Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

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

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

Exceeding expectations

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A virtual chat world where I was once an active member has had quite a bit of downtime lately. I don’t spend much, if any, time there any longer. In fact, the only reason I’ve been checking their forum this week to see if they are back in service is so I can close out my presence and my account there.

One thing that has always annoyed me is how people talk about “withdrawal” when just one of their online places goes down. Unless your internet has completely gone down, and even if it has, aren’t there a bazillion other online and offline things to do? Sorry, pet peeve there.

Another conversation I noted on their forum was someone speculating about price increases since hardware repairs and upgrades were involved. I know nothing about that, but that brings me to my next, and real, topic: have I mentioned how much WiredTree rocks?

I hope I haven’t lost you there, because we both know the answer to that is that yes, I have mentioned it quite a few times since switching VPS providers in May. And like the virtual world I am about to leave, WiredTree has also done some recent hardware upgrades. So will there be a price increase for my VPS? The answer is… NO!

Not only has there not been a price increase, my plan has been upgraded a step and the price remains the same as the old one. Last week I got an email notifying me of the upcoming changes. Here’s an excerpt:

We are pleased to announce we are upgrading VPS resources for all existing customers! We will be phasing out our VPS384 plan and we will be introducing a VPS1024 plan as our new high-end VPS plan. Every VPS plan will be shifted up a step from the plan it is on currently. For example, if you have a VPS384 currently, you will be upgraded to our new VPS512. If you have a VPS768 you will be upgraded to our VPS1024. This “level up” will be occurring for all current VPS customers, and the best part? Your rates will remain the same!

It is so nice to see an improvement or price break given to current clients, not only as a incentive to attract new business.

Today I got the email saying that the change to my server had actually taken place. Here’s an excerpt:

[my_server_name] has been upgraded from a Virtual Private Server 384 to a Virtual Private Server 512 !
Your guaranteed memory has been increased from 384MB to 512MB!
Your bandwidth allocation has been increased from 600GB to 1000GB!
It looks like you used a coupon which gave you a discount on your current plan rate, and we are passing this onto your new plan for you!

Thank You for being a WiredTree client!

Is that great, or what? With several blogs and galleries on this server, I am so, so grateful to have the extra memory and bandwidth and thus, some extra time before a paid upgrade to the next step is needed. A big thanks to WiredTree for taking care of their existing customers.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’09: 29 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 186 of 274)

Searching for an answer

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You know what we do here whenever we’re lost for a topic, don’t you? That’s right, the search stats page!

wiredtree provisioned in: I moved my VPS servers to WiredTree in May, and so far my experience has been overwhelmingly positive (see the related blog posts if you’d like). My first VPS server was provisioned in 2.5 hours from time of order to receipt of welcome e-mail with login instructions. My second VPS server’s provisioning was not quite so speedy, but the delay was primarily due to a screw-up on my part regarding the number to contact me for the required telephone verification. I have no experience with dedicated or hybrid servers and do not know how long those would take to be set up.

mary wild: I’m a bit surprised at the number of searches that still come here on that name. Unfortunately, I have no new updates to supply. The most recent article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was on July 6, and I’ve seen nothing since then regarding sentencing for the handler who caused heat-related deaths of seven of the eight show dogs she chose to leave in a poorly-ventilated cargo van overnight in late June. I do have alerts set up for this topic and others that I follow, and I will post should new information come in.

did michael jackson have a rottweiler: In the 15 years I’ve owned Rottweilers, I have never heard that Michael Jackson was ever a Rottweiler owner. Honestly. Does he really seem like a Rottweiler person? Jackson’s name does not come up on any searches for “celebrity +Rottweiler” or similar, so I’m guessing that the answer is “no.”

(NaBloPoMo | July ’09: 28 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 185 of 274)

More of the story: Freya’s Rally-O trial

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I gave you the short version on Saturday. Now here’s more of the story of our first attempt at rally obedience, and a happy photo with UKC judge Patti Burgess (thanks to Tracy and Sharon for the photo):

This UKC Rally Obedience trial was held by Flying Paws Dog Training Club at Northwest Obedience Club‘s training hall in Cary, IL. This was an air-conditioned building with one amply-sized room set up as a crating area, and another with the trial ring.

I was running late, but my wonderful friends saved space for Freya in the crating area. There was a pretty large RO1 entry, so I still got there just in time to do the course walk-through before judging started. A printed copy of the course was also given to each competitor (which I understand is not always the case).

Freya was shown a few times in German-style conformation, and she also has her Canine Good Citizen and ATTS TT certifications. Obedience training has been a life-long activity for all of our dogs. But this was Freya’s first time at any performance-type trial, and my first time back in a trial ring in around 10 years.

