Hi there. I’m Ziggy the Westie and I have been asked to talk about the dogs in the fantastic exhibition ‘Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado’.

First of all, I think this is the best exhibition ever because it has so many dogs in it. In fact there are more dogs than I can count on my four paws. There are 17 dogs in all, plus several horses, two monkeys, a herd of sheep, a number of deer, two lizards, some insects, six donkeys, a couple of dead birds and some weird three-headed thing called ‘Cerberus’ — don’t think I would like to meet that one!

I like all of the dogs of course, but some of my favourites are the dancing dog in the picture of the blind man and the boy playing castanets, (I can dance on my back legs but usually only for treats). The dog in the picture of the Prince of Asturius has a very cool collar and he’s pretty handsome. The black and white dog in the picture of the man with a fancy hat looks very big, but I think the artist might be having a bit of a joke in this one because the man looks very short. The brown dog with the man holding a rifle — he’s a king and very important — looks kind of sad and serious — looks like he needs some serious fun! (So does his owner come to think of it.)

I feel really sorry for the poor dogs who had to go to those awful things that humans do like chopping off heads and tying people to bits of wood and stuff. They look like they really do not want to be there.

Finally, there is a dog in a picture by a famous painter called Goya doing my favourite thing … sleeping … zzzzzzzz.

So, I hope you get a chance to see this cool exhibition and check out all the dogs that I like — you only have until 4 November 2012. If you can’t make it in why not buy the exhibition catalogue — it has all these illustrations and more, plus some human talk, and if your dog likes to play with little ones, there is a book especially for kids.

Ziggy, very special guest writer