~*Shell*~

Here are a couple of my flower shots:

That's my thought as well Bec - I figure that if i break the sigma, i can always replace it with another one and still come out on top! Now to save the $$. I need a new car first though!

These are great - Terranik and I were just talking about this lens the other day. I'm still tossing up between the canon 70-200 and the sigma 70-200 - I tend to be pretty hard on my lenses and I've heard the canon tends to stand up to that a bit better than the sigma. I don't know how true that is though! The butts shot is brilliant! Love it!

all mine could advertise is beds :mad :mad Beds and food. Zero's two favourite things in the world ETA: If we're going to do dogs for a month, how about a month of no dogs? Or a month of portraiture? Doing project 365 has really made me notice how many times I default to a photo of Zero or Mow when it's late and night and I just want to go to bed!

I did blue today as well! I was planning on doing one of wolfsong's extra words for the month but it was pouring down rain so I decided to be a chicken and stay at home. Probably a good thing I did, because I found this for blue: Mow was actually sleeping in my dirty washing basket! Crazy cat! I woke him up when the first flash went off and I managed to get 4 photos before he bolted. I'm a mean mummy

Are you allowed to return around the back of your dog in CCD? I have only done that with Zero.

I was going to use the photo I'm planning on taking on sunday for this week but I think I'll just use it for my project 365. I haven't completely worked out what I want to do with it yet though!

Lol - I know exactly what it's like in perth. I lived there for 12 years - I never saw rain there like we had in sydney tonight! Meanwhile, Zero has still decided sleeping outside is a great idea. He won't come inside so I can dry him off. He has a crate under out sunroom that he sleeps in (i used to try and bring the crate inside but he would just sleep under the sunroom anyway ) and the blanket in it got wet from him going to lie on it after he was wet so I've had to change it for some towels and I'll have to wash his blankie tomorrow. Crazy dog!

Big wet stuff... falls from the sky? Ringing any bells?

Jedi is smart. I should have dropped Zero off at your place Nik. Zero and Soaks could be doing zoomies in this together! Good thing none of them are afraid of storms! ETA: Zero just ran up the steps, shook himself off right on the glass door (i could have filled a swimming pool with the amount that came off him!) and then ran back down the steps to do more zoomies.

It's pouring down at my place and when I say pouring, i mean pouring! The rain is currently too heavy for me to consider driving to pick up a friend and that's saying something. My garage is flooded from the last 20 minutes of rain and we have leaks in the roof that I've never seen before, even in the worst rain storm. Zero is currently doing zoomies in the backyard. He won't come in, even a bone wouldn't tempt him and for a food driven dog, that's saying something. I think my dog is broken! Anyone else have one too?

My shot from yesterday - "outside" (my favourite time i day and the best time to walk Zero. I'm calm when the sky goes pink and he is too) And today: Orange "crush" cordial, grenadine and vodka - perfect for a friday night drink!

Awwww - I went to see the baby elephant in sydney a few weeks ago. They're soooooo cute!! Great shots!

Poor Ahti!!! Great shot though!

Zero knows a foldback drop - if he's very motivated, he'll do the fold back. If he's being lazy, he sits and then drops. When I have something of high value to him, he'll hit the deck really quickly with next to no motivation, when he's heeling, he is a lot less motivated about it, even when he looks very motivated. Perhaps I need to jackpot the drop more? He's probably cottoned to the fact that when we're heeling, he generally has to get back up and continue heeling with me. He's pretty smart like that. I probably just have to make it more rewarding for him to be down on the ground. Try doing it for his dinner - so break his dinner into 3 bowls and if he drops with a reduced signal - then he gets 1/3 of his meal - if he doesn't drop - the dinner goes back on the bench and you walk away for 30 seconds. Make sure your signal is consistent and that you are also giving a verbal. With his dinner, he drops like a champion. Very fast, very motivated. In fact, when I'm giving him the signal from in front of him, he does it quickly with a tiny signal but it's when we're heeling he seems to have trouble. I'll have to do some experiments this weekend and see what happens.

I think I like the first one - he looks like he's intentionally putting his head down trying to look cool. He looks like he's trying to be tough in the other shots

We are in week 6 - i completely forgot to put my shot in there!!

Thanks Ptolomy!! Zero's having real problems understanding visual signals at the moment (aka, I haven't found the right way to teach him obviously!). Without an exaggerated signal, he totally refuses to drop, even with a voice command and he seems to totally have forgotten his stand last week. Any ideas? I've been working on change of position with him but it just doesn't seem to be carrying over to his heeling. He'll do it when we're doing slow heeling (the stand, the drop still needs a huge signal) but any faster and he just sits unless I exaggerate it.

Awesome - from that photo I'll assume that all flaarfies are good with sibes. I would hate for my new white flaarfie to cause even a single disturbance in my life... although I could probably just offload it on the neighbours if it does. They've got a dog - I'm sure they won't notice another animal in their backyard.

When you do a course, make sure it's hands on. I did one by correspondance (just for my own interest - I have no plans to groom professionally) but most of the people in my "class" had plans to set up shop and walked away $1500 out of pocket with no practical experience. Clipping, scissoring and hand stripping take time to learn. I could groom a friend's dog but there's no way I'd charge them for it. I have no where near enough experience to be able to groom professionally. There's no way I would send Zero to anyone in the course I did for grooming, and he's a relatively simple dog to groom.

Cheers! Zero tends to forge when I first get him out of the crate. I'll make sure i do some other work with him before I do heel work next time so I'm not going to damage his heeling by rewarding him out of position. I never think about where I reward him - I just use his marker word when he's in position and then reward him wherever he is at the time. I'll think about it next time! I really need a shorter leather leash! I use the long one at training so I can carry everything and Zero can get clear of it so I don't constantly run into him. I'll remember to bring the short one next time! He's also got an ear infection at the moment (he becomes deaf when he has ear infections because his ear canal closes - too many untreated ear infections before I got him have really damaged his hearing) but seeing that, I can see how much I'm overcompensating for not being able to use my voice as much! Thanks Sally!

Iz mine. Nots yours.

I take Zero to the local petbarn to wash him - I take a disinfectant with me, though the bath automatically sprays itself down when the session is finished. Cost $10 for 10 minutes but i usually spend 10 minutes getting Zero wet to the skin, then I don't have the timer going while i lather him up then I spend 10 minutes washing the shampoo off him. I take him home and blowdry him. I have a forced air dryer there.

Terranik was nice enough to film Zero and I the other night with our heel work. Let me have it! I need you guys to pick it apart! So far I've realised, Zero curves around me rather than being straight, his stand is crooked though when I was out there I didn't notice it. It's also not instant. Definitely something to work on this week! Mostly I think it's me that's having problems - I'm not walking with purpose, and so he's surging and lagging at different points and my signals are all over the shop. Oh and my instructors shirt is hideous... though i look a lot thinner in the video than in person so that makes up for it

Time to try another breed perhaps?? :D Pfft - maybe the person selling them just can't capture the awesomeness that is sibes