Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.
Another steamy hot Saturday for Week 11 of the Saturday Pet Blogger Blog Hop! Thanks once again to co-hosts Life With Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers, and Nip and Bones. Try to stay as cool as the sites you’ll be visiting this weekend!
[Read more…]
I’m finally done with a short Freya training video that I started working on back in May. When we started having training issues, I lost some of my motivation for working on her videos. By the time I felt like reviewing video footage again, the magazine deadline had to take precedence.
But here it is, finally! It’s not really as informative about Rally Obedience as I had originally intended. It turned out to be more about me learning to use iMovie than about producing a good teaching video. I have a better handle on iMovie now, as well as some thoughts about how to structure a more educational and entertaining production.
I really like iMovie ’09. I’m not particularly creative or visual, so something like Final Cut or Premiere would be overkill for me. iMovie has a good variety of backgrounds, transitions, titles, and sound effects supplied with the program, enough for a beginner to use (and possibly overuse). I took only a short time with the tutorials and help files, and quickly had enough information to get started with my “production.” I guess I am a little old-fashioned as I do miss having printed or even PDF manuals. I’m definitely a easy sell for O’Reilly’s iMovie ’09 & iDVD: The Missing Manual and in fact I might head over to the bookstore tomorrow to buy it.
Although the iMovie tutorial videos on Apple’s site are helpful, it’s still a pet peeve of mine to find some information available solely as a video tutorial. Sometimes a written step-by-step is more effective, but those seem to be rare items these days.
In low-tech news, I’m still deciding whether to head back to class with Freya tomorrow, stay home and do some plain old dog stuff with her and Axe in the yard, or maybe all of us will just hide in the air-conditioned house avoiding the mid-90s temperatures. The third option really sounds best, doesn’t it?
(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 16 of 31)
Today is the third annual National Pet Fire Safety Day. I am embarrassed to admit that even though I am a firefighter’s wife and our dogs, cats, and bird are all important parts of our family, this is the first year I was aware of this observation.
According to data from the National Fire Prevention Association, almost 1,000 house fires annually are accidentally started by pets (I would certainly hope that beloved house pets aren’t starting fires on purpose rather than by accident). I’m a big believer in crates, kennels, and gates to help keep pets out of the kitchen and away from other possible danger sources when no one is home to monitor what they are doing, but I can totally understand how these accidents happen. We have been very lucky in that most of our pets have not been counter surfers. But among the many “Heidi stories” that we laugh at now, but were not quite as funny then, is the time she turned on the oven, then barked to alert us that something might be on fire. Fortunately, we were home at the time, nothing did catch on fire, and the oven was on for less than 15 minutes total.
In addition to the obvious tips about stove knobs, candles, and other open flames, one of the things mentioned in the article is something I would have never thought of in a million years: a glass water bowl on a wooden deck, magnifying the sun’s rays and possibly starting a fire.
Another important topic is planning for your pets’ safe escape or rescue in case of a house fire by having collars and leashes easily accessible to you or rescuers, and a window cling to show the number of pets in your home.
I was hoping to end this with a cute video of Freya or Axel demonstrating “stop, drop, and roll” for you all, but we’re still working on “roll.” Who knew they wouldn’t want to roll on cue?
(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 15 of 31)
Freya’s thyroid panel results came back today, and everything looks normal. Not low-normal, normal. It looks better than the last one we did not quite two years ago. We also did a regular blood chemistry panel, and everything looks fine there, too.
On the one hand, it’s good to know that everything looks fine with her health right now. She’ll be seven years old in November, so she’s well into Rottweiler middle age. On the other, since I’m her primary trainer and handler, her recent training issues then point straight back at me and my less-than-stellar dog training abilities. Ouch.
Although yesterday’s exercise in gratitudinaety definitely put me in a better place, I’m still not sure where I want to go with my training and trialing plans for Freya. Remember that the big question that remains:
How can I help this dog to live with more joy and be more connected to me?
If Freya is not finding any joy in training and competing in rally obedience with me, does that mean I need to find a way to make it fun for her again, or let her retire and just be a plain old dog? I’ve retired dogs before, but it’s always been for health reasons, not because they just didn’t want to play the game or do the job any more, so I’m not quite sure how to handle this yet.
I so wish she could talk.
Whatever I decide, I am still grateful for this sweet girl who is sleeping upside down on the loveseat right this minute, just like yesterday’s photo.
(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 14 of 31)
My computer bookmarks are not always well-organized. This means that sometimes I can’t put my finger on something I need right away. But it can also mean that something might surface right when I need it most.
Like this post, Behaving Gratitudinaeously, from Susan Garrett’s agility training blog. She suggests going through this exercise (and no, it is not a training exercise) with each one of your dogs, and if you are struggling with a particular dog’s training, to start with that one. Right now, that would definitely be Freya.
I want to share a couple of the “gratitudinaeous” moments I thought about as I went through the exercise.
See him at home on the first day, how curious he was, how crazy you are about him.
This was the evening of Freya’s first day home. She’s getting the lowdown on how to be a vom Viersen Rottweiler from our grand old man Oscar.
Next visualize that dog the last time you saw him sleeping in his favourite place around the house, where is he? What position is he in?
This is one of her favorite sleeping positions. She will often be found upside down on the floor, and even in her crate.
Think about how much you love that dog and how grateful you are to have him in your life.
I haven’t done this often enough lately, so today I am also grateful to Susan Garrett for writing her post, and to whatever powers of the universe brought it back into my sights when I needed to see it.
Now put this question out there for your “higher power” or just throw it on out there into the universe. “How can I help this dog to live with more joy and be more connected to me?”
This one I’m still working on, and while I don’t yet have the answer, I’m much more confident of finding the right one after thinking of all of the things that make me grateful to have Freya in my heart and my home.
(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 13 of 31)