Dog Training Me

We hired Al Rossomando from Dogs101 here in Tucson to help us get Rocket, our Pit Bull-Boxer mix, under control.  Al’s been with us every Friday for six weeks and has made some good progress.  Of course, the biggest job is training us humans on how to behave and thereby control our dogs.  We’ve joked that Rocket is our “short bus” dog. Sometimes I think he could learn quickly if he WANTED too, but he just doesn’t want to.

While walking him near the Golf Course the other day, I had a flash of genius.  Service dogs can be trained to assist anyone.  I saw a paraplegic woman with a service dog that could pick up things she dropped , turn lights on and off, and even close the door behind them.  And we’re all familiar with “Seeing Eye” dogs.  So, there I was training my dog at the golf course and thought: “Hey! How about a golf-service dog!”  Yes.  I could train him to watch the ball and see where it landed.  He could run up and point to it with his nose.  And if I was really good at training, I could teach him even other useful assistance tricks:

“Sir we don’t allow dogs on the course.”
“But he’s a service dog.”
“Oh all right, I’m sorry,  I didn’t realize you were handicapped”
(-thinking-: I’ll say I’ve got a handicap!  Have you seen my swing?  36 handicap at least!)

My new dog would be trained to track the ball and run to it, and after having demonstrated to others that he merely points to it (say about the 3rd hole), and insuring that no one but me was looking, carefully pick up the ball in his teeth, carry it back to the fairway and drop it somewhere in the middle.  Of course, he’d know how to drop with his back turned toward the Tee box so no approaching golfers could see it fall from his mouth.  They will just think my little wonder dog had helped locate it.  Then, with even more training, he could work on my putting game, or better yet ball-placement.  Yeah, that’s it.  Just drop that ball about 10 inches from the cup before anyone in my foursome can even see the green.

 Yeah that would be a cool dog.  Of Course, I’d name him Mulligan.

///Darrell

Darrell Rodgers                                             

Singer, Songwriter, Performer, Humorist

http://darrellsongs.com  

Drying Out

Well, Labor Day seems to be a point of demarcation for the summer here in Tucson.  The rains are beginning to subside and the humidity is reduced from its monsoon season highs.  It’s beginning to feel like the desert again.  (Funny, I never thought of that as a good thing until now)

I’ve been working to re-build my little studio set-up and I’ve gotten enough of it set up to resume work on my CD “Each One Teach One – Songs for the Army of Light”.  It’s a collection of overtly Bahá’í-oriented teaching songs that I’ve written and performed over the past 35 years.  I’d like to get it done before the 6th annual Music Industry Weekend at Bosch Bahá’í School (October 30 – Nov 2) but it will be difficult. 

And I can’t seem to resist the temptation to work on my “secular” stuff too and that slows down my progress on “E1T1”.  I’ve written a new tune called “Tucson to Tehran” (a pro-veteran, anti-war protest of sorts).  I play it on slide guitar in an open G tuning.  That’s fun.  I’ve been playing open tuning slide a lot lately.  I used some sloppy slide to embellish a “draft” recording of my new tune “Sex as a Weapon” (the one I wrote in the moving truck).  It turned out surprisingly well, but not good enough for public consumption.  I’ll have to discipline myself into NOT working on it so I can get the Bahá’í CD finished.

Dale Ramsdell

Speaking of Bahá’í CDs, our friend Dale Ramsdell sent me an advance copy of his “Spiritual Springtime” CD.  It’s pure Dale.  We’ll probably hear some of these tunes played at the Bahá’í music weekend this fall.  Congratulations Dale on “gettin’ er done”! 

Steve Decker

Last night I attended my first meeting of the Tucson Kitchen Musicians Association (TKMA).  It’s called that because it started in a Kitchen over 20 years ago.  But boy, has it come a long way.  Or has it?  They now meet in a bar!  Seriously folks, these people have done a great service to the City of Tucson and all of Southern Arizona.  Each year they present the Annual Tucson Folk Festival (see my earlier post) and that is a highly professional event.  I don’t yet know how much time I will be able to devote, but I will put in some service hours to this fine organization.  Among the friendly faces I met there last night were folks I had seen perform or serve at the Festival and a fellow songwriter named Steve Decker  whom I had met at the songwriting workshop.  Steve made the mistake of offering up a good motion and the next thing you know, he was appointed pro-tem Vice President (filling a vacancy).  I believe they updated the website with his name before we even got home.

///Darrell

Darrell Rodgers                                             

Singer, Songwriter, Performer, Humorist

http://darrellsongs.com