Episode 6 Ronnie's Animal Crackers

As a nation, we are just potty about out pets.

Lunchtime!

We are unashamedly animal crackers, and I'm just the same.

-What do you think about that?

-Oh!

But you'll be amazed at the sometimes baffling lengths

we go to for our pets.

ALL: Surprise!

Oh! Bertie, that was silly, wasn't it?

The time...

Oh, that's lovely. Yay!

..the money...

-Holly looks like a princess.

-She does!

..not to mention the love.

Oh, yes, is that nice?

So join me as I enter the extraordinary

and often bizarre world of our pedigree pals.

Hello?

Lie down. Lie down!

This week, we meet a shepherd with a difference.

She's female, and battling to reach the top in a man's world.

You've got to have adrenaline.

You've got to have that competitive spirit.

You've got to control it.

Lie down. Lie down. Lie down. Lie down!

A dog once crowned the world's ugliest

who's abandoned fame to help kids.

He listens to your stories and doesn't walk away.

Every day, I'm excited to start reading again.

We get my dog Baz's surprising DNA results back,

and I make one last-ditch attempt to win him over.

He seems to only like ladies.

So I said, "Let Ron dress up as a lady"!

There's one furry animal that, for most of us,

is completely out of bounds, and that's the bat.

Very few people are allowed to keep these endangered species,

but we've found one extraordinary bat woman

who is an exception to the rule.

MUSIC: "Bat Out Of Hell" by Meat Loaf

We are on the Isle of Wight,

where an ordinary home has been turned into a unique bat hospital.

This is Donna, who, with her husband Graham, has been running

an extraordinary voluntary bat rescue service since 1997.

Well, this is our own home, but it's also a bat hospital.

So we've opened it up to any bats that need caring.

The impact on our life has completely overtaken everything else we do.

So we can't go on holiday together, you know,

we can't be away from the house for any length of time,

so if we are going to do anything, it's got to be separately.

You all right in there? I could hear you making noises.

Bats have been on the endangered animals list for decades.

Some of the 17 species found in the UK

are even on the verge of extinction.

Donna's passion is to rescue and save as many as she can.

We've already lost the mouse-eared bat from this country,

so that's extinct now, so we don't want to lose anything else.

It all started for Donna when her son found an injured bat at school.

Little did she know then that the urge to care for

these fascinating little creatures would lead her to be running

her own bat hospital,

putting herself on call 24 hours a day.

Each bat has a completely different personality.

Sometimes they're really nice, sometimes they're horrible!

SHE CHUCKLES

Donna rescues injured bats from all over the island,

bringing them home to nurse them back to health.

There are no complaints about the hospital food here!

If you like mealworms.

She's usually got around 50 permanent inmates in her hospital,

and another 20 waiting to be returned to the wild.

PHONE RINGS

Oh, hello, it's the bat phone.

Hello? Ah, you've got a bat?

Is the bat dead or alive?

To the rescue, Donna sends bat man Graham

and his sidekick Ross out to investigate.

In the past year, they've had 100 calls like this.

As soon as that phone goes, you kind of get an adrenaline buzz,

that's the only thing I...the only way I can describe it,

and when you're in the car, you just want everybody out the way.

We really should get a siren, I think.

You want to get to the bat as quickly as possible,

you can't think of anything but -

"I've got to get to that bat straight away."

Now, it's illegal to handle bats

unless it's to rescue them from danger.

At the house they're going to,

Steven and Ann have found one in their back garden.

Flew down here and just,

whether it was looking for that water in the pond there,

but it landed in that bush over there.

-Got a fishing net, caught it.

-Sure enough, it was a little bat,

we were a bit surprised to find it was a bat.

They did the right thing, carefully moving it out of danger

and calling in the licensed bat carers.

Right, so you've got the bat for us in this little bag, then?

-That's right, yes, yes.

-OK.

We caught him in the fish net.

Right, if I give you your net back.

-Thank you.

-And bag.

Awww, he looks smaller now.

Oh, you're...you're a bit feisty, aren't you, mate, eh?

Yeah, it's a pipistrelle.

-See, look, he's taking water, look.

-Oh, good.

-Yeah.

For him to fly down this time in the afternoon,

-that means he didn't get home last night.

-Right.

-Yeah.

So he had a late night last night, so he's been probably,

then he probably saw the water then and thought, "I need a drink,"

-and didn't make it, so...

-Made it.

-Yeah.

-OK.

