Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

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

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

Freya: class notes 2/6/10

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Although there was some progress made toward fixing crooked sits and sloppy turns, this was not one of our better pre-trial review sessions. This was the last run-through of the day, and you can see that Freya is beginning to shut down a bit.

Strangely enough, this less-than-stellar practice session was followed the next day by one of our best trial performances: a score of 208 and 1st place in the Level 1 “A” division. The next trial run later on Sunday resulted in a NQ, though, so I’m not quite sure what the moral of the story might be.

Maybe it’s just that I need to figure out the best way to do the last-minute practices and to handle the downtime between trials. Are the day-before last minute practices more helpful or stressful? So far, they seem to be more helpful, but maybe I should lessen the number of run-throughs. Should I do more or less warm-up between trials, and how soon before showtime for the second trial? That one isn’t quite so obvious.

As always, you can see more videos of Freya, her classmates, and other dogs-in-training on Allan’s YouTube channel.

(NaBloPoMo | February ’10: 14 of 28)

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)

Saturday Freya: still on break

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I normally attend a group obedience class with Freya on Saturday mornings. We are still on break for the holidays, though. Since we skipped the last class of the previous session so I could watch Axel from afar as he competed in Rally Obedience at the Christmas Cluster, we have been off for three weeks.

Class starts up again next Saturday and it’s not a moment too soon! Three weeks off in winter is just a little too much downtime, since we don’t have as many opportunities to play or train outdoors. Rottweilers don’t seem to mind the cold, or at least my Rottweilers don’t mind it. This week’s single-digit temperatures don’t seem to faze them at all, except that they can’t pick up frozen Jolly Balls. I’m fearing frostbite and hypothermia because they don’t want to come in, and I’m the only one that seems to be suffering any ill effects from the extreme cold!

I’m still hoping that we will be ready for an APDT Rally Obedience trial on January 23-24. Freya’s attitude and performance in our first class back from break will give me some idea of whether we should shoot for that trial, or for one on February 6-7 instead. Both are at locations where we’ve trialed and/or trained before so at least the grounds won’t be unfamiliar to either Freya or me.

I haven’t been doing any training to speak of during the break. We have done some quick reviews of stationary rally exercises in the kitchen before meals, but not every day. On the days that weren’t too frigid, we did some heeling practice on the back walk before and after potty breaks. I should have done a little more with Axel since he will be trialing again next weekend, and I will do a “real” training session with him tomorrow. On Monday, we’ll go on a brief road trip to get him back to Julia, and then he’s off to shows in Texas and Florida. It is nice that at least one family member will get a vacation in some hopefully warmer spots of the country!

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 2 of 31)

A moment of quiet

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It’s so quiet here without Freya. We’ll be leaving on vacation ourselves tomorrow, so this afternoon Freya started her own vacation at Best Friends American Pet Motel. We have been using this “resort” for our dogs for many years, and it’s one of only a few places I recommend without hesitation when someone needs to board their pets.

Freya will be doing a board and train with her pal Allan Ross as she does every November. It gives her something to look forward to every day (she gets a nature walk on the days that training is not done) and it keeps her focused to do some obedience almost every day.

I don’t do board and train unless I’m going to be out of town, because I much prefer to work with my own dog in a group class or private lessons. This is a pretty good situation, because Allan leads our regular group classes, and I’m comfortable with his training methods. Freya also adores him. She may even enjoy her vacation more than we do ours!

(NaBloPoMo | November ’09: 18 of 30 | 75% Challenge: 263 of 274)