Good times at the Roseville Lyon home as Samson has returned from his exile in Wheatland. A couple of thoughts here. Our Trainer, Dale, said that Samson was one of the most stubborn dogs that he has encountered in his twenty five years of training dogs. He was supposed to train him on heel, stay, sit, down, come, and a few other commands. Samson was so hard to train that he ended up training him on heel and sit only. We bought the shock collar from him and have had to use it on our walks as he still pulls and strays, but one push of the "nick" button and he bolts back to your left thigh and hugs your side. He is really very good unless there are people we encounter on our walk or other dogs. I have his leash in one hand and the controller in the other when we walk. We are keeping his collar on and using the nick feature if he climbs up on counters or gates or the sliding door. He is learning quickly. It is really good to have him home and have him under better control.
Darla took him in Saturday and had him bathed, groomed and his nails trimmed. You can see the picture of him sleeping in his bed in the family room with his Merry Christmas bandana on. He is REALLY happy to be home and back to his toys and treats and being spoiled by Darla and I. He has been really good since we got back and he had not gotten into any trouble until today. We sat home and watched football today and he was up every five minutes ringing the bell to go out. I finally got tired of it and put him out at about 4:30 an left him out for about 45 minutes. I opened the door to let him in and he had plants lined up that he had leaves and branches rom plants that he had pulled off. I have to be outside with him and catch him chewing up the plants and then zap him. He is smart and knows that when he gets zapped not to repeat whatever it is he was doing. The collar has a vibration feature that simply reminds him that he has the collar on and if I'm calling him or telling him to come or whatever that he better listen. We bought the bandana to cover the shock collar as there are likely some liberals in the neighborhood that would feel that a shock collar is cruel and unusual punishment. They are also the people whose house is wrecked by their kids and out of control animals. I can see a huge change in Samson and know that he will learn quickly and the collar will be retired as soon as he "gets it".
Friday afternoon I left work at 2 PM and Darla and I made the thirty minute ride to Wheatland to pick up Samson. We met Dale at the gate and he told us to wait in the car and he'd get Samson. He brought him out and walked the property with him and we were amazed to see Samson walking right on Dale's hip the whole way around the property. He had his collar on and Dale was constantly stopping and changing direction and Samson stuck to him like glue. He then let us come out of the car and approach Samson, but made sure he stayed calm and didn't jump up or go crazy, which was probably the most impressive thing for me as Samson is usually losing his mind. Dale told us that he didn't once :nick" Samson while he was walking him or while we approached him. The point is that Dale had him trained to obey him. The key is can we duplicate that? Darla took the leash and walked Samson around the property and he stayed right on Darla's side. Dale was showing us how to change direction and make sure that Samson sticks with us. Now is the challenge and we have to follow up on his training. He could have bolted at any time, but for the fear of the collar around his neck. We will continue to remind him who is boss and make sure that he sticks with his training.
Dale had made a big deal about Darla not paying, but I think his frustration with Samson's strong will ended that. Darla had me work with Dale on the payment and I ended up paying the full $600 for training and $250 for the collar. I guess friendship only goes so far. I was going to insist on paying him anyway, so its all cool.
Friday night Darla really wanted me to stay home with her and Samson, but I had poker and told her that I'd go over for at least a couple of hours. I got there at 7 PM and was getting killed for most of the night. I won a few pots here and there, but by 9 PM I was down about $50 and was thinking of heading home. I decided to hang on until ten and then started to win. I ended up winning the pot of the night that was about $80 and some side money for about $30 and actually walked out of there at 10:00 up about $55. I will host poker in January.
I was happy to be home to hang out with Darla and Samson, who was laying on our bed and Darla was actually asleep when I got home. She woke up and we watched a couple of programs and put Samson to bed about 11:30. He seemed thrilled to be back inside the house with blankets, pillows, treats and toys. I had early golf the next morning with Ron, Paul and Bryan, so it was good to get to bed relatively early. Ron was playing poker the night before and said they went to almost 12:30.
