Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

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

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

New title for Freya!

by

As most of you know, Freya earned the first two legs towards her APDT Rally Obedience Level 1 title on January 24. I am very proud to announce that we completed the title at today’s first trial at Flying Paws Dog Training Club… with a score of 208 points (out of 210 possible points, 200 plus a 10-point optional bonus exercise) and first place in Level 1A! Since all three of our Level 1A scores were 190 points or better, we will also receive an Award of Excellence.

So Freya is now URO1 Sciroco’s Freya vom Viersen RL1 (AOE), CGC, TT!

Although we brought our “A” game to Trial 1, we did not fare so well at Trial 2 and NQ’d when Freya got up from a Down on the Halt-Sit-Down-Walk Around. Even though she was very distracted during this run, she is usually very solid on the stays for the Walk Around exercises so it was not only a disappointment, but an unwelcome surprise. The run was not great, but it would have otherwise given us a qualifying score. So, sadly, we do not yet have any of the 10 legs needed for the RL1X title.

The next APDT trial within easy driving distance won’t be until the beginning of May. There are some UKC trials coming up in March and April, so we need to learn the rest of the Level 2 exercises and get more practice working off leash. The other option would be to work on the AKC Rally Novice title. But since AKC trials are plentiful as compared to APDT and UKC trials, it seems to make more sense to work on the RN during the months that no APDT and UKC trials are available. Decisions, decisions!

(NaBloPoMo | February ’10: 7 of 28)

Randomness

by

Some random thoughts before I try to get a good night’s sleep. The training facility where we are going for Freya’s APDT rally obedience trial runs a single ring, so the two trials will run one after the other, not concurrently. So tomorrow promises to be quite a long day.

  • I think today’s pre-trial practice session helped with fixing Freya’s crooked sits and improving on sloppy turns. I hope I didn’t break something else though, as she was starting to shut down a bit on the last run-through. I am hoping that she, too, just needs a good night’s sleep.
  • Thinking about what time I have to get up and what time I have to leave tomorrow, I am reminded of why I drifted away from dog competitions: too many early mornings. I am so, so, so not a morning person.
  • The dogs and I watched the AKC Eukanuba National Championship Dog Show on Animal Planet earlier this evening. Freya and Axel are a lot better than some of the dear departed Rottweilers at watching animals on television. They did not chase or bark at the TV dogs, or better yet, try to get behind the TV to see where they went.
  • It was fun to watch the dog show even though, like all psycho dog people, I already knew the results.
  • I knew there were quarters minted last year for the District of Columbia and the territories. I honestly can’t remember ever seeing one until today when I got one for American Samoa in my change.

(NaBloPoMo | February ’10: 6 of 28)

Nothing much going on here

by

This will be one of those posts that serves simply to keep NaBloPoMo alive for me for February. I’ve opted to let sleeping dogs lie tonight rather than wake them for training or anything else requiring action of body or mind. I’m not sure why we are all so tired after doing not much of anything, and that includes my day at work. Freya and Axel like the cold and snow way more than I do. Even though we had less than an inch of snow here over this afternoon and evening, the dogs were determined to roll around in what there was of it. But it was far from their usual vigorous playtime. I’m sure they secretly wish we were getting big snow like the East Coast. I am glad that it does not appear they will be getting their wish.

I’ve just printed out maps to Sunday’s trial location and saved them to my BlackBerry as well. Dog crate pads and towels are clean and dry and ready to put back in the van. Freya and I will be attending our regular Saturday classes and using them to prepare for Sunday. Time for a good night’s sleep so we are bright and alert for class. Or at least awake!

(NaBloPoMo | February ’10: 5 of 28)

Looking forward to Westminster!

by

No, we won’t be there in person this year (February 15-16 if you’re watching on USA and CNBC as we are). But if I had a bucket list, a trip to Westminster Kennel Club’s dog show would surely be on it, with or without a canine family member participating.

