Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

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

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

Unseasonably warm

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According to Weatherscan, it’s 69°F right now. This is the latest Indian Summer I can remember. Do we even call it Indian Summer if it’s a few days into November?

Freya did not bring her “A” game to obedience class this morning. As long as she does remember to bring it to the trial next week, I suppose I can’t be too upset about it. After all, class is for working out problems in a controlled environment. Speaking of the trial, I hope there will be no problem with correcting our entry. The confirmation I received showed us entered on Saturday instead of Sunday.

It’s almost time to leave to do another rescue transport. I haven’t done any transports all year, and this is now two consecutive weeks, this time for a young female Rottweiler. I suppose there is some irony that I’m leaving my own Rottweiler home on one of the last sunny and warm days of the years, but it is for a good cause. I can’t feel too bad because tomorrow is supposed to be warm and sunny, too, and I can make it up to Freya then.

(NaBloPoMo | November ’09: 7 of 30 | 75% Challenge: 252 of 274)

Am I (or my blog) invisible?

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NaBloPoMo’s blogrolls are listed by category as of this month. This is a new development, and I don’t think it’s a bad thing. While there is a set initial list of categories, participants can suggest categories to be added in future months. So I was not too put off to see that neither of the primary categories into which Rottweilers Ate My Laptop would naturally fall (Pets/Animals and Technology, in case it is not obvious as I think it is) was included in the initial batch.

However.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve considered signing up for a few other blog network social whatever things. None, count ’em, not one of the ones I happened upon have included a Pets/Animals or Technology category. All right, it wasn’t a huge number, but four out of four still seems a little odd to me.

So. Am I invisible? Is my blog invisible? Or was I just unlucky enough to stumble on some sites that really don’t want my kind in their network? “Get away, you horrible IT person who also participates in dog sports! We don’t want your kind around here! We only want mommybloggers and crafters and celebrities and stuff!”

More than 50% of the blogs in my feedreader are animal-related or technology-related, so I’m more surprised than anything. Even if my blog is invisible, which it very well could be, several of the blogs I read in those categories are widely read, known to the general public, and definitely non-invisible.

Oh, I did sign up for NaBloPoMo (repeating the obvious, sorry), but not for any of the others just in case they really didn’t want my kind.

(NaBloPoMo | November ’09: 6 of 30 | 75% Challenge: 251 of 274)

Urban wildlife

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We’re on the lookout for urban wildlife once again!

squirrelnest_0196

This rather messy and chaotic creation is the nest of a squirrel. The window is that of a seldom-used office on the fourth floor of a six-story office building in the River North neighborhood of Chicago. The photo is taken from our office, across a little courtyard that’s not really a courtyard.

I saw the squirrel go into his? her? all right, its! nest late on Monday afternoon. Since then, we’ve seen it out and about in the courtyard area and on the second floor deck every day, but we’ve not yet seen it entering or emerging from its nest.

We set up a video camera but haven’t caught it yet. Still trying, though, so maybe tomorrow.

(NaBloPoMo | November ’09: 5 of 30 | 75% Challenge: 250 of 274)

Eleven days till our rally trial

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Wednesday night would usually be our night for rally obedience, but this week our class was moved to Thursday night instead. With just eleven days to go before the trial, I know I shouldn’t try any drastic changes. So I am just trying to work on the areas that could lose us the most points.

First and foremost, of course, is leash handling and the all-important loose leash. This is a very weak area of mine and I am really trying to work on my tendency to automatically choke up on the leash when I feel I’m losing Freya’s attention, rather than getting her attention back with her name, a command or a hand signal. I have done things like throwing the leash over the my shoulder, or working off-leash or with a short tab. The problem is definitely me fiddling around with the leash.

I’ve ordered a 4-foot leash so I won’t be unconsciously folding and refolding excess leash. Yes, I do already have one. No one can go through several dogs and obedience classes without having at least one; in my case it’s actually a 42″ leash. But Axel took it with him on the road. That’s a story for another day, but he always takes at least one piece of equipment with him on road trips that wasn’t really supposed to accompany him. I know that getting a new leash this late in the game might not be the hot setup, so I’m also going to try the trick of tying a knot in my 6-foot leash to mark the point below which I should not grab in order to keep enough slack in the leash.

We’re still having some trouble with finishes. I did not do a very good job of impressing the different commands and signals for left finishes versus right finishes in Freya’s mind. Since she learned the right finish first, and we did not add the left finish until much later (rally obedience is the only sport in which you have to use both left and right finishes), sometimes she’ll do the right finish even if I ask for a left finish.

If you remember our first trial in July, you’ll remember that the left finish was a source of concern for me back then, and with much better reason. Things are better now, but still not reliable enough to inspire true confidence.

We did a little work on attention and left finishes tonight. Freya still seems a bit depressed with Axel gone, so I tried to keep it very short and very cheerful. We’ll do some video at class tomorrow night and see what’s working and what isn’t.

(NaBloPoMo | November ’09: 4 of 30 | 75% Challenge: 249 of 274)

Belated Saturday Freya

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Were you looking for Saturday Freya? No? I knew that title just wasn’t catchy enough to stick!

Saturday’s class was pretty uneventful. Freya works a lot better in her Saturday class than her weeknight class. I’m sure it has a lot to do with the fact that she gets to play for a while at home before we head out to class. For an early weeknight class, I’m running her out the door within 20 minutes after getting home and neither of us has time to relax.

We’ll have to work through it, though. For the upcoming trial, the Sunday 9:00 am start time and a very short drive to the trial location means we should have ample time for proper warm-up (including mental warmup, especially for me). For our weeknight class this week, I’ll have to hope for a slow day so I can try leaving work a little bit earlier and get in an actual warmup before leaving.

(NaBloPoMo | November ’09: 3 of 30 | 75% Challenge: 248 of 274)