Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

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

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

Yes, I am obsessing a tiny bit

by

As you know, I’ve been checking the AKC site daily, eagerly awaiting confirmation of Axel’s final 3-point major win and his AKC championship status. Since I was expecting a wait of about two weeks, I was pleasantly surprised to see it posted this morning.

Now I will switch to eagerly and impatiently waiting for the paper certificate to arrive in the mail.

Those of you who are friends of Axel’s or mine, but who are not psycho dog people yourselves, are probably getting a little bored and wondering why I am obsessing about seeing proof of Axel’s championship. Those of you who are psycho dog people already know how sometimes points do not get recorded, or how you or your handler might miscount points for a particular show, or how you might be like me and just terribly bad at math. You, too, have spent more than you intended to on photos to document each win, in case you need those photos to prove you got points at that show. Anyway. It’s official now, as you can see above, so I can move on and you non-psycho dog people can breathe a sigh of relief.

In other news, Axel earned his Canine Good Citizen (CGC) today! For those of you who have seen him in overbearing or wild child mode: see, I told you he is not a criminal, he is a Good Citizen!

Tomorrow, I hope to have good news about Freya following her first attempt at APDT Rally. Check back!

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 23 of 31)

Thoughts on the rescue of the dog in the L.A. river

by

I’ve written before about a number of incidents in Chicago where dogs fell or jumped into Lake Michigan and had to be rescued, sometimes along with their owners, by firefighters or police officers.

The incidents I’ve written about in the last year all had happy endings, and I really am glad for that, but I also had and still have mixed feelings about what could have happened. The reality is that the owner’s carelessness or irresponsibility that led to the dog being in the lake in the first place could have resulted in injury to or death of the dog, the owner, or a rescuer.

I just finished catching up with the video and stories about the dog saved from the flooded Los Angeles River by the Los Angeles Fire Department. This rescue did result in a dog bite injury to a firefighter, and I’m guessing the rescue in general was quite costly as a helicopter was involved, as well as about 50 firefighters and ambulance transport for the dog. The injured firefighter, who was the one lowered from the helicopter to retrieve the dog, downplayed the extent of his injury and his heroics. (By the way, this is why we love firefighters, real ones, that is. The real ones never refer to themselves as heroes, just that they are doing their job and they are glad they could help someone.)

The Los Angeles Times posed the question to its readers on one of its blogs: Should L.A. firefighters have risked their lives to save a dog? One recurring theme was the same thing that continues to worry me about these situations: what if the rescue of an animal results in injury or death to a rescuer? Some picked the cost as the main issue; it certainly was not insignificant in this case. I’m pretty sure the rescuers themselves have just as wide a range of opinions as the commenters to the article.

One comment hit me, though: the commenter said that the Los Angeles Fire Department is working without a contract. I do not know if that is true. I do know that the Chicago Fire Department, and for that matter, the Chicago Police Department, is working without a contract. As a CFD spouse, I know I am extremely biased. But after watching the video of the dog rescue, and the countless other videos out there of humans being rescued by the brave men and women of our fire departments and police departments, how can anyone think it’s right for these folks to work without a contract?

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 22 of 31)

Gadget time: Polaroid PoGo Instant Digital Printer

by

My husband is great at gifting me with cool gadgets that I didn’t even realize I wanted until I was happily playing with them. His latest pick for me is Polaroid’s ultraportable PoGo Instant Digital Printer. This one is going to be a lot of fun!

This printer is extremely portable. Small and light, it’s not much larger than my smartphone. Standard color is black; red and pink are available for an extra charge. The extra charge for the pink one supports breast cancer research. The extra charge for the red one just goes to make me happy. You all know how much I like the color red for my personal electronics.

There is a nice neoprene case available with a pocket for extra photo paper or a spare battery.

The photo paper is 2″ x 3″ with a peel and stick back. It uses ZINK Imaging’s Zero Ink technology. Heat from the printer activates dye crystals embedded in the paper. The print emerges dry to the touch and is supposedly waterproof and smudgeproof. The printer holds a 10-pack of photo paper and must be empty before you can load another pack.

