Rottweilers

Almost an actual dog training post

July 8, 2010 by kathi

You’ll remember that training hasn’t been going so well for Freya and me. We haven’t been doing very much training except for our minimum daily requirements of sit, down, stand or some combo thereof before meals. This is partly because I was debating about doing a thyroid panel, then doing it and waiting for the results. Also, partly because we both need a break from anything negative, and training and trialing were definitely becoming pretty negative.

I still try to keep up daily with the various dog training blogs in my feed reader. I read several agility blogs. Even though I have almost no interest in ever participating in agility myself, I have a lot of interest in some of the training methods discussed.

The last several posts on Susan Garrett’s agility training blog have been about recalls. Now there is something that the dogs and I definitely need work on. In fact, that is something that most people would (or should) admit needing to work on with their dogs. I’m still working through them, but the posts themselves as well as everyone’s insightful comments and questions are giving me a lot of food for thought.

Check it out if you want to see what I’m reading! Start out with Relationship Truce and go from there.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 8 of 31)

Waiting for thyroid panel results

July 5, 2010 by kathi

You’ll remember that I was debating with myself about running a thyroid panel on Freya. And you knew I’d end up doing it, didn’t you? As mentioned before, it’s a long shot. But at best, it could provide an answer, and at worst, it rules out something.

We did the blood draw on Saturday. With the holiday weekend, I don’t think I’ll hear any results until at least the end of the week or early next week since thyroid panels are sent out to Michigan State University. Freya’s last test was almost two years ago. I looked at it again on Saturday and while the values were within the normal reference ranges, several of the values were towards the lower end of those ranges. So I am wondering if she has in fact been borderline hypothyroid for a while.

When I was at the vet on Saturday, I was surprised to see how many people still use acepromazine to sedate their pets. I guess it does work fine on some pets. It did nothing for at least two of our previous Rottweilers, and I never considered trying it with these two. Rescue Remedy either helped, or at least gave me something to do for the dogs. Both dogs (and their humans and felines) got through the Fourth of July weekend without too much wear and tear from the fireworks. It seemed as though there were less fireworks in the neighborhood than last year, but from the sound of it, some people had more firepower as well. The dogs thought we were at war, but once they were convinced that there was no immediate need for them to follow (or lead) us into battle, everything was fine.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 5 of 31)

Shameless self-promotion, or dog promotion anyway

June 29, 2010 by kathi

Looks like I was doing this exact same thing one year ago, too! Same beautiful dog, same wonderful handler, same situation with me scrambling to put together an ad for The Total Rottweiler Magazine right on deadline.

As most of you know, Axe finished his championship and earned his RN and CGC about six months ago, but I didn’t get his ad done until just now. So please indulge me once again, and behold the beauty that is Axe:

click image for full-sized PDF version

This ad will be running in Issue 2 / 2010 of The Total Rottweiler Magazine. Please check out the magazine if you love Rottweilers! I am on staff as a volunteer (unpaid) proofreader and copyeditor, so I definitely have a connection and an interest in the magazine’s continued success.