"Woof woof Squawk!" - Gryph-Hound

Dogs acted as humans' alarm systems,

trackers and hunting aides, garbage

disposal facilities, hot water bottles,

and children's guardians and playmates.

Humans provided dogs with food and security...

Humans domesticated dogs, and dogs

domesticated humans.

Colin Groves, Australian National University

Hey Dudes and Dudettes welcome to The Art of Caesura,

Hope you're boiling away in the middle of your summers (for our Northern Hemisphere readers) and not freezing too badly for our Southern Hemisphere vis-a-vis. Give a thought to us poor sods in the South-West of Ireland who have literally had 4 days of summer this year and are starting to crack up!

This week is a little different. It's time to give a bit of attention to our canine compadres. I painted up the gryph-hound from Silver Tower. I know that I should really be showing off this model with his human companion - the Excelsior Warpriest. But...well I moved on to something else before I painted that dude. So rather than leave you feeling cheated, I thought I'd tell you about another important dog in my life. But first: Gryph-hound!

I have seen so many colour-schemes for this guy across the vast inter-webs. I decided upon a fairly classic half-lion-half-golden eagle-look (ie. gryphon). I (appropriately) used Gryphonne Sepia and Nuln Oil shades on the beak, and finished the beak with a gloss varnish (which unfortunately, you can't really see in the photos).

Conveniently, I chose a base (of the ones that I had previously prepared) that complimented his colour-scheme.

Because this guy was fairly basic I only took the two pictures of him, but lest you feel taken advantage of, the next minis I post on here will be among the most involved that I have had the joy of encountering...

Now for something (almost) completely different...

Let's keep it canine-themed and talk about my fiance's family dog, Oscar!

Osc is half border collie, half husky! He's a big energetic ball o' fur with spots like an orca and two different coloured eyes.

Whenever we're at the family house I go running with Oscar, and to honour his husky roots I've taught him the command "mush mush!" to run faster.

Last year I took a course on animal intelligence based on this great book:

A link to the course is over here and I'd highly recommend it. I learned some amazing things and the course comes with a "lab component" in the form of limited access to the Dognition website where, though guided experiments (games really) you can assess how your dog preformes in different domains of intelligence.