I’m baaaack…
Posted: October 19, 2009 Filed under: FFT Lhasa Apsos | Tags: Debby Rothman, Julie Timbers 2 CommentsAfter being gone for a week, I arrived home yesterday afternoon. Rick flew in Thursday, picked me up and off we went to sight-see for a couple of days. Sight-seeing in the rain makes for some rather interesting images, which I’ll share later.
The dogs did awesome National Specialty week, from Stevie’s 5-point major to Margo’s wagging tail to agility superstar Josie. With the exception of two third places – and, hey, third ain’t bad National Specialty week! – each FFT dog won her class each day shown. There were a total of four Specialties; each girl entered a bit differently, showing one day perhaps not another. Stevie – FFT Take The Money And Run – started the week off with Best of Winners from the Bred-By-Exhibitor class and ended it with RWB at the National. Not bad for a puppy! Ella – FFT Melou Well Said – won the open bitch class twice. Candice – FFT U Can Do Magic – won the open bitch class under Ray Sledzik and placed 3rd at the National.
Wednesday Melissa ran both Suds and Josie in agility, for a total of 5 runs. Wow! Run! Josie! Run! She is phenomenal! Fast as the wind and full of enthusiasm. I mean FULL of enthusiasm. She was, bar none, the best dog running. So fun to watch! Suds was solid in both his runs, with good times, earning a new title. Let’s see if I can get this right….I’m trying to learn the agility details. He earned his last qualifying score for his Agility Novice title – denoted with NA after his name. And a ribbon with Bling!
Before heading to work, with lots more to tell, I want to share this photo I took in-camera from the window of the Motel 6 Rick and I stayed in.
Buried in editing
Posted: September 21, 2009 Filed under: Lotsa Lhasa Info | Tags: Debby Rothman, Gompa Lhasa Apso Leave a commentThe best laid plans of mice and men. Buried in the film for the past three days, there’s still plenty of work to do on it. The presentation is three weeks from tomorrow! If you can’t find me on the blog or at the shop grooming dogs, I’ll be in the editing room.
Can’t imagine what it was like to edit a film prior to the digital age!
There’s a stockpile of things waiting for the blog…alongside the emails that keep piling up. All will have to wait.
Pedal to the metal
Posted: August 25, 2009 Filed under: Apso Aficionados | Tags: Debby Rothman, Julie Timbers 1 CommentI wish there had been time for backroads, but it was the pedal to the metal yesterday, along with last Wednesday and Thursday morning. Julie makes the same road trip in 2 weeks. TEDTalks kept me entertained. I love my iPod!
It was all worthwhile, although in a different way than previous years. Mellow, almost. Keeper picked up his second major, which was my main goal for the trip. He now has 9 points, both majors. Yippee!!! Norma was awarded Best Puppy and RWB at Thursday’s Specialty. She won her puppy class the following day under Carolyn Herbel. Candice picked up 2 more majors. Melissa’s Ella picked up her first major. Thateus got lucky. He got a haircut. He’s a beautiful dog under ALL that hair.
Kaylee, Julie and I spent a relaxing late afternoon on Melissa’s lawn, looking at the Edmund x Josie puppies. The male came home with me. FFT Melou Spill The Wine. Elliot. spILL ThE wine. He was unbelievably good on the trip back home. For the first part of the journey, he rode with Norma. She fussed at him now and again, but that was all. After settling into our room at Motel 6 in Lincoln, I separated them for a late night dinner. He munched his lunch. Since he was being quiet, I decided to try letting him sleep alone. Not a single peep all night long! Not even when I woke up, brushed my teeth and packed back up. He rode alone the rest of the way home, again without a single objection. Good Elliot!
It’s back to the real world. 14 grooming dogs on my books today. The kennel is in need of someone with a drill and a hammer. Perhaps I can find said person this weekend.
In my spare time, I continue to work on Ancient Treasure. I’ve selected possible music. With a few minor setbacks – or would that be the Learning Curve – I recorded pronunciations for Jason and swung by Health and Harmony on my way home yesterday to drop off the flash drive. The narrative should be ready for pick up late Thursday afternoon when I get this tired, weary body adjusted. Nate and I will put the film together this weekend. Still a couple of voices to gather, along with images. But, all in all, things are falling into place.
Debby…on a Sunday morning
Posted: May 17, 2009 Filed under: DRambles on Black Mountain | Tags: Debby Rothman 1 Comment
Everyone can write…a little. That’s the title of an online course I’m taking. Write…a little. A little. That’s a challenge for me. The concept of the class is too encourage scrapbookers to write. Photos are great, even better when the story is told. Many people have trouble coming up with the words to tell the story. Not so with me! I can be one wordy person! Some months back I joined Facebook and, a bit later, Twitter. I did this to help myself understand all that communal action I was noticing on websites (ergo, the blog as FFT’s homepage). On Facebook, I also discovered my nephews, nieces, their young children. By frequently answering one simple question – what’s on your mind – I stay connected to my distant family. Facebook allows 160 words per entry. Twitter – what are you doing -allows 140 words. I don’t Twitter, although I follow Science Friday, Camera Dojo, Scarlett Lillian and Lab Spaces. I do answer the Facebook question at least once a week. Simple answers – like Debby Rothman is stoked to hear the hummingbirds. Facebook’s format helps me write. A little.
My coffee mug is full of hot, tasty Columbian coffee, sitting right here. Today I’m not going to write…a little. I’m going to write whatever, however I feel like writing.
