Sunday 21 February 2010

Most recent paintings.

Since last updating my blog with art, I have created a few more paintings. Conan the Bull terrier, a commission I created back in November after the greyhound painting. Then i started the snow leopard. I put that on hold at the beginning of January to do a last minute commission of Belle the border collie x and then resumed the leopard afterwards. Once that was finished, I started a new piece of the foal from a ref photo I took a couple of years ago. I have used the airbrush I was bought for Xmas 08 for the first time with the snow leopard. I used it again with Belle and the foal painting but only for the backgrounds. I'm quite pleased with the effects I can get with it although it does take some getting used to and can be quite fiddley with swapping colours and constant cleaning it out etc...

Here are the four paitings. 3 completed so far this year quicj is pretty good for me. I now have to start a small portrait of a scruffy looking heinz dog that I donated as a prize for the Rotherham Dog rescue Xmas raffle.





Sunday 14 February 2010

Very long overdue update...Agility.

Well, it has been a long time since my last update. I've not felt motivated to post anything new due to a number of problems and issues. I no longer do flyball with the dogs since the autumn due to a number of reasons. I still teach them their numerous tricks etc...but also fancied finding something else I could do with them but there wasn't really anything close and the little that was charge silly prices.
Anyway, after another search, I found a new agility club not far from me and after a few weeks of not being able to attend due to dog health issues and work, I finally got there yesterday to give the dogs a go in the fun class. They just did a bit of basic stuff like recall over a couple of low hurdles, introduced to a straight tunnel and also a tyre. As Sleet has shown a fear of tunnels she's seen the odd time before, i thought she might have taken some convincing but we managed to get her to go in and through pretty much straight away. Wren had no problem with it either. They did really well with the recall and sendaway using a toy. Sleets only blip being her usual habit of missing something out if she thought she didn't have to do it. She did that with the tyre so will need a bit more manipulating to teach her otherwise. I will also need to work on my own handling and body posture.
A couple of friends, Paul and Heather, from flyball also turned up. I knew they were looking for an agility place too so told them about it so it was nice to catch up and have a chat in person again. We all enjoyed ourselves and so back it is next week.:D I'm itching to do more training with my two.

A group shot of the people and their dogs that took part in the fun class.