During Qualifying Day we had neatly split all 48 pilots into 3 classes of 16 pilot finals; Hobbyist, Advanced, Elite. I arrived early and while the computers were turning on and no one was here I had about 15 mins where I could fly the track. But I didn’t. I hadn’t thought there would be time so I hadn’t charged any batteries! For the second year in a row, I wasn’t going to get to fly my own track, but hey ho, that’s the deal with running the event. Next year for definite I’m at least flying the track in the break.
One person who also nearly ended up not flying was VikingFPV. He was staying at the whoophaus and no doubt had spent the evening getting drunk and trashing his whoop around. This meant this morning he didn’t have a whoop with which to fly so while I may not have flown the track, my whoop did as I leant him my gear to fly with. When his name came up on the screen it said VikingFPV, but in the corner it also said “Dad’s Drone” haha!
Barely enough sleep later I found myself back at Millennium Point and arranging the last few things before people started arriving.
I got mum set up on the ticket desk with the app, pilot packs, merchandise, stickers and schedule for the day. This is something I had meant to do last night, but it just got so late that this was the first time I’d had to dedicate to the task. Dad was sent off to put the schedule sheets of paper around the tables in the pits and on the notice board. David was delegated to getting batteries ready for all the gates LED’s, plugged in and turned on. And Eddy helped me faff with everything else.
The first few people had started to arrive and as much as I wanted to, there was just no time to be social. This was going to be a long, hard, fast day and we needed to crack on.
I woke up as late as I dared in the WhoopHaus. Not having gotten to bed until after 1:00 a.m. I wanted to get as much sleep as possible ready for the next three long days.
It’s the Germans fault after all, they only turned up at midnight and it was so good to see these international friends we’ve made that we stayed up talking far too long. And then even later thrashing our quads around the WhoopHaus track.
We have been practising on this track all night putting pack after pack through our abused quads. The DRC boys had set out the track, and like last year, it went up one staircase along the hallway and dove down the main staircase. I’ve not released any details of the track I have planned for Millennium Point but this will be good training for them as I expect to include a dive gate at the event. A very special dive gate!
We are making some progress. Daito is definitely learning every day. Not many new commands but getting more controlled and repeatable.
We have learnt one major new one which is very useful. Always in a positive way and never as a punishment.
“On ya bed” to go into his crate and sit.
This one has been quite easy to train as we already give him all his food there. Kongs are also something he loves, but he carries them around so they go in there too. And now we have a couple lick mats that’s also exciting to have in there. We only had to use the command each time we gave him a tasty treat or dinner and he pretty much got it. We are working on commanding him and pointing from a distance which sometimes works.
We have realised that we don’t have a release word. He is just getting up and walking away when he wants to. This is not ideal because we really want him to stay still until we give him a command that he can go do what he wants or we have another command for him. If he’s getting up and leaving before this, then we lose that control. We sort of use “go on then” when out on walks to tell the boys to go about their sniffy business ahead of us, so that works but might be a bit long. Maybe just “go on”.
What we have been getting more and more of are dead bits of stuffed toy laying around. He’s always loved a squeaker and furry toys to chew on, but now he’s more powerful he’s chewing them up. He will happily knaw the tail or ear off a stuffed toy in minutes that we have had for years with Haku and Kayto. Doesn’t really matter. It’s cheaper to chew up toys than sofas. Being home all the time means we can instantly correct him on the rare occasion he has started to chew the coffee table so it’s not become a thing yet. Hopefully the destruction will be limited to toys… but that might be wishful thinking.
We are now 2 weeks into puppy dogfatherhood and dogmotherhood. This has been a tough two weeks. Not only physically with the exhaustion from running around after a nippy demon that pees and poops everywhere. But also emotionally because under the physical exhaustion it’s hard to stay positive and not get wound up with the puppy and each other.
It is great fun playing with a puppy when they are playing nicely and he is super cute but we have also considered giving him back. That’s in those moments it’s usually because we are exhausted and need a break and it’s not something we seriously consider. Just read this and be warned that if you are considering taking on a new puppy it is a lot of work. Even for us who think we knew what we were getting into we have been surprised at the amount of work it has been.
But work does not equal bad. So by putting in the work now we will hopefully end up with a well-mannered and enjoyable dog in the years to come. I think I also should have invested in some dog treat companies because I suspect will be pushing up the share price of them all by the number we have been getting through.
Of course the most basic and easy commands to give a dog is to sit. It is very rewarding to have taken this bundle of chaos and managed to plant his ass to the ground for a moment or two with a simple command. It is very useful and a good start. But now we must embark on a full regime training games, commands actions and techniques that we have never had to think about before in any great detail.