They're taking the little pipistrelle back to the hospital

for Donna to have a look at.

Has it survived a brush with death? We'll find out later.

MUSIC: "It's A Man's Man's Man's World" by James Brown

Next, we are off to Cumbria,

and the home of sheepdog breeder and trainer Katy.

I have a real passion for my dogs. I adore them.

Katy is celebrated in the shepherding world

as the first and only woman to win One Man And His Dog.

Even though that was way back in 1989,

Border collies still dominate her life,

and she's still driven to be the very best at sheepdog trials,

but she's got one unfulfilled ambition -

to win the English National Trials with one of her dogs.

I have a good bond with them, because I have them from pups.

They've known my every tone of voice.

They know when I'm sad,

when I'm a bit nervous at a sheepdog trial, or I'm excited.

They just know me.

Today, she's putting young Zak through his paces on the fells.

He's just 15 months old, and he's never entered a trial before.

He just needs a bit of tuning up for going to the trial.

He's still a bit raw, but Katy thinks

young Zak has "future champion" written all over him.

He's full of fire. He wants to go, he wants to please you.

He'd work all day, he loves it.

Away. And off he goes.

Nice and fast, like a bullet out of a gun.

Training can take up to nine months,

but Katy clearly loves it as much as Zak.

To have the honour of being here is just heaven.

It's so peaceful, it's magical. It's beautiful, isn't it?

All Border collies, not just Zak,

instinctively know how to herd sheep,

and Katy's keen to show us.

Hello, my little puppies. Oh, I love you! He's a big lump.

One of her latest puppies, Ralph, is just 12 weeks old

and she's going to introduce him to sheep for the first time

with an older dog, Tsabo.

Got some quiet sheep in that paddock there.

I'm just going to see if he shows some interest.

He's straight to them!

He has got this herding instinct, and we're not forcing him

to do anything, he's just looking at the sheep ready to herd.

It's incredible.

The hunting instinct to bring the sheep towards

the leader of the pack, in this case, the shepherd,

has been inherited from their wolf ancestors.

You know, we get the credit for training these dogs,

but it's all there, it's in them.

But the instincts found in all these dogs,

including our trainee champion Zak,

have to be worked on by Katy to get him

to herd sheep only on her command.

Lie down. Lie down!

But out on the fells, Zak sometimes just wants to do it his own way.

Lie down!

SHE WHISTLES

I'm constantly whistling to him, cos he's full of beans.

He hasn't been worked for a bit.

He's like a bull in a china shop, slightly.

They're not moving very well.

They don't want to go over this water,

so this is where he's more inclined just to give them a bit of a nip.

Hey!

Oh, dear! Looked like Zak tried to bite one of them there.

So we don't want that happening at the sheepdog trial.

I'd be disqualified for that.

Zak's first trial is in just a few weeks.

Can Katy temper his unruliness

so that he does well and earns a place in the National Trials?

We'll find out later.

Steady!

Now, they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder,

and that is certainly true of pet owners

when they're talking about their beloved animals.

I'd like you to meet one dog now who will melt your heart.

We're off to Cambridgeshire

and the home of a rather unique eight-year-old dog,

who has achieved awards and celebrity status for being ugly.

Mugly, as he's called, is a Chinese crested dog,

and in America, he was crowned the world's ugliest dog of 2012.

And it's Mugly, all the way from the UK!

His owner, Bev, is as proud as punch about him.

The World's Ugliest Dog Contest is all about representing rescue dogs

that are normally overlooked in a shelter over there.

What they're trying to say is, "You can have a lovely pet,

"it doesn't matter what they look like,

"so let's celebrate ugly."

Mugly's looks earned him an incredible year in the spotlight,

as the most unlikely canine superstar imaginable.

One legacy of his year of fame is Mugly's extensive wardrobe.

He's a sort of David Beckham of the dog world.

These are his little tracksuits he wears when it's a bit colder.

In the summer, I always put a thin T-shirt on him

to protect his skin from the sun, and in the winter he freezes,

so things like this with legs at the bottom.

A lot of people think it's ridiculous, and say, you know,

"You should go and buy a doll if you want to dress your dog."

I usually do explain, and I lift his top up

so they can see he's completely hairless,

and then they change and they're quite sweet afterwards.

# You don't know you're beautiful

# That's what makes you beautiful. #

Now that Mugly has retired somewhat from public life,

he's got himself a job, and it's a most surprising one.

