Christmas Cookies and Schnauzer Mischief

I was busy baking away last night, and have four varieties of cookie to show for it. There was (going to be) a fifth, but even after chilling as required, the roll-out dough kept sticking to the surface and my rolling pin, even with flour and baking spray (resorted to out of frustration), and the snowflake shapes I chose to do the cutouts with just weren't working.

The sugar cookies came nicely. Look, they look like cucumber!

In the meantime, Lotte got into a bit of mischief. She decided to go under the tree and pick out a present for herself. 

Thrift Find: Crock Grill!

I found this today in a thrift store, looks like it was barely (if ever) used. Best part is, it all comes apart, which means cleaning is super easy. This makes it much cooler, in my mind, than the George Foreman style grills... because I frankly hate trying to clean those things. 

Taking the first step

To hold myself accountable for Lotte's training (and our goals), I'm going to post a weekly progress report. Maybe this will also help me at least keep a blog going for once! 

I spent a couple of days skimming through a few of my training books, and coming up with an approach to follow. We officially started today, with two exercises introduced (in separate sessions): Find Heel and Look @ That! Both went well.

I'll be setting my daily goals based on each prior day's successes, and taking things one day at a time. I thought about posting weekly goals, but I don't want to fall into the trap of rushing things to try and meet something that we aren't ready for yet. There's no pressure this time around - like I've been learning in my journey with weight loss, we'll get there when we get there! 

A New Year's Training Resolution

Lotte's a pretty good dog, most of the time. All things considered, we've come a long way in training. She's not quite to the point I want her to be at, particular in certain situations (like pet stores), and that's really my own fault for not working with her around higher distractions. There are some things, like walking calmly past other dogs, that I've always avoided, instead of working on. Avoidance, for the record, didn't work, and the problem still exists. So, it's not really Lotte's fault that she still loses focus around other dogs - I've dropped the ball and never taught her otherwise!

Then there are things that I settled for, instead of continuing to train. I was actively working on "heel" at one point, but stopped after I decided I was happy enough with her loose-leash walking. All that I've required from there-on was a loose lead, and a dog who doesn't dart out in front of me. Looking at it now, maybe it's not so much an issue of losing focus, as it is not having anything to focus on. Which would probably account for why she has so much trouble focusing when she sees another dog - if I'm not asking anything of her, all of her attention is going towards the distraction. For what it's worth, she won't pop out of a stay if another dog walks by, and she does manage to sit when I tell her to... but it would be really nice to just be able to keep walking without Lotte batting an eye at the distraction! I think it's time to buckle down and really teach her the heel.

So, we'll be making a resolution for the upcoming New Year: to rededicate ourselves to training. Our primary big-picture goal is to work up to higher distractions, so that Lotte learns to maintain self-control and follow her known commands under any situation.

Lotte's Training Goals:
- To be able to walk calmly through a pet store
- To be able to stay focused around other dogs, regardless of the circumstances
- To perfect the heel command
- To learn to fetch a frisbee (just for fun!)
- To learn to greet people calmly (another avoided-instead-of-trained behavior...)

My goals for training Lotte:
- To actively train her out of problem behaviors, rather than avoid the circumstances that cause them
- To focus solely on my dog, not on the opinion of random strangers who might see us training
- To better control her exposure to distractions, and not put her in too stimulating of a situation before she's ready to handle it
- To dedicate at least 20 minutes a day solely to training
- To stop making excuses

(Of course, I'm not going to wait until the New Year to get started. Lotte and I will be working on heel today, as a starting point for everything else).

My first successful white sauce

Any sauce recipe that involves starting out with melted butter and flour has always been problematic for me. I'm not sure why, though the last time I tried it while making a sauce for a pot pie recipe, I was rather disappointed in the results. I recall it being bland and definitely not as creamy as I would have liked. My sister claimed it was pretty good in the tofu pot pie I made her... though I reckon that's because the tofu absorbed a lot of the liquid! I don't know why today's lunch should have been any different... possibly it was in the way I cooked it? Didn't follow a recipe; I totally winged it.

I started with melted butter and flour, and milk. I added a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese, hot sauce, onion and jalapenos, and wound up with a thick, creamy, cheesy sauce with a nice amount of kick to it (I also added a liberal amount of ground cayenne). Yum! 

New Blog

Here we go... another new blog attempt. Theme: variety (it is the spice of life after all, as are schnauzers).

Topics most likely to be discussed include the antics of a certain Schnauzer (hereafter known as Lotte), and my adventures in all things cookery and bakery.

Stay tuned... there is no regular scheduled program from here on out!