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’s weigh-in (25 of 30/91 of 274)

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As promised, today we stopped at the vet after obedience class for a weigh-in for Freya. I was quite relieved to learn that she had in fact lost weight during the six weeks since her annual check-up. Not quite so happy that it was just two pounds when she should have lost somewhere between 4-6 pounds, but at least she didn’t gain weight!

Seriously, this just underscores what I mentioned in Thursday’s post. In addition to switching to the low-fat formulation of her current food and monitoring calorie count of her regular meals, I really need to also be more careful about monitoring her treats.

I found quite a bit of helpful information at the Assocation for Pet Obesity Prevention website, including a list of calorie counts for many popular pet treats. Unfortunately, calorie counts for some of Freya’s favorite Wellness treats aren’t included, nor are they given on the Wellness website. I’ll try emailing them for the information, though.

I haven’t done well at increasing exercise, so that will be a greater priority as well. Masha left a good training suggestion in the last post’s comments: using a toy instead of treats as a motivator. I’m going to test it out in our next training session. I’ve had a few dogs who just got way too amped up with a toy as a reward, but it’s definitely worth a try.

Counting canine calories (23 of 30/89 of 274)

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Dr. Patty Khuly at Dolittler had a great post today about calorie counting for fat dogs. The following excerpt is something that really hit home, related to the lovely Freya and the handsome Axel:

The first sticking point? It always comes down to measuring everything the dog eats and does. The kids might have fed X. I didn’t know the treats counted. (Seriously?) My mother-in-law sneaks her food under the table.

While we of course know that treats count, we haven’t been monitoring the types and amounts of treats, as well as food used in training sessions, as closely as we should. I am sure that as I start keeping track, I will be surprised and somewhat dismayed, much as I was when I’ve kept a food diary for myself and realized how much mindless snacking happens during a typical workday.

As you may recall, Freya has some weight to lose and Axel has some weight to gain.

In the month since he’s been home, Axel’s put on several pounds. Once we got a good handle on the amount of energy he expends when spending part of the day in a kennel run and part as a house dog, as compared to being a full-time house dog, it was pretty easy to recalculate the amount of food he needs when living with his handler, and the smaller amount of food he needs when living at home with us.

I must admit that I have not been as diligent as I should have been about getting enough additional exercise for Freya (and myself). I just found a nearby source for the low fat formulation of California Natural Lamb and Rice, which is one of the only foods that Freya can eat due to her mild IBS. I was quite relieved to find that she likes it, and that she can eat it with no tummy troubles, so that will be a help in reducing her calories and still letting her eat enough to feel full.

I mentioned in my earlier post that Freya’s vet calculated her calorie requirements. At the time I did not ask for the details (math is not my strong point and I do trust our vets), but I can now double-check using the information in today’s Dolittler post:

Base calories/day (resting energy requirement) = 30 x (your dog’s weight in kg) + 70
* Weight loss needed, neutered/spayed = 1 x base calories
* Weight loss needed, intact = 1.1x base calories

Freya: [(30 x 42 kg) + 70] x 1 = 1330 calories
California Natural Lamb and Rice = 430 calories per cup
1330 / 430 = 3.09 cups per day (if no treats or extras were fed)

She gets 2 to 2.5 cups per day, plus treats, so that should be fine, which agrees with our vet’s calculations. That is, unless the treats I’m using turn out to be more caloric than I thought. I’ll need to track down the information on that, which was another suggestion from the Dolittler post. It is very true that caloric information for treats is not always on the package, but often easy enough to find on the manufacturer’s websites, so it is time for me to do some research and maybe switch some treat choices. I often use “people food” for training treats, usually hot dogs or frozen meatballs, so it will be easy enough to switch to the low fat versions of those items as well.

I’ll stop at the vet on the way home from training on Saturday and get a current weight for Freya, and see how we are doing so far.

(PS: This is also the Day 7 assignment for 31DBBB. Yes, I’m a bit behind, but still working through this excellent series!)

