Casa Symmetry getting a facelift - Part II

Things are continuing to progress around here... or degress, (is that even a word?? I'm not sure). I haven't posted any more pics because we've emptied out the office and only have one computer (the one Ronnie uses for work) hooked up and all my pics are on the other hard drive. Or still on the camera, but I don't want to put them on Ronnie's work machine. AND it just took me forever to log onto Blogger for some reason...

But they've about finished painting the hall and both bedrooms - there is some touch up that will be done after the floors are done. They'll start on the floors tomorrow... NO MORE CARPET Hoooooorrrrraaaaayyyyyy!!

There was an unbelievable amount of CRAP in the middle bedroom/office!! The dining room (where I'm typing this now) and the living room are completely full of the stuff we cleared out of there! The only thing still in our bedroom is our bed, we'll take that out early tomorrow morning before the flooring guys come and I have no idea where we'll put it. We've already got some clothes hanging out on the deck, perhaps we'll complete the white trash effect by putting the bed out there!! LOL
They're also starting on the windows - they tore out the big front windows and the big ones in the den today, and put up plywood for the night. High living, indeed!! But don't worry, I'm taking pics of EVERYTHING... It's absolutely horrible right now, but it sure will be nice when it's done!!
I gotta say... if I was going to go through something like this with anyone, I'm sure glad it's Ronnie!! He's been so wonderful, easy going and just nice to be around with all this. Now if I can just get him to get rid of some of his stuff... But I did hear him say that he liked the way the rooms look empty, and wants to get a more clean or spare look. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he'll remember that, and clear some s*** outta here!!

I'm going to stay with our friend Karen for a few days while they finish the bedroom floors - and am taking two of the girls with me. Teddy will go to stay at his brother Buck's house for a few days - this will make things a lot easier at home, with just Aeryn and little Sport and Ronnie. They'll be pretty cramped for space since they won't be able to get into either bedroom at all while the stain and sealant are drying.

Casa Symmetry getting a facelift - Part I

I may (or may not) have mentioned this before, but we are doing some much-needed repairs on the ol' homestead. We've got a good contractor and things are rolling along pretty smoothly but, as anyone who has gone through this knows, it's still been an upheaval. And part of my excuse for still not posting as often as I'd like to. (The other part being that I'm lazy but the "too busy because of all the home repair" thing sounds SO much better, doncha think??)

We're in Week 4 or 5 now - I've sort of lost track. So far, we've had the foundation repaired but I didn't get any pictures of that. BUT - taaaaaa daaaaaaa - I have downloaded the pics from our new camera! So have lots and lots of catching up photos to do, and I assure you most of them are of the dogs. But we'll stick to one topic for now (HA) and I'll show you some of the changes around here so far (WARNING this will probably be really really boring for those of you who don't actually know us, or haven't been to our house before):

We've got a tiny little garage, but knowing that we'd have to be storing some furniture in there for a few weeks, the first step was to clean it out!! Very Spring Cleaning-esque, I think.

It is just amazing how much crap you can get into a "tiny" garage! And I was able to park my car in there, too!! Sort of... it looked a bit like those Public Storage commercials where the car is shoehorned in amongst the "stuff".

And LOOK!! It's EMPTY!! Remember this, as you'll see soon this only lasted a few days. Can't park in there now! But as God is my witness, I'll park inside my garage again one day!

After the foundation work, they painted the exterior and we got a new garage door!!

And it IS exciting, when you consider what our old garage door looked like:

Meanwhile, we had scheduled repairs to the wall in our den. There was some old water damage from several years ago but the contractor we had at that time was an idiot and the work never got done. We thought it would be a fairly minor repair, just replacing a few of the panels...

WARNING - the following images may be disturbing to sensitive viewers!

Here's what they found when they started pulling the panels off the wall:

The damage went straight down into the floor - good thing we were planning to replace the flooring anyway!
But by the next day the cleanup was finished, the floor was patched:
And the new boards were going up - they did a great job matching wood panels that are probably 25 years old. Once they're stained no one will ever know the difference! Well, except for ya'll!

More to come....

Too smart, or....

