Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.

Rottweilers.
Computers. Cameras.
World Domination.
Not necessarily in that order.

What would Jake do?

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Note to self: If you do “Save Draft” and not “Publish,” then no one gets to see what you write. Not that it would always be a bad thing, but, yeah.

I was deciding whether to post Freya’s Saturday class video and commentary, or write a little more about Sunday’s trial. But for some reason I am thinking about Jake, mostly because APDT Rally Obedience encourages disabled dogs and handlers to participate and goes as far as allowing certain exercise modifications so that they may do so safely and successfully. I think this is absolutely wonderful.

Jake has been gone for over seven years now, but he was one of my heart dogs so he is never far from my thoughts. He was an amputee due to accident, which is what took my post in this direction. Only a few of you who visit me here probably remember him in real life, but you can read what I wrote about him about a year ago.

Although the APDT and rally obedience were both in existence during Jake’s lifetime, I didn’t know much about either one until later. After he had recovered fully from the amputation surgery, my challenge was to keep this active dog busy and happy, or at least out of trouble. Since Schutzhund competition involves a 1-meter jump and an A-frame, it was not something we could easily return to. So I just started to look around for things we could do, and titles we could achieve.

All AKC titles were then, and still are now, off the table for disabled dogs. The Canine Good Citizen test was a possibility. In 1998, the CGC guidelines which encouraged participation for disabled handlers were already in existence. The guidelines that now exist, welcoming disabled dogs to participate, did not exist at that time. There were more than a few clubs that chose to defer to the AKC show rules which referred to disqualification of dogs who appeared lame. It took way more phone calls and emails than I ever imagined to get a club to allow Jake to test. And then he failed his first attempt. He did pass on a later attempt, even though at heart he was more outlaw than good citizen.

I don’t even have to look up the names of the people who helped me in my quest: Mary Burch from the AKC, and Tammy Dean from Glenbard All Breed Obedience Club. I like to think we are all part of the reason that the CGC evaluator guidelines now specifically state:

Dogs with disabilities such as the loss of a leg, deafness, or blindness in one eye are welcome in the Canine Good Citizen Test. Dogs must perform all of the 10 items to pass the test, however, handlers may use hand signals, gestures, or other cues to which the dog has been trained to respond.

Anyway. He also got a doctor’s note to be allowed to take ATTS’s Temperament Test, which he passed with flying colors despite his outlaw leanings. I was not even their volunteer webmaster yet at the time.

Back then, UKC specifically allowed disabled dogs to participate in obedience competitions. I went so far as to register him with UKC, but since their CD, unlike the AKC CD, involved a jump, I decided not to put him through it. For the rest of his life, we got out to club and as much obedience and protection training as he could handle.

Titles aren’t important… yet, they are. I would have so loved to do Rally with him. He was truly my best working partner and we would have had a lot of fun with it. Miss you, Jakey. I hope you are proud of me and Freya.

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 25 of 31)

First APDT Rally-O legs for Freya!

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I’m happy to report that Freya qualified and placed in both trials at For Your Canine today to earn the first two legs towards her APDT Rally Obedience Level 1 title!

Freya’s score for the first trial was 201 points (out of 210 possible points, 200 plus a 10-point optional bonus exercise) for third place. Her score for the second trial was 192 points (we totally blew the bonus exercise) for fourth place. We need one more leg to earn the title, and our next trial is in two weeks. It’s possible that we could even earn the title with an Award of Excellence if we can get that third leg with a score of 190 points or better. I just hope we both bring our “A” games to the next trial!

We are both way more tired than we should be, considering that total time in the ring is approximately two minutes per trial. In our defense, the day did start very early, especially since I stupidly didn’t set up the van and crates last night, but I think we are just getting old!

More details sometime in the next few days and possibly video, too!

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 24 of 31)

Yes, I am obsessing a tiny bit

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As you know, I’ve been checking the AKC site daily, eagerly awaiting confirmation of Axel’s final 3-point major win and his AKC championship status. Since I was expecting a wait of about two weeks, I was pleasantly surprised to see it posted this morning.

Now I will switch to eagerly and impatiently waiting for the paper certificate to arrive in the mail.

Those of you who are friends of Axel’s or mine, but who are not psycho dog people yourselves, are probably getting a little bored and wondering why I am obsessing about seeing proof of Axel’s championship. Those of you who are psycho dog people already know how sometimes points do not get recorded, or how you or your handler might miscount points for a particular show, or how you might be like me and just terribly bad at math. You, too, have spent more than you intended to on photos to document each win, in case you need those photos to prove you got points at that show. Anyway. It’s official now, as you can see above, so I can move on and you non-psycho dog people can breathe a sigh of relief.

In other news, Axel earned his Canine Good Citizen (CGC) today! For those of you who have seen him in overbearing or wild child mode: see, I told you he is not a criminal, he is a Good Citizen!

