FAMILY LIFE Help! My pet has a shameful secret

*** POSITIVE VETTING As Channel 4’s new show ‘Embarrassing Pets’ gets going, Boudicca FoxLeonard and fellow Telegraph writers get advice from the animal experts Q Q

Psychopathic parrots, people-phobic pooches and horses with halitosis; what to do if your beloved pet has become a source of embarrassment? At such times, a crack squad of elite pet experts would be invaluable.

A team like the one Channel 4 has assembled for their new series Embarrassing Pets, in fact. The crew comprises dog behaviourist Leon Towers, animal behaviourist Caroline Clark and vets Deepti Sharma and Gavin Mcdonagh.

For the sake of entertainment – and of course our education – the show’s producers have located some more challenging cases.

A whippet-collie cross hell-bent on havoc, a smelly shih tzu, and a duck who’s a bit of a diva all feature in the first episode.

If that wasn’t task enough, The Daily Telegraph’s writers have begged the team for help with their own embarrassing pet problems.

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Sunday 21 October 2018

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ing breeze. My room has views of both the sea and the rising hills behind, but the front terrace is the place to enjoy a chilled evening glass of sauvignon blanc – or English sparkling wine.

You can swim in the invigorating seawater below, hike the National Trust coastal trail or just marvel at the monumental cliffs featuring in TV shows such as Broadchurch.

Other-worldly fossils reveal how animals and plants evolved here millions of years ago. The more adventurous can paraglide or scuba dive (there are plenty of wrecks to explore). However, it is enough to simply gaze at butterflies, wildflowers and flocks of cormorants flying low over the crinkling sea.

Returning to London along the high coast road, I glance across at swooping hills and plunging seaward vistas. It’s one of the great driving roads in England. Cornwall, Devon and the Cotswolds have distinct charms, but hidden-away Dorset has something else – at least a sense of being less discovered, and perhaps an ancient and mysterious element beyond.

Approaching Abbotsbury, the solitary St Catherine’s Chapel appears on high ground. Chesil Beach winks below. The car and the setting could not have aged better.

Sunken roads and villages lend the sense of travelling further back in time – way back

8Snooker star Ronnie O’sullivan says that the K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley, venue for this week’s English Open, sme smells like… (a) Teen spirit (b) B Broken dreams (c) Ur Urine