Back again and Mia has found fame

Sorry it has been so long!!
After Mia eating my camera my computer decided to die - just at the end of the tax year!!
So now I am up and running with a new camera and a (hopefully) happier computer

Our little Mia has found fame!! Origonal article here

A Scottish woman ended up taking care of a Louth dog that was saved by Dundalk Dog
Rescue.
Mia, a collie, was found stray in Drogheda in October and thanks to
the links that Ann Moore's Dundalk rescue charity has around Ireland and the UK,
there is a happy ending to this 'tail'.
The dog has been fostered by
kind-hearted Paisley woman Pamela Duthie, who fell in love with the tricoloured
collie and has even included her in an online dog blog.
Now Pamela is
calling for all dog lovers in Dundalk to support Ann's charity.
Pamela, a
driving instructor, told the Argus how she ended up taking Mia in. She said:
'The agility club I train with have contact with Ann at Dundalk Dog Rescue.
'We often run auctions to raise money to help them and to make it more real
they pick a dog that needs saved for us to raise money for.
'Mia's face came
up on the forum and I just couldn't get her sad eyes out of my head. She looks
so much like my own little dog Ben.
'I was not really ready to become a two
dog household but I offered that if she needed a foster home then I would take
her in.'
The Scottish woman wants to highlight the remarkable work of
Dundalk Dog Rescue.
She said: 'Dundalk has a huge problem with stray and
abandoned dogs, these are lovely animals who deserve a chance to know a loving
home.
'I would say if you are going to get a dog then rescuing is the best
way to go. It is possible to get a puppy from a rescue and you can do anything
with a rescue dog that you could with any other dog; many just make loving
pets.'
And the dog blog benmcfuzzylugs.blogspot.com is attracting plenty of
attention. Pam said: 'I actually started the blog to talk about my craft work
and to follow my dog Ben as he took his first steps in agility.
'People have
taken an interest in Mia's story and asked for ways to donate to help her and
dogs like her.'
For more information on Dundalk Dog Rescue go to www.
freewebs. com/ dundalkdogs
- Anne Campbell

Mia, one step forward, one back

Funny that I just posted yesterday about no dog being bad and then went downstairs to find Mia had chewed off the on/off button from my camera - so no fotos today.

In some ways she is getting so much better. She sat nicely while some people walked by and ran up to friends and when I called 'dont jump' with no hope of her listning she sat nicely by them for a fuss
Of course they at once said 'Oh hun, I have no treats for you' why do people think all dogs want is food when really they want your attention.
She was even fairly calm when the big GSD was close and I was stuffing her face with treats.
Training in the house is going great, she is so smart, did some nose targeting and a little heelwork, pretty good
I thought her recal was getting better but had a heart in mouth 30min where I lost her today
thankfully a friend spotted her trying to follow a man towards the main road and they grabbed her.

So training for Mia, she is no longer alowed freedom in the house or outside - she is either with me in the same room or crated. and outside she is only offlead for short times to practise recal

she is smart so I know she will improve
Its so difficult because until she improves she is not gonna be easy to rehome

Bad dog!

I am doing a lot of reading about dog training and I thought I would update some of the things I am learning and what I believe and add them to the training section.

Reading forums and listning to dog owners talk about their dog when it has been 'bad' has made me really think about if a dog is being bad or not.

I have come to the conclusion that NO a dog isnt being bad - that is us humans putting our views there

A dog does what is rewarding to them and avoids things that are not rewarding

So if your dog is doing something you consider bad it is because

a. It does not understand what you want it to do

Dogs dont come with a manual of how to behaive
sure some might be better than others - so if they are doing something you want them to do - reward them, and put a name to what they are doing
If they are doing something you dont want, dont tell them off, train what you want them to do in the situation

b. It does not find the thing you are asking as rewarding as other things

Sure, your dog might have a perfect recal in the house, but outside there are lots of interesting smells and fun dogs to play with. Build up slowly and make doing what you want more fun.

c. It does not find working with you rewarding

Thankfully this is really easy
Dogs are bred from the wolves that most wanted to work with humans. Over thousands of years we have slelectivly bred from the dogs who most wanted to work with us.
Dogs naturaly want to work with us, we just have to make ourselves more interesting.
The best way to do that (IMO) is to work with your dog, train it - anything, tricks are not demeaning to your dog - they are fun, they make your dogs brain work and they make them realise that its a good thing to work with you.


Sure in the begining it might take a wee while to train things, but the good thing is the more you train the more the dog wants to work with you and the quicker it learns

If you punnish the dog for being bad you make it less likely to want to try new things, less confident and less trusting of you
and of course very confused - randomly being told off when it dosent know better.

As I driving instructor I liken teaching people to drive like dog training.