The photo on the top is from my BlackBerry Curve 8330 smartphone and the photo on the bottom is from my Nikon Coolpix S50 digital camera. Since these are photos of photos, you won’t really be able to get a good idea of photo quality, which is acceptable for prints of this size.

Getting set up to print via Bluetooth from the BlackBerry was very easy, using the BlackBerry’s Bluetooth settings menu to discover and pair with the PoGo. Then it was a matter of selecting a photo, selecting “Send Using Bluetooth,” and selecting the printer.

Printing from the Coolpix camera was even easier, but a little more cumbersome since it uses the USB cable supplied with the camera. Once the two devices were connected, the PictBridge print option was automatically displayed along with on-screen prompts to help select and print a picture.

Sizing of the photo to best fit the 2″ x 3″ print area is automatic. You can print from any device that has Bluetooth transfer capability or that is PictBridge enabled. There is a compatibility guide on the Polaroid website. Sorry, iPhone users: even though you have Bluetooth, you do not have the transfer capability needed to print.

So far, I’ve really had some fun with this printer. Since the print size is so small, it does not replace a desktop photo printer. Unless you use an outside service for all of your photo printing, you’ll still want to have a desktop printer. But the PoGo’s extreme portability makes it a natural to accompany you anywhere. There’s something about having a paper print in hand, and this will be fun to have at parties and other gatherings, just like it was always fun to have a Polaroid camera around back in the old days when all cameras shot film.

I have not received compensation for this review, and I have no connection to Polaroid. The printer was purchased by my husband as a gift for me.

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 21 of 31)

Sounds reckless to me…

by

Tonight I received an e-mail update from the Black Nail Brigade on the nail polish killer. For those who are new to this blog, this refers to a fatal crash in May 2009, when Anita Zaffke was killed when her motorcycle was struck from behind by Lora Hunt, who was painting her fingernails as she drove.

A motion to dismiss reckless homicide charges was heard today. The judge’s decision will be heard on February 10, 2010.

Greg Zaffke’s update gave a few highlights from the hearing. I have to say this part totally floored me, especially because the defense attorney was using this statement by Lora Hunt to justify why the crash should be considered negligence rather than reckless homicide:

I was distracted by applying nail polish, [which I contemplated whether or not to do]. I chose to do a very stupid thing.

Wow. Isn’t that the very definition of recklessness, dictionary or legal?

I hope this plays out to the correct conclusion. I can’t say happy ending, nothing happy about it.

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 20 of 31)

Didn’t mean to gross you out…

by

As you know, Freya and I are preparing for our first APDT Rally Obedience trial coming up on Sunday. Since Freya is not ready to trial off leash, or maybe that is me that is not ready, I’ve decided to do the novice level titles for all of the organizations that regularly offer trials in our area — UKC, APDT, and AKC — with her before attempting any organization’s advanced level title.

In APDT trials, you can use food rewards after any of the stationary exercises. This differs from AKC and UKC, where you cannot have food in the ring at all. At first I thought this would be a great thing, and it might well be. Except that I am the klutziest handler on the planet, and there are point deductions for dropping food, which sad to say, I do all the time in training. We get a lot of practice on “leave it.” Food rewards also have to be hidden in the handler’s pockets. You cannot use a bait pouch or hold food in your hands or mouth. That alone is a huge adjustment for me, since I always use a bait pouch and hold food in my mouth.

I have probably lost some of you already when I talk about holding dog treats in your mouth. I always feel like I have to apologize to new people in our group class, because I’m always holding treats in my mouth to get Freya’s attention on my face. My dog treats for training classes are all “people food” with the favorite choices for both me and dogs being string cheese and Jewel store brand Homestyle Frozen Meatballs (the President’s Choice meatballs taste better, but they have a higher fat content and don’t hold up as well for a one-hour class). I also use hot dogs, nuked with or without a dash of soy sauce (yes, that would be teriyaki hot dog treats). See? All of that is stuff that you wouldn’t mind holding in your mouth, right?

The one thing that I am not klutzy at is spitting food to my dogs. Most of them have been great at catching treats, either spit or thrown, and only a couple of them have let the food bounce off their faces. I will admit that if a class runs a full hour or longer, I do end up eating some of the string cheese myself.

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 19 of 31)