I FOLLOWED B Jackson’s suggestion (Echo, October 12) by asking my spaniel, Alfie the square root of 78.

He thought for some moments, eyebrows moving furiously before answering with a woof.

Clearly he had an answer.

Whilst dogs may understand humans, unfortunately this human is not fluent in dog so I will never know if Alfie got the question right.

Kathleen Rogan, Ferryhill