I have come to realize that since I'm not a very good writer, I tend to rely pretty heavily (OK, very heavily) on pictures for this blog. And although the new computer is up and running and doing great, neither of our scanners will work - hopefully it's not a Windows Vista incompatibility issue but something simple. And although we've got a lovely new camera (Canon digital Rebel xti - LOVE, love, love it!! And it uses the lenses from our old 35mm Rebel) and it has several hundred pictures on it from the last few months I haven't downloaded any of them yet. Also (details details) haven't downloaded the software needed to download the pictures.

So I'm pretty photoless at the moment and THAT is my excuse for not making any entries in so long. Even though there has been lots of stuff to write about - once I start catching up, watch out!

But I had a good news/bad news experience today and was thinking it would make a good story so here goes.

To start off, I have a new car!! Actually it's just new to me - a 2007 Toyota Rav4. I never buy new cars, it just seems to make so much more sense to buy well maintained used ones. And then I keep them forever. In over 30 years of driving, this is only the 5th car I've had. It's the 3rd Toyota and the other 2 were Hondas, and this probably explains why I've been able to put over 240,000 miles on each one and enjoyed every minute of it.

Anyway, I've had this car for about 2 weeks and it's fabulous. I can't recommend one highly enough, if you're looking for a combination good dog car/good city car. I am a home health therapist which means I drive to my patient's homes so I drive a LOT for work. And at least twice a week I am taking one or more Great Danes to a class, or a vet appointment or something so I need a good dog car too. Plus it's really comfy and well, just cool.

Until this morning... I left the house and was headed to my first patient, and was planning to stop and get some gas since I was running on fumes. Then as I'm tooling down the highway the Check Engine light came on!! And the Traction Control light!! And some other damn light, I think it had something to do with the anti-lock brakes but I'm not sure... and the Cruise Control quit working!!

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!

I was freaking out - this would be an alarming situation anyway but in a car you've just bought it's really scary. I got the car "vetted" at a mechanic before I bought it but what if they'd missed something?? I've always had wonderful luck with used cars - what if my luck has run out???

ARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(sidebar: oh look... instead of pictures apparently I'm inserting capitalized exclamations).

The car seemed to be running OK otherwise. My brain started to function again and I remembered that my brother had recommended the service department of a Toyota dealership which happened to be not too far from where I was.

I remembered this mostly because I was so surprised at the time... you see, my brother hates car dealers.

Hates them.

HATES, hates, hates hates them. You have NO idea if you don't know him. He's been buying and selling cars since he was 16 and long before the days of Edmunds.com (my personal Bible for researching and pricing cars) has been a ruthless negotiator and feels that all car dealers are scum. So for him to actually recommend a dealer is high praise indeed.

Problem was, I didn't remember the name of the dealer or exactly where it was. I called my brother's cell phone but had to leave a message. But I did reach my sister in law and asked her about it without going into details (I was still driving at the time and didn't want to start crying or something) and she told me. (It's Don Davis Toyota in Arlington TX if you're interested).

So I found it, and pulled into the service department. By now I'm really driving on fumes but had been afraid to pull into a gas station in case the car wouldn't start again!

The guy I talked to was great. The very first thing he mentioned when I told him my tale of woe was to ask if the gas cap was on tight. It was. Apparently a loose gas cap can freak out the computer and cause this sort of thing.

(Now we're finally getting to the title of this post... it's a Smart Car, get it?)

Fortunately it's still under warranty, so he said they'd check it out and would I have a seat in the waiting room.

Also fortunately, they had a couple of fairly recent issues of Time magazine there so I am now MUCH more up on current events than I was, say, this morning. For example, I now know where Darfur is (just south of Egypt, next to Sudan which is also just south of Egypt.)

I feel I'm ready for Jeopardy! Or Cash Cab, at least.

Anyway, fast forward TWO PLUS HOURS while I'm expanding my knowledge. The service guy comes in and asks me to come into his office.

Oh-oh. Oh crap.

But it's OK! Apparently, sometimes when the vehicle is really REALLY low on gas it can trigger the same kind of fit that a loose gas cap does. But although they'd heard of it, they hadn't ever actually seen that happen before so they had done a complete diagnostic. Top to bottom, inside and out and upside and down. And they found NOTHING WRONG. His exact words were "Your car is in great shape".

His next words were "You need to put some gas in it". and then they didn't charge me a dime.

