Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

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

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

Counting down the last two weeks

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It seems like Axel just got home from his last road trip and now we’re getting ready to send him back out again. He’s been home since March 16, but it sure doesn’t seem like seven months have gone by.

Since he’s still current on his immunizations and licenses and hasn’t changed handlers, my list of things to do to get ready isn’t that long. I picked up his health record at the vet on Saturday when Freya went in for her nail trim and medicine refills, and I’ve already put it in an envelope with photocopies of his registration, pedigree, microchip information, license, and emergency and non-emergency contact information. I hope I remember the envelope. Not too much shopping to do either: enough food and topical flea preventative for a couple of months, and a couple of new toys that will take a couple of months to destroy.

This may sound silly, but we always practice a few things just before a trip. They normally have warm water and sometimes miscellaneous goodies mixed in with their kibble. I make sure they’re ok with eating it plain and dry, and not just in the kitchen, but in their crates, in the van, or in their crates in the van. They normally have the run of the back yard for potty breaks. Just before a trip, they get some of the potty breaks on leash, and get rewarded for speedier output. After standing in bitter cold with one of “those” females who thinks they can only potty in their yard in their special place while no one is looking, I will never again underestimate the value of teaching a dog to go on command.

Julia will spend a week or two on a show training “refresher course” before Axe’s first time back in the ring. And I have these last two weeks to make sure he’s learned all of the AKC Rally Novice exercises well enough to get through any trials that might be available at the shows he is going to.

Even with the relatively short list of things to do, this will probably still turn out to be a busy couple of weeks!

(NaBloPoMo | October ’09: 11 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 233 of 274)

Saturday Freya… that just doesn’t work, does it?

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“Saturday Freya” just doesn’t work like “Friday Freya” so we’ll have to come up with a better name for Freya’s obedience class posts. The newly forming Rally Obedience classes are probably going to be on Wednesday evenings, so maybe we can have “Freya’s Midweek Mischief” instead.

We often have potential students visiting our class to observe. This is a great idea and I think everyone who is considering a dog obedience class should do this. It’s very frustrating being faced with six to eight weeks in a class with an instructor whose methods you are uncomfortable with, and an hour out of your life to observe a class before signing up is well worth the time. Our visitors today included a young family of four with two elementary school age daughters. Mom was very impressed with Freya, and I appreciated that she took the time to tell us. Freya was on her best behavior today and she really was working nicely. In the interest of truth, I did mention that Freya is almost six and that her younger, wilder days were not quite as impressive.

There were no private lessons scheduled for the hour after class, so we set up a simple Rally course for those who were interested in the upcoming Rally class. There are three of us who are planning and training for November trials, so the opportunity to do run-throughs and “spot” each other’s runs was great. Freya and I are hoping to earn the remaining two legs for UKC RO1 the weekend of November 14-15. Sue and Onslow, and Cathy and Jazzie and Lefty are planning for an APDT trial the following week. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend their trial since we will be leaving for vacation a couple of days earlier.

I hope I don’t confuse myself with the differences between the rules of the various organizations! As you know, I’m also practicing AKC Rally at home with Axel since he will be entered in Rally Novice whenever he is at a show where it is offered and does not conflict with the show ring times. Fortunately the similarities are greater than the differences so hopefully everything will be fine.

(NaBloPoMo | October ’09: 10 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 232 of 274)

X-treme sports or AKC championship?

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In addition to being an aspiring AKC champion (and getting ready to leave on Oct. 25 to go back out on the show circuit), you know that Axel also found a new interest in x-treme sports this summer. Well. At least he learned how to catch a frisbee and play inventive games with Jolly Balls of different sizes.

This afternoon, he demonstrated his potential for beach volleyball.

Dan is excellent at putting a ball or frisbee exactly where it’s supposed to go. I attribute the catching skills of our past and present dogs to this, because during the teaching phase, the ball goes exactly where the dog is able to catch it more often than not. So what happened today was not the result of a wild throw.

It is, however, what happens when a dog grows up with a cat. Axe uses his front paws in play more like a cat than a dog sometimes. You’ll notice the 6-foot wooden fence in the linked photos. Dan threw the large Jolly Ball well short of the fence, to a spot where Axe could catch it (yes, he often tries to catch that large ball) or just retrieve it on the first bounce. Instead, Axe whacked the ball with both front paws, sending it flying over the fence and clear to the other side of the neighbor’s yard. These lots are 30 feet wide, so we were quite impressed with his skills. Hopefully the ball will get thrown back at some point.

