First trip to Costco!

The pups had a nice full day today. We had a long walk in the morning with Dad. Our first stop was Borrone's—if you're not familiar with it, it is a delicious cafe which is almost constantly packed. You can go by at 10 on a Saturday night and the place is hopping. It's very dog-friendly outside, so it's a great place to take the baby for socializing.

We practiced "under," Kaline's newest command, today. Basically, when I give him that cue I want him to lie quietly behind my legs. He did fairly well with it, much better than I did! Since he's a puppy, I always get nervous if I can't see his head. Most of the time when I couldn't see his head, it was because he had curled up completely and was using his flank as a pillow. Chill out, Mom.

Tons of different dogs went by, and Kaline either ignored them or was politely interested. Juno, of course, was crashed out under the table. Only one owner actually let his dog come up to Kaline, yay. We spotted another service dog, a Border Collie, several tables away, which was pretty cool. The dogs also got to meet a little boy, maybe five years old, who had very nice dog manners. Kaline quite liked him; Junebug suffered his attentions with good grace but when he left, she was not disappointed. She is a snobby girl sometimes, but it works to my advantage. Someday Kaline too will be a snobby boy. A little bit, anyway.

After breakfast at Borrone's, we walked all the way down to Fremont Park, then turned around and came home. I want to expose Kaline to downtown Menlo Park and Palo Alto as much as possible, so a bit of bustle is just normal for him. Soon, I want to take the pups on a San Francisco day! That'll be great fun but probably really tiring. Sometime in the next month or two.

When we came home, each dog got bathed. Kaline still is not a fan, but he's not catatonic about it or anything. Once he is tall enough to get in and out by himself, we're going to work on jumping into the tub a couple times a day so he gets cooler about it. He got adorable bath zoomies afterward. Both dogs smell awesome.

We also worked on Juno's reactions to Kaline. In addition to the removal when there's unnecessary barking, I'm starting to try rewarding Juno for not reacting with a bark or growl when Kaline passes her, or licks her face, or runs around, etc. This is going to be an ongoing thing, though everyone assures me they will be better friends once Kaline gets older.

In the late afternoon, we did some errands with Dad—Pet Food Express, the car wash, and the big finale, Costco! Kaline settled super nicely with Junebug while we were waiting at the car wash; I'm a huge fan, unsurprisingly, of the automatic settle.

Settled at the car wash.

He also did shockingly well at Costco. It can be a scary place for a small guy, with the huge carts rattling about, the forklifts, clattering dollies, crowds of people. I think it helped that Juno was on his left and I was on his right, so he was buffered. But his attention was fantastic, and he really didn't startle at anything. The most he did was show intense interest, but not so intense that he didn't immediately respond to the "watch" cue. Anytime I asked him to watch, even while walking, he immediately did. It was so awesome. He did just fine standing in line; his stand-stay may not be anywhere near Juno's yet, but he sure knows how to "wait" in a stand. Thank goodness.

After we'd checked out, we sat at a table to have hot dogs and pop. Juno went all the way under on her "hide" command and sacked out; Kaline got to practice "under" again. There was a lot of clattering going on again, but Kaline wasn't bothered, just wanted to look. Hurrah, the pups did great!