According to Distractify , there are 20 reasons you need a dog in your life. Some of these reasons include that they help keep you fit; they empathise with human pain; they reduce stress and they help you to be more social. Imagine our dismay then, when we found out the public are not permitted to bring their trusty hounds with them to the National Pet Show 2014 on 20th and 21st September 2014 at Birmingham NEC. We were bereft.

Usually we pitch up to these sorts of things looking forward to meeting all those lovely dogs and their owners. A favourite part of what we do is free muscular health checks. We palpate (or feel) across the dog’s muscles and we can give you a good idea of any muscular problems your dog might have.

But then we found out about all the fantastic things that were happening at the NEC that weekend. Noel Fitzpatrick (that famous vet from off the telly) is going to be there; there’s a chance of meeting wildlife expert Chris Packham and Ben Fogle; micro pig racing; and superdogs live, just to name and few. And then we remembered that even if we couldn’t palpate lots of lovely dogs over the course of the weekend, at least we’d be able to do our second favourite thing, which is to talk to owners about their dogs. So do please come and see us over the weekend. We’ll be on hand to offer you some advice and we can also have a chat about how much we’re all missing our dogs.

You can find us in Discover Dogs on stand D581.