I heart my dog - photography comp with the chance to WIN one of my custom doggies

SkylarsCandyclips is doing a fab blog givaway for all dog lovers.

"So to celebrate the bond between humans and canines and the unconditional and unlimited love that we feel for them, I would like to hold a contest - an I HEART MY DOG contest.

This contest is only open to my blog readers so please follow my blog if you would like to enter. Two winners will be chosen. One for a comment entry and another for a photography entry. All photos submitted will be posted on my blog at the end of the contest. "

The winner of the comment entry will win a bag of Wendy's favorite organic dog treats from Grandma Lucy's Diner

and..

The winner of the foto entry will win a custom needle felted sculpture of their doggy from me :D

So please tell all the dog lovers you know to pop over to her blog.

Dundee agility show

Looks like this may have been the last show of the year, and Bens first show in grade 3
Managed to get a few vids as my mum came along (thanks mum)

A 2 day event with 3 runs per day
SatRun 1, Combined 1-5 agility - 5 faults but nice weaves and we got all our contacts!!
Run 2, Combined 1-4 jumping - Clear round - a bit time lost as I slowed him too much for the weaves and he bounced up at me But we placed 4th!!!


Run 3, Graded Jumping. Lovely right up until the last weave pole at the end of the run, even the judge went 'OHHHH' got him back in, 5 faults and a 4th place!!

Sunday - much less nice day - peeing it down with rain! But for 2 of the runs the judge was our trainer so nice difficult courses
Run 1, Combined 1-5 agility, clear round but again bouncing before the weaves so too slow for a place
Run 2, Combined 1-4 Jumping - again the last weave ment 5 faults for us


Run 3, Graded 1-4 jumpingLovely storming run, everything went perfect - except the timer broke!!!!!Ran it again for time - made a mistake and went over an extra jump so assumed we were E'd, went home as both mum and Mia had been stung by a waspFound out last night that the extra jump didnt count as we were only running for time and the clear round counted - He only went and WON it!!! Well done my wee man!!Heres the vid of our winning run - the jump we shoudnt have done was the 2nd after the tunnel (you can see I was daydreaming, happy we had got everything else right and not working the turn)

SoopSee?

Just discovered SoopSee
It seems a really useful tool for Etsy'ers - you can put everything (including your blog and tweets) together in one place - and get lots of stats with funky graphs.
It seemed pretty easy to set up. I will let you know how I get on.
My page is here

Etsy Treasury

Woohooo, I am on a treasury on Etsy (well not me my horse)

So is my mum and some of my blogger friends. Thats really great.

Treasuries on Etsy can make the front page if enough people click on them - so please even if you are not on etsy can you click the link and then click on a couple of the items on there.

I have never been on the front page and it would be really great if I made it there.

Thankyou for looking

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.

Featured shop - theallnaturalface

Here is an Etsy shop I would like to share with you all

Theallnaturalface a totaly lovely shop that sells vegan mineral makeup and a great range of brushes.

Well I say sells but they are so generous they are practically giving it away with tonnes of free samples to try if you buy anything. They know you will totaly fall in love with their stuff.

Heres me trying out my current faves (see the samples are more than plenty for a night out)

'purple ice storm' and 'The Tempest' - even the names are fab!!

There are lots of other colours- many more natural than those I favour - and mum even discovered that if you wouldnt use a colour on your face you can even use them for cardmaking - how cool is that!??!

I am also wearing their fab vegan mascara - which is sooo non clumpy it is amazing, their foundation (such a great range) and lots of other things that I had no idea what they were for but played round and loved the result which lasted perfectly all night - and I am afraid to admit I was v bad and didnt wash it off that night - it was still looking pretty good the morning after (which is more than I can say for me)

Great shop - not often I recommend another shop but totaly go and give this one a look.

How to needlefelt - a wolf

Click here for my introduction for needle felting - the equipment 

How to shrink over big ears 















Here is a speed video of needle felting as well

and I have felting tutorials and kits avaliable in my shop















How do I turn a pile of fleece into a felted critter??




More links to follow

Click on the links below to see how I needle felted this wolf from nothing more than fleece, a felting needle and a foam pad.







Body and legs











Joining the legs to the body











Adding muscle and feet











Making the head and neck









Ears and adding colour












Eyes and Pawpads

My first video of Ben at agility

We had our agility clubs fun BBQ on Sunday and B was kind enough to film Ben doing one of his runs (twice because we were alowed a joker if you messed a run up)
Unfort these runs are the first ones after the BBQ break and ben was a big bit hyper and I have to admit I might have had a couple of sherries - so not the best run in the world but still nice to see how he is going.
Be kind to me!! :D

Here is the first run, you can see the judge tried to nobble to comp by letting her dog run free - great start line stay by Ben - some dodgy handling by me, weaves and A-frame contacts need a lot of work



his next run i handled the first bit better but then when ii try and calm him for the weave he spots b with the camera and for the first time ever runs off course! weaves look nice when he gets going but after the A frame i am too slow and ben gets a bit jumpy.

Poor Scamp - MIA

I am sad to say one of my fave felted critters got lost on his way to his new home in Canida

Thankfuly my customer was very understanding and as we cannot find him anywhere I have made her another one and will claim for the one that went missing (good thing I kept hold of those recepits.

Its the first time I have had to try and make a duplicate of something I have already made - Scamp#2 turned out better than I thought

Sorry I have been missing from blogging action for such a long time too! hopefully I will update lots more - the doggies have been on their holidays and I even have some video footage of Ben doing agility!! so stay tuned :D

The walk for the Irish rescue doggies

Just back from the walk.
It was a really lovely day - after the weathermen telling us it was going to rain we had a totaly lovely time.

Mia had a little trouble at the start as we were on a narrow windy path where she didnt have much warning of dogs coming, but then after a couple of miles it opend out and she calmed down lots

When we set off walking we had about £700 pledged and that rose quite a bit by the end of the walk. Currently the total stands at just over £1000!!
Which is just fantastic
I will post the final result when we get it - of course we are still collecting - if you want to sponsor Mia and Ben please paypal me at pamduthie @ hotmail.com - even 50p will help the doggies lots

Here is the group after the walk - Mia is right on the end - but I never would have thought she could be so calm with so many dogs!!


I think about 6 of the dogs on the walk were Irish pound doggies, all happy in their new life and most training to be the agility stars of the future



The girl who organised it for us gave us theses cute certificates at the end


The bottom bit says (and beware - I was blubbing like a girl)

The reason

I would’ve died that day if not for you. I would’ve
given up on life if not for your kind eyes.
I would’ve used my teeth in fear
if not for your gentle hands. I would have left this life believing that all
humans don’t care
Believing there is no such thing as fur that isn’t matted,
skin that isn’t flea bitten,
Good food and enough of it, beds to sleep on,
someone to love me, to show me I deserve love just because I exist.
Your kind
eyes, your loving smile, your gentle hands Your big heart saved me…..
You
saved me from the terror of the pound. Soothing away the memories of my old
life.
You have taught me what it means to be loved. I have seen you do the
same for other dogs like me.
I have heard you ask yourself in times of
despair why you do it when there is no more money, no more room, no more
homes
You open your heart a little bigger, stretch the money a little
tighter, make just a little more room…
To save one more like me. I tell you
with the gratitude and love that shines in my eyes
In the best way I know how
Reminding you why you go on trying.
I am the reason. The dogs before me are
the reason as are the ones who come after.
Our lives would’ve been wasted,
our love never given
We would die if not for you

Sorry there are not more fotos of the walk but working a camera and keeping 2 dogs calm onlead just wasnt easy today