If his parents are anything to go by he is going to be a big dog. Akita’s are powerful and they are loyal and guarding. Getting the training wrong or training the wrong behaviour into him abnormally could result in quite a scary dog to handle. So we are taking as much advice as we can from friends and professionals alike by employing a trainer. She has given us some games to play and techniques to follow to hopefully promote the correct behaviour so we shall see how we get on. But both of us sometimes feel quite overwhelmed and worried that if we do something wrong we’re going to end up with a powerful and potentially dangerous dog. Of course, everyone we have spoken to has said because we are worried about this, we will train him seriously so that this does not happen. It’s reassuring that people have faith in us even when we are feeling quite low like we will not be able to do it.
So far the commands we have managed fairly reliably are:
Sit – pretty straight forward. Can be just a hand signal single index finger pointing up.
Down – from sitting he lays down. Point down and run finger along the ground away from him
Here – with a point to come to a specific location either as recall or manoeuvering.
Ah! – loud noise to get attention and prevent from doing something like eating sticks, mud, blankets etc.
We’re currently working on these commands which are taking a little longer.
Daito – his name which should get his attention but it’s not very successful at the moment.
On – which will be a little useful in the future but mainly being used as the opposite to…
Off – to get off something like the sofa or a rug.
Nice – as a calming acknowledgement of something he has noticed. This is one of the games given to us by the trainer so that in the future when he notices something, it is thought of positively because we always say nice and give him a treat. But also because his natural instinct is to notice things and we want him to be able to disengage from that and return to giving us attention to decide how to deal with what he has noticed.
… This blog entry was never finished so I just published where I got up to! – Clearly I was too tired haha!
Today we go and collect the newest addition to the Shawtell household; a little puppy Akita I’m naming Daito.
We have been talking about a new big dog for ages, ever since our beloved Haku passed. He was such a lovely boy, the house just hasn’t been the same without him. Kayto too has been missing the interaction and getting slower without the stimulus.
Having never had my own dog, I’m very keen to take on the challenge. Aimi had Kayto and Haku when we met and of course I’ve had an influence on them but really they are her dogs. She’s so worked so hard training them, they are perfect dogs for us and really well behaved for what we want to do. Giving Daito the correct training is going to be so much easier with her help. Even still, I know it’s going to be a lot of work but I want to do it to learn in depth what its like.
I had been talking about getting a dog for xmas. Partially because i know we will be much better parents than any fuckwit who wants a dog for xmas. So removing one from the market at that time will be almost an act of charity. But also because I’ve been forward planning the work I’ve got in my future and that looked like a “good time” to take on the extra responsibility.
But really… when is a good time? There is always something going on, especially you guys reading will know I’ve always got something going on. I rarely sit around with nothing to do so there really isn’t a good time, I’ll just have to deal with the changes needed in life as they happen.
Aimi is great at cutting thru this and just getting stuff done. I like to take my time and think about things for a while before taking action, but sometimes that turns into analysis-paralysis. She just gets on with it, so booked us in to see some Akita puppies.
We are choosing an Akita again because from the research and experience we have had, they fit in perfectly to our lifestyle, personalities and check the health boxes we want. They are active and can go a long way but they are still quite independent and don’t mind being quiet. We wanted a big dog because we miss Haku coming up and putting his chin on your knee. And they’re quite intelligent even if they are quite stubborn. But then that seems to be a personality trait I enjoy having married Aimi…
Of course as soon as we had seen the puppies we were trying to choose our favourite one and it didn’t take us long to pick. He’s mostly black with stripes of white at each end and a cute little black spot on his excited little tail. He seemed to be the most energetic of the bunch and inquisitive which, with any luck speaks to his temperament… but he’s only 8 weeks old so time will tell.
Paperwork done and into the car we went, him sitting on my lap. I’m sitting in the back, with space beside me so if Daito prefers space he has it. I’ve got a few towels, with one over my knees, just in case he wees. Of course, in a new place, new sounds, smells, people and movement, it was bound to happen. But that’s ok, solids would have been harder for me to deal with. Being that cooped up with poop would have made me gag.
Arriving home we had it all set up and ready to go. Crate, collars, food, more toys ( even tho kayto had a whole box full he never touches! ). Now the real work begins. I hope we can do it!
We’re back in Singapore again! Our first flight was really not so bad. With the extra leg room it was very comfortable. We managed about an hour of sleep, which was good but maybe a mistake. Getting kicked off the plane in Changi it was hard to focus on where we needed to go.
I had been looking forward to taking the skytrain through the Jewel shopping centre, over the waterfall, but it had been stopped for the night. The delay in departing meant we should have arrived at 00:20 but we actually got there at 01:40. The skytrain stops each night at 01:30 for maintenance. Oh well, we get a bit of a walk.
What have I done?! Why am I contorted into these shapes? I’ve spent the last 30 minutes with my weight on my hands. My hands are not used to my weight! Who’s idea was it to do yoga?!