Can I say it will be just a little bit more exciting for me to watch from here on out, knowing that technically, I could have my dog in the game? Axel is now an AKC Champion of record and would be eligible to enter in the future (only Champions of record are eligible to enter Westminster, which I think is the only AKC show with that requirement at this time). The chances of us ever participating are still almost nil. Entries are limited to 2,500 and fill up incredibly fast. This is also a show we would have pretty much no chance of winning. This will be the 134th year for this show, and in that time, a Rottweiler has never won Best in Show at Westminster, and has won the Working Group only once, in 2006.

So Westminster dreams are really just that: dreams. But still. Wouldn’t it be nice?

Ever since the dogs started working on titles, I’ve had to explain more than a few times what dog shows and trials are about. I’m wondering if those of you who visit here would be interested in some “dog stuff basics” posts? I know at least some of you are psycho dog people yourselves and could probably recite the AKC “Rules Applying to Dog Shows” in your sleep. But as many times as I’ve had to explain points and majors and how Axel’s shows are different from Freya’s trials (that got really confusing last month, when they were both competing in Rally Obedience, but in different organizations), maybe some of you would like to know more?

(NaBloPoMo | February ’10: 4 of 28)

Freya: class notes 1/23/10

by

Since most of our classmates were at the first day of For Your Canine’s APDT trials on January 23, Freya and I basically got a private lesson that day to help us prepare for the following day’s trials. Allan set up a practice course for us designed by one of the judges that I’d be trialing under on Sunday. I was able to view this video to identify areas to work on before doing another run-through. Allan posted a video of that run-through to his blog.

No course map today since it was a course used in an actual trial for which I did not get permission to publicly post.

Start: I still want to get better attention from Freya at the start. She does now seem to know that we ain’t goin’ nowhere until she makes eye contact with me. Our next run started off with better attention.

25. Spiral Right – Dog Outside. She’s lagging, partly because she’s not paying full attention to me, and partly because I’m not being interesting enough nor am I giving her enough cues to stay with me. Our teamwork is much better in the next run.

8. Left Turn, 13. 360-Degree Right Turn. I’m surprised we don’t lose more points on turns in trials. We did a little better in the next run.

2. Halt-Sit-Stand. Freya has never had a pretty stand. I would like to be able to stand her with a verbal command alone and will work toward that. She does not move around much which is an improvement.

20. Fast Pace, 21. Normal Pace. Still need to work on making pace changes more noticeable. Varying the length, even more so than the speed, of my own steps seems to be the key.

17. Call Front, Finish Right. Slow and crooked sit. Sits seem to be the current problem area. On the next run, I gave her both verbal and signal cues to help her sit quickly and in the correct place.

11. 270-Degree Right Turn, 10. About “U” Turn. See above; we really have to work on polishing our turns.

23. Halt – 90 Degree Pivot Right – Halt + 5. Halt – Sit – Walk Around. This is something that I believe exists only in APDT Rally. Signs can be “married” as in this example. The ending Halt with Sit of sign 23 is used as the beginning Halt-Sit of sign 5; it is not performed again. So the sequence is Halt with Sit – 90 Degree Pivot Right where dog moves with handler – Halt with Sit – handler Walk Around dog. We did ok.

13. 360-Degree Right Turn. See previous comments on turns.

28. Halt – Turn Right – 1 Step – Halt + 3. Halt – Sit – Down. Another set of “married” signs. I want to phase out the excessive body English for the Down signal, but Freya’s Down has not been too consistent, so I will stick with a firm tone and exaggerated signal for now.

9. About Turn Right, 14. 360-Degree Left Turn, 8. Left Turn, 10. About “U” Turn. See previous comments on turns.

Bonus: Exercise 1. Halt – Leave Dog – Call To Heel. This is one of our better bonus exercises, but could use some polishing. I’d like her to come in closer and straighter.

This is the first session where I switched to a 4-foot leash. I found it helped me greatly in keeping a loose leash. Even when I tied knots in my 6-foot leash, I found myself folding it too short or grabbing it too short and below the knots. It may not have been the greatest idea in general to switch leashes the day before a trial, but in terms of avoiding point losses for tight leash, it was very successful.

As always, you can see more videos of our rally obedience classmates, as well as Allan’s other training clients, on his YouTube channel.

(NaBloPoMo | February ’10: 3 of 28)