As soon as I put his uniform on,

he changes from being playful and silly

to "Right, come on, I'm ready, let's go",

and he's all very professional.

On Wednesdays, you'll find Mugly at school,

and what he does is actually quite remarkable.

He helps children to read.

What are we reading today?

-Odysseus And The Wooden Horse Of Troy.

-Oh, excellent.

"There was once a great war between the Greeks and the Trojans.

"It lasted ten years, but the Greeks won in the end..."

Children like Yustus, who's originally from Lithuania,

are sometimes called "reluctant readers".

They can read, but aren't very enthusiastic about it.

Amazingly, they find that reading out loud to Mugly

really boosts their confidence.

"They kept arguing about it,

"hoping the...that Achilles would turn up..."

He's a very sweet boy. He's really opened up,

and he, he really enjoys reading his books now out loud.

He spends so much time with Mugly and, you know,

while he doesn't realise he's doing it,

but he's got his arm round him and,

and he's stroking him, and...and it's lovely.

He's, he's probably, out of all the children,

the one that's made the most progress.

Mugly has not only helped 50 children to improve

reading like this, he's also helped special needs adults too.

I mostly didn't like reading, but reading with Mugly helps me.

He listens to your stories, he doesn't walk away.

Every day I'm excited to start reading again.

"'Meet our hero, Odysseus,' said the Greeks..."

Children often relate to Mugly very well

for the simple reason that he is different.

They often feel different, because they're having trouble reading,

maybe they might look different.

Yustus knows that Mugly is not going to judge him at all,

and with that, the confidence has bloomed.

# I am beautiful... #

Back at home, Bev has settled down into a quiet life with Mugly

after his year of being the world's ugliest dog.

His stardom may be behind him, but he's still her number one.

Mugly means everything to me.

He's the sort of dog that,

if he was human, he'd be boyfriend material.

The mothers would quite like him when he comes round, you know.

He kind of gets under people's skin and they all,

everyone falls in love with him, it's really quite sweet.

Awww. I told you he'd melt your heart.

'How I wish my rescue dog, Baz, was able to show me

'the same sort of love as Mugly does.

'Baz is adorable, but there's something that's stopping him

'bond with me like my other dogs have done.'

I know, it's ridiculous, isn't it?

'We suspect he was maltreated before he was rescued,

'but I'm wondering if genetic traits from his breeding

'might also explain why he's shut me out.'

-He almost behaves worse when people are watching him with me.

-Yes.

To prove how cruel he can be.

You're beautiful, boy.

Baz! So he's very, very, very attached to Anne,

and I think he is attached to ladies more than men, certainly.

But Anne is his love of his life. It's very sweet, really.

I mean, we've both spent so much time with him, me as much Anne,

if not more, when I go out there and everything,

but he's got a definite opinion about me.

-Hello, Ronnie.

-Hello, how are you?

I'm fine, thank you. Good to see you again.

Nice to see you.

'Last week, top dog expert Caroline, secretary of the Kennel Club,

'came to try to identify what breed Baz might be.

'She took a DNA swab and she's come back today to give me the results.'

We sent the tests away to America.

I know!

And it's come back, and I think we were pretty close, really,

-because we've got Baz down here.

-Yes.

-We've got his two parents.

-Yes, I think that's right.

-At the very beginning, is it?

His parents are made up from this side, we've got the schnauzer.

-Yes.

-And then grandparents, mixed breed and the Border collie.

-Yes, right.

-And then at the great-grandparents stage,

we've got all schnauzer,

mixed breed, Border collie.

So, this is fascinating. Baz has Border collie in his blood.

Caroline's got a surprise for us,

and has arranged for collie breeder Vicky

to bring around Sevvi for us to meet.

-He is supposed to be, you know, part of his life line.

-I know.

-Not this dog.

-Yes.

But this breed of dog.

-Yes, he's looking.

-Baz, come and look at your breed of dog.

# Walkin' the dog... #

Baz wastes no time in making friends,

which is lovely to see.

Oh, yes, it's beautiful.

Now the extraordinary thing about collies like Sevvi

is that, bred sheepdogs, they are famous for being loyal

to just one person, normally the shepherd,

as we saw earlier in the programme with Zak and Katy.

Perhaps the collie in Baz might explain

why he's only bonded with Anne.

-Oh, my goodness. Oh!

-Baz is so happy,

I'm thinking a doggie playmate might really help him, and me.

Every dog we've had here, he has loved,

so I think we probably will get another little mate.

