Blogger in Paradise

As I’m sure everyone has noticed, I have a new German Shepherd puppy. We’ve been looking at training him to be an all around dog – gentle, obedient, and able to protect when needed. We’ve decided to participate in Schutzhund which is a training sport that teaches obedience, tracking, and protection. It requires brains, not just beauty. Of course, our dog is handsome, but he’s really smart, too. We’ll see if we can train him. I’m sure he can do it, but can we?

There was a trial at the German Shepherd Schutzhund Club of N. Fort Myers this last weekend so I went to see what’s up. It was a small trial with several people getting their BH (Basic Handling) certifications and one trainer going for Schutzhund III – a very high level. The first video below is the obedience part of the BH – you also have traffic and crowd tests which I didn’t upload. The second is the obedience part of the Schutzhund and the third is the protection part of the Schutzhund. I didn’t video the tracking part of the Schutzhund III test.  In the protection part you’ll see the trainer walking straight down the field pointing at blinds that the dog is supposed check looking for the bad guy. He finally finds him in the last blind and corners him. Then some attack exercises. None of the dogs were perfect, but the two that I’m showing passed. You can’t go for the BH (which is mandatory prior to Schutzhund) until your dog is at least 15 months old. That will give us time to train ours as he is only 5 months. Take a look. You’ll see dogs that can protect you and cuddle, too. There’s a little wind noise, so if it bugs you, just turn your sound down. Nothing important in the audio.

Instead of carrying around lots of pictures of our “kid” in my wallet like most proud parents do, I’m just posting some more here for my friends to see.  He’s doing great and is now 32 lbs at 15 weeks. He’s got his stay, come, heel, and sit and lie down commands down pretty well. He greets all the neighbors on his walks and is having a darn good time. Click the pics for the whole picture.

Taking a moment to rest

Puppy at the ready.

On the march

Here’s a link to pictures of the Swamp Buggy Parade in Naples. The Swamp Buggy races happen a couple time a year and their pretty fun. Here’s the link. And here’s a link to their web site. Gotta go to one.

Swamp Buggy Racing

We went to Molino’s at the Promenade for lunch yesterday. We were pleasantly surprised at how good our meal was. Then, on top of the good food, everything including our drinks were 50% off! We sat outside looking at the waterfalls and plants enjoying the good weather. Mom, doesn’t usually like Italian food, but this time she said we had to come back soon. The 50% off is good until the end of the year, so take advantage of a nice setting outside and enjoy yourselves. The Promenade is on the west side of the 41 just south of Coconut Point shopping center.

Looking handsome at about 12 weeks.

He’s here! – our new boy. We don’t have kids so our dogs substitute for them. This dog is the son of VA 9 Paul vom Bierstadter Hof and Destiny Wilhendorf. Paul is rated one of the top german shepherds in the world (#9) and Destiny is rated number 2 female in the United States. We’re very lucky to get a dog of such lineage and proud to be the new “parents”. His official name is Jens von den Oher Tannen. Here is a link to more pictures of Paul and here’s a link to Destiny in action – wow! Incredible dogs. On Paul’s page there are some links just below his picture of him in action. I just got home with our puppy and as any other doting parent, I’ll be adding more pics as we go along. Here are pics of his real dad and mom. If you click the pics, you’ll get a larger version of them.

VA-9-Paul-vom-Bierstadter-Hof

V5 (LG Germany) Destiny von Wilhendorf

For the last few days we’ve ended our summer heat and the daytime temperatures have been fantastic – low to mid 80′s with low humidity. It’s time to hit the beaches before everyone shows up. I have noticed and increase in how busy the restaurants seem to be. Maybe, they’re starting to show up early this year. If you have the time, plan a weekend now while prices and the crowds are still low.

People keep asking where I am on Facebook or other similar places. With over 11,000 compromised pages, Facebook and many social networking sites are prime targets for Hackers. Some of them are kids playing with technology, but many are serious criminals and I’m not interested in having to deal with them. Please, Read More.

Just to let all know, my company is making little videos which I am putting up on my other website – SwFlRealEstateNews.com. They’re about different areas in Collier County. Take a look. Here’s one about the zoo for you.

It was sunny and then -
Love it when it just pours. Took it this morning with my Droid X.

The season for fresh lobster is upon us and will last through March. Our seafood here is great and has had no oil added. There are a number of restaurants with their own boats. One – Pincher’s Crabshack – has their own boats and just opened a new restaurant in the Gulf Coast Town Center. It has a fish market attached and the fish can’t be fresher and the prices are right. Click the link above for their locations. For the story and recipe Click Here.

People! Animals, children, seniors – if you leave them in the car even for a short time, they will die. These stories happen regularly and for some reason it doesn’t click with people. You can’t leave living things in the car and expect them to survive. Often people go inside for a “quick” whatever and get sidetracked. The result is as in the story which you can read here. Even in the winter here in Florida the internal temperature of your car can quickly reach over 100 degrees in a short time. If you can’t take your dog inside, leave it at home. The few extra minutes it takes to go home should be worth your dog’s/kid’s/senior’s life. End of rant.

First smartphone. Since I’m on Verizon (not a plug, but they do have the best coverage in Fl). Simply amazing. I’m an MCP-Microsoft Certified Professional. I ran a WAN consisting of 5 offices. It’s simply amazing what I can do on this thing. Just sold house due greatly to the abilities of the Droid. I’m sure that some of the other top smart phones have similar capabilities, but you’re always tied to your service provider and what they sell. Extremely happy with this one. By the way, even thought they say it won’t run Microsoft Exchange until the OS is upgraded to 2.2, I’m running it right now with no problems. Maybe the update will provide more of something.

There is a tick up in construction permits in Lee County. You can read the story here. Encouraging, but not the end of short sales and foreclosures.

Burglars thwarted by homeowner, 1700 miles away Click to Read. Technology at its best. Makes you think about installing a system at home. Good not only for burglars, but it keeps an eye on kids and babysitters. Seems to work pretty well.