I am deadly serious. Anything to do with my dogs I take very seriously, no mickey take I promise you.

We are just going to have to agree to disagree on this one, but would you be interested in seeing a video of Ben?

Actually, not. To interact with captive wolves is truly fascinating - because you instantly recognise your own dog, whatever his breed. It is well worth a visit to the Wolf Trust, where you can walk the wolves and have a thoroughly interesting day out. Dogs are the direct descendants of wolves, so to say that they are somehow not wolves, is about as daft as saying the Kalahari Bushmen are not homo sapiens, but we in the western world are!!

He does!!

You are completely forgetting that before he came to us he had been consistently let down by man.

His first home as a puppy apparently started out OK, but his life then descended downwards to the point where he was chained up on a running line in the back garden for 3 years, living on concrete with no shelter. Whether or not he was ever taken out for walks, we have not been able to establish. At some point in his career, he ended up biting a child who consistently would tease him over the fence - n

He was then rehomed somewhere else, and eventually ended up with a lovely family in the south, where Ben was very happy but the family rottweiler bitch took an instant dislike to him and kept beating him up, so yet again he was rehomed, this time to a friend of our's who spoiled him rotten and let him do exactly what he wanted. He had an accident, broke ribs which ruptured his spleen, and he had to go into hospital for several weeks blah blah blah. I have said all this before, and cannot be bothered to type it all out again, but basically he was an absolute mess when we got it, dangerous, unpredictable, aggressive and disobedient.

EVERYONE who knows us thinks we have done an amazing job with him, and he is welcomed along with his kennel mate Tai into every pub in our area who allow dogs - and some that don't even, but make an exception if none of the other punters mind.

You may think of me what you like, it is what Ben thinks of me and what I think of myself that counts.

Well who else's opinion would I be giving

Just like you are giving your opinion too. And unless you are actually claiming you can read minds you have no idea what your dog is thinking really. I am sure I am not alone in sometimes sitting and wondering what my dogs are really thinking because we just don't know.

Ben happy to be in that position in 'your pack' subordinate to you - unless he sees a black labrador?

I know this is a serious debate but kosher scientists not making mistakes, now come on, really?!?

Indeed science can only work with what they see at the time, after much thought they can see their mistakes. Look at thalidomide - the scientists recommended that until they realised their error.

He said all that about wolves when the modern way of teaching animals was only starting off, a lot of people got it wrong just as a lot of scientists got things wrong in the past. At least he has owned up and said he was wrong, a lot of scientists haven't, even now they get things wrong.

We used to take thalidomide children for a day out every year, it was a yearly do were all the handicapped children went to the seaside for the day, everyone of them was a product of a science mistake.

Doctors getting things wrong nearly killed my husband.

Why is it ridiculous to claim that wolves are not pack animals?

Ben was under so much control you had to use a shock collar on him to get him to do what you wanted, recall.

Contact any of the world's top behaviourists/trainers and tell them what you are going to do with Ben and this other dog and see what they say. Trying to cure dog aggression by using and aggressive dog will make things worse not better but as you can't get that and will do it I hope that nobody gets seriously hurt.

Dogs are as close to wolves as we are to apes, gorillas, chimpanzees and monkeys, we are supposed to be developed from them.

Unfortunately there are many dogs that are being worked on for this type of treatment at the moment, they are coming into rescues regularly, had them here myself at times, they are being turned round by positive methods and not using a shock collar. I had one who had been beaten so much he was terrified of coming to anyone if he was off lead, 4 years of trying to find something that would take his fear away before I found the key, a clicker. Lou said a shock collar would have him coming back to me within 14 days, the clicker done it in 10, if you take the time out that it took for him to realise that when he heard the click he was safe, it took 2 days to get him 99% recall.

As to everyone knowing you have done an amazing job, how much do they know about dogs? How much dog training have they done?

and if you walk with apes you instantly recognise yourself??

When one species develops into another, there are many changes that take place including behavioural. As a zoologist, your hubby will, no doubt, concur.

Thalidomide