So, bad news: A scary start to the day, and a shot schedule...
But, good news: My car is in GREAT SHAPE!!

I am willing to take the good news! Wheeeeeeeeeee!

And yes, I did put gas in it and will resist the urge to let it run on fumes in the future!

But as Ronnie said when I told him about this "It doesn't sound so smart to me!"

Still here....

I do apologize... the new computer is working just swell but neither of our TWO scanners is working! I haven't had time to mess with it, so still no show pics to share. We did get a lovely new camera - finally got a digital SLR, a Canon Rebel XTi which can use all the lenses from our old 35 mm Canon Rebel. As soon as I get through the instruction manual I'll start downloading pictures from it... I know, excuses excuses!! Having to earn a living is really cutting into my photo sharing and blogging time! It's a bitch!

But, speaking of bitches... Kinsey is still rockin' She just turned 6 years old - well into middle age for a Dane - and to celebrate she got her second "leg" (qualifying score) in Excellent Agility Jumpers With Weaves last weekend! A first place in her class to boot, with a blazing time 11 seconds under the Course time!!

Pictures will, eventually, appear. I do promise!

Where has the time gone?

Aaaaak! I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted here! Between the computer finally, well and truly, turning-its-toes-up-and-REALLY dying and a lot of work related stuff I've just been away too long.

But boy oh boy do I have NEWS!! We have our first two home-bred AKC Champions! Keeper finished his Championship on January 5 and his brother Gus finished his just a week later, on January 13. It's amazing to finish two dogs in one year - but for it to happen within a few days of each other, and to LITTERMATES is just overwhelming.

I'm still grinning from ear to ear, as you can imagine... photos will appear ASAP.

More brace pics

I've been playing with some of the other video I took in Tulsa a few weeks ago, and here are a couple of stills I clipped out of Gus, Teddy and Ronnie showing in Brace. I guess - since Teddy and Gus are very, very similar in size and angles and overall build - that it shouldn't be surprising that they move together so nicely.
But I still think this looks very, very cool! You have to look closely to even see that there are two dogs in the shot above.I don't usually post photos taken of show wins on this blog, but I'm posting this one because I really like the expressions on both dogs. Pretty boys, if I say so myself!

I've got some catching up to do!

I'm still here! In fact, we're doing great and have had a very good time for the past few week. Show result updates are on our web site. We had several canine visitors last week while their owners (friends of ours) were out of town for Thanksgiving. Liam is a lovely "little" yellow Lab who enjoyed bringing in the mail and the paper every day.

As Ronnie said, "Everyone should have a dog like that!"

Gus was here for a few days too. He - along with his 3 brothers - is turning into such an affectionate dog. His owner really misses him when he's gone - even though she knows he has a good time at our house - and that just makes me feel good.

I mean- I'm not glad that she's missing him, but I am SO glad that she loves him so much! That is absolutely the very BEST thing that a breeder could ever hope for, and it's the #1 thing that I'm thankful for at this season of thanks.

Great Danes, Retrievers, and Babies - Oh, My!

Just got back from a wonderful trip to Pennsylvania to visit Chantel & Stacey, our longtime friends. They used to live just down the street from us, but moved to PA last January. We've missed them terribly... they're not only terrific people, but we have so many interests in common. Primarily, of course, Great Danes and showing dogs. They used to come over to visit with their dogs all the time as I described in this post and this one.

But I finally got a chance to go visit them in their new digs, and best of all FINALLY got to meet their newest family member, a beautiful little girl born last spring!

Now, I am not a "baby" person. Meaning, I'm not one of those women who coos over every baby she sees, and I've never had any desire to have one of my own. But this little girl had me charmed from the start - she's just as friendly as her parents, and they've obviously done a great job of socializing her (hahaha) because she's really game for anything.

Here are a few pics of me with this little two-legged pup, and her four-legged family members:

Their Dane, Tiger, really likes her, and seems to see himself as her guardian. He likes to be nearby wherever she is. The Flat Coat Retriever, Oakley, is her buddy and they absolutely love each other. The Golden, Jack, thinks it's all a lot of nonsense PLUS he doesn't really like having his picture taken so he's practically rolling his eyes in all the photos.

