Whispers of Advanced Beginner obedience training

Did I mention I saw the Dog Whisperer himself on the streets of Victoria a couple of weeks ago? A work colleague and I were walking along Humboldt Street, across from the Empress Hotel, on our way back from lunch, to our day-long field assignment in the Capital City. We were walking into the driving rain, so we both had our hoods up. A couple was approaching from the opposite direction, and I just happened to look up in time to recognize Cesar’s impish smile from beneath his hooded Goretex. In stereo-typical Canadian politeness, I smiled back, and just barely had time to give a nod of recognition before he passed.

I describe it now because it’s just occurred to me that perhaps that recent brush with celebrity may have sub-consciously encouraged me to coach Tannah a little more diligently in the couple of weeks leading up to her 1^st place finish in Advanced Beginner obedience training this past Monday evening. I think Cesar Millan himself would be proud.

As a disclaimer up front, I have to admit I’m not so much a fan of Cesar’s that I’ve never missed an episode. Quite the contrary in fact; I’ve seldom seen an episode of his show. I’m not even sure we get the channel on which his show is broadcast. But perhaps that makes me even more a fan, that despite rarely having seen him on TV, I still instantly recognised Cesar on the street.

I did catch an episode of The Dog Whisperer on TV this past summer during our vacation in Portland. I enjoyed it, and I could really sense Cesar’s obvious enthusiasm for dogs, and his mission to teach people how to teach their dogs. In my opinion, that really is the key. In the vast majority of cases I believe that if a problem dog exists, it’s generally not the sole fault of the dog; the owner likely didn’t have a confidant grasp of the skills required to instruct his faithful companion.

And I certainly know from experience (Tannah is my 4^th), teaching a dog is not easy, but it does get easier the more you practice. The farther along I get into dog obedience training, the more I realize I’ve become a better teacher over the years; I can now see that I’m getting better quality results faster from my dog.

To tell you the truth, I was rather startled by how good it felt to hear Tannah’s name called out in winning 1^st Place. I guess I hadn’t realized how much I had wanted that distinction for us. Our previous spaniel, Shelby GT (yes, her official name on her Papers was in recognition of the classic Mustang), earned a 2^nd place ribbon in Beginner Advanced. During her short time with us Shelby participated in Beginner, Advanced Beginner and Novice. So far Tannah has completed Beginner, and she’s done Advanced Beginner twice. No, she didn’t flunk the fist time ‘round; we simply wanted Shauna to take Tannah through her paces so Tannah would be comfortable with both of us instructing her. Although, towards the end of this session’s classes, Shauna got really busy with report cards, and it was decided that I should coach Tannah the final 3 or 4 classes, which included the Grad.

Not to sound too much like a graduation convocation speech, but I want to encourage anyone out there that may be experiencing some degree of difficulty or frustration in training their dog in basic obedience commands. Don’t give up! It really is all about repetition. Conduct 2 or 3 short training session per day. I find that 10 minutes each session works well. That gives you enough time to run through the ½ dozen or so commands a couple of times each. End the session before frustration might have a chance to creep in. I try to incorporate training sessions into our morning and evening walks. I’ve also found that going for a short jog (even as little as 10 minutes) with Tannah after work has been beneficial before practicing obedience commands, especially heeling.

We’ve signed up for the Novice level which begins in late January, with possibly a Rally event in our future after that. And as with all dogs, Tannah loves the quality time spent with us that obedience training affords. It’s in her best interest as well, in terms of her being safe in the city, and guests to our home not finding her to be a nuisance. She’s a very special member of our family and we love her enough to ensure she’s fluent in People Whispering.

Movember

This year our office is participating in Movember.

For those that may think I could benefit from Spell Check, I should explain. ‘Movember’ is an initiative whereby men grow a moustache for the month of November for the purpose of raising awareness of prostate cancer detection and treatment.