-And it would, it would give him confidence as well.

-Yes.

-Yes.

And give him someone to play with,

because I'm very old to run up and down the garden.

Maybe Baz is a one-woman dog,

and I just wasn't ever going to get a look in,

but Anne's got a cunning ploy.

I said, "He seems to only like ladies,"

so he said, "Let Ron dress up as a lady"!

He's done it a number of times.

I think he might...I think Baz might see through that.

Yes, we've found a little bit of a costume

that might just, you know, fit the bill.

THEY LAUGH

Have I got it on right?

Let me see, darling.

But Mary, how many headdresses like this do I have? About 11?

-Yeah, about 11.

-Oh, where's he gone? Is he hiding?

-No he's, he's...

-He's outside.

-Oh, right.

I'm not sure Baz is fooled, but it's a huge relief to discover

that his aversion to me is nothing personal.

Experts say he will adapt to me in time,

and he will benefit if we do bring

a bright and confident doggie playmate into the family.

Watch this space.

Back on the Isle of Wight,

and Graham and Ross return to the bat cave.

I mean, the bat hospital,

the charitable rescue service run by Donna.

Donna examines Brunel, the little pipistrelle bat,

rescued from the garden pond.

Just checking it's a male, and it's a very well-endowed male.

4.6. He's really large but he's very thin,

if you see what I mean, so I'm not happy about his weight,

because I reckon this bat should be at least five or five and a half grams.

Hello, my little darling.

I still find them amazing.

The fact that this bat's never seen me before,

and half an hour ago he was being picked up,

and now suddenly he's eating

and he's quite calm and sitting in my hand.

He's checked for injuries.

Oh. We have a hole here.

This bat has been caught by a cat.

Serious injuries are dealt with by a local vet,

but Donna can nurse minor injuries,

and this one should be on the mend in a few weeks

and returned to the wild.

Let's just hope it's just what I call superficial damage.

When the antibiotics kick in,

hopefully he'll make a full recovery and go back to the wild.

In there, fella.

Depending on the injury and how, you know,

what's happened to the bat, then we have to test fly bats,

because we can't put a bat back to the wild

unless we know it can fly properly.

so we have to test fly them to make sure,

and we give them marks out of ten.

Today, it's Dazzle that's getting ready to take off.

He was rescued six weeks ago,

after another wing injury inflicted by a cat.

# Come fly with me

# Let's fly, let's fly away... #

It's a myth that bats are blind.

In fact, they can see almost as well as you and me,

but they use echolocation for flying and hunting prey in the dark.

I'm now going to put him on the floor

and see if he can take off from the floor.

Well, I'm no expert, but to me that looks very much like flying.

Do you see an improvement, Ross?

Yeah, brilliant, yeah. Really good, turning perfectly.

He's doing very well. I say we give him a six out of ten today.

A few more days, I would say, perhaps a week.

Yeah, about a week, probably be perfect.

In fact, Dazzle was successfully released two weeks later,

but I'm sad to report that poor little Brunel died of his injuries.

But a setback like that won't put Donna off.

If we start going, "Oh, we can't do this any more,

"we're getting too old and it's too tiring,"

and the phone goes and everything goes out the window,

and we just want to get to that bat as quickly as we possibly can.

To Weston-super-Mare now, and the home of Michaela,

owner of some curious mini-pets

that are certainly cute, if not cuddly.

African pygmy hedgehogs.

Hedgehogs are a massive part of my life.

I spend several hours a day with them.

I have four children myself.

My eldest is 14 and my youngest is eight,

so I don't have any babies any more

and I find that it appeals to the maternal side in me,

having the babies.

When they give birth, it's always, you know, an emotional time

when you hear the first little squeaks coming from the nest.

Hello. What have I got for you?

Her home has become a hedgehog nursery

with its permanent patter of tiny feet.

Even the adults are minuscule,

just a quarter of the size of the European hedgehog

that you might find in your garden.

Michaela's love for hedgehogs started two years ago

when she found a sick one while she was out walking her dogs.

She nursed her back to health and was hooked.

When she went back to the wild, I really missed her,

just missed watching her funny little ways,

and I went online and discovered

that you could get African pygmy hedgehogs. I was like, "Wow".

Started off with one, then I got another one and my husband said,

"No more," and before he knew it,

we had 18 in the house.

Even with a house full of them,

Michaela just can't stop making babies.

