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.

Ne'er cast a cloot till May be oot

Introducing my Granny. Who sadly died in the early 90's.
Many of us have lots of phrases that have been passed down to us from wise old ladies.
Granny Duthie - or 'Granny up a north' as we called her because she lived in Sandhaven which is about 50 miles north of Aberdeen, a long way from our Midlands home.

A few weeks ago I was on the beach with the dogs, almost warm and feeling summer on its way. Saturday the clocks sprung forwards so the weather should be getting better.
I was even thinking of putting my big coat away for its summer rest.
But it seems no one told the weather it should be getting better as tonight on the last dog walk I got snowed on AGAIN!
It reminded me of an old saying

' Ne'er cast a cloot till May be oot'

I always thought this was a Scottish saying, as many of the terms are unknown to my English friends but it seems it is an old English saying.

Anyway, to translate for those who have lost touch with the roots of their language ;D

Cloot - Can mean clod of earth or a smack round the head but in the case of this saying it means cloth
Ne'er - Never

So the first bit means Dont put away your warm clothes

Oot - out

There seems to be some confusion about what May it is - some people even say 'ne'er cast a cloot till the month of May be oot'
But the Hawthorn tree used to be called the May tree and its blooms were called 'May'
So it is likely that the May in this saying is the Hawthorn blooms rather than the month of May

Dont put away your warm clothes until the Hawthorn blooms are out

The Hawthorn blooms late April early May, but as we are further north up here in Paisley I think I will wait till the end of May before retiring the big coat.

A sneaky peak, Ive been splatting wildlife

Thought I would share my latest splat!!

In a craft shop I found this amazing leopard print felt and thought it would be fun to make a leopard splat

He was great great fun to make but very hard work.

After making the base in white fleece I then had to try and blend some colours to match the felt as close as I could

Then came the spots!!

3 Hours of felting to work in all these spots! When I shut my eyes I can still see little dots!!

I hope you think he was worth it!! I should put him up in my shop in the next day or so.

Any ideas which photograph I should use as my first one in my shop??

Happy birthday Ben, 3 today

Today is my little boys birthday, 3 today
Or 21 if you go by the 7 dog years to one of ours.

So thats it - he is a grown up now!



Today was the Glennifer agility show.
After stupidly doing a really long nearly 4 hour walk yesterday both Ben and myself were a little stiff

He did really well tho, 3 runs, 3 clear rounds.

Unfortunately we didnt get any places as there were some super fast dogs there today but I am really happy with him.

Mia was a little angel too, offlead running and then onlead a collie charged her all snarling and reactive and she wagged her tail and went into a play bow!! WTG girl!

Then after a quick visit to the pet shop for birthday toys we headed off to the rhubarb fields that friends have been telling us about.

The dogs had a great fun run about and have been sleeping ever since

I think he had a good day

Dog training methods - 4. Capturing

Many of the behaviours you would like to train your dog to do they already do naturally.
Capturing just means rewarding/naming the behaviour as it happens naturally. Over time your dog will begin to associate the word with the action or will begin to offer the action more.

Often this is how we toilet train a puppy, wait till they are doing the toilet outside and then praising and rewarding them for going to the toilet in the correct place.
It can also teach a really strong recall behaviour if you call your dog when they are already running back towards you full pelt.

As dogs (and people and all animals) are more likely to repeat something that has been rewarding to them if you pick the behaviour you are wanting to train - say the down - and then reward every time your dog is lying down then you will find your dog offers lying down to you more often and you can add a command word to the behaviour.

You can also use this method to teach your dog to calm down in stressful situations. If every time your dog is totally chilled you say 'calm' to them then eventually they will become calm just by you saying the word.

It is important to remember this when we are interacting with our dogs.
It is very common for people to yell 'QUIET' at dogs when they are barking, the dog does not know the word quiet but if said often enough when the dog is barking and they will eventually learn to bark when you say 'quiet'
Better to say 'quiet' when your dog is actually being quiet!