The big news of course was Crufts. We were very busy in the run-up to Crufts and it was all linked, me with all the organisational things with the Kennel Club and Mary doing a lot of work with Pedigree. And not forgetting the fact that there was a lot of work to be done on the stand we were having at Crufts and the new products that we were putting on sale there. Mary, as usual, was booked to do some demonstration slots on the Pedigree stand - and what a stand it was, absolutely huge. There was a big new stage area with screens on the outside showing what was on the stage and the whole area was set within the middle of the stand. I was at the NEC on the Tuesday taking rosettes and trophies there and getting myself sorted out for the show and on the Wednesday Mary joined me. She had her Best in Show heelwork to music rehearsal at lunchtime, then on the Wednesday evening she had a 30 minute cabaret spot to do at the Hilton Hotel. Pedigree had invited over 100 people from the independent pet trade to a day of seminars and business meetings. In the evening, they had a dinner and

 It's always difficult at Crufts to be able to come up with something a little different or special and that's something the routine just prior to Best in Show has to be. Mary was the first person ever to work two dogs, then three dogs, then four dogs so what could she do next to make it special? We decided some while ago that we thought it was time to do a pairs routine in the Main Ring and there was only one person we could think of who could fit the bill and Mary had actually worked with him before on The Underdog Show. So she asked Richard Curtis - a really nice guy, easy to work with, not a prima donna and of course very skilled and successful. Mary chose the music and she had been wanting to perform to Barnum for quite a while. Richard cut it into a usable 4.5 minute recording and it was Richard's idea to use his famous clown costume. They had one or two training sessions before I actually saw it and as soon as I did see it then I knew it would be a winner, especially the surprise to the audience when Richard jumped out of the elephant box that was carried into the middle of the floor by four hefty men. And of course when Richard has his costume on, he completely absorbs into the role. Anyway, we were saying about BBC rehearsals; it was a full dress rehearsal on the Friday night and I probably understand a little more now about what the BBC tries to do with these rehearsals, having spoken to the director. The cameras zoom in and come out on a timescale from when the music starts, so if they decide in 1 minute 35.5 seconds that they want a close-up to the dog then that is what's in the time schedule for that whole routine. And there were 145 different time schedules within the routine. So if they switched to a close-up shot and the dog had already started and missed the beginning it was because their time scedule was a milli-second out. It also helped us to understand why they wanted Mary and Richard to perform the routine again when we thought they should have enough. It finished up with them performing the routine three times on the Friday night, that's with the music, lights, full intro and exit commentary and it was about 10:00 pm before we'd finished. The good thing, of course, was that we'd eaten in the Pedigree restaurant before we came back for the rehearsal so at least we could then get straight to bed ready for an early start.

On the Saturday, Mary just had the demonstrations on the Pedigree stand alongside book signings and working on her own stand. It was certainly a difficult day as I don't think we have ever seen so many people at the show itself. And this was to be a repeat on the Sunday as well. It's probably a good time to mention Mary's trade stand; we have always had a 4 metre x 2 metre stand which is very expensive at Crufts and then at the last minute the people who were taking the stand next door decided not to come so the Kennel Club asked us if we would like another 4 metres which we duly took. This probably worked out well because for the previous year we had been working with a British design company who have overseas manufacturing facilities and Mary was going to launch her own, branded dog training range at Crufts. We already had the new target stick before Crufts and at Crufts itself we had the new box and clip clickers with lanyards and wrist coils. A product called 'Cool Dog Airflow Tailgate Lock' which is a very sturdy product to enable you to securely lock the back door of your van or estate and leave it partly open so that you have a good airflow in to your dog, there was a 'Turbo Towel' which was a super-absorbent towel in its own plastic container to dry the dog off, a new 'Mary Ray Treat Bag' with a quick-close top, pockets for the clickers and target sticks and a removable inner pouch that can be easily washed - a really great product and, as with the others, at a really good price as well. The last new product is unique and designed by ourselves. It's called a 'Target Click and Treat Stick', it has a handle with a lever with a built-in clicker in the handle and when you pull the lever, the plastic ball at the end opens and the treat you had previously secreted in there drops out. Mary had some fantastic demonstrations with it at Crufts and although we had several hundred for the launch at Crufts, we had sold out completely by end of the second day - and it was only £11.95. All of this stock will be in the Store section of this website by the second week of April as we are expecting fresh supplies to have arrived prior to that. We are also looking for overseas distributors for this range. At this point, I should also mention of course the launch of the Pedigree training treat that Mary helped to develop. Mary has her name on the front of the pack and there is a little piece about her on the back of the pack, it's only 2 calories per treat and very tasty. And, most importantly, it's the right size and consistency. They have a specific website that again Mary has had some input into and there's also a little quiz for you to complete: www.pedigreetrainingtreats.co.uk

Take a close look; Levi & Pogo have one foot off the floor, Mary and Richard have both feet off the floor!

On Sunday, Mary and Richard were going to perform the first public showing of their new Barnum routine. We had made a couple of announcements about this earlier so the arena was packed with nigh on six thousand people watching at 11:40 am. Richard was in his full clown costume with make-up when he climbed into the elephant box out of view to be carried into the arena. Well, it went down a storm! Everything went just about right (although I'm sure they would both say that something wasn't quite 100% right!) but as far as myself and the audience was concerned it was perfect, really funny and the best part for me watching was the moment that Richard jumped out of the box and no-one had a clue that was about to happen as it took the audience totally by surprise - it was a really classic moment, very successful and they both left the arena to a tremendous round of applause that gave them lots of confidence for the big one that evening.

