Budding artist!

I am always looking for new ways to keep our training fun and fresh. I got my inspiration for this series of behaviors from reading about Lucy the elephant at the Valley Zoo. This chains several cues that Ebony is already very fluent with (take-it, hold-it, touch & give) into one new cue...."go paint". I wanted to post a video of her artistic endeavours but unfortunately YouTube has been rejecting flash video for the last week so I can't (but as soon as it is working I will post the 'artist at work').

Maybe once Ebony completes her lessons in colour theory and perspective we will be able to auction off her works of art to raise money for Dogs with Wings.

Here is the artist after completing her first creation. Just a little bit of paint on the tip of her noze and side of her muzzle. Don't worry, it is non-toxic waterbased paint.

Susan, Everest's foster Mom, told me that Eb's masterpiece reminded her of fish swimming in a pond. Hey maybe that dip in our pond last week wasn't just to cool off....maybe she was just trying to study her subjects up close and personal so that she could make her painting more realistic???