Tomorrow, I hope to have good news about Freya following her first attempt at APDT Rally. Check back!

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 23 of 31)

Didn’t mean to gross you out…

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As you know, Freya and I are preparing for our first APDT Rally Obedience trial coming up on Sunday. Since Freya is not ready to trial off leash, or maybe that is me that is not ready, I’ve decided to do the novice level titles for all of the organizations that regularly offer trials in our area — UKC, APDT, and AKC — with her before attempting any organization’s advanced level title.

In APDT trials, you can use food rewards after any of the stationary exercises. This differs from AKC and UKC, where you cannot have food in the ring at all. At first I thought this would be a great thing, and it might well be. Except that I am the klutziest handler on the planet, and there are point deductions for dropping food, which sad to say, I do all the time in training. We get a lot of practice on “leave it.” Food rewards also have to be hidden in the handler’s pockets. You cannot use a bait pouch or hold food in your hands or mouth. That alone is a huge adjustment for me, since I always use a bait pouch and hold food in my mouth.

I have probably lost some of you already when I talk about holding dog treats in your mouth. I always feel like I have to apologize to new people in our group class, because I’m always holding treats in my mouth to get Freya’s attention on my face. My dog treats for training classes are all “people food” with the favorite choices for both me and dogs being string cheese and Jewel store brand Homestyle Frozen Meatballs (the President’s Choice meatballs taste better, but they have a higher fat content and don’t hold up as well for a one-hour class). I also use hot dogs, nuked with or without a dash of soy sauce (yes, that would be teriyaki hot dog treats). See? All of that is stuff that you wouldn’t mind holding in your mouth, right?

The one thing that I am not klutzy at is spitting food to my dogs. Most of them have been great at catching treats, either spit or thrown, and only a couple of them have let the food bounce off their faces. I will admit that if a class runs a full hour or longer, I do end up eating some of the string cheese myself.

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 19 of 31)

Freya: class notes 1/16/10

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You can check out all of the videos from Allan Ross’s Saturday morning Rally Obedience class at Best Friends/American Pet Motel on his YouTube channel. While you are here at Rottweilers Ate My Laptop, though, you can only watch Freya and me. We are selfish like that!

The APDT trial at For Your Canine is now less than a week away, so I will be making an extra effort to get to a Wednesday evening rally practice session, as well as working on cleaning up our least successful exercises at home. We are still possibly doomed if faced with my personal nemesis, sign #24: HALT – 90 Degree Pivot Left – HALT. We are entered in two trials on Sunday only.

Here is the course map, using APDT signs (click for a larger view). One of these days I will learn to draw nicer course maps. Today is not that day.

Once again, you can follow along with us:

Start: Again, I would like to get better attention from Freya whether it is required or not. If she starts out too distracted, it doesn’t get better until almost halfway into the run.

1. 19-Slow Pace.
2. 21-Normal Pace. Better than last week, she didn’t try to sit during the slow pace. I think I still need to show more of a change between the different paces.

3. 10-About “U” Turn. Ugh, miscue on my part. Should have been “back” not “fuss.”

4. 5-HALT – Sit – Walk Around. Freya seems to have lost her automatic sit somewhere along the line. Strange, because she hasn’t been in a conformation ring in literally years. Errors here are mostly mine, though. On the walk around, I’m holding the leash way too low, so I gave her an accidental correction when taking off again. Not to mention there would have points off for a tight leash, too.

5. 16- Call Front – Forward Left. Here, too, I’m holding the leash too low, again giving an accidental correction on the call front, with the leash too tight until the finish was completed.

6. 11-270-Degree Right.
7. 8-Left Turn. Sloppy turns.

8. 29-Straight Figure 8. I need to pay more attention on the walkthroughs, especially for spots like this where the path between signs is slightly offset for space reasons. Need to work on our pace through the cones. On the bright side, Freya totally ignored the barking from the gallery.

9. 9-About Turn – Right. Slightly sloppy.

10. 20-Fast Pace.
11. 21-Normal Pace. Again, need to work on finding the right pace for us. She almost got away on the fast!

12. 23-HALT – 90 Degree Pivot Right – HALT. Better than last week, only one try needed and she did actually move with me.

13. 7-Right Turn. Sloppy turn.

14. 26-Spiral Left – Dog Inside. Not too bad.

Bonus: Halt, Leave Dog, Call To Heel. That went better than I expected, except for where I almost whacked her in the face when she came to heel!

I still have much more of an issue with holding the leash too tight than I realized. Good thing to have video like this to bring that point home.

Is anyone besides me interested in seeing class notes every week? I can see where it might get boring to anyone who isn’t 1) me, 2) Freya, or 3) our instructor or classmates. And it probably isn’t that exciting to 3) after a while either!

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 18 of 31)