And I’m going to share what I’ve been doing this past week…or so.
Edie graduated from Rally, with what would have been a qualifying score had it been a real competition. If it hadn’t been for the human part of her team, she would have placed first! I missed several classes, but thought I understood all the Rally signs. Not so! See this sign:
The dog is suppose to move with you as you take the steps back. I forgot one fundamental rule in Rally! The dog always comes with you! Edie wanted to come with me, but I told her to stay on each of those steps! Later Kathy, our instructor, said she wanted to say, “no, she’s doing it right!” Even though I had walked the course four times prior before actual graduation, including 1 step back, 2 steps back, 3 steps back, whether she should stay between each step didn’t occur to me until we were actually running the course. Obviously I made the wrong decision. Maybe next time I should trust my dog!
The Year of Dog Training, 2009. I’m loving it! Thursdays and Fridays are almost like mini-dog shows, alone. Alone, with my dogs. Thursdays I load up the dogs in show coat, along with whatever dogs are going to training class late Thursday afternoon. Closing at 2pm, Thursday is a short day at the shop. My client load is kept minimal. Show coats are done Thursday. Between 2 and 5 the dogs ride along while I do important errands….like getting my nails done. Or my back adjusted.
Thursday classes are in Evergreen, taught by Ana, Training With Grace. Family Dog, Thursdays at 5pm with Edie. Puppy Socialization at 6pm. Margo has been five or six times. As of this past week, I’m rotating two puppies each class, working two at a time. Working isn’t really the right description. This class is different than any puppy class I’ve ever taken. In between puppy playtime, we sit on the floor in a tight circle and pass the puppies. Each puppy is to calmly lay upside down in your lap, back against your chest, while having feet, ears, mouth touched. A rather interesting exercise in one’s ability to communicate with each puppy! When the puppies are released (and, yes, ‘release’ is an actual cue), play is heavily monitored, Ana pointing out canine body language, teaching us how to use body language to monitor inappropriate play. At various times, in the middle of the chaos (think 10 puppies running around the room), we are instructed to get close to our puppies, call them to us, hold their collar and treat. I am amazed that each and every puppy will do this!! Every darn one! Ana may have us release our puppies again to play or instruct us to get down on the floor, calming the puppy. What great foundations!
Friday, I head down the hill, again with a load of dogs. Now that Edie has graduated, we’ll be on the road even earlier for Rally drop-in. That’s a goal I’ve been working towards since the beginning of the year. Yippee! Between Rally drop-in, 9:30am, and Conformation drop-in, 12:30pm, Blue Springs and Katydid Training Center switches between Rally Course and Basic Obedience. So, why not enroll another dog in Basic Obedience?! So, I did.
Hey, if I’m going to compete in Rally, why not with 2 dogs! Practice what I’ve been preaching! Get titles on both ends of the FFT dogs!
Early yesterday morning, AEV, held a field exercise. Rather than going out in the dog trucks, this time I volunteered to be Team Leader. That person is at the staging area, coordinating AEV volunteers, dog trucks going out to evacuate animals, staying abreast of the fire situation with CACO (command animal control officer) and others up the chain of command.
After the field exercise was done, I told the rest of the volunteers that everyone should do the Team Leader job once. It gives you a totally different perspective! The first thing I did yesterday, coming home, was print out the new manual. You can bet I’ll be studying that!
Before I stop writing…not so little, I just have to share what I shared with Nate last week:
Of Triangles and Terriers
Posted: May 16, 2009 Filed under: Art and Photography, DRambles on Black Mountain | Tags: Debby Rothman Leave a commentI’ve always loved terriers. My first Champion was a Smooth Fox Terrier, Ch. Foxden Lyric.
Once Upon A Dog is a feature inside the back cover of AKC Family Dog. From the March/April 2008 issue…
Francis Redmon’s “Totteridge” Smooth Fox Terriers were a famous British line of the late 19th century. Redmond was a master dog man who did much to standardize his breed, and the Totteridge kennel was pivotal in the creation of the modern Smooth Fox Terrier.
It was the custom to immortalize dogs of such renown on canvas. The plum job of preserving Redmon’s famed fox terriers for posterity fell to Arthur Wardle (1864 – 1949), a self-taught animal portraitist who learned his trade during long hours of sketching at the London Zoo.
Wardle’s The Totteride XI is a masterly example of perspective painting. The artist creates the illusion of depth by leaving plenty of bright ground beneath the dogs and darkening his palette as he moves from foreground to background, with the sponge and basin in the near foreground completing the three-dimensional effect.
Warle’s great challenge was how to group the 11 terriers, an unusually large number of subjects for a commission of this kind. He arranged the dogs on two levels, six on the ground and five in the hay crib above. One dog stands a head taller than the others, serving as the apex of the triangular grouping.
Within the larger triangle, the dogs’ heads are arranged to form smaller triangular patterns. These are set off by the rectangular planes of the background and floor, with one perfectly placed vertical beam breaking up the composition’s horizontal drift. Wardle, like many a great artist before and since, understood the visual power contained in the unreleased tension of triangles, especially when framed by static rectangles.
In The Totteridge XI, Wardle left us a historical record of one of dogdom’s most important lines. The canvas also serves as a visual encyclopedia of art technique, from which any young painter can learn.
Not bad for a guy who never took a lesson.
Kunza at FleetFire Timbers 