Practical training and Kaline's first mini-pack walk

Sunday was our last day "off," and today I went back to work. Which just means being around a lot more dogs than my two, so it's fun. All of a sudden, Kaline is way more interested in his puppy kibble (which I switched him back to, at the vet's suggestion), so I used a ton of it yesterday for training. We worked on two things which should serve him well In Real Life™: settling and not crossing the threshold at the front door.

Kaline got settle so fast and was even doing it throughout the night when he wanted some attention. A much nicer attention-getting behavior than pawing, or barking, or tearing up inappropriate objects, don't you think? What I wanted from him was a relaxed down—one hip rolled—and head on the floor. At first I was clicking as soon as his head touched the floor, but then I made him wait longer and longer. I moved to different places and just waited for the behavior; he kept offering it, quicker and quicker! Whee.

Working on the front door was a ton of fun. First I just kept leading him up to the door, clicking and treating as we reached the threshold. Then I'd c/t while I walked out and he stayed. He was really getting it, so I did silly things outside the door, like dancing terribly around, or baby talking at him, gently patting my legs, and c/t-ing when he didn't move. Then I started leading him back, and then jogging (then running) at the door. He'd stop at the threshold and I'd keep going. Eventually he just downed there. I ran past him, bounced past him, did recalls with Juno past him. He broke maybe twice. Good boy!

He slept through the night (well, we did have to get up at 7:30). Juno, Kaline and I went out for an hour, and then it was time to go to work. We did two pack walks sans Kaline (he was in his crate, but Mom was home with him to get him out for a potty break), then came home with Teddy, whose schedule had gotten a little messed up.

Kaline, Teddy and Juno waiting nicely to come inside.

When I came in, Kaline gave my jeans such a thorough sniffing. Who have you been hanging out with? Wow, they smell so interesting! He was super gleeful to see Teddy—I had to calm him down before we could really go. Eventually, he'll learn to walk with four other dogs, but a pack of three is a good place to start. Teddy's kind of an old hand, as well. Not as experienced as Max, my No. 1 puppy wrangler, but still quite good at ignoring any distracting puppy antics. Kaline did pretty well as the inside man in the pack of three (good rule of thumb is to keep the least-trained dogs on the inside, best-trained on the outside).

I tried to give him a potty break in the middle of the walk, but he wasn't interested; thus, he continued his habit of stopping dead in his tracks to pee about two blocks from home. I need to nip this habit in the bud. It's important for Kaline to learn that he only eliminates on command (and when off-duty ... not that he has an "on-duty" yet).

After all our dogs were walked, my dogs and I went on a drive to BK and back. I had Kaline's lunch with me, so I treated him whenever he was being cool and calm, lying down in the front seat foot space. Which was a lot (yay!) so he ate about a quarter of his lunch. Hardly any whining today.

Once we got back it kinda all caught up to us. Juno and I had been on four hour-long walks, Kaline on two. So we crashed.