I myself am very busy throughout Crufts as I'm commentator for the opening and awards/closing ceremony for the obedience, as well as doing my share of agility commentating - oh, and I also commentated on the three HTM finals on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the arena and which were tremendously successful. My most memorable routine is the young lady from Finland with her Sheltie who was just absolutely stunning!

On the Sunday evening, I was commentating on the Agility Championships and that was to be my last official duty for Crufts 2008, so then I just had Mary's Best in Show routine to look forward to. This year, Nick Brookes-Ward took over as Arena Director and with him came a lot of new ideas which included a wonderful arena lighting set-up that was choreographed with the music, a Musical Director who, under Nick's guidance, provided some stunning music, some new opening video on the big screens and video clips on the screens during the performances. So it finished up that we had not only a world class selection of dogs and events but also a world class presentation, undoubtedly helped by the fact that the BBC provided material for the video clips from previous years and the fact that they had a new Lighting Director who really did bring a fresh pair of eyes into Crufts and as I just said, the lighting at Crufts really was stunning. Mary was due on at 8:26 pm and as you will probably understand with the television people, it has to run exactly to time. So at 8:24 pm, Richard got into the elephant box to be carried in to the arena and at 8:26 pm precisely, Mary was introduced into the arena by Nick Brookes-Ward. It was a shame really that at this point Nick, for obvious reasons, could not introduce Richard as well but then of course that would have spoiled the surprise. And it would be a surprise because I would think that over 99% of the audience would not have been in the arena during the morning for their first demonstration. And now of course, Richard had to stay in that box for the first two minutes of the routine as well and then judge the exact moment to spring out and do his clown's act. The atmosphere was electric, the houselights went down, the spotlights came on and the band struck up to Barnum - what a routine! And it just hit the right button as this was completely different with two of the most skilled dog handlers in the UK with the right blend of humour and skill. In actual fact, on television the camera work was not as bad as the previous year as there was a slight improvement but still a lot of comment about the camera spending too much time being zoomed out with Mary just a little dot in the distance - and it was a great shame that the BBC missed showing the moment at the end of the routine when Mary's cane breaks in two and a banner comes out saying "Crufts 2008" - they were just a few seconds late in putting the shot on. But it was a tremendously successful night and a good curtain raiser for the Best in Show to follow. Both Mary and Richard were thrilled with the reception the routine had and the many congratulations given to them afterwards.

So there it was, all over for another year and, as usual, the first night that we could relax and have a drink. We were both really worn out as it's such a busy event but also it's good to come away with the satisfaction of knowing that everything you've done has been successful. And I know that Mary is indebted to Richard for all his input into this year's routine.

A few other things have happened since my last update. Prior to Crufts, Mary had a final photo shoot for her new Superdog book which comes out at the end of this year. Also, she did a couple of photo/video shoots for Pedigree for their website on the Crufts stand, she went to Leeds to do a dog training presentation at the Asda head office, she did a cabaret spot at the NEC for the Pedigree Stakes Finals and a one-day obedience training course for Rugby DTC. Finally, we went down to Bristol again for another Cabaret Evening for Andy Moxham where there is always a great atmosphere and this year was no exception as there were around 200 people and Mary had a fabulous night and, most importantly, so did the audience. I had my holiday as well, as you may recall that last time I said I would be going away with my friend Roger Churchill for a sightseeing holiday which started in Hong Kong and whilst there, we also went to Kowloon and Lantue Island. We were only there for three days and Roger was like a man possessed - he'd researched the whole holiday so thoroughly that he almost didn't need to go as he had studied it so much on the internet, so at any moment on any day he knew exactly where we needed to be and what we had to do - and he had even researched for most evenings where we had to go to eat! From Hong Kong, we flew down to Saigon and stayed in the Caravelle which was very famous in the Vietnam war as it was the hotel where all the correspondents stayed. This visit also corresponded with the Chinese New Year and I can tell you that sitting on the rooftop cocktail bar at 10:00 pm looking over the centre of Saigon with all the Chinese lanterns aglow was a sight to amaze. Vietnam is a fascinating place and I would really like to go back; we did everything from eating some of the most wonderful seafood to going down the Vietkong tunnels, visiting the old presidential palace that is still untouched from the end of the Vietnam war in the early 1970s, even having a shoot on a AK47 rifle. Once more, we were only in Saigon for three days before moving on to Nah Trang where we stopped at a superb five star beach resort and spa. And that's where I had my first ever full body massage (no, not like that!!) It was just superb: I did say that I wanted a medium massage and at one point I really would like to have looked up to see if the young girl who started the massage had been replaced by a 25 stone guy as even 'medium' seemed quite firm to me! It was just a wonderful experience with the showers and the hot steam room and this session finished with Chinese green tea and fresh fruit in the beachside tropical garden. We were at Nah Trang for three days and I would really love to go back again but now it was off to Singapore. I have been to Singapore three times before and I wasn't really keen on going but Roger had never been and really wanted to see it so I didn't mind visiting for a fourth time. But I won't be going back again as it is a very expensive place and to me it seems soulless, very reminiscent of New York and seems to have lost its roots. We did have a couple of pleasant evenings along the riverside so it wasn't all bad but there are better places to visit in Asia. So, if you're going to go out to that part of the world I would thoroughly recommend Hong Kong and Vietnam.

A much bigger Mary Ray shop at Crufts 2008, with all the new mary Ray branded training products, including the "New Unique" target click and treat stick

The staff! Pauline and Pauline behind the counter at Crufts, ready for another busy day

A full house in Bristol for Mary's Caberet night