Sunshine and rally practice (18 of 30/84 of 274)

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Saturday is normally obedience class day for the lovely Freya, and on a nice sunny day like today, we would have been able to work outdoors as well. Unfortunately, we had to skip class because I had an appointment at the bank to review my IRA account. That account had a less than stellar performance year in 2008. I am sure that is a familiar story to many people. Now that I am on the far side of 50, I guess I should at least check in on my retirement accounts more frequently than I have been. Retirement is still far enough in the future that I’m not really stressing. Yet. My bank guy is nice and seems knowledgeable, but I would have preferred to be in dog class!

We did try to take advantage of the nice weather and do some homework. Armed with the AKC Rally Regulations and a separate list of Rally Obedience exercises, Freya and I spent time working on some of the Novice exercises. Since I had no idea how to lay out a practice course, we mostly worked on the fronts and finishes, and heeling with the different turns.

I know there are books and websites with samples of Rally courses, so I will have to look for some. We are supposed to get a few days of rain (rain has already started tonight) so we won’t be able to practice outside. We might go on Tuesday night to a make-up class for the class we missed today, and we’re definitely going to drop-in obedience on Wednesday night.

Worst dog handler in the world (13 of 30/79 of 274)

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EDIT: In addition to being the worst dog handler in the world, I am apparently also still clueless on properly auto-scheduling my posts. Working on it!

It’s been raining all day, and it’s cold and dreary out. The yard isn’t providing a very inviting place to practice obedience with Freya, so I decided to read up on the rules and prepare myself for our stated goal of Freya’s Rally Obedience titles.

It sounds simple enough on paper. All of the exercises are things that Freya already knows from going to group classes for most of her life. She will be handicapped by having the worst dog handler in the world (me) on the other end of the leash.

I really enjoy working with the dogs. I am also not very good at it. I’m not too bad at reading a dog, but my timing for rewards and corrections is not very good. My reaction time is mediocre in general: I wasn’t any good at drag racing either. I almost tripped over my own dog at a big Rottweiler specialty. It was definitely my fault. Judge said “forward” and dog went forward, but I almost went left. I have not been in an obedience ring since then. Oh, yes… I was on a trial field, which isn’t technically a ring. Same dog, similar disastrous results. Her fault that time for getting up from the long down.

So I am trying to visualize a perfect performance. They say it helps. When it stops raining, I will get back to reality and visualize (and by that, I mean stumble through) our actual performance. I only hope Freya doesn’t love the sound of laughter from outside the ring the way that Heidi did, or we truly are doomed!

Freya: time to get some working titles (12 of 30/78 of 274)

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A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I’d like to set some training goals and try to earn some titles with Freya. We just completed an eight-week intermediate/advanced obedience class yesterday, and we’ll begin another eight-week session right away. The obedience club that we used to train at, and that we are still members of, is having a Rally Obedience trial in nine weeks. This is the trial date we’ll be shooting for, and I’ll have to make the final decision as to whether we are ready or not over Memorial Day weekend.

I did participate in a few conventional Obedience trials with my dear departed Heidi. We failed miserably, except in the sense of providing comic relief for any spectators who happened to see us. Rally Obedience is similar to conventional Obedience in that the same or similar exercises are performed. In conventional Obedience, the handler can give commands with or without an accompanying hand signal to the dog only once, and cannot give verbal or other encouragement. In Rally Obedience, multiple commands, praise and other verbal encouragement, and extra hand signals or clapping are allowed as long as you do not physically guide or correct the dog. Heidi was Queen of the Double/Triple/Quadruple Command and we might have done okay if Rally Obedience had been around back then.

The Novice level of conventional Obedience has some exercises that are performed off-leash while the Novice level of Rally Obedience is done all on-leash. Freya has an unfortunate tendency to be the “fun police” if any other dogs in the immediate vicinity are getting loud or hyper or for some breeds, just breathing. We have made a good deal of progress on that particular training issue during the last class, but I will still feel much better about life in general if Freya is totally on-leash in her first competition situation.

That’s the background on our plans so far. We’ll also be doing an ATTS Temperament Test early next month. That is a certification, not a working title, so there’s not much preparation involved.

I’ll be keeping Freya’s training diary either here or at one of my other online places, and I hope you don’t mind following along with our story, hopefully to have a happy ending in June!