At this time of year I have the greatest sympathy with all those parents whose children are pestering for the latest must-have present ... and I am just glad that my daughter is long past that age!  As if it wasn't enough that advertisers work on pester power with kids, Nestle is now doing the same with dogs.  The company employed a team of American behaviourists to discover the most effective way of grabbing a dog's attention.  The latest commercial for Beneful is based on that research and uses high frequency sounds (audible only to canine ears) to ensure dogs wag their tails to indicate that this is the food that they would choose!

(Apropos of my recent blog about dogs watching television, this clearly will not work with my dogs!  But I am intrigued at how many of you apparently have dogs that are addicted to certain programmes - so watch out for the Nestle commercial after Christmas!)