We had a lovely time - Pennsylvania is a gorgeous state and we did some sightseeing. We went to the Lehigh Valley Zoo of which Stacey is the Executive Director ... it's a small but lovely zoo, and if you're in the area I highly recommend it. We went into Philly for some sightseeing too - I'll post more about that next.

Brace Group One video!

This will be my last post for a few days, so I wanted to get some of the video I took in Tulsa up before I leave. I apologize for the lack of editing - when I get back I'll trim it and put up some other video that I like even better. But this is a good start!

This was taken on Friday, November 2 for the Brace Working Group competition. As you can see, Gus and Teddy were absolutely wonderful but it's still a challenge for Ronnie to steer them! Left turns are especially tricky :-)

And I think the boys deserve extra special kudos because we found out later that the Akita brace behind them were both bitches... who were both in season!!

Tulsa!!

We got back from a 3-day show weekend in Tulsa late Sunday night, and I'm still playing catch-up.

But what a weekend it was!! We took our two "pups" Topper and Teddy, along with their brother Gus who belongs to some dear friends of ours. And their other brother Keeper was there with his owner. All 4 were entered in conformation classes all 3 days, plus Keeper was entered in obedience. PLUS, Gus and Teddy (who are practically identical fawn boys) were entered in a special Brace class that was offered all 3 days. In Brace, you have 2 dogs with one handler - the dogs should work side by side, on the handler's left. I thought my hubby was pretty brave to attempt this with two young male Danes - who together weigh over 300 lbs. and could probably pull a beer wagon.

But it all worked out great! Keeper was the star, he got his second Major win on Saturday and a Reserve (no points, it's basically a runner-up thing) on Sunday. Best of all, he finished his Companion Dog obedience title! Now he is:

Symmetry's No Vrroom At the Inn, RN, CD

Topper didn't get any points, but got two Reserves. Her turn will come soon, I'm sure.

And Gus and Ted were a HUGE hit!! It is very impressive to see a Great Dane brace - they were a crowd favorite for sure. One day the judge even applauded them as they came into the ring! And all the judges had funny comments along the line of "You are a brave man" or "It's sure a good thing they get along!" :-) And they won BEST BRACE IN SHOW Friday and Saturday!! (And yes, they did have competition for it!)

I did get lots of photos and videos, fear not. But I'm leaving town again Thursday to visit some dear-but-far-away friends and I may not have time to upload them before I leave. If not, I'll have lots to post when I get back!

Promises, Promises

I won't be posting anything for a few days since we'll be at a show... but I PROMISE I'll have some good stuff when we get back. Hoping for a win of course, but the main thing I'm looking forward to is Ronnie showing Gus and Teddy in Brace.

This is where you have two dogs with one handler...

Two. happy. young. Great. Danes. with. ONE. handler.

I can't wait (especially since I'M not the handler!!)

Don't worry, I'm taking the new video camera! :-)

In the meantime, bear with me while I show you how cute Kinsey is:

She's not scratching her ears, she just sleeps like that.

"Why did you wake me up?"

But sometimes she is more regal, like when she's on the lounge chair on the deck watching the younger dogs play:

I think her son Teddy does "cute" very well also:

More photos from the National!

The GDCA National Specialty is over for another year, but for those of you (like me!!) who didn't get to go and who are in a snit sad about that... here is another web site with great photos!

The Heart of Minnesota Great Dane Club web site has a lot of great photos up, and more will be posted over the next several days, thanks to the efforts of a couple of terrific people (Zeli Schulte and Mary Ann Land).

Also, Sandy Hann at Von Shrado Great Danes has several pages of great photos that make you feel like you're there!

Enjoy!

I've got a new toy!

Slowly but surely we (meaning me) are entering the DIGITAL AGE, and I got me a new camcorder! Do I hear collective groans from the audience? Well, you probably should be groaning because...

TAA-DAA!

Here is my first attempt at posting a video:

This is Keeper opening our patio door.

Breathtaking video, isn't it? :-)

He learned this trick from his mother Kinsey (or possibly he learned it the same way she did, from watching us open it). But whereas Kinsey gently noses it just far enough open to let her through, Keeper opens it much faster and he usually gives the door a giant push that opens it about halfway. The only reason he's more cautious here is that I'm standing right there, telling him not to come out!

Another visitor!

I can't believe I'm posting twice in one day!

