Bing's shaping games

 

 

Bing is a very energetic little character! I have started teaching him tricks, which are fabulous in so many ways; a) keeping him out of trouble, b) teaching him how to learn, c) teaching me how to teach him, d) expanding his problem-solving abilities, e) progressing his body awareness, proprioception, balance and co-ordination, f) building a stronger bond between us.
Here he is playing 'get in the box'

 

 

 

Bing learning to front feet target

Bing learning to balance on a wobble cushion

Bing teaching me the 'five second rule', I got up off my chair, turned around and this is what I saw!!

How hard is it to be healthy?

My energy is slowly returning, it has felt like a long slow process! But at last my joie de vie is seeping back, and this makes me feel relieved as well as very happy! I keep hearing of more and more of my friends and colleagues who have become seriously ill, and as a result are no longer eating gluten. Wikipedia tells me that coeliac disease is most often diagnosed in people between the ages of 40-60 (yes sadly myself and my friends are now moving into this age bracket!). I guess the effects of the auto-immune problems and malnutritian take a long while to take hold, and build up to a level where it becomes a big enough problem to stop you dead in your tracks. So how difficult is it to be healthy? Harder than I thought to be honest! (And more expensive!!) (and I didn't think I was that unhealthy before, but helllooo! Wake up time!). Now (and forever more) grabbing a sandwich, pie, biscuit or bit of cake are all off the menu for me (along with most ready meals), so I have had to allocate more time and effort into sorting out what I eat. Funny also that when I'm out at meal times and ask for gluten free food, people think I have put myself on a calorie controlled diet and must only want to eat a lettuce leaf plus maybe half a tomato. Hmmm, no!! I would like to eat a tasty filling nutritious meal that does not poison me! I am not purposefully depriving myself of food because I want to be thin, what I would like is to be healthy and full of energy, as opposed to being really really exhausted and ill. So now I have to put together a balanced nutritional plan, making sure I am making up for previous malnurishment. Quite a lot of things to consider! but I am feeling so much better, so it is most definitely worth it. (Actually I would love a cream tea or a beer with a pizza but - well tough! If I wanted to I could drink crabbies ginger beer or cider, and eat chocolate, so all is not lost. Although now my body is a temple of course....)(Ha ha ha). Life is good.

Puppy progress

I took Bing to a co-ordination and balance (body awareness/proprioception) workshop last week, and was very embarrassed to realise that, despite having wobble boards and lots of other equipment available, I had not shown Bing many of the things before. It was a fun evening; three of the Basileas Babies were there (Bings brother and sister).They found everything easy! They are all incredibly well co-ordinated, full credit to 'Grandma' Fran as she had all sorts of wobble cushions and other things for the pups to play with from a young age. So what have I been doing? I thought perhaps I should blog about it, so that I don't forget! The day I bought Bing home, he objected every time I got more than arms length away from him. He has a very good pair of lungs!!! He also, despite having hundreds of toys, much prefers chewing wires :-S  So the first thing was to find a way to get Bing to be happy (and quiet) in a crate.

Next, of course, the big important thing for puppies is to make sure they are happy and confident in all sorts of environments, so Bing has been out and about to have as many positive experiences as possible around people (shops, cafes), horses, cattle, sheep, birds, noisy places, childrens playgrounds. Finally, I always say, if you only teach your dog one thing, teach it to come when you call!!