Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

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

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

Is this a gender thing or an individual learning styles thing?

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I mentioned before that Freya and Axel have different learning styles. Since we’re still working through Susan Garrett’s “The Five Minute Formula to a Brilliant Recall,” I am doing the same set of games and lessons with both dogs, which makes the differences a little more obvious.

One of the key points throughout the recall course is building value: making it valuable for the dog to come to me by reinforcing his/her decision to do so with high-value rewards. After a few weeks of this, it seems that I am way more valuable to Axel than to Freya. Looking back on our lives together, this is not a new development. I think I’ve always been more valuable to Axel than to Freya. I wonder if this is a gender thing, or an individual learning styles thing?
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This is why I’ll probably never be a “real” pet blogger

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If I were a real pet blogger, I would be able to keep track of all of the pet-related holidays, observations, special days, and special weeks. The day is almost over and I failed to notice that it was National Dog Day today.

The dogs get healthy preservative-free treats and ample snooze time every day, so at least I didn’t totally fail in observing some of the celebratory suggestions. I had to smile at the idea of scheduling a professional photo shoot, even though it’s something I would in fact like to do. I even know which studio I’d like to use if a bunch of money fell out of the sky into my waiting arms: Sutton Studios.
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Un… believable (or, why aren’t my search strings funny any more)

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Having nothing ready to say tonight, once again I turned to my search strings to see if anything amusing has popped up. Well, my search strings are just not funny any more. I didn’t even get any new misspellings of “Rottweiler” for your amusement.

My search strings tell me that I still get a lot of traffic from people looking for updates on Mary Wild and Lora Hunt, though. The most recent updates I could find are far from amusing.

On July 1, Mary Wild received what many would consider an extremely lenient sentence for her neglectful actions which led to the death of seven show dogs she had been paid to handle and care for. On July 21, she supposedly received a lifetime suspension from the AKC. This has not yet been confirmed anywhere that I’ve seen, nor anywhere The Dog Press has been able to find, either… and AKC isn’t talking. Why? I know that I would personally feel better if AKC had something to say about an incident like this one.

AKC’s No Response on Mary Wild

On July 22, Lora Hunt also received a shockingly lenient sentence for her criminally reckless choice to paint her nails while driving which led to the death of motorcyclist Anita Zaffke. She is serving only 18 months in jail for that crime. She is now asking to be freed for up to nine hours every Sunday to attend church services in her hometown. I cannot even think of anything to say that is fit to print on this one.

Please, searchers. Look for something else.

(NaBloPoMo | August ’10: 24 of 31)

Something I really like about sieger shows

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If you’ve been to a sieger (German-style conformation) show, or if you read the article from yesterday’s post, you know that each dog shown gets an individual critique from the judge. This critique is given for all to hear, and a written transcript goes to the owner or handler after the show.

The first dog shows I attended were AKC shows, and the selection of the winners was a mystifying process to me then (and if I’m really being honest, now, too). I knew that the judge was comparing each dog to the breed’s written standard with a hands-on examination plus observing the dog in motion, but I didn’t really get how the judge arrived at the final placements.

I feel like my Rottweiler conformation education was accelerated when I started attending sieger shows, and really paying attention to the individual critiques.
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