I played golf Saturday from the blue tees for the first time in awhile. We can pick the men's tees or the championship tees at our club and I choose to play the men's tees so I can have a shorter second shot to the green. It was a great day, but we got started about 45 minutes late because of a frost delay. It got down to about 35 degrees overnight, but the low-lying areas of the course tend to get colder than that and several of the greens had frost on them. It was a cloudless day and the sun did its' job and we were out by about 8:45. Bryan shot 76, Paul shot 79, Ron shot 90 and I had 44+43=87. I play golf Friday in our annual club In and Out tournament which brings together the current board along with the incoming board. We will have breakfast at 7:30 at Timber Lodge over at the Roseville Sun City complex and then play golf at the Timber Creek golf course. I think we had dinner with Dad and Shirley one year at Timber Lodge.
I think I will also set up golf at the other Sun City course for Saturday as I have a certificate for a free round that I have to use up before the end of the year. That is the Lincoln Hills course of which there ate actually two, the Oaks and the Hills courses. My certificate is for the Hills course, so there we will play.
Work is going well. We had a really good month in November and beat our budget on both the top and bottom line. I was able to buy the office lunch on the same day that we did our gingerbread house contest. We had names drawn and worked in teams of two or three and built the gingerbread houses. We picked the theme and brought in things to use in making the house. My house was a Golf Pro Shop and we built the house, put up a sign made from Melba toast, added a putting green and parking spots including one for the "Employee of the Month" that ended up being Jack from Jack in the Box in a red convertible. We didn't win the contest. The beach house did and I have pictures of both. I got a couple of shots of the teams working on the houses. I was disappointed in the profit for the month as we had a Bad Faith claim that came in last month and although it is focused on the agent and we had nothing to do with the complaint, we have to respond and we put up a $25,000 reserve that comes right out of my profit, so rather than a $55,000 profit, we show only $30,000. I'll get it back, but it won't likely close until next year.
It looks like we will make an offer to an underwriter to work for us in the Stockton area. She actually was referred to me from our Daytona Beach Manager. I have a position open for an Assistant Underwriter. I knew as soon as I interviewed her that she would not be a good Assistant candidate, but a good Underwriter possibility. She worked as an Assistant at another wholesaler for the Daytona Beach manager in Stockton and he promoted her to Underwriter where she worked for four years. The DB Manager that referred her told me that she was "hands down" the BEST employee he ever had. She has been away from the wholesale side for six years and has been working for a retailer in Stockton as an Office Manager. We have very light penetration in the Stockton area because there are two wholesalers that are domiciled in Stockton. She knows a lot of agents, showed up for her interview with Harvey with a two year business plan and basically wowed them. The biggest issue we have is that she lives in Stockton and will need to commute to Roseville (about an hour commute) for the first six months. Harvey had me do a six month training module for her and I actually have her in the office for four months and then slowly bleeding off to full time at her home in Stockton. Pete and I will travel to Stockton and make marketing calls with her. They should be making an offer this week.
I am continuing to interview for a new Personal Lines Underwriter to take Linda's place. I've probably met with over 10 candidates so far and we are being really picky about who we bring in. I met with an underwriter from a competitor last week and we had reached out to her on Linked In to see if she was interested. She has been there for 14 years, but they are downsizing and although she would keep her job, she is frustrated with the agents discomfort with that companies' changing appetite. Most of her calls recently with her retailers have been with her agents unhappy. She is interested and will meet with Harvey either next week or in the New Year. It was an interesting interview for me, because she was as much interviewing us as we were interviewing her. She liked a lot of what she heard from us especially that we work as a team and her e-mails are handled when she is out of the office. In her current job, if she takes a week off, she comes back to a pile of work.
Well, that is it for this week. I will be back at the keyboard next weekend. Sam's 10th birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. I included her 4th grade school picture for you to see. Have a great week. Ciao.
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