La Quinta Inn - Tallahassee

I try to keep a record of our trip statistics, in case we pass this way again.  So, for our trip from Baton Rouge to Cape Coral:
We departed BR at 3:30 p.m., arrived at LaQuinta Tallahassee North (described below), (exit 199 off of I-10) at 11:45 BR time -- 8.25 hours on the road, 435 miles covered, averaging about 53 miles an hour.  We stopped about every 2 hours along the way to pottie Max and Willow, and ourselves, stretch our legs, buy coffee and food.  First stop was the Mississippi Welcome Center, forgot to record the other stops.  We'd have made better time except for taking Florida Blvd all the way to Walker then cutting over to the interstate, to avoid near stand-still traffic from O'Neal thru Denham Springs.  plus lots of 18 wheelers and aggressive drivers riding our rear bumpers, weaving in and out at 80+ mph, and several conjested areas, light rain and fog, where traffic moved at closer to 60 mph.  I kept a steady 75 mph as much as possible thanks to my trusty speed control.  By 10 p.m. we had I-10 mostly to ourselves.  Gas prices all along the route about 3.35/gallon for Regular.

John and the dogs rest in our spacious room, #163.

The end wing, on a forrested slope, where we stay.

Arriving at this LaQuinta Inn is like coming home (we stayed here last year, too).  Friendly welcome, speedy checkin, clean comfortable spacious room and bath, free Wi-Fi, free breakfast including grits and hard boiled eggs (not just the usual cereal, bagels, toast and jelly), large flat screen TV, pets welcome and stay free.   Great price at $54/night (with AARP discount), $60 with tax.  I like 3 p.m. checkin and NOON checkout.  We got to sleep in late and depart leisurely.  Also, up to 6 p.m. cancellation on day of arrival.

Motel style, one can park at your door in most rooms. Our favorite rooms, though, are from 167 - 159, all facing a downward sloping forrested hill (the dogs can pottie right out the door), dotted with camellia and azelea bushes, mounded with pine straw, very charming.  There's a grassy area to the far left, where they even provide a poopie bag dispenser. Parking is at the side and bottom of the hill.  A quiet, homey wing and still not far to lug your luggage. 

I experienced my first "Book On Tape" on this trip, Dean Koontz's Sole Survivor, which my son had given us months before but we never had time to listen to.  Driving, there was nothing else to do but drive, sip coffee, listen.  John operated his little Sony Megabase portable CD player (my antique car only has a cassette player), but he was able to route the sound thru the car speakers with some kind of cassette adapter, and it sounded GREAT!  Along with strong coffee, cigarettes and gum, it kept me wide awake and on the edge of my seat (I do most of the driving).  A very suspenseful, graphic book with amazing descriptions.  That we can pause and discuss interesting facets makes "reading" this way an interactive experience!  We like that.

Max and Willow are awesome travel dogs.  Maxie nestles by my side and never moves, Willow rides in the back window and rarely moves -- unless food comes out.  They are incredibly patient and calm.   Willow knows the difference between me leaving home for a few hours, which doesn't bother her, and us going on a road trip. She screeches horribly, as though seriously injured, if she thinks we will leave her behind.

A few days later I received a La Quinta survey asking them to evaluate my stay.  I got to complain about the lack of a bathtub stopper and no repair offered.  I used a wadded up wash cloth to hold the water in the tub.  I also mentioned about the dog area having too much poop on the ground. I recommended they tell everyone at check-in to pick up after their dogs. (Those who don't make a bad name for the rest of us, so I usually pick up mine and more every time we go outsideI)  got a personal email back from the hotel manager apologizing for the inconvenience, assuring us we'd have the same room on our return trip and there would be a stopper in the tub, and they would redouble their efforts to keep the pet area clean!

NOTICE TO DOG PEOPLE:  We should be keeping the area clean ourselves.  There aren't too many motels that will receive us to begin with, and fewer still that don't charge a pet fee!

We will stay here on our way back home after the New Year.  I highly recommend this place to anyone travelling in the area, especially with dogs.

Upwards and onward!

New Camera Necessitates New Computer

For my 65th birthday (not for 2 more weeks, but it was on sale in October), my husband bought me a new Sony Handycam HDR-XR-160 Video Camera, with extra battery, charger, carrying case, protection program and all the trimmings.  SWEET!  I take so many videos and spend so much time transferring them from camera to computer, video cataloging, editing, the uploading to web albums, mostly waiting for the computer to complete an action, and all that for blurry quality and slow playback, he knew I've been jones-ing for better equipment.

Took some videos with the new unit the next weekend, tried uploading them to my old computer and it said I didn't have enough processing speed.  OOPS!  So, off I went to Best Buy the very next day, looking for a new laptop as well (mine is about 5 years old).  I've been looking around for 2 years or so and hadn't found anything I remotely liked.
 

I said a fervent prayer as I entered the building that I'd find the perfect laptop for me.  I waited til I felt the prayer "catch", held my breath as I ambled to the back  -- and there she was, first unit I laid my eyes on - a 17.3" TOSHIBA Satellite with Quad Core AMD processor, webcam, a decent graphics card, lots of RAM and a big hard drive, and a beautiful grey shell (most of them are shiny black these days and show every fingerprint, which is a deal-killer for me).  I swear, it was glowing.  It had a halo around it.  AND, it was on special.  I brought John back the next day to take a look, he loved every feature, and I took it home along with a nice carrying case and the 3 year protection plan (which includes a second battery).  All together it set me back $800, but that's not so bad considering how much time I spend on it. It was less than the total camera package!  I'm going back to get John an identical Satellite this week -- it will be his Christmas present from me.  We don't want anything else.

So, now I'm neck deep in setting up my new unit, transferring essential files from old computer to new, upgrading programs, etc.  And, testing its power.  Last night I streamed the first half of Dr Zhivago wirelessly off of Netflix, on battery power, in my bathroom while I soaked in a hot tub.  Picture quality was great, no pixellating whatsoever, no "loading" waits.  I carried the unit all around my yard and got perfect wireless reception clear out into the labyrinth, the shed, etc.  WHOA!  And after 2.5 hours, the battery is still more than half charged.

I've been dreading this upgrade for two years.  It was psychologically impossible for me until now, but suddenly I'm in the right frame of mind!  I've met my 2011 goals.  All else is lagniappe.  Processing/editing better videos next year, studying them in slo-mo, making composites, is paramount. I'm tunnel-visioned into the task, accepting confusion, frustration, surprise, expense and delay as part of the journey. Working my 3P's mantra:

Patience, Persistence, Prayer

So far it's working.  I've set no time limit.  However long it takes, it takes.  I'm making progress every day.  Every program I've used and loved (Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Course Designer, my scanner, my printer, etc), are old, all need new drivers or reactivation codes to function on the new computer, which I have to search for on the internet.  Today I may get my ,pst email addresses and folders transferred.  I've had to seek out tutorials on where to drill down to find them in hidden files on the old computer.  Still, I'm calm.

RANT: Still, I can't imagine how Microsoft has stayed in business and kept selling new product with such difficult procedures required to set up their equipment, email accounts, wading thru screen after screen of pop-ups offering you choice after choice on things you don't know what they are or whether to click yes, no, or "learn more", with a thousand side tracks luring you to follow until you forget where you originally intended to go, then end up with nothing for the day. Kind of like real life.  Talk about a labyrinthal experience!!!

Oh, I should mention, John also printed out the 128 page manual on how to operate the camera, which I'm also wading through a page here and a page there.  And, I discovered that the video editing software I was using can't read/handle the new AVCHD hi-def files my new camera takes. Sh-t! Now I have to purchase new video editing software. I'm online researching what programs might work, and there will be a whole new learning curve for that.
While this is taking up most of my focus, I'm not writing about other milestones, like the LSU/Alabama game where all my neighbors revealed their insanity as LSU scraped out another narrow victory in the last 2 seconds; like Lucky Lucy's CGC/TDI test, which she passed.  I'll do Lucky's writeup when I process the videos to go with it.  That will be -- whenever it is.  No need to discuss the ridiculous antics of LSU football fans, players or coaches -- the whole country is talking about little else, and I've got some new thoughts about football.

Upwards and onward!

Lori Drouin Obedience Seminar

I spent last weekend attending Lori Drouin's Obedience Seminar in Gonzales, hosted by our local dog club.  I brought my Sony Cybershot but alas, the supposedly freshly charged battery was dead.  I ended up taking lots of pix using Ganetta's camera, but she took those home.  I may never see them.  I hate that-- I so miss having and sharing my pictures.

Working on sit/stays; down/stays, come to heel.
Maxie is lying down in lower left corner, facing me.

Lori came in from California for the event, with her 3 shelties.  Cost:  $150/member, $200/non-member.  Another great benefit of club membership and such a good deal, turned out, all 20 participants were LCCOC members, as were the handful of auditing students.   There was no room for outsiders.  I brought Maxie and Lucky, who took turns in the training ring and they both did fairly well considering we are all untrained in Performance Obedience.

Maxie did OK, but I find I don't enjoy training a 7 lb 10" dog so close underfoot.  Lots of bending over to give treats, straighten his position, etc.  Lots of checking to make sure I'm not stepping on him.

Lucky at 45 lbs 21" is size-wise much easier to train, but she continues to find Obedience work boring.  She does some of it fairly well, but in the absence of physical stimulation (tugging, fetching, running, jumping) she finally just lies down, sighs, and won't budge.  Won't even go for a treat tossed at her.   I have to laugh when I hear people claim that Obedience work is "atheletic" because a jump and "go outs" are involved.  It is mostly about holding focus on the handler's face while waiting, sitting, staying, heeling, turning, finding a scent article, fetching the left, center, or right glove on command, or finding one article among many that has the handler's scent.  All that is fine, but just being honest, I can't bear to micro-manage my dogs' every body move all the way down to paw, nose and eye placement every single second.

The weekend ended with a Q and A.  A lady asked how to solve the problem of her dog breaking eye contact with her upon entering the ring.  Seems the little Papillon, when seeing the judge for the first time, breaks its gaze on the master's face for a moment to check out the new person.  Oops, points off for that.  They spent the next 10 minutes entering the ring, again and again, practicing total handler focus.  This turned me OFF.  I think it totally un-natural for anyone, dog or man, not to briefly glance around and survey any new environment they go into.

Lori Drouin, photo by Cheryl W.

That said, Lori is a good teacher.  Very organized.  Very knowledgeable.  A clear communicator.  Pleasant.  And chock full of information.  I did enjoy her tips on:

• footwork,
• figure 8's,
• proofing points on heeling,
• dumbell training,
• the "easy" cue,
• drop on recall,
• backchaining the right and left turns,
• early scent work training. 

 I took notes and will incorporate some of these as "structured play" activities at home, if only to stimulate my dog's intelligence and use for parlor tricks.

I especially appreciated her comments on how to curb "anticipation", which I can apply to agility training.  I don't want D to ever decide they already know what I'm going to ask for next, or when the exercise is finished.  In agility, for example, you always behave as if there is another jump after the last jump so both D and handler will run at full speed over the last jump.  You don't want D to slow down or quit before it's over. You don't want them to break their start line stay before they are released, so you frequently go back and treat for that in training, though never in a trial.  You want them to anticipate that a treat could always be forthcoming for staying put.

An 18 page handout was given, which I read through Monday morning.  It was all about CONTROL, using every conceivable means possible from food rewards to corrections to body posture to using dowels to get D doing exactly what you want, exactly when you want. So many, many control words throughout the document, it tired me to read it. 

Some think a dog heeling around a ring for 10 minutes in perfect sync with a handler, totally focused, is beautiful.  I think it's creepy.  If it takes that much work to "get it right, if only just this once", it is telling me it goes against the dog's grain.  We're supposed to be harnessing and accentuating their natural abilities, not seeing how much we can warp them into "perfect obedience". I'm not a "fit this square peg into that round hole" person.  If I want to fill a round hole, I'll get something round in the first place.

I'm perfectly satisfied with striving for Q's in agility, i.e., "perfect" scores, no deductions, which are possible even if the dogs take a few wide turns, forget to completely stop at the down contact, or glance to the side on their start line stay.  They can even earn championship status that way.

Today I came up with an analogy of what I consider "natural".  (It's not nearly as limiting as "If man were meant to fly, he'd have been given wings", but it does set some limits to what I'm willing to strive for):

• Building and maintaining a bridge using proper engineering principles results in a bridge that stands for decades -- that's natural.  
• Training perfect dog obedience behavior that falls apart the minute you quit training and you hold your breath every attempt to succeed --  that's un-natural.
• Taking advantage of a dog's natural willingness to please to the point of controlling their every move in exchange for a pat, some praise, or little morsel of hot dog, chicken or cheese -- that's pitiful.
• And saddling myself with the ball and chain of constantly finding fault with my canines, holds no appeal to me.  It would make me a slave to my own excessive expectations, never fully satisfied, and there is no way I am going down that agonizing road.

Maxie and Lucky, I'm delighted when you front and finish on que, but I don't care if your butt is 2 inches off to one side.  I won't be getting out the dowels and tapping you into perfect alignment because, for one thing, I don't want to carry those dowels around.

Upwards and onward!

Waste Fairies!

If you measure life in terms of "hours expended earning money", then wasting money is equivalent to wasting hours of life.  Now imagine every time you come home from the grocery store and offload, say, 6 bags of delicious groceries at roughly $25 each, some gal walks in out of the blue, grabs one bag, stomps it to bits, throws it down the garbage disposal, then leaves without explanation, without even taking anything for herself.  Just comes in and throws $25 of your life away, not to mention the time it took you to plan and shop for those groceries and bring them home. Senseless, pointless waste.

I suspect you'd feel outraged, as I did this morning making a huge pot of cauliflower soup, and imagined the Kitchen Waste Fairy descending upon me. (Often, when I cook, clean or do chores, I talk to myself, muse, day-dream.)    She watched me pull the leaves off the 3 cauliflour heads, then pull the flowerettes off the stems, then chop both leaves and stems to add to my soup.  She watched me cut the choicest stem parts into radish thin slices and store in a Zip-Lock bag for adding crunch to a future salad (they taste just like a mild radish!)  And our dialogue went like so:

"Why don't you just throw that stuff away, like everybody else does?", she said.  "Not a chance," I replied.  I told her I didn't throw away the tips of whole green beans either (they are perfectly edible, so WHY DO PEOPLE THROW THOSE AWAY????????), never throw away dry crusty bread (makes great croutons), and am bound and determined to figure out what to do with my sour milk besides throw it away. 

Dog Treats: Those tough asparagus ends that everyone throws in the trash, I feed to my dogs as tasty crunchy snacks, which they adore and beg for more.  I give them the apple and pear cores too (including seeds), let them lick the gravy off our plates as well as that last bite we simply cannot finish (which others scrape into the trash), not to mention letting them lick the stirring spoons, pots and pans, measuring cups, etc., with all that scrumptuous residue.  I feel positively weird at restaurants and other people's houses when I see all the wasted morsels my dogs would relish, going in the trash.  I have to bite my tongue not to ask for a doggie bag. My dogs' very happiness revolves around these little treats, and I use them as invaluable training aides, requiring a sit, down, stay, wait your turn, leave it, share, or no-begging posture, before dispensing.  Saves a bundle on doggie treats, and ensures that daily training takes place.

And this is only the Kitchen Waste Fairy!  There are Office Waste Fairies, too, whom I scoffed at later today as I used the clean back sides of printed copy paper to print out a 68 page manual (one I need only for myself, and will probably read only once).  John and I save reams of paper per year this way, at absolutely no inconvenience to ourselves. 

There are Yard Waste Fairies,  Hardware Waste Fairies, and Energy Waste Fairies.  Waste Fairies are everywhere. On this latter, I remember one of my pet peaves running my summer school was parents who stood in the doorway waiting for their child to finish playing, or chatting with an employee or another parent for 10 minutes with the door propped wide open in 95 degree temperatures, letting out all the A/C I paid a fortune for to keep their kids cool enough.  "Come in or go out, but shut the damn door!", I wanted to scream.  Senseless, thoughtless waste.

DAMMIT!  Oh, I could go on and on about WASTE, especially the kind that requires little to no effort to avoid.  John's and my parents grew up during the Depression, they lived thru rationing in WWII, they taught their kids how to conserve, and considered frugality a sign of high moral intelligence. My mother never threw away a garment before cutting off the buttons, and I have fond memories of her letting me dump all the buttons onto her bed, and sorting them by shape, size, color, number of holes, etc. My grandmother took "waste not, want not" to extremes, extracting the thread from the hems of any garment before folding it into the fabric drawer, wrapping the thread around her finger, and keeping dozens of little bundles of colored thread in a small cardboard box.   I never saw her use that thread, but I am sure she felt proud of herself and wealthier knowing she had it handy "just in case". 

I'm proud of their frugality, too, and I'll be damned if any Waste Fairy is going to claim one thin dime of my life either.  "A penny saved is a penny earned", Grandma would say.  I do draw the line, though, on saving used Christmas wrapping paper unless it's a large sheet, or hand-made.  And I refused to recycle until they finally let us put cardboard, glass, metal and plastic all in one bin.  I can't let the Conservation Fairy eat up all my time or space, either.

Upwards and onward!

Trial Entry Process

RANT:  I'm always into streamlining processes, making jobs easier to save time and energy, and this Trial Entry process is a real time sucker.  When you are doing 10-20 trials a year, countless hours are wasted filling in the same info over and over on each entry form, when about the only thing that changes per dog are the classes entered.

So after getting the OK from our Trial Secretary, yesterday I filled out one AKC entry form for Maxie and another for Lucky, made 10 copies of each, and for the rest of this year I'll just staple a copy to the specific Trial Entry Form in question, select classes, sign, write check and send.  I even put stamps and return addresses on 10 envelopes.

 I intend to try online registration next.  Pray that they keep the info on file for each dog, and take online payments without a surcharge.

ANOTHER RANT: Then I tackled which hotel room to reserve in Mobile.  Whew, huge price ranges.  LaQuinta was $90 with AARP discount plus tax.  Another one was $79.  Finally located Red Roof Inn Mobile North for $60.  That's reasonable.  But there are 3 Red Roof Inns, and I had a devil of a time studying online maps and addresses to find which one was closest to the arena.  Why doesn't someone in the agility world do this ONE TIME and share it with everybody else????????  Oh yeah, that IS WHAT I AM DOING!  But I mean, someone with the trial, so 100 exhibitors don't have to research it individually. Such a duplication of effort seems such a waste.

The rest of my day I sorta moped around with a hole in my heart. No puppy energy pumping me up. Dusted a bit.  Watched a little TV. Ate dry crackers.   Even the dogs are just laying around, quiet as church mice.  And it's raining outside.  Good moping weather.

Non-Reward Markers (NRM's)

Non-Reward Markers are forms of correction, such things as telling your dog NO, AHH, OFF, LEAVE IT, applying leash pressure -- things you do that let your dog know to cease what they are doing.  They shape behavior without food or toy rewards.  Some consider them negative, even harmful. Susan Garrett posted a discussion on the use of NRM's and asked for commentary.  She says she never uses them. But if that is so, I think that is only because she has so much confidence and certainty in her training methods, they don't seem born of frustration.

I read a bunch of the guilt-ridden comments from uncertain trainers, and when I couldn't stand it any more, posted the following:

"This whole discussion raises the hair on my neck because it reminds me of the total guilt trip society has done on parents ever correcting their children for fear of warping their character, demotivating them, depriving them of their God-given rights, etc. So now we have a world full of smart-mouthed, spoiled, un-ruly children who can barely function on the job yet don't respect the adults who support them, and they think they rule the universe.

A little "punishment" in the form of leash pressure or an AH or a NO is no way shape or form dog cruelty, and if you agree with Michael Ellis's work, puppies should learn right from the get-go not to fear a few well placed, well deserved NRM's. Puppies come into this world pliant and adaptable, they don't scar that easily, they recover from being corrected. With that assurance, your well-placed, well-meaning, properly delivered (without hostility), confidently delivered NRM's should be an integral part of their character-building training.

So I urge you one and all, don't abdicate your authority. Don't be afraid to correct your dog. You are the one who knows what they ought to do, in some cases absolutely need to do. You absolutely HAVE to be in charge. And I agree with Lori and Loretta, don't leave your dog confused about how to please you. Ask for what you want, reward lavishly, of course play the shaping game (where the dog guesses what you want and when they accidently deliver it, you treat, until they are doing it deliberately over and over) as far as it will take you (different for different dogs), but as needed give clues, including NRM's. And always, as any self-respecting teacher or scientist does, observe the results of your experiments, and if you're not getting what you want, try something else. Don't be afraid of your dog.

My observation has been if you deliver NRM's with ANY shade of guilt, your dog will quickly pick up on that and start playing the worst head games with you--wilting at your slightest criticism, looking sad or guilty, hanging their head down, running away, tail between their legs, whining, looking afraid to participate, etc. And that is them dishing out their NRM's on you, shaping your behavior!

In conclusion: if you want to diminish the need for NRM's, be confident in your training. You'll get a much more confident, happier dog."

This comment seemed to flush a different set of commentators out of the woodwork, trainers who aren't afraid to give commands.  I found this most satisfying, and chalked one up for the gipper!

P.S. The next day, Susan came back to clarify she meant not using NRM's during a shaping game where D is guessing at the behavior you're looking for, trying all sorts of things to see what will earn them a reward.  At that point, you don't punish wrong choices because you aren't giving them any clues what to do.  You want them to feel confident exploring and continuously build up a positive training relationship with you.  That's quite a bit different from never, never, ever using NRM's!