We had another successful day at Tilley Farm today. We held the annual Maremma show, which was judged by Frank Kane who was just lovely. The Maremma is a rare working breed of sheepdog originating in Central Italy, and our older bitch, Orsa, won Best Veteran and a shining, sparkling trophy now adorns my office shelf. The day was fantastic and jolly good fun. It was great to see so many Maremmas at the farm. Our adolescent Maremma, Léo, did not participate in the event as it would have been a big ask for a young guardian dog to be focused with so many people and dogs on his property, but after an early morning walk with Cookie Dough he settled in the garden and did not get too wound up with all the coming and going.

His behaviour around the horses and donkeys is almost perfect now. His teenage brain is finally engaging and the daily clicker training and TTouch sessions are definitely paying off. I was recently asked to comment on the use of aversive techniques when training dogs and my words were "if you do not have time to train a dog using positive reinforcement, don’t own a dog." Léo’s lunging and barking at my horses had got totally out of hand, due in part to his age, but probably also due to my absence from the farm for the first six months of the year. Had I punished him for his unruly behaviour I would have broken the trust he has in me, destroyed our relationship and it would have probably made his behaviour far worse.

It's filming day for TV. After a glorious sun filled weekend we woke up to wind and rain although the weather was not as bad as it was during the Horse Hero filming session. I had introduced flapping coloured bunting to Barney on Saturday and he was brilliant. He really thought through the exercise but today the wind was whistling through the jump standards making them sound like a one note flute quartet and the flags were really flying. He had a massive spook coming past them but recovered immediately and settled brilliantly. His owner could not believe the change in her horse. He has muscle, his top line is developing and he looks happy and bright in his work.

In one way it was a pity that he spooked at the bunting but it actually meant more to me that the weather was bad, he spooked and then settled straight away, instead of escalating his behaviour which was his old habit. He walked over rustling plastic sheeting, and under an arch made from two bright yellow pool noodles held up the air by Shelley and Sarah. I took down the bunting for the final piece of filming and we could not have asked any more of him. He was totally and utterly brilliant. He stood like a rock while Tina mounted him and she rode him over the plastic sheeting and through the labyrinth. We had built on his confidence over the month, working him in hand with his saddle and bridle on, and only started his ridden work two days before we filmed. He hadn’t been ridden since January and his owner was suitably proud of her boy. He is a clever, brave, and beautiful horse.