I have had my dog Eva for almost a year now and have been on a seemingly never ending quest to train her on our walks. She is very strong and can pull me off balance really quickly and in her eagerness to get out walking and checking everything out often tugs me along and hurts my joints (in particular my left shoulder which frequently sprains) and that doesn't exactly make me keen to walk her lol

When I first got her she had a choker chain which sort of worked for a while but I think that was just like a "honeymoon" period while we got to know each other. After a while it just wasn't enough so I started looking for more effective methods. I love watching Cesar Milan's Dog Whisperer show and thought the Illusion Collar must be the best way. I found that although this was intended to sit the collar up around the top part of her neck, it frequently slipped back down as I couldn't get it tight enough on her without being too tight.

So then I decided to look into harnesses since she is so strong lol and next got the CantrolCord Dog Harness. The intent of this harness is to mimic the "pinch" of a mother dog picking up her puppy by the scruff of the neck, or biting to correct the dog's behaviour. Again I found myself having to constantly adjust the harness while walking as it would slip from above her ribs to around her stomach, and it still didn't stop her from pulling on me.

My Mum just recently moved to a place where she can have a dog and got a new puppy from the RSPCA that came with a Halti Head Collar and she advised me to try it with Eva. I was sceptical and kinda brushed the idea off (sorry Ma!) but when we took Eva for her bath at the pet store I took a look at the collars and harnesses there and had a talk to the sales person who swore by the Halti.

The Halti collar is designed sort of like a muzzle so that when the dog pulls against the leash the harness gently closes their mouth which they don't like and pulls the head to one side.

Well I bought one then and there with a new collar and took Eva for a walk this morning.....MAGIC!! On a one hour walk not once did Eva pull hard enough to hurt even a twinge, and when she started to pull ahead all I needed to do was give the leash a small tug and she came back into line. It was a delightful walk and I am now really looking forward to getting into a daily routine with her

Here she is looking spunky in her Halti on our walk this morning:

Happy Furmama and Happy Furbaby LOL

I have integrated the blog registration with the vBulletin forum to try and keep everything nicely together lol

That is so far working successfully and now I am on to importing the blog userbase into the forum. Once I am done blog members should be able to log into the forum and the blog with the same credentials you initially registered with.

If you cannot, please CONTACT ME. I shall update this post when I have imported the userbase....please bear with me

**edit - all users are now imported, hopefully with no issues lol

**UPDATE - some members passwords are not working correctly and the wordpress reset link was not working so I have added a link to the forum's lost password page and hopefully that should enable members to reset their passwords. If you find you are unable to login with your known password, please visit the below link to try resetting it:

http://www.hunnybeedesign.com/forum/login.php?do=lostpw

Annnd if that doesn't work, send me an email and I will reset your password manually

I have had a new banner and 2 new blinkies made! I usually get all mine done by Spinky Dink Scraps but as she is on leave after having a gorgeous new bub, I decided to try out Laura Banasiak's service. I am very pleased with the result, which was also nice and prompt. The new banner and blinkies use my Modern Diva kit.

Feel free to snag!

Check out her blinkies and prices here

Yep, I've done it again lol I like to change my site's design every once in a while as I tend to get bored and want something new LOL

I really loved the bright yellow of the previous design...but must confess to being drawn to the softer nature of the new design.

I also love the challenge of integrating the StudioPress themes with the other scripts on my site (vBulletin, Zencart and Photopost)....hope everyone likes the new site!

I have also made a new template for my scrapkits....that's coming soon too, as soon as I finish remaking all my previews lol