This is Aslan, an 11 or 12 week old Dane pup who belongs to a friend of ours. She brought him over today to get some help re-taping his ears. Isn't he a cutie?

You have to admit, those are some ears!!

And here is another view of handsome Aslan:

Isn't he a doll?

Brindle snobs

Have you ever noticed that dogs that look alike, tend to want to hang out together? For example, if you're out with your dog and you meet another dog of the same breed, your dog is likely to be more attracted to that dog than to a dog of another breed. This holds true (in my experience at least) even if you don't have other dogs of that same breed at home. Which has always made me wonder, how do they know? I mean, it's not like they spend a lot of time looking at themselves in the mirror.

With our crew, it goes beyond that into - I'm ashamed to admit - color prejudice. When Gus or Buck (both are fawn colored) are here they play with Teddy all the time:

But when Keeper is here, after a while he and Topper start playing together (they're both brindle) and they leave poor Teddy to his own devices:

Teddy wants to play with them...

"Look guys, I've got a big ball!"

Poor Ted gives up - you can see him behind Keeper chewing on a bully stick.

Leaving Topper and Keeper to play to their hearts' content!

Visitor!

See? I told you, five Danes. Because Keeper is back to visit! He's #4 in the picture (in case you're wondering, #1 is Kinsey, #2 is Aeryn, #3 is Teddy and #5 is Topper).

Everything is fine this time - his owner is out of town for a few days so he's here at Camp Symmetry. We are always glad to see the big goober - and as I've said before, we firmly believe that having frequent visitors is good for our crew. I really think that is one of the reasons they get along with other dogs so well. For example, remember that both Teddy and Keeper are intact males - and although I still think of them as "puppies", they are over two years old so are fully mature sexually. We're careful about introducing them when they haven't seen each other in a while, and we do keep an eye on them to prevent minor incidents from escalating into anything major - but really everything is very peaceful.

Well, "peaceful" in between all the running around:

But you gotta admit, they are having a good time!

The National!! At a distance...

Alas, we weren't able to go to the Great Dane Club of America National Specialty (aka "The National") this year. Last year we had a blast there - and as I wrote in that post, if you like Danes or are even just interested in them and you are ever within visiting distance then for Pete's sake GO!! It's simply awesome - you'll see more wonderful dogs and meet more knowledgeable people than anywhere else on earth.

This year it's in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and the trip just didn't work out for us. But I was going into withdrawals (yes, despite having four five - I'll explain tomorrow - Danes snoring around my feet as I type this, just hush) and really feeling the pain of missing the National this year...

...and then to the rescue come Scot Billings and Ginnie Saunders! With lots and lots and LOTS of wonderful pictures!! Scot has been documenting the National for many, many years - you can see pictures from this year's festivities here, and on the home page for his Rokadane web site you can find links for previous years.

Ginnie's DaDane web site is one of the best all-around Dane web sites anyway - she has written weekly articles for many years about Danes and also has a wonderful and HUGE links directory on her site.

But her photography is breathtaking - go look at her photos and you'll swear you can just reach out and touch the dogs! It absolutely is the next best thing to being there!

Like mother, like son, like mother

I just got back from taking Kinsey for a photo shoot. She's done commercial work before, and so has her son Gus. This is the first "job" she's had in over a year, and it was probably the easiest photo shoot I've ever done*. She just had to pose with a big folding crate, and it took maybe 15 minutes...not counting, of course, the hour or so we waited while they set things up! But she was an angel as always, very patient and sweet. They wanted her to sit half in and half out of the crate, which of course is not a natural position for a dog - normally they're either in or out, they don't usually stop halfway. But she willingly stayed, and if the photographer wanted her angled differently ("Could you shift her rear this way a little?... a little more? Now scoot her rear forward.... Perfect!") I just crawled partway into the crate with her and pushed her around or moved her feet, and she stayed perfectly wherever I placed her. As one of the onlookers - there are always lots of people present at these things, assistants and clients and who know what else - said, "She's very malleable!" :-)

Her picture will be used on the box... so if you see a Pet Mate Giant-sized brand black wire folding crate, with two doors (one in the side as well as the one in the end) and a Great Dane on the box, you'll know who it is!

It's a nice crate by the way - very stable for a folding crate, and wider than most crates that size which makes it more comfortable for a dog to turn around. I was hoping to get one for our payment for the day, but no such luck.

