Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

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

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

18 years ago today

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So you might think that the big dog-related news for today, April 14, is the one-year anniversary of the arrival of Portuguese Water Dog “Bo” at the White House. Well. That is far from the most significant dog event of the day. There is nothing, not one thing, more important that happened on this day in dogs than the birth of my Jake in 1992.

It’s hard to believe that he was born 18 years ago, and that he has been gone from this world for almost eight. I still think of him often, but there’s a reason for the term “heart dog”—no matter how long they are gone from this earth, they are always, always near in your heart.

I’ve written about him before, and if you haven’t been here before, you can catch up here and there.

One thing about Jake that I miss so much is something that was sort of annoying at the time. If I was reading anything, but especially the newspaper, he would insert himself between me and whatever I was trying to read and gaze up at me with a goofy look of pure adoration in his eyes. I would always tell him that one day I was going to really miss having a dog standing on my feet and knocking over my newspaper, but not right that minute. And oh, God, do I ever miss that dog.

Here he is, adoring me, oblivious to sister Missy relaxing on the lawn. One day in the far-off future, I know I’ll see that adoring gaze once again.

“I will stay in your heart and whenever you speak my name, I will live and live and live.” — Ken Brewer

(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 14 of 30)

Scary things

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I don’t require my blog readers to register to read or comment, and I removed any visible links for registration or administration at the time I started the blog. So it was definitely a scary thing to receive an email claiming a New User Registration from an email address I did not recognize. I hoped it was just a spammy thing, and not a hacker-y thing. I deleted the new user, changed my administrator password, used phpMyAdmin to make sure there was nothing awry in the database (there wasn’t) and went off in search of more information.

Turns out that I was in very little danger since my WordPress General settings did not set new users to Editor or Administrator. These mystery registrations have been hitting a number of WordPress installations via bots searching for the usual address of the registration page. The WordPress forums address the issue:

Someone registered as a user on my wordpress blog – possible hacker?

If you, too, were visited by this bot:

1. Go to General Settings.
2. Under Membership, uncheck Anyone can register.
3. Under New User Default Role, select Subscriber (Subscribers cannot post to or make edits to your blog).
4. Go to Users and delete the unwanted user.
5. Go to Your Profile and change your password.
6. Go to phpMyAdmin at your host and check the wp-users table to make sure there are no unwanted entries there.

This happened right after returning home from another potentially scary experience. I used to have my hair done at the beauty colleges all the time during high school, college, and right after. I haven’t done that for a very long time, and I’m not even sure why. My worst hair experience was not at the hands of a student, but at a salon with some good recommendations from friends and acquaintances. This was in the early 80s, and I fell victim to an overly curly perm.

I never returned to that particular salon, but I didn’t go back to the beauty college either, until tonight. I went to the beauty college near my house that is affiliated with a salon that I have visited fairly often with good results. I don’t like color surprises, so I usually bring a copy of the formula for my favorite color. I had a bad moment upon learning that even though the salon uses that brand of color, their associated school does not. I almost considered bailing at that point, but the stylist and her instructor showed me how they would get to “my” color and it was pretty convincing, so I stayed.

This story has a happy ending that is not scary at all. The cut is good, the color is great. My stylist was a woman about my age working on a midlife career change. I enjoyed chatting with her. I still have money in my wallet. The total cost was about a third of what I would have paid at the salon. If I’d started doing this sooner, maybe I could have bought the MacBook Pro instead of the cheaper MacBook after all!

(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 13 of 30)

It’s real, it’s real! Freya’s URO2

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I was so happy to get this in the mail today…

You’ll recall the small panic over Freya’s scores being recorded incorrectly, as well as my happiness at the speed with which Beth at UKC rectified the error.

Even considering my usual obsession with getting the online and physical proof of our accomplishments in hand, this one is a slightly bigger relief to actually have in my hands!

(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 12 of 30)

One lonely point

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Remember our one, count ’em, just one, lonely point earned towards our APDT ARCH last month? Well, here it is!

When we started doing rally obedience, my only goal for Freya was to earn a novice level title, and maybe, just maybe, an advanced title. I’m really not sure we’ll be able to get the consistently high scores needed, especially in the off-leash levels, to earn the ARCH, UROC or any combined-level titles other than RAE, which requires qualifying scores but not high scores.

I’ll give it a try, even if just to make sure that one lonely point isn’t so lonely after our next trial!

(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 11 of 30)

Saturday Freya: scraping off the rust

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This was Freya’s first class in quite a while. Weekend trials and a minor injury in March kept her away from her usual Saturday classes, and weather and work kept her away from any weeknight classes or lessons. April is supposed to be a serious training month to prepare for trials in May and June.

Today wasn’t a great start, but it wasn’t horrible either. Our practice course today was an APDT Level 2 course designed by one of the judges some of us will be trialing under the weekend of May 1-2. This course used Send Over Jumps – Handler Runs By, so we got some much-needed jump practice. Freya’s jump height is 16″ but today’s jumps were done at 8″ and 12″ to keep it easier and more fun, for her, anyway.

For APDT, the handler must pass by 6 feet to the right of the jump. For UKC, the distance is 2-3 feet and for AKC, it is not explicitly specified (not that I could find in the rules). When I was farther away from the jump, it seemed that Freya was more likely to try to go around it. My plan right now is to get to where she will take a lower jump every time with me passing by 2-3 feet away, and then work on moving up to her full jump height. Then we will work on adding distance between me and the jump. In APDT, if the dog refuses the jump by going around, it is an automatic NQ with no retry allowed; there is a 3-point deduction if the handler passes by less than 6 feet away from the jump. So it’s obviously way more important to make sure she never refuses the jump.

I’m also finding myself at a point where I have to really do a better job of remembering the differences in rules and performance of certain exercises between UKC, APDT and AKC. Even though there are way more similarities than differences, there are enough important differences that could mean the difference between qualifying and failing at any specific trial.

We have a lot to do this month!

(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 10 of 30)