A little felting change - a lil family

I decided on a wee change from animals.

Kokeshi dolls

I am learning all the time while I am making them - the one on the right is the last one I made and I am much happier with her than the others.

They are around 2 - 3 inches tall so it is fiddly but good practise to get all the tiny tiny detail in.

In the garden - Lavender

As you all may have guessed now my fingers are not the greenest.

Infact my parents used to drag me out of garden centres incase I could kill Bonsai trees just by being in the same room as them

I love them but they dont last long with me!







So in the past few years I have tried to only plant useful plants, herbs and veg,

I built myself a little raised bed outside my kitchen door and loaded it with herbs.









and I left them too it

Gardening by Darwinian principles

One of the winners in the battle of the herbs has been Lavender.

This really is the king of plants.

Not only a stunning purple colour but loved by bees.




I always have some essential oil lavender in my house as it has so many uses
Helps you sleep
Sooths and heals cuts and burns

and it zonks crazy puppies out totally.

What better plant to have outside your door??

ROOOARRR!!

Careful Ben
Theres a lion on the prowl!!










My latest felt critter

I had splatted a Lion so I thought I would have a go at another 3D one












I did get a little carried away with his mane, couldnt help myself he just wanted a big fluffy mane :D











He took about a week to create but I just wanted to make sure he was totally solid with plenty of detail.








I was thinking of a teenage Lion here, mane grown in, strutting his stuff but still not grown into his paws yet.

Now to think of a name!

Eeeppp Blood!!

I was tending to the garden and letting the dogs play about in the garden
When out of the corner of my eye I spotted red on Bens fur

Mind racing - who is hurt?? What did they get hurt on??








Then I looked closer at what the dogs were up to

I had been leaving the mushy strawberries on the grass for the birds or whatever.

Normally my pair dont like fruit








Today there seems to be a little more interest.

Ben grabbed a nice fat strawberry, happily rolled on it and then munched it down

So Mia had to try too










Then Ben cleaned the 'blood' from his fur

Whew - they do worry you!!

Strawberries

Wimbledon is on and for a change the weather has been perfect for strawberries.

Last week I took my first crop - yum










For some reason yesterday I was tempted by some in the supermarket - then I thought to look if any were ripe in the garden

£3 in the supermarket for the forced mass produced ones - or FREE from my garden

I know which ones have Bens stamp of approval

Drawing - on location!!

OK I am not v good but I thought I would share anyway :D

A good friend was visiting this weekend. She has just started art classes and is loving it.

As it was a lovely weekend we thought we would have a go at sketching things

We found a lovely spot to sit with this view - and she suggested we sketch






Perspective is something I have never been v good at and the angles looked interesting here

Not amazing I know, but a great way to spend an afternoon.

Great friends, great weather, 2 dogs and a sketch pad














Using the magic of photoshop I superimposed them

Actually - not as bad as I thought!!!

Dont give up the day job eh??? :D

Kiss the dog - the website is live

Finaly I have started work on the website for my dog training classes.

I have a fantastic venue for classes but for the summer I have decided to be more European and run outside classes. This means dogs and handlers can have more space from each other, but it adds real life distractions.

I have only got a few pages up so far but please let me know what you think - cick on the log to get there

More pencil drawings

I guess practise makes perfect so I thought I would try some more pencil sketches of dogs.

These are only a few inches high

I know I need lots more practise but I thought I would post them so I can come back and compaire when I get good :D

Please be kind!

Car manners

Sorry I have been lazy posting for a while!!

I have solved Mias stress problems when I am driving!! After months of driving her places and rewarding her for being calm around cows, horses, dogs, sheep she was progressing, just very sloooowly
But I got a new car. Its big enough for her to be crated in the boot and not see out.
Result - very calm car rides and a much calmer Mia when we get where we are going.

As this is a totally new situation for the dogs and it would be very dangerous for the dogs to just race out of the car when I open the boot I have done some training on getting them to stay in the car till released




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDbZZ6Exa-w

The only commands I am using is for the dogs to get into the car and then the release word. I dont want to have to keep telling them to stay, I expect them to stay until released.

I have done lots of stays in place and impulse control work with my dogs. If your dogs want to bounce out the car then you are not rewarding them enough. They cant jump out of the car while you are rapid fire treating, then you can slowly build up pauses between the treats and slowly build up you moving away from the dogs.
The more you treat at the start the easier it is for the dogs to understand what you want them to do and the happier and more confident they become.
If at any point the dog jumps out of the car you have asked too much, take smaller steps or reduce the time and reward more. Dont tell the dog off just calmly put them back and start rewarding again.

If you punish your dog for breaking his stay they become less confident, staying in the crate becomes a stressful place and they will often creep towards you for reassurance.

My next steps are to release each dog one at a time and leave the other in the car.

Ben Agility April 2010

Here is our first oudoor show of the year - 6 runs at Dundee

We had a fantastic weekend, lovely sunshine and well run rings ment we got the afternoon off playing in the sea.

Ben usualy gets about 75% clear rounds at shows but this weekend we didnt get a single clear!!

Sloppy handling from me and we need a lot more work on the weaves!! But looking back he didnt do too bad

The second agility run (4th run) the sun was quite low and the seesaw was right into the sun. He has never jumped off one before but lots of the dogs were doing it that run, I guess the light might have made it look strange - I will have to bear that in mind if it happens again.