All of the jobs I have done have been about hunch and intuition, about being more aware of what is going on in between the lines rather than on them. In advertising I spent a lot of other people's money on strong hunches (fortunately none of them went wrong).

As a vicar I tried hard to come up with answers to questions that are unanswerable (certainly in this world).

As a shepherd most of the questions do have answers but as both of the central creatures involved don't speak human, they can't really be asked. Time then to learn to speak dog! Twenty years later I have managed it (not fluently of course but close).

My life will perhaps seem strange to you, living in the middle of nowhere and spending half of everyday trying to understand what my dogs are saying to each other (and to me) and the other half, writing about it.

If you are devoted to dogs then of course you will understand.