It’s bad form to publicly post a course layout without prior permission, which I totally spaced on asking for, so obviously I won’t be posting it. But I will comment on a few things about our run:

  • Remember I mentioned that two of the exercises at the novice level in UKC Rally did not exist in AKC Rally, which is the version we had started training for? It is a good thing we made a point of training them, because both were included in the course!
  • After all of these years, I still don’t know my right from my left! I took us into “Spiral Right, Dog Outside” the wrong way. I actually was thinking “right” but to the right of the cones, which of course, put Freya on the inside. Fortunately, I realized my error after a few steps, asked to re-try and got it right. One repeat of an exercise means you can still qualify. Two repeats means you do not qualify.
  • Our other point deductions were also totally my fault, not Freya’s. They were all for having a tight leash. Freya was not totally with me on the first few stations, so I tightened up on the leash. If I had loosened up on the leash once she was back with me, or better yet, given her additional hand signals, more verbal encouragement or an additional command, we would have retained a few more points. Given my extreme nervous state, I am still happy to have ended up qualifying and placing with 91 points.
  • Most of the obedience training that I’ve done with Freya and past dogs has been for Schutzhund or traditional obedience rather than rally, and that both helped and hurt us. Freya already has a fairly good Stand thanks to the show ring and traditional obedience classes, so we were ready for the Halt Stand that was our fifth station on this course. But in the more traditional venues, you cannot use additional commands or signals other than the initial command. It definitely hurt us that I didn’t use those additional commands and signals. It has actually been difficult for me to get accustomed to being able to talk and move more, and I need to work on giving us every possible advantage. If we do compete in traditional obedience down the road, I’ll worry about phasing out the additional chatter then.
  • I had an extremely bad moment a few days before the trial when Freya would not do a finish to my left when given the command and signal that she’s supposedly known for at least a year. I taught her a new signal which used massive body English and both hands, and is surely illegal in any venue outside of rally obedience. Thankfully, it worked, because the only finish on the course was a left finish. Now that the trial is over, she once again understands the original command. Go figure.

And of course, a big factor was the moral support and advice from Sharon, Tracy, and Melanie. Thanks, you all kept my head from exploding!

I am making plans for a trial weekend in mid-November (there are not that many UKC trials in this area). There is another trial in October, but I haven’t found out yet if it is part of a breed (non-Rottweiler) specialty or if is is an all-breed event. I don’t know how far we will be able to go, but I do know that at a minimum, I want to finish this RO1 with Freya. I’ll keep you all informed on the journey.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’09: 27 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 184 of 274)

Late to the party again: doggie nail file

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As you know, I’m often late to the party, like I was with the FURminator. Coincidentally, it’s another dog grooming aid that’s been around for a while, but that I’ve never tried until now: Shirley Chong’s Doggie Nail File.

A while ago, Denise told me that the owner of one of Axel’s half-siblings used a similar device to keep his dog’s nails short. I mentioned Shirley Chong’s article, and then kind of forgot about it.

I am guilty of not keeping my dogs’ nails at a perfect length. Neither one is very good about at-home nail trimming (although Freya will roll over on her back to have her nails trimmed at the vet, go figure). I was near the hardware store today and figured this was worth a try. Easier than wrestling the dogs into submission and hog-tying them for nail trims (you don’t think I really hog-tie my dogs, do you? Although if you’ve ever had a dog that was bad about nail trims, you’re not objecting to the practice either, are you?) and cheaper than taking them to the vet or groomer.

I already had a board that was close to the suggested size: my board was a 1 x 8 (if anyone can tell me why 1 x 8s are not in fact 1″ x 8″ I would love to know, by the way), 30 inches long. I spent the huge sum of $7.59 for a 1.5-foot length of 4″ and a 1.5-foot length of 2″ 3M Safety Walk Tape. I did not cover the entire board so I would have a non-rough area to grab.

As I’ve mentioned before, Axel was raised by a cat, so it was insanely easy to show him that I wanted him to scratch the board. He seemed to know what to do with a “scratching post” when I showed him with my hand, and then took his paw to demonstrate what I wanted him to do. I did not need to use the clicker at all, and I barely needed to give him any food rewards. Freya, however, tried to raise that cat to be a dog, and she really didn’t want to scratch the board, even with food, praise and clicker. We’ll try again, though, as she wasn’t violently objecting or anything, just very uninterested.

I’ll get some pictures or video at a later date, for those of you who are late to the party like me.

If you haven’t visited Shirley Chong’s site before for this great tip or a number of excellent training articles, visit or bookmark it now!

(NaBloPoMo | July ’09: 26 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 183 of 274)

First Rally-O leg for Freya!

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Freya now has the first leg of her UKC Rally Obedience 1 title! She had a score of 91 (out of a possible 100 points) which was also good enough for third place in a very small Novice A group. I will freely admit that pretty much all of the points deducted were because of my screw-ups, not hers. I did tell you that I was the stupid half of our team, didn’t I?

Thanks to Sharon, Tracy, and Melanie, who all supplied moral support and good advice (unfortunately my paralyzed brain didn’t retain much of the advice) which really helped get me through my first trip back into any performance competition venue in almost 10 years!

More details tomorrow or Monday, and hopefully another photo, too.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’09: 25 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 182 of 274)