Ronnie's Animal Crackers

A new fad in dog grooming from the States is causing a storm here in the UK: creative grooming. Dogs’ hair is shaped and coloured in ever more extraordinary and bizarre designs; for instance, a poodle cut to look like a panda or cartoon character. We follow two arch rival groomers, Su and Tanya, as they compete with poodles Bella and Barney in a nationwide competition to become English Stylist 2013. We also meet horse breeders Sharon and Derek in Hampshire. A riding accident changed the course of Sharon’s life, forcing her to abandon riding and take up breeding. She chose miniature horses. These pint-sized horses are the size of a pony but have the same proportions of a regular horse. Please note, this version may differ slightly from the UK TX version.

Marlene is a highly successful champion breeder, but her beloved Persian cats – she has forty of them at home – are falling out of favour with cat show competition judges. And the reason is their noses. Marlene’s cats have a “traditional” face with a long nose, but the trend in recent years has been to breed Persian cats with scrunched up faces, and short noses.We meet Corinne, a breeder of some unique and valuable French bulldogs; they are blue! Her favourite dog is Joules, a pampered diva. And Ronnie himself has his own issues to address. His new rescue dog Baz continues to give him heartache. Baz is comfortable with Ronnie’s wife Anne, but he has yet to give Ronnie the love he’s used to receiving from his pets. Please note, this version may differ slightly from the UK TX version.

A rather unorthodox approach is being taken by some in the UK when working with troubled animals: telepathy. We meet pet ‘psychic’ Michelle, who believes she can get inside the mind of animals. We also meet Bumble, an amazing seven year old Labrador owned by Demi. Bumble is a disability assistance dog from the charity “Dogs for the Disabled”, owned by university student Demi who is wheelchair bound. She’s one of only 280 of these dogs in the UK that can fetch, things, answer the phone, open doors and even empty a washing machine for their owners.In complete contrast, we meet retired couple Sue and Bryn who arrange a lavish, no-expense spared family wedding... for their Norfolk Terrier dogs Darcy and Todd. Please note, this version may differ slightly from the UK TX version.

Cross breed or `designer dogs', have become very popular and we meet Jasper a poodle super-stud.

The world of alternative therapy is well known in humans, but there are complementary therapists for pets too; and they claim to be able to heal even relationship problems. We meet Ruth who has a parrot and a dog, both rescued animals, but who are at war with one another. Ruth is desperate for a solution and takes them to complementary animal healer Elizabeth to see if she can offer any help. Ronnie’s own new dog Baz is a troubled chap, and has so far failed to bond with him. As a rescue dog, his background is a complete unknown. Ronnie can only even guess what breed he might be. But he is beginning to suspect that perhaps there might be a clue in his pedigree that could help explain this behaviour. We also meet Mel and Mike in Northumberland. Although neither of them have a background in farming, they now own and breed fifty alpacas. These extraordinary “camelids” originally from the Andes in South America are bred for their fine and expensive fleece. Please note, this version may differ slightly from the UK TX version.

The results of Baz's DNA test offer a reason for his odd behavior.