived I a small one bedroom flat, with a no smoking and no pet policy at the time. Seeing as we thought chain smoking in the flat all day was not enough of an effort to get us evicted I bestowed to my girlfriend the mission of finding us a puppy.

I still remember arriving home that day after work and seeing this tiny ball of fur sleeping in my shoe. He was a Jack Russell / Corgy mix and as cute as a button.

We quickly realised that Kobe would need to learn right from wrong and as he grew bigger we started noticing that we didn’t really know how to go about it. He was a lovely dog who was never aggressive but he got just a bit too excited at times for his and our own good.

He peed himself while running around a friend house creating his own abstract version of the “yellow brick road”, jumped on people, humped the occasional underage teddy bear or friend’s limbs and had a bash at interior design by redecorated my hallway when he ripping off the carpet to reveal the “rustic” hardwood floor below.

We ended up having to give him away because a neighbour complained, but in all fairness we knew it was the right thing to do as a dog shouldn’t be cooped up in a flat alone for half the day while its owners are at work. The good news was that being a small and cute dog he managed to find a home within a week.

So when I recently came across a programme aired on Sky Three called “The Dog Whisperer”, after the initial convulsions I encountered from the tangy cheesiness of the name, I was amazed at what I saw.

The show follows dog behavioural specialist Cesar Milan, a groomed, slightly camp Mexican father of two, who helps rehabilitated a wide range of extreme behaviour seen in people’s dogs. Sounds lame but the way he resolves each case is very compelling. Most times it’s a matter of the owners doing something wrong and seeing the way he controls the “out of control” animal within seconds of meeting it is amazing.

He talks about dog psychology, getting your dog to achieve a calm and submissive state of mind, becoming the pack leader, projecting relaxed energy, discipline, affection, rewarding and correcting your animal in order from them to become balanced. It's interesting to see that there is a reason for every one of your dog's action.

Strongly recommended to any animal lovers but Cesar makes for entertaining viewing for anyone and how knows you might even learn a thing or two.