Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

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

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

Counting down to our next trial day

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Just six more days and we will be back in the rally obedience ring. Freya and I didn’t trial at all in April, and I had hoped to get more serious training in during the month, but that just didn’t happen. We did get some practice time on full courses, mostly Level 2. I need to do some on-leash practice this week, since we are entered in four Level 1 runs.

We have made progress with the jump, but are not quite to the goal of full height plus me being able to do the run-by 6 feet to the right of the jump. Since we are entered in only one Level 2 run, I’m going to plan on taking the 3-point deduction for doing the run-by closer than 6 feet, and our jump practice this week will be focused on the interim goal of full height plus a run-by 2 feet to the right of the jump. As I’ve mentioned before, a 3-point deduction for being too close to the jump is still far better than the NQ we’d get for Freya running around the jump.

Other than that, this week’s training will be mainly about getting rid of any sloppiness.
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New page: Rally Obedience trial calendar

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Look up on top, and you’ll see that I’ve added a standing page with a Rally Obedience trial calendar.

This calendar is generated from my two personal Google trial calendars. One lists all the Chicago-area APDT, UKC, and AKC Rally Obedience trials that I have information on. I don’t usually travel for trials, so this basically means the Chicago metro area, and maybe southern Wisconsin and northwest Indiana. These are listed in blue on the page. When I actually make plans to enter a trial, I move it to the second calendar, and these trials will be listed in red on the page.

I started these calendars to help me keep track of our trials, but I hope the calendar page is also useful to others in this sector who are looking for a nearby rally trial, whether to compete or just to observe.

Speaking of rally, it’s that time again for Freya’s one month of “fame” on the UKC New Title Holders page, with her URO2! And yes, of course there is a screenshot, what did you think?

(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 24 of 30)

Practice makes perfect

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That should probably be more like “practice makes perfect, but not if you practice your mistakes, only if you practice doing things correctly.” But that’s too long to say all the time. And anyway, right now I want to figure out the best way of using our limited back yard practice space efficiently, and so that we are not practicing any mistakes.

Here is what we have to work with:

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Two weeks till our next trial

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The second half of April kind of sneaked up on me. Freya and I were not entered in any rally obedience trials this month, but we did not get in as much good training time as I had hoped to. We didn’t totally waste the first half of the month, but we still have a lot to work on.

Yesterday’s rally class had its ups and downs. I’m still not able to get a full 6 feet to the right of the jump if I want to be sure that Freya will go over it, and not around it. The strategy remained the same as last week: lower jump height and handler closer to the jump on the run-by. I have ruled out injury or discomfort as Freya’s reason for sometimes refusing the jump. It’s more likely that she is being lazy or smart or both, and is taking the path of least resistance. Unfortunately, not acceptable for this particular sport!
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