Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.
That should probably be more like “practice makes perfect, but not if you practice your mistakes, only if you practice doing things correctly.” But that’s too long to say all the time. And anyway, right now I want to figure out the best way of using our limited back yard practice space efficiently, and so that we are not practicing any mistakes.
Here is what we have to work with:
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The second half of April kind of sneaked up on me. Freya and I were not entered in any rally obedience trials this month, but we did not get in as much good training time as I had hoped to. We didn’t totally waste the first half of the month, but we still have a lot to work on.
Yesterday’s rally class had its ups and downs. I’m still not able to get a full 6 feet to the right of the jump if I want to be sure that Freya will go over it, and not around it. The strategy remained the same as last week: lower jump height and handler closer to the jump on the run-by. I have ruled out injury or discomfort as Freya’s reason for sometimes refusing the jump. It’s more likely that she is being lazy or smart or both, and is taking the path of least resistance. Unfortunately, not acceptable for this particular sport!
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So you might think that the big dog-related news for today, April 14, is the one-year anniversary of the arrival of Portuguese Water Dog “Bo” at the White House. Well. That is far from the most significant dog event of the day. There is nothing, not one thing, more important that happened on this day in dogs than the birth of my Jake in 1992.
It’s hard to believe that he was born 18 years ago, and that he has been gone from this world for almost eight. I still think of him often, but there’s a reason for the term “heart dog”—no matter how long they are gone from this earth, they are always, always near in your heart.
I’ve written about him before, and if you haven’t been here before, you can catch up here and there.
One thing about Jake that I miss so much is something that was sort of annoying at the time. If I was reading anything, but especially the newspaper, he would insert himself between me and whatever I was trying to read and gaze up at me with a goofy look of pure adoration in his eyes. I would always tell him that one day I was going to really miss having a dog standing on my feet and knocking over my newspaper, but not right that minute. And oh, God, do I ever miss that dog.
Here he is, adoring me, oblivious to sister Missy relaxing on the lawn. One day in the far-off future, I know I’ll see that adoring gaze once again.
“I will stay in your heart and whenever you speak my name, I will live and live and live.” — Ken Brewer
(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 14 of 30)
I was so happy to get this in the mail today…
You’ll recall the small panic over Freya’s scores being recorded incorrectly, as well as my happiness at the speed with which Beth at UKC rectified the error.
Even considering my usual obsession with getting the online and physical proof of our accomplishments in hand, this one is a slightly bigger relief to actually have in my hands!
(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 12 of 30)
Remember our one, count ’em, just one, lonely point earned towards our APDT ARCH last month? Well, here it is!
When we started doing rally obedience, my only goal for Freya was to earn a novice level title, and maybe, just maybe, an advanced title. I’m really not sure we’ll be able to get the consistently high scores needed, especially in the off-leash levels, to earn the ARCH, UROC or any combined-level titles other than RAE, which requires qualifying scores but not high scores.
I’ll give it a try, even if just to make sure that one lonely point isn’t so lonely after our next trial!
(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 11 of 30)