My attempt at doing a photo-a-day Project 365 petered out in April. Since then, I’ve gone between days and weeks of taking dozens of photos and other times when I take no photos for a few weeks. I have managed to learn enough about my DSLR to be able to pick which of my two lenses is the better one for a given situation and to figure out the right manual settings more than half of the time.
This, unfortunately, is from the less than half of the time when I didn’t figure the settings out correctly…
…still not a master work, but at least it’s Facebook-able and friends-and-family shareable. I love you, Photoshop. That is all.
Although I first learned about the GNC Pets line of vitamins and supplements last October, I didn’t get around to actually trying any of the products until last month. Freya and Axel have just finished their first bottle of GNC Pets Mega Hip & Joint Health with what seem to be satisfactory results.
I give all of my dogs joint health supplements once they reach adulthood. The ones who did have hip or elbow problems visibly benefited after a month or so. I feel the supplements help as a preventive measure for the others. It’s difficult for us to do a full review of any joint health products, though, since neither of the current dogs suffers from any hip or joint ailments. Axel failed OFA elbows with DJD1 (degenerative joint disease, Grade 1) but is completely asymptomatic. Freya passed OFA hips and elbows but has just entered her senior years as she turned seven in November.
At first, I was a little bit put off by the slightly chemical smell of the chewable tablets. They definitely did not smell like “Savory Beef” to me. I was concerned that the dogs would also find the chemical smell objectionable. They won’t take the tablets like treats, but they will happily eat them when mixed into their regular meals.
The pricing and ingredients are comparable to the brands I’ve tried in the past, and it is convenient to order them at GNC.com along with my own vitamins. I will likely purchase this product again in the future.
This product was purchased at a regularly advertised sale price. I have no connection to GNC other than as a generally satisfied customer, nor did I receive compensation for this quick review.
Those things that I said were going on this month? Yup, they are going on all right. Here it is, almost tomorrow and I’ve just gotten here. Sorry… all you get today is a gratuitous Rottweiler.
I mentioned earlier this week that I’m doing a Project 365 (photo-a-day) this year. Since not all of the photos will be about Rottweilers, computers, or even world domination, I’ve started a separate photoblog as well as a Flickr set for the project.
So far, I’ve been using my familiar point-and-shoot Nikon S51 and the camera on my BlackBerry Curve 8330 for the daily shots. But one of my goals for Project 365 is to learn to use my Canon Rebel XS DSLR to best advantage, so that camera will be added to the rotation starting next week.
I cross-posted my first Rottweiler-related photo earlier in the week. Here are the other pet-related project photos:
Yes, I’m late with this since we’re almost a week into 2011 at this point. But I still wanted to take a look back at 2010. I won’t call this a “top 10″ list as many other pet bloggers are. I’ll just ask you to revisit some of 2010′s moments with me:
The best achievements of 2010 went to the dogs.
New champion!! Axel’s AKC championship was one of the highlights of my year. A week after this, he would earn his CGC (Canine Good Citizen) and the following week his RN (Rally Novice) title, making January 2010 a hugely successful month for him. I was more of a happy cheerleader than anything else. The credit goes to his handler Julia Foster and his breeder Denise Pluta.
Just a few more Freya title thoughts Later in the year we would have some training setbacks and I’m still not sure whether Freya is retired or just on hiatus from rally obedience training and competition. But in March 2010, we kept things together long enough for her to earn her UKC Rally Obedience Level 2 title. This is an off-leash title and given that I am the worst handler in the world, a huge accomplishment for both of us.
If I were a real pet blogger, I’d have more posts like these.
Freya: class notes 1/16/10: I have a few other “class notes” posts where I take some raw video from a training session, class, or practice session, and break it down into what went right and what still needs work. It was helpful to me to review Freya’s progress and decide what to work on. I hope it was interesting to at least a few of you as well.
Some Freya video and my iMovie learning curve: I used one of the “class notes” videos to learn how to use iMovie ’09 and also create an “intro to Rally Obedience” type video. It did not end up being that effective as an overview, but I learned a lot about iMovie while creating it. Thanks to our obedience trainer Allan Ross for all of the class videos.
Total recall: We experimented with taking an online class as well, with some surprisingly good results. I don’t think online dog training can ever totally replace working one-on-one or in a small group with a good trainer, but I found this recall class to be an effective supplement to our training. Susan Garrett’s blog is a great read even if you are not doing one of her online classes and even if you have very little interest in agility.
Review: Pet Botanics Healthy Omega Treats: If I were a real pet blogger, I’d probably get more opportunities like this one to review pet products. I was happy to give these treats a good review. The dogs loved them and the healthy ingredients and low calorie count were a bonus.
These very disturbing news stories accounted for quite a bit of last year’s traffic, sad to say.
Update: Mary Wild sentencing: Dog handler Mary Wild got off with an unbelievably light sentence for the actions that caused the heat-related deaths of seven show dogs due to her negligence. She was convicted on eight counts of animal abuse and the light sentence was a horrible letdown considering what the penalties could have been.
Update: Lora Hunt sentencing: Lora Hunt was painting her fingernails as she drove, and rear-ended motorcyclist Anita Zaffke, killing her. For this, Ms. Hunt got only 18 months in jail. Another unbelievably light sentence and a big letdown for all of us who really do want to believe that justice can be served.
I’ve gone off-topic to non-Rottweiler, non-technology items quite often in the past. I’m trying not to do that going forward, but sometimes it’s hard not to write about food and entertainment!
Snack break: teriyaki meatballs: If 2009 was the year of kal bi, 2010 was the year of these retro teriyaki meatballs, taken from a ’60s cookbook put together by my aunt’s service club in Honolulu.
