Sleet and Wren training pics.

I finally got some more photos of Sleet and Wren flyball training on Sunday. Taken by my sister as I was running them. They are getting there with regards to staying in the hurdles now with just wings here and there if they forget sometimes. They've not done bad being as I usually can't attend training due to having to work most Sundays.
Here's Sleet. She looks weird in all of hers with her back legs tucked under her rather than spread out like all the other dogs seems to do. If you watch her in real life, it's like watching bambi going up and down to the box. She springs over the hurdles like a Gazelle. Very weird!!
She jumps far higher than the 7" hurdles and does better over higher ones.

Wren looks more normal when she jumps. Again, she jumps much higher than the small hurdles. She looks quite graceful to watch and rushes back quickly too for her tuggy. She had a naughty day on Sunday though where she decided to chase one of the other dogs and pinch the ball from their box in the next lane instead of going for the one she was supposed to go for. Little madame.

She'll need more practise with a dog running in an adjacent lane but she never bothered with dogs in the next lane at the two starters tournaments she's been to.

During her second batch of runs, I managed to badly pull my back and I'm still crippled now three days later with two weeks off work sick because of it. All I did was straighten up after releasing her.

Here they are all running around afterwards. Sleet was returning with a ball that had been launched.
And again....

Some of us standing about watching or launching balls. I'd pulled my back by this time so was standing there in pain in this pic. Kath had to take the free run photos after training this time. I couldn't squat to get any myself. Look at that cloudless sky.

Sleet and Wren tricks.

Whilst at our flyball tournament on saturday, I got Kath to take some photos of Sleet and Wren doing a few tricks. Here's a few of them.
Double act: Never done this before because I normally teach them seperately but they just decided to do it. Wren jumps on my back and Sleet weaves between legs. I'll graduate to walking forward with Wren on my back and Sleet can do the walk weave.
Dual heelwork on the same side...they've never done this before either. We haven't done a whole lot of work on this but they seem to be quite good at it. I'll have to work more on it.

Sleet jumps Wren. She then circles me and jumps wren again and keeps repeating until I give the signal and toss the ball.

Wren on my back.

Sleet on my back.

Emerge - Lion portrait completed.

I managed to get this painting finished today which I'm rather pleased about. That means I've done a painting for each month so far this year. Quite a bit quicker than I usually am. I need to get more done for the exhibitions I want to enter this year. It's thinking of what to paint next thats the biggest problem.

Skateboarding adventures and Lion update.

Sleet and Wren have continued to have skateboarding practise here and there out in the street now as there's not enough room on our backs anymore. They've both learnt to keep three feet on and push with the 4th and to just ride the skateboard with all 4 feet on it when it's gotten moving. They still need more practise to get even better. Meanwhile, they've been attracting quite some audiences in the form of local kids and bunches of chavs..some of which have filmed them on their mobiles with permission mind. I suppose it's not everyday you see dogs skateboarding along your street. Here's a couple of pics, One of Wren and one of Sleet. The photos make them look stationary but they were both pushing themselves along pretty quick.

I've also been getting on with the Lion painting. I need more paintings to enter into exhibitions this year so, along with knightshade, this will be the second of the new paintings I'll have for exhibitions this year and need several more at least.

I've been working on getting detail over more of the lions face and into the mane. Still more work to do mainly on the mane and top of head etc...plus, I'll need to add whiskers last thing.

Emerge - Lion painting in progress.

I started on a new personal painting as I don't currently have any commissions and I need to cary on building my portfolio and also need new stuff for exhibitions.
I decided to do this Lion.
The ref photo was a little lighter and the lion was laying down. He also had bars going across him as he was photographed in a zoo so I had to get shut of those.
I stood him up and made the whole thing a bit darker so only the more highlighted areas could be seen along with minimal partially lit areas.
I love to paint this type of light...it excites me, lol!!!

Just the first two stages so far. I tend to paint different paintings differently and that something inside my head told me to do this one my painting over the whole thing with base colour and then gradually build up layers and refine...working lighter and lighter on each area. I often paint totally different to this and paint sections at a time which is a bit more unusual.

Ref photo credit:http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/190841

Wrens first flyball win.

On Saturday, we were at Markfield yet again and, as is usual for Markfield, the weather was nice and sunny and pleasant. My sister and I managed to get Wren and her young dog Storm into another team to make numbers up. We ran with the Kaos Krew (Many thanks to Joanne and co for having us and making us feel welcome all day)
I was a little concerned about Wren as she gets very little training in because of my work. Despite this, she ran fine but decided that she was going to change which way she turned. We noticed her missing the ball and fumbling a few times and then it became apparent that it was because she was now wanting to turn the other way. I don't know whether it was because Kaos Kew use a Boomerang box and Wren is used to Canadian but we tried her with the ball in the other side on a test run and it worked so we kept it there. I also started getting the hang of being at the start and knowing when to release her from looking at the lights. Again, many thanks to Joanne for the advice on that.
The team did really well and we won all the races throughout the day despite the few minor mishaps. There were just a couple of legs we lost but we still got best out of three each time and so won 1st place in Division 4. As we were running a newly concocted team, we had no idea how we'd do so it was a very nice surprise for all of us.

No photos of them running for obvious reasons but I have a photo I took of Wren enjoying a little run about with Storm just before we put them back in the car and left for home.

Sleets first anniversary of being with us.

It is exactly a year ago today when we went to buy Sleet as a 12 week old puppy. She was one of two bitches left, the other one being quite a little bully who barked a lot at Sleet whilst we were there. Sleet on the otherhand was a nervous little recluse but I took her anyway over the other one. Within a couple of days of being with us, she was a different pup. She was running all over the house, would bring all her toys into the front room one by one, run around like a mad thing, wanted the cats to play with her, playing tug of war with us and using those needle-sharp teeth generously in play and beating up my sisters adult male BC when she brought him round. Getting away from that bullying sister was the best thing that happened to her. She still sits there and looks scared if a dog yaps at her in play though. She never forgets that. Normally, she LOVES to play with other dogs but she still doesn't like them barking AT her. At the same time, she soon learnt ground rules and tricks and our general routine. She only ever chewed her toys, never anything of ours...other than our hands, feet and arms, lol. Not like Wren who wanted to chew everything she shouldn't..and still does sometimes.
Sleet has thrown quite some challenges and has proven to be a very smart dog...learnt to open doors as soon as she could reach the handle. She has quirks I've never had to deal with previously and has taught me a whole lot more than what my previous dogs had taught me and still does. She's definitely a character..and a poser!!
Here is a recent pic taken a couple of days ago. Sleet just knows how beautiful she is and makes sure everyone notices...or else:D

Beating Monty up as a puppy....