Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

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

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

Search Results for: Freya "rally obedience"

Back to school

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Classes start again for Freya and me tomorrow after a three-week break. I originally thought we’d just be returning to our usual intermediate/advanced group obedience class. But there has been a rally obedience class added to the schedule immediately following the group class.

I’m not sure how it is going to work for us to take two hour-long classes in a row, but the times and locations for the weeknight classes I was considering aren’t going to work for us either for the first few months of the year. So I’ve decided to try the consecutive classes for a week or two and see how it goes. If it turns out to be too much in any way for either Freya or me, we’ll go to the as-yet-to-be developed Plan B.

I’m going to take some time now to figure out some goals for this set of classes. The immediate priority is to prepare for our first APDT trial, and also decide whether it will be the trials on January 23-24 or the trials on February 6-7. APDT does not allow choke collars for trialing, as UKC and AKC do, so I also need to get Freya accustomed to working in a martingale collar.

Of course, these goals may be modified, depending upon what happens tomorrow!

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 8 of 31)

Almost forgot to show the proof!

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Freya finished her UKC Rally Obedience 1 title back in November, but I never did finish discussing our performance at those two trials. I should still do that before I’ve blocked a less-than-stellar performance from my memory.

But enough about the missing play-by-play. I forgot something really important: visual proof that we got the title!

Here’s the official certificate:

Here’s our bit of the New Titleholders section of UKC’s website:

I will get to the details of the trials, but probably not until later this week. Axel’s heading back to the shows tomorrow, so we all need to spend some quality time together tonight!

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 3 of 31)

New year, new decade, what else is new?

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So a shiny new year and a shiny new decade is upon us. I don’t feel too shiny and new myself, and it’s been a long time since I’ve tried to trick myself into thinking that January 1 and a clean slate are in any way synonymous. And despite this month’s NaBloPoMo theme, BEST, I’m not quite ready to say “Let’s have the BEST year EVER in 2010!”

That sounds a bit pessimistic, but I actually am planning for good things to happen in the coming year.

We’re enjoying a few more days of Axel’s company as he spends his winter vacation here at home. As you may already know, he’s just one major away from his AKC championship. There will be no majors at his first stop in Texas, but he is entered in Rally Obedience trials both days, and may be able to finish his Rally Novice title there. Next stop will be the Winter Classic clusters in Brooksville, Florida. The breakdowns are posted for the first cluster, and four of the five days are majors for Rottweilers. So think good, winning thoughts for Axel this month, please!

Freya will also be working on her Rally Obedience titles. She earned her UKC URO1 in November, but I don’t feel that she is ready to compete off-leash for her URO2 yet. So we’ll be working on the novice level titles in other registries: APDT and AKC.

So, you say, those are the dogs’ goals! Yes, sadly my dogs are more motivated than I am, or I am more motivated for them than for myself. Or something.

It’s true that my own goals are not as well-defined as my goals for the dogs. Professionally, 2009 was a year of just trying to stay alive, and thankfully, we did. I admire those who can still formulate long-term goals in the midst of treading water, because it’s not something I found myself able to do. Along with everyone else in the country, I’m hoping that as the economy recovers, so will our business and our ability to plan for the long term and the big picture. Even more so as I get closer to retirement age!

Personally, I want to do more with my blog and website. Hold me to it, will you?

So. What are you hoping to get done in 2010?

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 1 of 31)

…and if it’s not something, it’s another thing

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Since it would be our last rally obedience-specific class before the trial, of course this would be a day that I don’t get home early enough to make the long-ish drive to class. Figures. Freya is taking it in stride. Easy for her, because when we practice at home, the string cheese and meatballs for practice are nice and firm and not all mushy. Less pocket lint, too.

And to add to my discomfort level, I still don’t know which day we will be trialing (see yesterday’s post).

UPDATE: 11/13/09 3:55pm – There was a voicemail awaiting me that confirmed our entries for Sunday. Yay!

(NaBloPoMo | November ’09: 12 of 30 | 75% Challenge: 257 of 274)

Eleven days till our rally trial

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Wednesday night would usually be our night for rally obedience, but this week our class was moved to Thursday night instead. With just eleven days to go before the trial, I know I shouldn’t try any drastic changes. So I am just trying to work on the areas that could lose us the most points.

First and foremost, of course, is leash handling and the all-important loose leash. This is a very weak area of mine and I am really trying to work on my tendency to automatically choke up on the leash when I feel I’m losing Freya’s attention, rather than getting her attention back with her name, a command or a hand signal. I have done things like throwing the leash over the my shoulder, or working off-leash or with a short tab. The problem is definitely me fiddling around with the leash.

I’ve ordered a 4-foot leash so I won’t be unconsciously folding and refolding excess leash. Yes, I do already have one. No one can go through several dogs and obedience classes without having at least one; in my case it’s actually a 42″ leash. But Axel took it with him on the road. That’s a story for another day, but he always takes at least one piece of equipment with him on road trips that wasn’t really supposed to accompany him. I know that getting a new leash this late in the game might not be the hot setup, so I’m also going to try the trick of tying a knot in my 6-foot leash to mark the point below which I should not grab in order to keep enough slack in the leash.

We’re still having some trouble with finishes. I did not do a very good job of impressing the different commands and signals for left finishes versus right finishes in Freya’s mind. Since she learned the right finish first, and we did not add the left finish until much later (rally obedience is the only sport in which you have to use both left and right finishes), sometimes she’ll do the right finish even if I ask for a left finish.

If you remember our first trial in July, you’ll remember that the left finish was a source of concern for me back then, and with much better reason. Things are better now, but still not reliable enough to inspire true confidence.

We did a little work on attention and left finishes tonight. Freya still seems a bit depressed with Axel gone, so I tried to keep it very short and very cheerful. We’ll do some video at class tomorrow night and see what’s working and what isn’t.

(NaBloPoMo | November ’09: 4 of 30 | 75% Challenge: 249 of 274)