Border collies and a border terrier

My latest orders.
A border terrier - a breed I have never seen in the flesh yet so I had to guess a bit but I think it came out OK - they seem to be going a bit Disney at the moment :D

and a pack of Border collies. Usualy I do one dog at a time and have many fotos from many angles - this time I had 3 dogs to do from one foto
To try and keep the sizes similar this time I used pipe cleaner frames as my sizes can be a little random sometimes

Mia, agility and focus

Thought I better give another Mia update.

Today she seemed v unfocused and just wanted to run about.
As her recal isnt v good I only have her offlead in safe areas with fairly few distractions.
So as this evening was agility - outside!! I though I better get some focus on her

I did this in a couple of ways
1st - I sent her and Ben away to play and run around a bit - just to calm down.
But then I called Ben back and started working him, anytime Mia showed any focus to me I just gave her treats and kept on playing with Ben.
After about 20 min of this she started to really pay attention to me so now I asked for a trick or 2 and then released her to play before she got bored and wondered off herself.
After a short time of this the dogs didnt really want to be released and on their 'free time' they were following me around - I actually had some great heeling around the field with great eye contact without even asking for it.
So now I did some stays and played with the toys and then we headed home.

So did it work??
Really well, at agility Mia got her 'were here to work' head on really quickly, she only ran off once the whole time and only wasnt staying well once - much better than last week where 50% of the time I had to go and fetch her.
The next class started coming in early and the GSD Mia hates was actually at one point about 10m away from us when we were about to do a run - she barked a couple of times but calmed down and did her job without running off

Really great progress! One step closer to a happy dog - and who knows mibby even one who can compeate at agility one day!

Stan the rottie

Heres my latest little guy up in my Etsy shop

Stan the rottie

He was lots of fun to make, I wanted to show how Rottweilers are not big nasy dogs but they also have a v fun playfuls side

I hope I captured that in this guy.

Please, all you peeps who can do great fotos, any way I can improve my shots of the fuzzies, I know that is one area that is really letting me down!

What did your dog learn today??

I try and do a little with my dogs every day, sometimes just going over things they know quite well making it a bit better and sometimes working on a specific trick.

A training sesh is usualy about 5-10 min per dog and I tend to structure it like this

a couple of mins doing stuff they know quite well

a couple of mins working on a new trick

a couple of mins working on stuff they already know



We also have a great 'Do something' where I ask them to do something and every different trick they do gets a treat - like the lazy mans free shaping :D



Sometimes I get a bit lazy and we dont focus on anything new for a while, but then I have a wee nozy at some blogs or you tube and I get inspired to do something again.

The latest trick I found that I have been working on for a wee while came from here

So whats your latest trick??

Mia again

Just a quickie - realised I havent really updated Mia for a while.

On Wed there her agility class moved, we were now OUTSIDE in a public park with 6 dogs she does not know.

and she did waaaay better than I expected.

She barked a little as the new dogs came to class but settled quickly and once class started she was pretty well focused and only showed her teeth to a dog who came up to her when I was giving her a treat for being good - Ben would have done the same, and agian it wasnt totaly reactive and she calmed down.

She even dod some offlead work quite well - 2 zoomies but didnt go more than about 15m away - so really no worse than in the barn!

What a wee star!!

Of course its not all perfect, Mia and Ben had a little fight today - think Ben actually started it - but anyway thats the first fight this year - I have to focus on that and the fact we used to have fights several times a week. Gave them both a time out and they were kissing again - no grudges

Featured shop, BeaulyBen

Just thought I would big up this Etsy shop BeaulyBen

She is my mum :D

She has been on Etsy for a wee while now but still waiting for that elusive first sale.

She has just started making dressy hair clips, fascinators and bobbles at totaly bargain prices, I think they look fab!

Also (she is very crafty) Fabby knitwear and lovely original encaustic art

Encaustic art is the process of heating vividly coloured wax blocks and applying them to the surface with an iron, heated stylus or an air gun. It is a really fun way to create totaly original works of art.