Just wish I had a photo of that impressive slam!

EDIT: The ball did come back, but not by the most direct route. Jagoffs.

(NaBloPoMo | October ’09: 9 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 231 of 274)

TV break

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If you’ve stopped in here before, you know that none of my favorite TV shows are on Thursday night, so you might be wondering why I’ve picked tonight for a TV break. I’m catching up, thanks to TiVo, Comcast On Demand and Hulu.

In general, I like the concept of On Demand and it allows me to keep up with some shows that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to keep up with. I do have a gripe about how Mad Men has been handled so far this season, though. The HD version always appears right on time, shortly after the scheduled episode is aired. The non-HD version sometimes doesn’t appear until a week or more later. We’re not planning to replace our non-HD TV until it truly needs to be dumped, so I hope that Comcast wakes up to the fact that we’re far from the only subscribers in that situation.

For a couple of weeks, it appeared that Sons of Anarchy wasn’t going to be an On Demand show. Thankfully, that did not happen, and all of this season’s episodes were added starting about two weeks in. This has really become my main must-watch show. I saw it described somewhere as “soap opera for bikers” and it’s that, but deeper, too. My one disappointment so far is that rogue FBI Agent Cohn was killed off in the first season, so there’s now no reason for the Sons to travel to Chicago to hunt him down. I would have loved to see shows filmed here, even though the chances for that would have been extremely remote for a number of very good reasons.

I’m disappointed so far in Dollhouse. I was so glad it was renewed for another season, but the first two episodes really haven’t lived up to the promise I saw in the last few episodes of the first season. I’m even more disappointed in this year’s crop of medical/emergency medical shows. I’d be hard pressed to tell you whether Mercy or Trauma contains more stereotypes and recycled plot lines. Three Rivers seems slightly more promising. I guess I’ll give them each another episode or two to grab me. If they even make it that far, that is.

The show I didn’t expect to like and find myself liking way too much is Glee. Judging from on- and off-line conversations about the show, I’m far from alone in that feeling. My favorite musical numbers so far: Maybe This Time (you did know I’m a huge fan of Cabaret, right? I know it’s a bit out of character) and It’s My Life/Confessions.

I thought I might like The Good Wife and I planned to watch a few episodes anyway because it is set and partially filmed in Chicago and the suburbs. I actually do like it, and glad it’s an On Demand show, because it’s on at the same time as SOA. I wasn’t a huge fan of Julianna Margulies as Carol Hathaway, and I really hated the last legal drama she starred in (I can’t even remember the name) but I’m pretty much liking her as Alicia Florreck.

That’s enough TV talk for now if I plan to actually catch up on the watching!

(NaBloPoMo | October ’09: 8 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 230 of 274)

Is your credit card in your possession?

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That question is pretty much never followed up with good news. This time was no exception, or should I say the good news was that a charge of almost $1,000 to my credit card made by some jagoff that is in no way authorized to use it was declined by the card issuer due to its suspicious nature.

Thank you, Citibank Fraud Protection people. They were right on top of this, and when I remarked that the time frame for receiving my replacement card seemed a bit long, they immediately offered second day air delivery at no charge. Yay for a good customer service moment.

I’m very much aware of the rules for safe credit card use. Statements are fully destroyed upon reconciliation. New solicitations (I really don’t want any more credit cards) are fully destroyed upon receipt. I do make a fair number of online purchases, but only from known sites that appear to be secure.

I’m posting this mostly to vent about thieving jagoffs and to remind everyone that even if you are knowledgeable about credit card and information safety, and do everything possible to keep your information safe, it’s still possible that someone, somewhere, will get to it despite your best efforts.

I’ve had something like this happen before. I doubt I’m being targeted since the last time was several years ago. The circumstances were very similar. A large-ish charge was made to a store in a foreign country, probably over the phone since my credit card was still physically in my possession. The charge did go through that time, but was promptly reversed upon my phone call to customer service.

Since then, fraud protection has been stepped up quite a bit, at least by the credit card companies I use. I’ve had a couple of legitimate purchases questioned because they were larger purchases made out of state, while on vacation. Considering what just happened, I’m good with a little bit of suspicion now and then.

Note to self: Remember to make posts public or get that automatic posting thing working! It’s not a big deal this month, but next month is the “real” NaBloPoMo and it would not do to miss any postings, especially if there’s actually a post written, but not made visible!

(NaBloPoMo | October ’09: 7 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 229 of 274)