Today, one of my females, Tilly, is ready to mate.

She has had one litter before and it was a success,

and this time we're going to put her with a male called Arol.

He's a lovely apricot boy.

Hopefully, she would like to make some babies with him.

Now, this doesn't always go to plan and things could get quite prickly.

I'll just pop him down with Tilly and we'll see what happens.

Although Arol looks a little wary,

he's actually a very experienced stud and has mated ten times before,

but that's no guarantee of success.

# Let there be love... #

HEDGEHOG SQUEAKS

The noises he's making mean that's he's interested.

That he's obviously aware that she's a female

and that he'd like to mate. If she is interested,

she will lie down with her spines flat,

but it could take him a little bit of work for her to accept him.

Arol finally makes his move.

Goodness.

# Let their be cuckoos

# A lark and a dove... #

Hedgehog males are fairly romantic.

At the end, he won't just go away and leave her,

he will actually cuddle up with her.

It's really sweet to see at the end.

# Let there be love. #

It takes just four and a half weeks for baby hedgehogs to be born.

Today, Steph and Adam have come to choose one of the latest brood.

-Hiya, Steph?

-Yeah, hi.

-Good to meet you, come on in.

Thank you.

-That's another little boy.

-Awww.

Now, when they're little...

They're really soft.

They're fairly soft and when they're happy, they're soft as well.

I wanted to get one originally cos I saw an advert on TV

with all these little miniature hedgehogs

running around the supermarket, and then since then

-I've been trying to persuade him to let me have one.

-Since then, yeah.

They're easy-to-keep pets with no fleas or smells,

and will live for four to six years, although a baby will cost £125.

He's really cute. He seems to be like the one

that has taken to me the most.

All being well, at seven weeks, he's yours.

I can't help feeling that once this litter has gone,

it won't be long before Michaela's mothering instinct

propels her to breed some more.

There's something very special about hedgehogs.

I think it's the sort of animal you think that you wouldn't

have a relationship with and you do. It's just amazing.

She's just pooed on my hand!

Yes, I think we'll leave it there.

Oh...I'm covered in poo and wee.

Right, wellies on.

We're in Cornwall, at one of the preliminaries

for the English National Sheepdog Trials.

The air is full of whistles, excited dogs

and poor sheep who don't know whether they're coming or going.

Katy has come all the way from Cumbria with young Zak.

She's hoping today that they'll earn a coveted place in the nationals.

Zak, Zak, Zak, hop. Good boy.

Now, let's make you look nice.

But this is all new to Zak,

and he's got a dangerously impetuous nature.

Just go steady and enjoy it all.

I'm going to get more fur off you, then you can run like the wind.

There have been sheepdog trials like this since the 19th century,

and this is a typical course.

The judges award points for how well sheepdog and handler

get the sheep through the gates.

Nice straight lines are what they're looking for.

A tricky bit is shedding,

splitting two sheep off from the others.

And finally getting them into a pen.

It's still quite rare to find women shepherds,

so all eyes are on Katy.

I'm getting all nervous now.

You've got to have adrenaline,

you've got to have that competitive spirit,

but you've got to control it,

and even though I've done this for 30 years,

I still get the little tummy nerves.

I want to win it.

Zak has to come first or second to get a place in the nationals.

Come by.

Katy's hoping he doesn't pick up on her nerves.

Steady. Steady.

SHE WHISTLES

Zak, Zak, Zak, Zak.

Zak gets them through the first gate.

Lie down, lie down. Lie down, Zak.

Driving the sheep away from Katy

goes against the sheepdog's instincts, but Zak's doing OK.

But he fails to get them through the next gate.

Or the one after that.

KATY WHISTLES

Now the tricky shedding, splitting two sheep off.

Lie down. Come by. Lie down, Zak, lie down, lie down.

This...lie down, this...this, lie down, lie down.

Oh, no!

Lie down, lie down, lie down.

Looks like Zak's overreacted and bit the sheep that was running away.

That's just what Katy didn't want to happen.

Oh, Zak.

I'm afraid that's game over, instant disqualification.

Katy's disappointed, but you can't break the bond she has with Zak.

It was all against me. Everything that could go wrong went wrong.

That's trialling. I still enjoyed it. There's always another day.

He's my boy, aren't you?

Since we met Zak, he has done quite well

in all the subsequent trials that he's taken part in,

and I'm pleased to say he's now qualified

for next year's national trials.

So, well done him.

For now, it's good night from me.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd