Stuff I Did in January

SUMMARY: Random photos 1st half January 2021

Probably not much different from the December 2020 one. But with more rioting.

(Many but not all photos have been seen on Facebook.)

Life continues as it general has, since April of 2020. Stay at home. Go nowhere. Wear a mask if I go somewhere other than nowhere. Walk with the dog. Stores try mightily to remind people not to be idiots.

New Year's morning selfie in the park behind my house with Mr. I Don't Do Photos.

Startin' the new year with the usual Mr. You Owe Me Something But
You Have to Figure Out  For Yourself What It Is.

Glamour Magazine version of New Year's morning.
At the park near my house.

Evening walk. 
Same location as the "...So, we walked at sunrise..." image in December.

Marie Callender's has sanitized pens 
and they won't take back their empty pie tins until A.P. (after pandemic).

Designed to be disposable, apparently.
Tiny screws requiring a screwdriver size that probably most folks don't have.
Everything comes apart into multiple pieces. 
I can't find replacement batteries in the stores so far.
And not sure I can get things entirely back together the same way anyway
(notice tape holding battery and contact in place?!).
Design companies, c'mon, it should be trivial to replace batteries!
OK, no more long captions.

Braved the nearly empty mall for one quick purchase (not at this store).
Every store had COVID "stand here" spacing decals outside their doors, and inside, too.

Sunset walk. Same place as "Evening Walk" above.

Dusk falls. 
Same place, same evening, 15 minutes later, standing 50 feet northeast.
When ya go so few places, ya gotta take different perspectives.
That's my secret to this glamorous travelogue.

Fast Times at Nowhere High: DayTimer refill pages arrive.
Usually I order in September, not January.
Usually I have things to write in it.
I'm sure any day now--
{fire up uplifting music and break into song}

Sunset from the car. 
The glamor continues.
I try to remember how to drive.
With luxury glamorous turkey feathers.

Remember Mr Fox No.12?
Showed off a beloved Christmas present but has mostly laid low this year.
Don't know why; I don't think foxes can catch COVID-19.

When the going gets tough, with insurrectionists in D.C. spurred on by the outgoing President,
the tough finally give up and go load up on boxes and boxes of crucial supplies because
it's going to be a long 14 days till the 20th and who knows what'll happen then.
At 50% off.

Guard dragon's old mask disintegrated.
Who knew all of this would go on long enough to need a replacement?

On the fridge. Someone's having a good ol' banana time.

Newspaper shows San Francisco city hall lit up red, white, and blue.
D.C. events are on everyone's minds.
I'm trying to be cheery here.

Zorro buried up to his chest, dig dig digging.
He'd better keep an eye on that croc, is all I can say.

Living with this view cemented my resolve to always live where
I can see sunsets and/or sunrises from my home.
Maybe next time without my neighbor's tree smack dab in the middle.
At least *I* have a dogwalk.

And this.

Chance to become a billionaire! 
With gritted teeth, I pry open the NO GAMBLING purse and remove $20.
Yay, I win $5 back! My lucky day!
Cannot pry open that purse again even though no one wins this round.

Sorry, anyone reading, and future me rereading this post,
right now it's all about the horror in the White House
and in the streets with 20,000 armed National Guard and other security forces lining up
and insufficient vaccine for COVID and death rates hitting new records.
But at least they kicked Trump off Twitter.

Now back to our usual warm and friendly blog... 

Phoned in my order. Fortunately I could bypass that line to pick it up.
COVID, no touching, no sitting.

My office develops blue spots! Whaaaaaa???


Oh...          
this....

In the traditional Cultural game of Bitey Face, those who have faces full of hard, sharp pointy objects have a distinct advantage over those who have faces full of soft, blunt fingers.Isn’t it then cheating for the one with hard sharp pointy objects to then bring his front grabbers into play, also?

A 4.2 quake not too far from home will get you *and* the dog to jump.
Gods: Hahahaha made you look!

Look. Nature.

What our friends think we do on our morning walks:
Maintain iron-fisted control over insurrectionist ground squirrels.

What we really do.

Finallee! I iz forced big danger-vans bringz us boxes!
Gud onez, too!

True Confessions: Yes I sometimes go shopping.
Needed one piddly thing from Office Max. Cost: $2. 
To order by mail: add $5 shipping.
To dash into store with my mask
when it's nearly empty during maximum COVID lockdown,
 risking my very life : Priceless. 
Yes: Price...Less.

Fun with Clouds with Dick and Jane.
See clouds arch.
Arch, clouds, arch.
Arch you glad I'm blogging for you?

Gods conjured a huge windstorm just to give Zorro what he always felt he deserved.
Finders keepers; unknown neighbors weepers?

With that-- and the Inauguration coming up at 9 tomorrow morning--I think I'll call this a good Half Month and save the rest of January for ...  sometime after January.

Tika the Very Naughty Nose Wizard

SUMMARY: She loved food. Even on the agility course.

This is expanded version of a Facebook post Mar 2, 2020.

P.S. Food is not allowed on the agility course in most cases!

Tika was an absolute food hog. We were competing at the Masters level in USDAA--already had Silver Championship and Platinum Tournament Master--and one day, we were flying around a course with her way ahead of me as usual, when she suddenly skidded to a halt, veered off in an entirely different direction, completely ignored my attempts to get her attention, trotted about 40 feet away from where we had been to the edge of the ring, and nosed a tiny piece of some kind of food out of the grass! Then turned, blasted back to me, and continued full speed with what we had been doing. Seriously, how can a dog detect that tiny a piece of food, at that distance, at that speed, doing something that you'd think requires a lot of attention to avoid killing yourself??

But she wouldn’t eat bananas.**

(BTW: It was Steeplechase. Qualified and came in 2nd. Crazy dog; how she managed with all that wasted time, who knows!)

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** By contrast, Jake would tear things apart and escape from his crate to get a banana.

Terminology for non-agilityers--

• Qualifying (Q): Meeting the requirements for the class/run (time and faults or points) to earn a "leg" towards eventual titles.
• Silver Championship: Earning enough Qs to achieve multiple championships.
• Tournament Platinum:  Means she was really good at qualifying (had earned many Qs) for the often-challenging three classes that are eventually featured at the national championships. At the time, that was the highest title you could earn for collecting Tournament Qs.
• Steeplechase: Designed to be very fast. It's often the hardest of the Tournament classes to earn Qs in, because so many dogs are so very fast and, to Q,  you must be in the top 15% of the dogs running that course. (This is a simplification, but close enough.)

Photo by Sarah Hitzeman

Chip Day 8 & 9 - Agility Weekend

SUMMARY: I learned more things about him.

Trying to be very quick...

• In the motel Saturday night, Chip settled right down when the other dogs did and slept soundly. (They all had their run of the room and the 2nd bed in the room, which he & Boost opted to sleep on--I cover the beds with my own sheets to protect the hotel bedding from hair & dirt.)
• I think that all the stimulation tired him out, even though he didn't get a lot of physical exercise.
• Tried him on a long line, loose, for a while, but although he'd run after Boost when she chased the frisbee, he'd then also decide to go walkabout, ignoring me completely. Not unexpected, but I'd hoped he'd stick around so that I didn't have to follow him across the field to bring him back. Definitely recall work needed.
• He was willing to play tug with me several times even with all the excitement going on.
• When I had him out on leash, I did many many reps of saying "Chip!" and rewarding when he looked up at me. He got a lot of hot dog bits. He seemed to be responding better over the 2 days, although still easily distracted by lots of things.
• Tried to do some groundwork/circle work, where I just walk or jog in small circles and have him follow me. He wasn't particularly interested, and once again, when I pulled forward on his leash to bring him with me, he just dug in and wouldn't budge. Need to figure out what exactly the situation is when that comes up, because mostly he's pliable on leash.
• Lots of people food he didn't seem to consider worthwhile. Rejected beans (like cooked kidney beans), cooked egg white (but he liked the yolk), banana (well, Tika doesn't like that, either), and tortilla chips, although I did notice that later the chips had vanished, so he changed his mind about that. Rejected some chicken offered by a friend, but then ate that after she also gave him some tiny bits of bacon.
• Lunges to the end of his leash and barks at other dogs... sometimes! Not sure what sparks that. I think he mostly wants to go check them out, but I worked on telling him that barking at other dogs is not done at agility trials. 
• He got to meet a few other dogs, all on leash and calm, no real playing; that was my choice.
• Oh, jeez, he pees on EVERYthing if he gets a chance! I don't actually remember Remington or Jake being this determined. I had to rinse down an agility tunnel and a friend's umbrella when I didn't catch him in time because I wasn't expecting it. That's an ongoing thing to work on with him and for me to remember to pay attention. Dang boy dogs! 
• Everyone who met him--and lots of people have seen his photo in my facebook posts or blog now, so a lot knew his name already--thought he was a very cute/handsome, sweet boy. And that he looked like Remington. And he responded to people who'd say "Chip!" All good.
• The borrowed crate was a wee bit small for him. On the way there, I don't think he put his head down more than a couple of times the whole two hours. On the way back, he curled up and slept pretty much all the way. 
• He was pretty good about getting into a crate when I told him to. I have been rewarding and releasing him a lot from crates, so that might help. Also that he other dogs were right next to him. He's also waiting fairly well for me to give him a "Break!" before he tries to leave the crate. Don't know whether he learned to do that in his previous life or whether he's actually learning that. Either way, it's good.
• Realized that I really do need to wait a few more weeks, making a concerted effort in training and some basic agility jumping, before deciding for sure whether he'll be a fun agility dog or a problem agility dog (jumping style, attitude). So much to learn, both of us!

I might remember more in the morning, but now must sleep.

ADDED MONDAY MORNING:
Because the borrowed crate was really too small for him to spend an extended period in, I put Boost loose in the front of MUTT MVR because she's the most trustworthy of the bunch, and Chip borrowed Boost's crate.

Chip mostly watched everything, which (on top of our walking around and meeting people and dogs and training work) I think is what tired him out mentally. I eventually draped a towel over his crate for an hour or so here and there to give him a chance to relax.

He was pretty good except raising a storm whenever I took Boost away to go run a run.

Tika slept a LOT.

Doggie Junk Food

SUMMARY: What wakes up the dogs' salivary glands?

Team Small Dog posted an excellent recipe for dog training treats, with explanatory photos, which you must read before you read this. Because here's my response.

This was an excellent recipe for hot dog rewards and one that I have used on many occasions when chopped-up-tiny Rollover (or the healthy choice alternative^[1], which is what I usually use these days) wasn't quite special enough.

Although World Class Trainers have told me that hot dogs aren't special enough; they should be getting a whole roast chicken, probably with truffle sauce.

I don't get it. If my hypothetical dog (hypothetically named Tika) thinks that stale left-over puppy kibble is most delectable and so salivates heavily about it, why do I need a whole roast chicken? And do dogs really know the difference between orts (that's a useful everyday word I learned from crossword puzzles) of chicken and minutiae of hot dogs? I don't think so. But certain hypothetical big name trainers said that she felt sorry for my dogs if I thought that hot dogs were a special treat for them. Who am I to argue with success? I don't argue, I just usually use the stale leftover puppy kibble for everyday rewards.

And I use chopped-up Rollover (which I still call "rollover" even though I haven't used that brand in years) as a secondary level of escalation, and chopped-up hot dogs for a real treat. And, in-between, when I'm in a hurry and want something moderately stinky, not greasy (which kibble is, actually), very small (so dogs don't fill up on candy between meals), I use Zukes Mini Naturals, which have the added conveniences of being already chopped up into tiny pieces and of coming in sturdy resealable bags that can withstand almost anything^[2].

But I'm still not certain how much difference it makes--at least, with any of my dogs, "high value" treats tend to be either "food" or "toy" but without a lot of levels of distinction within those categories. You know when vendors at dog shows offer your dog a piece of freeze-dried Alaskan Wild-caught Salmon or Free-Range Montana Organic Smoked Buffalo and say, "my dogs really love this stuff, and look, yours does, too!", I frankly see no difference in the quality of the tendril of saliva coming from Tika's lips or the level of frenzy with which she takes the treat and most of the fingers holding it.

I read somewhere recently that dogs don't taste food in the same way that we do and don't make that much distinction among flavors. I believe it, for the most part. Tika can quickly identify whether something is either "food" (snatch it out of midair and swallow in one gesture), "probably food" (including fingers that might be holding "food" but you can't tell until you've actually closed your teeth around them), or "not food" (say, gravel, which you can spit out quickly, or bananas, which are obviously not intended for consumption by canids of any level of intelligence^[3]).

Or there's Boost, who has to (a) evaluate via olfactory methodology whether it's actual food before she'll even open her mouth, and (b) decide whether perhaps there's something going on that might involve running that would be more worthwhile than taking the time to eat. In which case, she might take any kind of food reluctantly after a call to her attorney, but she'd rather not. Hot dogs might make a difference, but it's hard to tell what level of duress she feels that she's under.

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[1]: With a name like Natural Balance, you know that it's healthy, right? Or Science Diet? Or Natural Choice? I'm sure that it's all honesty in naming, so of course manufacturers would call their brand Unidentifiable Ruminant ByProducts if it were really so. Right? Am I right?

(I also need to point out that, right now, the quoted string "unidentifiable ruminant byproducts", when put into google, comes back with exactly 0 results. Let's see whether we can effect a sea change in Google by (a) doing a search right now on the quoted string (quotes are important) "unidentifiable ruminant byproducts" and then by adding it to your web page. Aren't community projects fun? And educational?)

[2]: Except Jake experiencing a premonition that he was going to have massive brain seizures that night and not survive beyond the weekend and so needed to consume all reserve bags of Zukes (and everything else) stored in the van. After he was done, the bags were no longer resealable. But I digress.


[3]: Except Jake, who once ripped open my ex's gym back to get at a banana and, on another occasion, nearly tore his crate open to retrieve one that I had in my gear bag sitting next to the crate. There was a dog whose definition of "food" was considerably broader than Tika's. I had to remove gravel from his mouth on many occasions as he was trying to figure out how to chew it up to swallow it. In his last couple of years, I had to put screening on all of my potted plants because he was starting to eat the soil out from around the roots, and Boost was starting to think that this was a normal thing for puppies to learn from their wise and experienced elders. (See photo of typical agility home's potted plant with screen, dragon head, and Ethernet cable. )