I was I bit delayed in climbing on the bandwagon. I realize it’s a great cause, and many men are affected by prostate cancer annually, but I really didn’t want to ‘grow a mo’ again. I had one for years, beginning in senior high school. I recently searched through a bunch of old photos and found my high school student card from grade 11, and an old Driver’s License from 1990. Just for kicks I showed both pieces of ID to a couple of office colleagues. They both said they really couldn’t see any resemblance between the ‘young’ me and the ‘now’ me. I must say, that’s intriguing. To me, of course, it’s me in both photos.

I think another reason for my reticence to grow a mo is the amount of grey that’s currently present near my chin, not to mention temples. I got a haircut on the weekend to try to reduce the overall effect. I continue in my efforts in attempting to embrace salt and pepper.

In any event, my ‘scruff-start’ began officially on Wednesday, ‘Movember’ 3. Although I’ve bent the rules and modified the moustache to incorporate a goatee; it suits my aversion to strictly limiting facial hair to my upper lip. I’ll have to come up with another moniker, however. Something along the lines of ‘Govember’, perhaps. Goatee plus November. Or maybe Bovember; beard plus November.

Thus far, I’m 6 days into it, and I don’t know if it’s just because I’m sporting more growth than a moustache and I notice it more, or if it’s more due to genetics, but the beard is growing in quickly. Even my wife hasn’t complained about it all that much (yet), probably because she knows it’ll be short term and the event is tied to a information/ fund raising campaign for important health awareness issues.

It’s kind of fun considering about half a dozen of us in the office are doing it, and also I don’t have to raise $2500 to participate, as I have done twice now in preparation for The Ride to Conquer Cancer. I’ve signed up for the 2011 event, by the way. But I'll save that introduction for a future blog post.

RD400, RZ500 and '88 FZ750

More classic and collectable motorcycles have appeared on CL. If I’d only waited before buying that silly GS.

The first one is a truly classic Yamaha RD400. It’s air cooled and so much cooler (no pun intended) than the later model water-cooled bikes. I remember in my teens, back when I read dirt bike magazines, there were a few articles dedicated to dunes racers in Southern California. They would build custom high-powered 3 wheelers featuring RD400 engines and paddle tires. They were the first hot rod ATVs.

In the 80s, when 3 wheeled all terrain vehicles were introduced, 2-stroke gas engines were common, in dirt bikes at least. It was a logical progression to add another cylinder of 2-stroke power for added torque. I would imagine it made for quite a wild ride. Despite living nowhere near a sand dune I always wanted to build one, if only to soothe my inner grease-monkey.The appeal of the RD400 has endured for me despite never having ridden one. I’ve read test reviews of 2-stroke street bikes that say, sure they’re as fast as 4-stroke 750s of their day, but they’re engines don’t feature the benefit of engine braking.

It’s especially rare to find a low-mileage original example of an RD, and I saw 2 of them! The bike in the second photo is a clean ’77 edition featured only “sensible” modifications such as an H4 headlight bulb and an electronic ignition upgrade.

The other bike that caught my eye this week was another Yam, an ‘88 FZ750. It’s curious how some bikes catch one’s fancy for altogether different reasons. For the RD it was the allure of the “ring-ping-ping” 2-stroke for the street as opposed to trail. But in the case of the FZ, for me it’s the paint scheme. To be truthful, however, this one has 2-stroke roots as well.

Again, back when I was a teenager, I lusted for the RZ500. It was truly an exotic, in my opinion. A guy that I worked with rode a brand-new Suzuki RG500 Gamma. He was only a year older than me and we both worked part-time at the same place, so I can’t understand how he afforded it. Nonetheless, I gazed at it longingly every time I parked my trusty steed, an ’82 XS400, next to it on the sidewalk at the mall.

Both those models, the RZ and the RG, went on to achieve legendary status; they’re pretty hard to find these days. I did see an RZ500 recently on CL for around 5 grand. But I’ve already got a semi-functional GS850…I know, I know.

So the appeal of the 1988 edition of the FZ750 is its paint scheme. It’s very similar to the RZ500, and the chances of coming across an FZ, even specifically an ’88, is a lot greater than finding an RZ500.

And now I’ve seen both the RD400 and the 1988 FZ750 in the same week.