In case you're wondering, these things do not pay well - often not enough to compensate you for taking a half day off work. And there are no royalties. It's different of course if the animal is a professional actor on a sitcom or in a major movie or something, but for this type of thing it's all about vanity - it's just a lot of fun to see your dog in an ad, or on TV!

*I'll tell you later about some other commercials I've done with our dogs that weren't so easy!

Celebrations

Do you do something special for your dog when he/she does something especially good? Or for a birthday or such?

I started thinking about this when I reviewed the post I wrote yesterday about Teddy finishing his RN title. The caption to his picture there (it's a photo of him that doesn't have a thing to do with Rally but it's one I really like) said "give me a cookie" but in truth he got not only several handfuls of treats after we came out of the ring at the show but also got a double cheeseburger on the way home. That's our tradition - on the way home from a show the dogs get a burger if they did well.

Now, I totally understand that this has nothing to do with being a training reward - the dog doesn't associate the burger with whatever they did some time before back at the show site. It's just our way of celebrating. And you have to understand - for a Great Dane, a plain double cheeseburger is just a little snack. Not something big enough or rich enough to upset the dog's stomach!

For their birthdays, I usually bake them some treats. When I have an elderly dog, I make more of a fuss over birthdays and try to make it a special day. Maybe not so many special treats since an older dog's digestion may not handle it well, but we'll take a fun trip to Petsmart or some other place they enjoy.

Speaking of Rally...

...Teddy finished his Rally Novice title today!! He was so good! Admittedly, the Novice level in Rally is not terribly difficult... but it does require teamwork between dog and handler, and the ability to perform various basic Obedience exercises and parts of more advanced exercises.

Teddy has the potential to do very well in Obedience and Agility, if his owner (moi) can get busy and work with him more regularly. His attitude is "What do you want me to do?"* - which you have to admit is a great one for a dog to have!

*Unlike his sister Topper, whose attitude is more along the lines of "What have you done for me, lately?"

Teddy says: "Now give me a cookie!"

To give you an idea of what a Rally course is like, here is the map of the course we had today in the Novice class:

The first exercise consisted of the dog & handler weaving in & out of 4 cones. The second exercise requires the dog to drop into a Down next to the handler - the handler gives this command while the team is still moving forward. Next, the handler calls the dog to sit in Front. Then the dog moves around behind the handler and sits in Heel position at the handler's left side.

The 4th sign is for a Left turn. The exercise after that requires the team to make a small circle to their Left. Exercise #6 is a 270 degree turn - it's called a "270 Right Turn" because the team turns to their Right as they make this turn... but it's actually a Left turn.

Exercise #7 requires the handler to call the dog to sit in Front, then move to the handler's Left side to get back into Heel position. But this time, the handler begins moving forward before the dog sits. Exercise #8 is a Spiral Left - meaning the team turns toward their Left, into the dog. Spirals in Rally are a series of concentric ovals - you do the largest one first. Exercise #9 is the Left About Turn - the handler makes a quick Left turn toward the dog, and the dog meanwhile circles behind the handler and winds up back on the Left side. I really enjoy this particular turn, but it can be confusing for some people to learn. It reminds me of a square dancing move! (I'm probably sounding really old here - do they still teach square dancing in elementary schools?? Somehow I think not! But they did when I was there.)

The next exercise calls for a Fast pace - the handler should break into a trot, and the dog should keep up. At the "Normal Pace" sign, the team slows to their normal (should be brisk) walking pace. Exercise #12 is a Right About Turn - the team makes a tight 180 degree turn to the right. The last exercise sign calls for a Slow pace - the handler should noticeably slow down and again, the dog should adjust to stay in position. I tell my students that the Fast should be the sort of quick trot you'd do to catch an elevator. The Slow should be a window-shopping stroll, and the "Normal" pace should be a brisk but comfortable walk. As the team passes the Finish sign, they're done!

Through all the exercises on a Novice course like this, the handler is free to talk to the dog, give multiple commands and/or hand signals, even pat his/her leg or clap hands. The dog is on lead throughout. It's a lot of fun, and like I said above, not too difficult. Hopefully as you are reading this you are thinking that maybe this is something you could do with YOUR dog!!