Why concentration helps – with anything!

I’ve been trying to make bread. As have many, many other people going by the lack of bread flour and the impossibility of buying any yeast. I had some old yeast which went out of date in February which I tried. Suffice to say we had three loaves of brick like density until I gave up and threw it away.

Finally I found some yeast on Amazon. So, on Sunday I proudly made a seeded wholemeal loaf. All went well at first – the mix looked good, so I set it to prove in a warmed oven, then left Daughter no 2 in charge while I took Gus for a walk. 

The first panicked phone call came after around 15 minutes – the dough had risen so much it was dripping over the tin sides. Poor Daughter no 2 had to transfer it to another, larger tin and then clean the oven. 

Twenty minutes later I got a second phone call – it had risen too much again in the small oven, so I suggested she turned the main oven on and gave her instructions about cooking it. I got home to a frazzled daughter and sunken looking loaf – it had sunk dramatically as she transferred it between the ovens. 

But it was fine and tasted great, if a bit sunk in the middle. I’ve learnt not to have the oven too warm for proving and also not to go for a walk at crucial bread making stages. I need to stay at home and concentrate.

Today’s game is quite an advanced trick – to teach your dog to wrap his leg round a pole. Chose a stick or pole that’s a sensible size for your dog. The easiest way to teach this is to use a clicker to shape the behaviour, that is, to build it slowly a step at a time. The steps could be:

  1. Your dog looks at the pole/stick/cane
  2. Your dog touches it with some part of his body
  3. Your dog touches it with a paw
  4. Your dog wraps a paw round the stick/pole/cane
  5. You add your cue (I use “wrap”)

Watch the video in the Challenge group for more information.

Keep safe and keep training

Carol

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