ESME loves snow. Really loves it.

Some dogs have to be dragged out into the cold but she can’t wait to rush out, scamper and show us the latest trick. She stands on her front legs, lifting her back ones off the ground and buries her snout into the snow, like a duck on water.

The actor Paul Newman began every day by placing his face into a sink full of water and ice cubes. He reckoned it helped him look young. He lived to be over 80. Perhaps Esme is doing the same. I doubt she will live to be 80, but who knows?

One downside of the weather is that my wife insists on the dog wearing a canine polo-neck jumper. I accepted the purchase in the balmy days of last year thinking there would never be a time when Esme would ever have to wear it.

It is pink with coloured spots and ghastly. But with temperatures in the Alresford area hitting –11C last week it seems sensible to protect her.

We took her sledging on nearby slopes. She has been running excitingly around after the sledges, sometimes barking at the children. But it seems nobody minded. Nobody complained.

We were wrong. Returning two days later, the parent of one child who was again there rounded on my wife and unleashed a torrent of foul-mouthed abuse. As an aside, funny how he didn’t do it when I was there.

Anyway my wife calmly said she would have put Esme on a leash if anyone had asked. “You shouldn’t have to be asked” he ranted.

Well, actually it’s a free world and not unreasonable for a dog to run around. So if someone wants to limit that animal’s freedom then it is good manners to politely ask.

But for the muppet to then swear in front of young children, including his own, is appalling.