German Shorthaired Pointer

Go on then - more snow fotos

I know most of the UK are a little fed up with the snow but I know people from all over the world pop in here (and I am totaly amazed how many people drop in and say hello to my pair of nutty dogs - thankyou all!)

Thought I would share some more snow walks with you all






Not easy to get nice calm photographs of my pair when all the want to do is run and play

But it is amazing what you can do with a pocket full of sausages and a tennis ball









I know the snow is disrupting peoples lives. When its a total whiteout with the wind howling I hate the snow (or sky puke as C says)
But when you get days like this then its makes up for it










errm ben I think you have a little something on your nose
and your head
and

You have been making snow angels again havent you??

Dog training methods - 1. Compulsive/manipulation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqCXBjkmzBk

The more traditional methods of training a dog is by manipulation, physically putting the dog in position.
Examples of this

Sit
Push the dogs bum till he sits
Down
Push on the dogs shoulders till he lies down
Paw
Pick up the dogs paw
Stop
Stop dog with lead
Recall
Reel dog in on lead

In the video above you can see the guy tugs down on the dogs lead to make her lie down.
This is the way many animals in the past have been trained and it does work for some animals.
It is fairly simple for the human to understand, put the animal in the position you want enough times and it will slowly learn to go into the position.

There are several problems with this method.

Firstly it is actually using punishment to train the dog, the shoving is something slightly unpleasant for the dog (I know its not like beating it) so he learns to avoid being shoved to get into the position. Often the dog can even look happy once they have figured this out and the trainer thinks they have a dog who works for no rewards and is so motivated they love to work for you.
Sorry to burst your bubble, if you train with punishments then for your dog its reward is the avoidance of the punishment, your dog is happy because he isn't getting shoved or yanked.

Also it is not natural to go where you are shoved.
Try it on someone, if you push then gently then to remain upright they push back a little. You can see in the clip even with a 'trained' dog when he is pulling on the lead she is resisting and being dragged down.
Over time you could injure growing joints with a battle to push your resisting puppy to the ground until they understand they have to go the way you are shoving.



You can get around that by teaching your dog to respond to pressure. A good way is to have your dog on the lead and stand behind them and give very slight pressure on the lead. Wait. When the dog turns to face you click and treat. The dog will learn that pressure on the lead means to go where the lead directs.


Compulsive methods are thought to work more slowly than other methods because the dog does not have to engage its brain.
A good example was my mum trying to teach Ben to give a paw.
He sat nicely, happily let her pick up his paw and then give him a treat. He just seemed v happy, crazy lady picks my foot up then gives me food. It never seemed to occur to him that he could speed up the process by lifting his foot himself.
Using a combination of methods but most of them compulsive it took aver six months for Ben to give a paw, and even then he is slow and not overly confident giving a paw.
Using different methods for Mia to give a paw took less than a minute and she is very happy to show her trick.

I am sure we all at some point use some compulsive methods, take a dogs collar, pull on the lead or something. Many dogs dont mind but it can make a dog shy to have its collar taken and other methods can use your dogs brain more and make them happier to learn and perform their trick

What to do when my fingers are to stabbed to felt

I have been felting away lots trying to hit my targets for the new year.
I am happy to announce that I have smashed my Jan target for two sales a week with 9 sales already! Fantastic! Some are trades and some were charity listings so I am not rich but its really good to know that I can manage that target.
A downside is my arm shoulder and back are a little sore and my finger is v stabbed.
So yesterday I though I would have a little go at drawing again
Please dont laugh

The Boxer I am almost happy with, its just a quick sketch so not too much detail
The left eye went wrong but overall not to unhappy


I should have stopped there but no I had to try again


The weaving collie just didnt work out at all :(





So I felted - just a little - tiny - a poodle about 1 inch tall

Oh no! There has been a terrible accident!

My fault totaly.

Weather was nice but windy the other day so I opened the back door to let the dogs have a zoomie with the fallen leaves.

My 'rehoming box' (where my sculptures live till they find a new home) was open as I was doing a photoshoot and a gust of wind sent some of the smaller critters flying.

I thought I had picked them all up but later in the day Mia wondered past with a little bit of gray hanging out her mouth.

She killed Dyllan! Cant blame her he was fully felted from shetland wool and my mum, as a spinner and knitter informs me that that is a strong smelling fleece.

Poor Dyllan - I remembered to take his listing down.

On a happier note I put up a couple of new listings, a red fox and a JRT

I have to admit with the Jack Russell I actually had in mind to make a newfoundland dog, I didnt have a photo just an idea in my head but the wool decided that JRT was what it wanted to be!

Mia, Focus and the reactive dog

About time I did some more training posts.

As everyone who has been following knows Mia is a little reactive and so very easily distracted.

I have been working on focus with her using a method I have stolen and adapted from many different trainers.

Mia is not very good in confined spaces - she is always looking for ways to get out. I am lucky and have found a park that has a large field down a slope where the other dog walkers dont tend to go. It is pretty secure but because of the slope it dosent look like it has boundries so Mia is calm enough to play around in it.

First what I do is to just send both the dogs away to play and I wonder about. Any time Mia gets anywhere near to me I chuck her a treat and then just carry on walking about.
After a short while she actually starts comming over to me looking for a treat so each time I wait for a little more before I treat, at first it is just her being close enough to chuck the treat, then its her actually noticing me, then her getting closer to me. Basically I shape it until she is running right up to my side, giving good eye contact and walking with me. Each time I treat then I send her away with big arm movments and say 'GO PLAY'
Once she is really begining to focus on me and wants to work then I will ask for a few tricks - rewarding lots and lots before sending her away to play again. I always send her away before she gets few up and runs away - this means that I have to pay attention to stuff around us that might distract her and send her away before she gets distracted.
After a while of this both dogs really dont want to be sent away but really want to work with me

At the moment this is about where we end it - but hopefully soon I will get the agility stuff down the park, that level of focus would be just great for training.

It is also teaching Mia a habbit of checking in with me just incase fun stuff happens - and a command for to go away and have fun. I like dogs to be dogs and sniff around and stuff, but because of Mias reactivity problems everything has to be a little more structured with her.

You must have been a beautiful baby

Just looking at Mia and thinking about what she might have looked like as a puppy made me realise that I havent done a puppy post fot Ben

Currently he is about 21 months old

I got him from Dogs Trust in Glasgow on 20th May 2007, he was suposed to be around 8 weeks old


I think he might have been a bit younger or taken away from his mum far too young because he had no idea about keeping himself clean, infact for the first 4 nights I was woken up with the terrible smell of him curling up nice and warm in his own poo!! so for the 1st week he had a bath more than once a day.

From the start I realised that Ben haddnt read the puppy book. He thought stroking was the most scary thing in the world, didnt know how to play with toys or really interact with people. But he was cute, loved his food and bonded strongly to me.



Poor wee soul was very carsick whenever we went anywhere, so much so that he became really scared of the car for a while.
and when he went to puppy classes he was soooooo excited he barkbarkbarked the whole time, except when he was working. Right from the start Ben was top of his class, obedience and agility. Infact at some of the obedience classes when we had 'stay' compatitions I had to take us out because we won every single prize.



He has come on so well, he is a very thoughtful dog, timid of lots of new things, but if he knows you want him to do something he will give it a try. He loves learning and doing his tricks. He loves most dogs and people although he kinda keeps away from kiddies he is v gentle with them.



Everyone tells me how lucky I am with him, and I do agree although I have put a lot of hard work into getting him where he is today. Hopefully if we can get Mia 1/2 way as well trained as him she will make someone a lovely pet