Omlet Fido Studio Dog Crate

Omlet were kind enough to send me the Omlet Fido Studio Dog Crate to review.  I had seen this come up on my Facebook feed recently and thought how nice it looked and having a new puppy it is ideal.

Crate Training

First of all I will talk about crate training as I noticed on their post on Facebook there were a lot of negative comments on 'caging your dog.'  When I had my first rescue dog 17 years ago the rescue centre recommended using a crate for her and we said 'no we aren't putting her in a cage it's not right.'  After a few days we realised we needed a crate, she was found wandering the Welsh mountains and was wild, she was panicking when she was left alone in the utility at night and actually managed to chew a hole in a wall in her bid to escape.  The crate we realised was for her own safety and as it turned out her security.  She felt safe in there, felt comfortable and was a lot happier.  I always now crate train my puppies, you can't be with them all the time, you need to sleep, to go to the shops etc etc During those periods they are safer in a crate, especially when they are teething as they might chew something that could do them serious damage.   I also have a 3 year old daughter and if my pup could play with her all day she would but you can tell when she is getting overtired and needs to nap, again a crate is ideal for that.

Introducing a crate is pretty easy, it is just a matter of the dog realising it is a nice place to be.  So you ensure every time they are in there they are enjoying it.  I feed all of my puppies meals in the crate so she is associating it with something nice, then when I do leave her I leave her with something nice to chew like a stuffed kong.  This has always worked for my dogs and they end up taking themselves off into their crates to settle.  There are also crate games that you can play which makes the crate fun, click here to see some more information.

Fido Studio

Onto the Fido Studio, first of all here is the erection time lapse video.  It is pretty straight forward and you can manage it mostly on your own, the only tricky bit being when you put the top on the crate section as you do really need someone to hold it in place.

I had to go for the larger Fido Studio as Kite is just growing out of the smaller crate size, to be honest I probably could have done with something in the middle size wise but Omlet only currently offer the Fido Studio in 24" or 36".  However because it is big it also fits my welsh sheepdog cross collie dog who is a big lad.  

I love the wardrobe compartment, when you have all the extras you have stacks of storage which is great as I can tidy the toys into a basket now and have a proper home for the lead on the hook and a coat on the rail. 

When I looked at the crate before it arrived I didn't really think I would be that bothered about the wardrobe but now it is here I love it, I keep a pack of treats in there as well as the toys.  It means it's so easy just to get some treats out and do a bit of training, not spending half an hour hunting down some treats first.

The product is really good quality, not like your Ikea flat pack, it is really sturdy.  It looks stylish, it doesn't look like an ugly dog crate.  The wardrobe is a great feature for storage, there is also a tray in the bottom of the crate for any accidents.  However this doesn't slide out like it does in a normal stand alone dog crate, you do have to pull it out at an angle, so if there was an accident, it would drip off the tray onto the wooden base.  So I do feel that this could perhaps have been designed better.  The bed that you can buy with the crate is really luxurious and looks stylish in there too.  

The crate doesn't have to be set up as above either, you can have the door of the crate on the other side and you can also put the wardrobe on the other side too so it is quite versatile.  Having two doors is great too as you can leave them both open which helps if you have a dog that isn't used to a crate and you are training him/her to go in, you can just leave both doors open and the dog can make the decision to go and lie down.

Here is a short walkround video and this was also Kite's first time seeing the crate so I was rewarding her for going in:

Visit Omlet's website for more information, you can buy the crate and accesorise it however you want to.  I do love the Omlet products, they are so stylish and this is fantastic quality.

I have not been paid for this post, however I received the Fido Studio for free in order to review. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity. 

Introducing Kite - Starrytails Catch the Wind

 

Our new member in the family is Kite, she is a miniature american shepherd. You are probably thinking what is one of those? Mini Americans were originally mini australian shepherds as they are australian shephers but are bred smaller. The breed standard states should be 13"-18" whereas the australian shepherd is 18"-23". 

Kite was one of the biggest and heaviest pups in the litter so may well measure towards the top end but that doesn't bother me as I loved her chunky aussie look, some are quite fine and am not keen as it was the chunky aussie I originally liked but always found them a bit big.

She has settled in well and is so confident but not over confident so it is nice. 

 Here she was at 3 weeks and 5 weeks :)

 

Quality Street Christmas Advert

You might not know that I have my animals signed up with an agent for media work. I have been working the animals for about 12 years or so.

Sweep got the call for 2 days filming in London for a Christmas advert - I never say anything at the time as am not sure what I can and can't say so it's best not to say anything!  Now the advert is out I can tell you it was for Quality Street. I was pleased to hear it was a 2 o'clock start so we missed rush hour traffic into London which can be horrendous.

These things sound glamorous but they are far from it, there is an awful lot of waiting around and standing about in the cold.  Sweep didn't actually get called onto set till about 5pm on the first day and nearer 6pm on the second day.

We had been training him to jump and catch sweet wrappers falling from above but they changed the plan on the day - another thing that happens quite frequently - you can prepare yourself and your animal as much as you can but on the day it can all change and you have to be prepared for this. 

I had been concerned about how slippy it would be if he was jumping, they were using pretend snow but it wasn't slippy at all - it was a paper substance not wet at all, completely dry.

Instead of him jumping at the sweet wrappers they wanted him to run into set towards the actors and then to start jumping at the wrappers - I did say I couldn't see him doing this as I had to hide behind a hedge so he is hardly going to know what to do.  So I let them see what would happen as this is usually the best way to give it a go and then they can see for themselves.  I got Sweep to run on to set and run about a bit but I couldn't get him jumping at the wrappers from a distance - the wrappers were floating slowly in the air and it wasn't that easy to see them.  So I got them to stand me on a box rather precariously just out of shot and I could then get him to jump at his target stick.

The other shot was that he had to walk off lead down a street with an actor so we loaded him with sausage and a tennis ball, Sweep was happy enough to go off with him then!  They wanted him running in the street happily doing his own thing but near enough to the actor, the actor was squeaking his ball in the pocket so Sweep easily ran round excited then!

Sweep was a good boy and worked well, he is completely focused and despite all the commotion going on round him he concentrated all evening.

This is the actual advert, watch out for it, I believe it has been shown quite a few times between prime time programmes:

Then there is the behind the scenes video which shows a bit more of Sweep and of myself and Mark who came with me to give me a hand:

Pedigree Dentaflex

Thank you to Pedigree who sent us a box of goodies including a month's supply of Dentaflex for each dog, some food and treats for the kitten and a lovely limited edition bowl.

Sweep did a bit of posing before devouring his Dentaflex, nom nom nom.

Ember took a little longer over hers!

And Rum is probably the one who needs them most, he is 9 this year and has just started to get smelly breath!

Mmmmmm 

You feed them twice a week and I have to say I have noticed an improvement in Rum's breath. After a few days it started to smell so he had his second chew and smelt of roses again :) lol. 

They have all only had two so far so will report back after 4 weeks. They do smell horrid to me but the dogs seem to enjoy them so that's all that matters!

Ember the Sheltie

Ember the Sheltie has the most amazing bombproof temperament, she has the best temperament out of all the dogs. She's brilliant with Macy.

Mug shots

I found an article about the new craze of baby mugging, well as we have not got our human baby, I decided to mug the dog!

So here's Ember's Mug Shot!!