I tell them what I want them to do, I show them if needed and I keep on helping them till they are confident and know what they should do, and I praise them when they are doing well, guide them when things go wrong

If I was to train using punisments then I would give them the keys and just yell 'NO' at them every time they did something wrong - but leave them to figure out how to actualy drive
Sure some people might learn that way but most would either get agressive and find another instructor and the rest would just sit in tears doing nothing incase they got it wrong.

Return to Dog training hints and tips

Thankyou to the Dundalk Dog rescue

I just thought it was about time I mentioned the amazing people at the Dundalk dog rescue charity who saved Mia and many other dogs last year

These people, all volunteers, have the heartbreaking job of visiting the pound and photographing the stray dogs. They then have to try and find the dogs places to go before they can rescue them from the pound.

If a place is found in time then the volunteers take the dogs from the pound and often foster them in their own homes. The dogs are neutered, microchipped and vaccinated and quarinteened for a short while before transport is arranged to get these dogs to their new homes.

It must be such a heartbreaking, mainly thankless job to see all the little faces and know you can only help a few. But they are doing great work

Please drop by their website leave messages of support and if you can spare anything for them at this busy time, not just money - any spare food, toys collers bedding and towels would all be useful

and if you are thinking of a new dog some time this year - please consider rescuing

This blog post is part of Zemanta's "Blogging For a Cause" campaign to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes that bloggers care about.

(dog) walking in a winter wonderland

Today I leave mums and head back home.


The weather decided to be amazing today so we have given the dogs a last walk in the Croc (pronounced croch) just over the road from mums house.









I hope I am not tempting fate by saying this before we have left but Mia has been very good


No toilet accidents


one scrap with her and Ben when I tried to put her with him for a christmas foto - no idea which dog started it but it was my fault.

One stairing out contest when granny told Mia to get off the sofa and she decided to take it out on Ben.

But a time out in the crate and she was as good as gold





we have been having some lovely naps all together and she has been v good, although still crated at night.


and she looooves her grannie and follows her all over the place





we have had a few nasty looks when she goes mental on the lead at other dogs, but it is getting better and far more important for me to get her to trust me than please Cesar Millan fans by a pointless show of domininence




Nope, yelling and hitting the dog will not show her I am boss, it will show her that an approaching dog is a v bad thing

Merry Christmas. Fairburn estate

Merry Christmas everyone

I hope santa claws and santa paws was good to all the kiddies and furkids alike

Mia and Ben shared the turkey giblets last night and today they are getting lamb. They have some chews and a big tuggy chewy squeeky soft toy to share
They love it so much it has already been repaired once.



As it was such a stunning day we decided to tire the dogs out before lunch so off to Fairburn estate for a lovely woodland walk.



Both dogs had a great time, running around till we saw the signs that said that dogs had to be on a lead. Then as they had worn themselves out a bit they walked pretty nicely on lead.



Dinner soon then drinkies and slobbing around watching TV. DOctor WHO is on tonight - yeah!!!

River Ness and Caledonian canal

Another stunning day and another lovely dog walk.
This time after visiting my fathers grave - and Mia giving us a little heart attack

Graveyeard in in the middle of nowhere surrounded by dry stone dykes, then a wee road, another wall, electric fence and then a field of sheep
I thought the doggies would be fine to run around in the graveyard, but nope
Mia climbs the wall, runs across road (just missing car wheels) cumps next wall and wriggles thru electric fence and runs into the feild of sheep

The laws in Scotland state that a farmer can SHOOT and out of control dog that is stressing his sheep
All she dose is stampeedes them all into one corner (about 100 sheep in one tiny corner) then, happy that she has done a good days work she runs right back to us.
Guess its on lead any time there might be sheep from now on.

Then into Inverness we gave the doggies a good run along the canal

Mia had a few growels at other dogs but every time she did Ben came over and jumped on her to distract her - good boy

up north

The doggies and I headed up north yesterday to visit my mum for christmas time.
Mia was a little star (as was Ben of course) infact overall she has been really good since the last post about her.



Out walking she has actually been hiding behind me when big dogs come too close and offlead running away more.





She still has her scrappy doo moments when approaching a dog first, but once she figures them out she is much better
and very flirty with big male dogs


After over 3 hours in the car yesterday we took them for a little walk and then they slept most of the evening.



Today after a shopping trip for us we took the doggies to the fairy glen(Reelig Glen)for walkies. We saw the tallest tree in the UK (although it is in a deep valley so it dosent look much)

And then we went up to A and B's to show them the doggies
Mia and Ben were v well behaived in the strange house, Mia only bounced a little bit but maily they said hello gently and then lay down under the table while we had coffie and yummy homemade shortbread.

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

Scotland homecoming 2009

As our government in their wisdom decided the fantastic adverts to encourage people to return to Scotland for 2009 are only to be shown IN Scotland just now I thought I would put some of them up here
Truly stunning