I have figured out that I spend about 45 minutes to an hour on each model looking for pieces that fall on the floor. Even with carefully cutting, using tweezers (sometimes that’s worst because it shoots the pieces across the floor) and having no carpet under me, I still end up on the floor searching around like Helen Keller looking for her cane.
However, lately my dog has been at my feet. Now, if a piece drops, it either lands on him (he’s yellow with a short coat) and I can pick it out or he hears it hit the floor and I can see exactly where he’s looking to pick it up! That’s man’s best friend for you.
I’m starting the online training sessions for anbody else’s dog. You’ll just have to read off the screen for them.
Just remember, when you’re looking for that perfect modeling mutt to assist you, the northern breeds might not be the best.
I had a husky up to a couple of years ago, great friend she was, but a menace to my modeling. I learned a few things:
Huskies shed heavily, twice a year and their hair can float for an indefinite length of time in mid air.
A husky can land a shed hair on wet model paint from two rooms away and a floor up or down from you with better accuracy than an F-15E can drop a laser bomb.
If it lands on the floor, whatever it is, its as good as food to most dogs, even more so with huskies, and they’re less afraid to get pushy with you than other dogs in the attempt to find out just what fell.
Don’t leave anything on the floor around these dogs, while most other dogs with go to the trouble of stepping over or going around even a small object on the floor, a husky is just as likely to step right in the middle of it and keep going as if nothing happened.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved my old husky and miss her a lot, she was a great friend, but am I ever glad I never built for shows!
my golden retreiver is about the same as the husky, her fur seems to linger around forever then when I paint my models the fur drops in for a tactical strike on my kits!
I’m thinking boxers! my mother has one , they’ve got short hair, like to watch things and really don’t bother you when you’re doing things.
You have to go for a dog that has hair instead of fur. Dogs that grow hair don’t shed. (little know doggy fact)They’re the ones you have to have their hair cut.
Only thing is they’re all those “FOOFY” dogs. They’re the ones with short legs and big heads - look like they just came out of a Dr Suess book. I’ll put up with the hair.
My pooch has been someone else’s for about five years now(couldn’t keep him, the Landlords found out.). I was on hiatus then, so wouldn’t know.
My cat, however, will NOT move to investigate an object even should her life depend upon it! So, DO NOT get a cat for object retrival!
My cat will retrieve it…it gets kind of hard to get it away from him until he gets bored with it. Lately, he has been hanging around my “laboratory” while I am “creating” (I’d love to get finished with one of my creations soon!) …[:D]…and he wants to know what’s there that he can play with too.
sometimes I don’t even know if my cat is alive or not, he’s sleeps so much. he used to be more active about 13 years ago when he was young, but for a dog I would not reccomend a lab, they would probably drag you out of the chair to get your part. LOL
I read a tip in another mag recently where the guy shines a flashlight sideways across the floor, which then creates a shadow from the lost piece. As for the pet problem, try a hairless cat.
