Collecting stuff...

I spent the morning scanning reference material for the Dubai exhibition. Rather fortuitously, I'd been loaned a pile of books on falconry from my landlord. Several books on Salukis arrived on my desk from a breeder/friend and the photographer of Animaltalk Magazine kindly agreed to allow me to use some of his images of Arabian horses... I didn't even have to leave home to collect all this stuff!

Extended family

My horse needs a friend, of the equine persuasion. Until then, these two will have to suffice. The goose and rooster go everywhere together, the goose protects his rooster, chases the dogs, chases humans at a foot-slapping run and generally makes enough noise to raise the dead.
The Grooster, as I've named them, sleep beneath Fly's stable window and are currently his only animal companions. I just wonder if they give him a headache when they start yelling as the sun rises every morning.

the whirling week that was

Clicker training with Joe has been interesting. Not really because it's been WITH Joe, but really because I'd forgotten how hard it is to learn new tricks, especially as I'm not the dog!

Learning to CLICK, PAUSE, TREAT all without adding a verbal command is incredibly difficult. For me, anyway. It reminds me of being back at school... where the other kids caught on quicker and I was still trying to understand what happened at the beginning of class.

I thought Joe would enjoy it, him being ADHD and all. And he is. Loving all those treats, pity I'm all thumbs... And it's so left brained in it's approach, it's made me realise how much I depend on my intuition to read my dog. Adding new equipment, body language and a different environment to the mix is really challenging...

But more on my week tomorrow. It's off to la-la-land for me now.