Juno is warming up

We are all just pooped! Kaline is snoring away in his crate, and Juno is crashed on her thick brown bed. I want to be asleep also ...

After his restaurant excursion yesterday, Kaline and Juno came along to dinner at Danny's parents' house. They met Danny's mom, dad, brother, two cousins, Chihuahua mix Chiquita, and cat Slippers (Slippy). Kaline met Slippy in the garage and was far more interested in a crack in the floor than in looking at the kitty. Who, it should be noted, looked horrified at having to submit to the meeting!

Kaline did great with all the meetings, and Juno was delighted to see Danny and his dad, who always spoil her. Kaline was brilliant during dinner, curling up on the floor next to Juno and not begging one bit. He's never begged and I'm hoping to keep it that way.

After attempting to play with Chiquita a bit, and getting passed from lap to lap, Kaline finally crashed across my lap and Danny's. He barely whined in the car on the way home, and when I stopped at a red light after getting off the freeway, I turned around to see him totally snuggled up to Juno in the back, fast asleep. I practically died it was so cute. She just let him do it too ... And then when we got home, she actually played back when he playbowed at her! Basically she wanted to chase him, and there wasn't room, so nothing really came of it, but it was still a big deal. Usually she barks incessantly while staring at me, like, “JEEZ, can't you make this thing go away?” Last night, she was barking and looking at Kaline, playbowing back.

Snuggles!

The puppy quickly crashed, and was so deeply asleep I didn't want to (and didn't think I could) wake him up to go on the last walk of the night. Mom finally prodded the poor little bleary-eyed guy awake. I felt so crappy that I have now instituted a rule that we will 1) walk the dogs right before or right after dinner and 2) if the puppy's that deeply asleep, he can skip his last walk. Cause when he does wake up needing to pee in the middle of the night, I'll be right there.

Zonked.

I was afraid he'd get a second wind after the walk , so when I put him to bed, I sat in there with him humming the Mary Poppins song about not going to sleep until he was out. I love how if he's asleep anywhere near me, he has to be touching me, as much as possible. When I got up I left him cuddled with his stuffed beehive, and he only had to get up to pee twice during the night.

Today we had our new walk, about 45 minutes long into Felton Gables. When we got back, Dad helped me with nail trimming. We took the dogs out in the common area (shhhh!) and while Dad held Kaline's leash, I let him watch me grind Juno's nails down. She's incredibly calm about it, just goes to sleep on her side while I work on her feet. Then I had Dad hold Kaline against his chest, feet hanging down, so I could work on his nails. At first I just turned the Dremel on low and touched it to his nails briefly—he was totally cool. So I turned it on high and actually took something off of each of his nails. I couldn't believe how okay he was with it! Such a good boy.

Kaline draped in his in-training vest, which will actually fit all too soon!

Before training, we had a playdate with Teddy, one of the dogs I walk. He is a beautiful, sweet, silly pit bull-whippet mix. He is excellent with pups, and Kaline was no exception. The two of them were fast friends, ending up underneath the table playing bitey-face for a solid half hour or so.


Once again, at training Kaline spent most of the time in his playpen. Anne came today and brought Kaline a new chewy toy. He got cuddles from everyone, met a couple new men (I'm kind of obsessed about him meeting men and children), and did not only the group down-stay at the end, but did a tiny jump! Very exciting. I did a quick obedience training session with him further away from the other dogs—they're such a huge distraction for him right now, along with ... leaves—and we did sit, down, stand, watch, and come.

Kaline with Ben, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, during group chill-out.

Juno did awesome recalls—she comes with great enthusiasm, which is so marvelous to watch. She broke down-stays a lot ... sigh. And she got to run gleefully through the sprinklers with the other dogs who have decent recalls. She's hilarious with the sprinklers; she bites the water sometimes, and other times just lets it soak her chest. Kaline was a little more apprehensive about the whole getting-wet thing. There are two theories among Dobies: Water Is Fun and Water Makes Dobermans Melt. I think Kaline subscribes to the second theory!