Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

We call Axel our “problem solver” because he really does seem to think things through. He’s the one that likes toys with treats inside that are a little bit tricky to remove, and puzzle toys in general. He’s so different in this regard from Freya, whose strategy for getting cookies out of a Kong involves bringing it to you repeatedly until you loosen the cookies for her. Hmmm. Maybe she’s the real problem solver.

Axel did something yesterday night that made me wonder again about how he thinks. We buy large Milk Bones in the bulk sized cardboard box, and put them into plastic containers that snap shut. Dan had opened the box, given a cookie to each dog, and due to some unknown interruption, left the box on the dining room floor and never got around to the next step of putting the rest of the cookies into the plastic containers.

I saw Axel nosing at the box, told him to leave it, and then life’s little interruptions intervened again to keep me from putting the cookies away. After dinner, the dogs were expecting their usual Milk Bone “dessert,” but I was preoccupied with something on the computer and failed to distribute the cookies. A little while later, I heard some noise in the dining room and Axel came into the living room with one cookie. He is a Rottweiler, so I am not sure why he didn’t stay in there and quietly eat all of the cookies. That is why I wonder how his mind works. He knows he gets one cookie after dinner and that I wasn’t getting it for him. So as the problem solver that he is, he got it for himself. Just one, because that’s what he is supposed to get.

I know, it’s kind of a nothing story. But I’m just amazed that he didn’t eat the whole thing!

(NaBloPoMo | March ’10: 4 of 31)

This might not be a good NaBloPoMo month for me. I hope the Rottweilers did not eat my muse. Without her, I’m left with a blank page (this is the 21st century, I guess I should say “blinking cursor” instead), a blank mind, and twentysomething days still to go. Even when I’m not spending much time online, I spend a lot of time in front of a computer, so maybe it’s just burnout. Or eyestrain. Or maybe it’s just that I’m still getting over the very last traces of that nasty winter cold.

Earlier, I tried to do some Axel photos. May I say that for a correct and good-looking champion Rottweiler, he is not very photogenic when it comes to candid photos. If he were a human child, he’d be the one in the class picture with eyes closed, or looking to the side, or making a face. He’d be the big dork in party and sports pictures. If I post tonight’s photos, they will surely torpedo any future stud dog opportunities, so I think I’ll just save those for another time.

After a week off from training due to my winter cold, Freya and I both need to get back into the game in time for the UKC trial on March 13. I have a backlog of Freya videos to review, some from just before our unintentional week off, so at least I know where we left off.

Hopefully my muse will be back tomorrow to help with those video posts!

(NaBloPoMo | March ’10: 3 of 31)

…you just get the paw flipped at you.

That’s all.

Guest starring the paw of Oliver Kittyweiler

(NaBloPoMo | March ’10: 2 of 31)

The March 2010 theme for NaBloPoMo is strange(r). I don’t always blog on the monthly theme, but there certainly is no shortage of strangeness in my world, so maybe we’ll try it this month.

The winter cold I suffered through last week was strangely (ooh, there we go with the theme) persistent so I’m still not quite back to full strength or motivation or enthusiasm, and it is very easy for the playful Rottweilers to knock me over. Since I’m saving my energy for remaining upright, this post will be quite short and not too strange.

In fact, here’s something you’ve definitely come to expect. The physical proof of Freya’s latest title arrived today, so please share in my happiness that her APDT RL1, earned with an Award of Excellence, is in fact real!

(NaBloPoMo | March ’10: 1 of 31)

…to fail the shortest NaBloPoMo month of the year!

I have been fighting off an extremely nasty and persistent winter cold all week and I’m finally feeling almost human tonight. I’ve missed several days of work (fortunately nothing earth-shattering happened there), several dog training classes (we won’t know until Freya’s next trial whether this will turn out to be a minor omission or an earth-shattering one), and the International Kennel Club dog show.

And obviously, the last week of February NaBloPoMo. So it goes.