Search Results for: Freya "rally obedience"

Some Freya video and my iMovie learning curve

July 16, 2010 by kathi

I’m finally done with a short Freya training video that I started working on back in May. When we started having training issues, I lost some of my motivation for working on her videos. By the time I felt like reviewing video footage again, the magazine deadline had to take precedence.

But here it is, finally! It’s not really as informative about Rally Obedience as I had originally intended. It turned out to be more about me learning to use iMovie than about producing a good teaching video. I have a better handle on iMovie now, as well as some thoughts about how to structure a more educational and entertaining production.

I really like iMovie ’09. I’m not particularly creative or visual, so something like Final Cut or Premiere would be overkill for me. iMovie has a good variety of backgrounds, transitions, titles, and sound effects supplied with the program, enough for a beginner to use (and possibly overuse). I took only a short time with the tutorials and help files, and quickly had enough information to get started with my “production.” I guess I am a little old-fashioned as I do miss having printed or even PDF manuals. I’m definitely a easy sell for O’Reilly’s iMovie ’09 & iDVD: The Missing Manual and in fact I might head over to the bookstore tomorrow to buy it.

Although the iMovie tutorial videos on Apple’s site are helpful, it’s still a pet peeve of mine to find some information available solely as a video tutorial. Sometimes a written step-by-step is more effective, but those seem to be rare items these days.

In low-tech news, I’m still deciding whether to head back to class with Freya tomorrow, stay home and do some plain old dog stuff with her and Axe in the yard, or maybe all of us will just hide in the air-conditioned house avoiding the mid-90s temperatures. The third option really sounds best, doesn’t it?

(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 16 of 31)

Freya’s thyroid panel results

July 14, 2010 by kathi

Freya’s thyroid panel results came back today, and everything looks normal. Not low-normal, normal. It looks better than the last one we did not quite two years ago. We also did a regular blood chemistry panel, and everything looks fine there, too.

On the one hand, it’s good to know that everything looks fine with her health right now. She’ll be seven years old in November, so she’s well into Rottweiler middle age. On the other, since I’m her primary trainer and handler, her recent training issues then point straight back at me and my less-than-stellar dog training abilities. Ouch.

Although yesterday’s exercise in gratitudinaety definitely put me in a better place, I’m still not sure where I want to go with my training and trialing plans for Freya. Remember that the big question that remains:

How can I help this dog to live with more joy and be more connected to me?

If Freya is not finding any joy in training and competing in rally obedience with me, does that mean I need to find a way to make it fun for her again, or let her retire and just be a plain old dog? I’ve retired dogs before, but it’s always been for health reasons, not because they just didn’t want to play the game or do the job any more, so I’m not quite sure how to handle this yet.

I so wish she could talk.

Whatever I decide, I am still grateful for this sweet girl who is sleeping upside down on the loveseat right this minute, just like yesterday’s photo.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 14 of 31)

Saturday Freya: not one of our better performances

May 1, 2010 by kathi

Today we went to an APDT rally obedience trial at Blitzen Canine Academy. This was not one of our better trial days. We were entered in both trials in Level 1 only, working on RL1X legs and ARCH points. We ended up with one NQ and one Q with a very mediocre score of 179. So we did not get any ARCH points but we did add an RL1X leg (now at 3 of 10).

Tomorrow, we are entered in both trials in Level 1 as well as Level 2 in the second trial. It will be a long day, so it’s way past time to get some sleep! I’ll talk more about the entire weekend tomorrow night.

New page: Rally Obedience trial calendar

April 24, 2010 by kathi

Look up on top, and you’ll see that I’ve added a standing page with a Rally Obedience trial calendar.

This calendar is generated from my two personal Google trial calendars. One lists all the Chicago-area APDT, UKC, and AKC Rally Obedience trials that I have information on. I don’t usually travel for trials, so this basically means the Chicago metro area, and maybe southern Wisconsin and northwest Indiana. These are listed in blue on the page. When I actually make plans to enter a trial, I move it to the second calendar, and these trials will be listed in red on the page.

I started these calendars to help me keep track of our trials, but I hope the calendar page is also useful to others in this sector who are looking for a nearby rally trial, whether to compete or just to observe.

Speaking of rally, it’s that time again for Freya’s one month of “fame” on the UKC New Title Holders page, with her URO2! And yes, of course there is a screenshot, what did you think?

(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 24 of 30)

Just a few more Freya title thoughts

March 15, 2010 by kathi

After Freya failed to V-rate as an adult in German-style conformation shows, and also failed CERF with punctate cataracts in both eyes, I knew we would not be breeding her, and I didn’t think we’d be doing any further competition with her, either.

Obedience training has been a lifelong activity for all of our dogs to keep them alert and active in mind and body, and to keep them from destroying all of our stuff. (That part works great, give it a try! All of our dogs have had great house manners, even the ones with other glaring faults.) So when my friend Sharon suggested that we might want to try competing in rally obedience, it did seem like something we could do and maybe even enjoy. I say maybe, because I’m not much of a competitor; I probably get ring nerves worse than anyone alive. I have never actually puked on my own dog out of nerves, but there have been days that my stomach has had so many butterflies, I’m sure it was close. And I have tripped over my own dog, who was going in the correct direction while I was about to head off in the wrong one.

Rally obedience is more relaxed than traditional obedience. You can talk to your dog and give help throughout, rather than having to give just one command and hope the dog is listening. Because of this, we did have a fighting chance at success.

I figured I’d try to title Freya at the first level in one venue. That’s all done on-leash, with many exercises she’s practiced since puppyhood. I figured that trialing her off-leash would be totally out of the question, as I could never predict for sure when she’d get that wild look in her eyes and run off to have more fun than she would have following me around a rally course.

I am not sure what happened along the way to change that. We have now completed first level titles in two venues and a second level title in one. That second level title was done off-leash, something I did not think we’d be able to do. Now, we have a very real possibility of being able to complete first and second level titles in three venues, and third level titles in at least two of those venues.

I don’t know if we will go on to traditional obedience. I know we won’t go on to Schutzhund… although we might try a BH if I can get her past her dislike of bicycles and other wheeled human-propelled objects. We’ve already gone further than I ever expected to.

Is Freya rising to the occasion? Or am I?

There’s only one thing that I wish we’d done differently. Freya’s breeder Donna passed away early last summer, a couple of months before Freya’s first trial. I wish we’d started sooner, so Donna could have shared in celebrating at least our first title. She would have been even more proud of Freya than Dan and I are ourselves.

I have to remind myself more often: Life’s too short. Don’t wait.

(NaBloPoMo | March ’10: 15 of 31)