The process involves taking vividly coloured blocks of wax and heating them and applying them to the surface with either an iron, heated stylus or an air gun. The striking images produced really let the imagination run riot as the more you look the more you will see - like looking for images in clouds.

And the beauty of it is if you dont like what you have made just run the iron over again and something different appears.

We have both also been working on our website, thankyou all for your kind words so far. Any suggestions as to how we can improve this are welcome.

Practise makes perfect

Interesting that I am posting very similar things in my driving instructor blog and this blog.

I really do see similarities in teaching people to drive and training dogs.

One really important thing to remember is

Practise makes perfect

That is true on practising something you want your dog to do, practise in as many different locations and build up the distraction level and over time the behaviour will become perfect.

But it is more important to consider when your dog is doing something you dont want it to do.

For example - jumping up at people

Every time your dog jumps up at someone it is practising the behavior that that is how it greets people.

Yes you have to think of the different behaviour that you would like to train - but at the same time you must stop the dog practising the behaviour you dont like, so while you are retraining you might have to keep your dog on a lead or send to another room or a crate so they do not get the opportunity to practise the unwanted behaviour

and remember the longer the dog has been practising the undesired behaviour then the longer it will take to retrain, no matter what the TV shows seem to tell you dog training takes time - if it didnt everyone would have a champion obedience dog

Agility jumping dog and some flowers

I know, no posts about felting for months then two come along at once

I made a custom jumping agility dog just after christmas and I was so surprised and happy at how it turned out that I decided to try another.

I was so worried about how the first one was going to work out and how the dog would look like it was jumping and everything, it took me totaly ages to get it done.

Now, like climbing Everest, this one seemed to be done much easier.

I also decided to use up my scraps of Nuno felt from making the bags and try and make some little felt flowers.

I needled them together with a bit of orange fleece, I think they look quite cheerfull

No idea what I am going to do with them yet - any ideas please let me know

My latest dog

I thought I would put up this little lady

She is a order based on a rescue dog who sadly had to be put to sleep.

She is all wool - no wire or anything, and v firmly felted (those wrinkles took forever)





Hopefully to show how far I have come in just less than a year needle felting




Here is a little dog I made as about my 2nd ever model, and I think he sold on ebay for about £1 - deff learnt a lesson there about minimum bids there




He is so fluffy, but I was dead chuffed with him at the time

He has a pipe cleaner frame - which I bet you can feel poking out his feet, and tiny glass eyes - he is about 2 inches tall







Think the photography has come along a bit too! (well I hope so!)










I also tried something a bit different

Nuno felting - which is wet felting onto fabric
Was a bit easier than I thought (although it really works your upper arms)

Mum had the bright idea of turning the fabric into clutches, purses and phone holders

They were fun to make, going to try them in my shop soon

Quick Mia update

Realised I have not actually really updated on Mias progress for a while

Last night at agility was a great example of how far she has come

Entering the barn there is a GSD cross who trains before us, she walked past without even bothering - we were her for WORK!

In the barn there were LOTS of barking outside but she didnt make a sound, a little distracted and her stays not so good but no barking at the dogs

A little hyper when horses went past - but we can work on that.

After class she walked back to the car no problem igoring the one dog that was outside (the other owners keep their dogs in the car till I have put Mia away)

After Bens class I took Mia out of the car to toilet, there was a few dogs about that in the past she has disliked so I kept her screened behind a trailer and she was nice and calm

I let her wonder out so she could see the dogs, she had a look and tensed then calmed down, I called her back behind the trailer and at once she was nice and calm.

Then all these dogs went and stood next to my car!!

I slowly, step at a time walked her over, she only barked once when a strange dog walked past v close, but it wasnt a fit, just a bark, then she calmed quickly.

I got her into the car no problems

Good Girl

Not to say she is perfect yet, she is still very much on the alert in the park out the front of the house - but she has made friends there too

Her recal is pretty good in most places, but in our park if she hears a dog barking aggressivly then she is off