Sadly I had to step down as Phoenix Flyers beginners trainer.
I have totaly loved working with all my beginners and they have come along great this summer
Here is a video of one of my beginners running their first full course on one of my last training times with them
Cola, I am very proud of how far they have come
and a photo from my Tuesday night class - great group of dogs
But as one door closes :) although I am sad to be leaving these guys it has very much given me a boot up the backside to get an exciting new project underway. May take a little while to get off the ground but - watch this space
<< this book was the thing that got me into needle felting in the first place. The little felted Schnauzer caught my eye, it dropped into my shopping basket and from that moment I was hooked.
Every now and again I have a go at making Schnauzers because they always make me smile
Here is stage two in retraining my dogs the 4 on the floor contacts
I am training them to run to the mat and lie down on it, hopefully facing in the direction they were traveling and not curving back to me. I think that bit will be difficult but I will keep working on it.
At the moment Ben seems to often have a nice striding pattern down the contact running all the way down with good seperation between his back paws - so that looks good for a possible running contact eventually
Mia I will have to work on more, she is going down the contact but the last step her back paws are together and she is jumping onto the contact mat - but still getting her contacts
Would you like to see how I made this little guy??
Not a tutorial but a speed video
I filmed about 4 hours of me making this guy then I have speeded it up into a 10 min film.
Hopefully it will be interesting and helpfull to some people - I loved watching the eyebrows and eyes take shape in high speed
Hope you all like it, it was fun to make - if we get a sunny enough day again I might make another one
First time I have done anything like this - so I am a little nervous and excited
Please be gentle with me
This compatition is to raise money for Phoenix Flyers Dog agility club (a non profit training club) and Dogs Trust.
And the prize is your choice of breed of a small simple felted dog as seen in my 'value' range in my shop
Entries are open to Club members, Beginners and worldwide and are £1 per dog
You can join at any time while the contest is open (Up till Midnight 31st July 2012)
Either enter in person or paypal pamduthie@hotmail.com leaving a message with the name of your dog
Submit your compleated entry at any time during the month - either as a video response to my video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEu4rggisLM
Or to be filmed at training :) or post a link to your video as a response to this blog post.
The compatition is agility flat/circle work exercises. There are lots of training tutorials for this on youtube - check out
You get points for each level and the dog with the most points by the end of the month wins
Level 1
Walking with dog on left 1 point
Walking with dog on right 1 point
Level 2
Walking anticlockwise - dog on outside 1 point
Walking clockwise - dog on outside 1 point
Walking anticlockwise - dog on inside 2 points
Walking anticlockwise - dog on inside 2 points
Level 3
Running with dog on left 1 point
Running with dog on right 1 point
Running Clockwise dog outside 2 points
Running anticlockwise Dog outside 2 points
Running clockwise dog inside 3 points
Running anticlockwise dog inside 3 points
Level 4
Walking front cross LHS to RHS 3 points
Walking front cross RHS to LHS 3 points
Level 5
Running front cross LHS to RHS 4 points
Running front cross RHS to LHS 4 points
Total of 34 available points - and my decision is final :)
Good luck, I cant wait to see how everyone gets on
When I started agility with Ben it was just a fun class - and he very quickly learnt to jump off the contact equipment.
Going to classes we were taught a 4 on the floor contact - this means the dog runs to the end of the contact and lies down on the floor. It works really well, except that I didnt have my own equipment to practise at home so only having a go every now and again in class ment Ben never really 'got it'
I did build my own 'inside agility contacts' which in my tiny sitting room wasnt ideal - but actually worked quite nicely
But again as I didnt have access to real equipment very often I didnt really manage to transfer the skill from the inside small plank of wood to actual equipment - also of course the most he saw contact equipment was at a show where I had to keep running if he jumped a contact - so things were getting worse
But now I have access to a field and equipment when ever I want it - so I have decided to attempt to train these bloomin contacts - and - gulp - to also record it so everyone can see my mistakes!!
So the cunning plan!
From 'Control unleased' (if you dont have this book and own a dog you really should get it!!) I have already taught my pair to run to and lie down on a mat
So I figured this is a good start - thats all a 4 on the floor is!!
BUT a problem with the mat - and many people also have with 4 on the floor - is that the dogs curve back towards you - when we really want them facing forwards
So for the past few days I have been working on teaching them to go to the mat but keep facing in the direction they were going in by clicking early - way before they lie down and before they even turn back to me - then chucking the treat overhead so they are expecting a reward infront of them.
Then once they are anticipating this and facing forward more waiting with the click till they lie down again
I also did a brand new thing (for me) rewarding with the ball launcher too - this is new for the dogs too so they did really well realising what I wanted from them
I tried some longer hair with this one - and although they dont show up in the image she has little glass eyes instead of felted eyes - I have a big stock of eyes so I thought I would have a try at using them up
Jumped the fence into a tempting field of buttercups on a lovely sunny day.
The dogs loved zooming around in the long grass
It reminded me of when we were kids and we would say 'do you like butter?' and hold a buttercup under someones chin and if their chin went yellow then they did.
No idea where the origon of that one came from but the memory made me smile
