The adventures of SD Juno and SDIT Kaline (and their human, Colt).

25 September 2012

I need a Pet Net

Great day with the pups! We had one pack walk and then a lovely afternoon of training. Boy, do I ever need a Pet Net—it's a netting barrier you can put up between the back of the car and the two front seats. Every time I got out of the car, Kaline was in a different section of the car. And Juno, you can tell, just wants her front seat back in the worst way. Poor baby.
The only dogs I can trust not to leap out of my car without permission.

We had one stupid person on our walk, the usual dog-groper type. Most people will get snapped at once ("Didn't your mother teach you never to pet a strange dog without asking?") but this guy groped Juno and Baxter twice. I was livid. If I had lots of money, I would buy two bright red capes for Juno and whoever is the next dog in, with HANDS OFF written in white. Maybe I should start putting Jett on the outside. Then gropers would either get totally slimed with his copious drool, or he'd leap back with his mouth wide open which usually freaks people out.

Anyway. Training was excellent! My car quite easily holds five dogs in the back, I learned, probably six. I kept Kaline up front to reduce chaos. I thought it was pretty amusing that Lucky the Golden, the biggest dog I transport, was the only one who had issues getting in the back. Kaline and Juno were both awesome at the park. Kaline worked first, doing recalls and then figure eights. He held his sit-stays, waiting to be called, perfectly, even with Rio and Peter running past. He did whine a bit while he was on his stay. He's coming in way better, hopefully because I'm improving how I bring him in. Only one crotch-bash today, haha! He's so damn cute when he's staring holes through me, waiting to be called, with those big silky ears perked forward.

His figure eights were fabulous. One of my dreams is to have a dog who makes consistent eye contact when told to heel, and I think we're on our way! He was looking at me the whole time, matching pace with me, not sitting when I went slow, just being awesome in general. I was so happy with him.

Of course, Juno had to go show him up, because she is The Queen. She did her figure eights off leash, with excellent attention! Who is this dog, and where is my Juno? If only I were allowed to talk during obedience trials, I think her heel free wouldn't be so bloody awful. We should definitely get into rally. But I am pretty excited to compete in Open sometime soon, even if it's just in a fun match. I would pretty much die of glee if she ever got her CDX. Juno also did group down-stays, as a sort of group post, for other dogs to do figure eights. By the end of that little part of training, we were doing figure eights around "posts" of four dogs each. One "post" didn't need monitoring: Juno, Lucky the Golden, Rio the Lab, and Mia the Poodle (what a fun dog to work!). I had the "naughty" post: both poodle mixes, Cooper the baby Lab, and sometimes Bailey the Border Collie.

We took home our usual three blondes, plus Mia. Mia lives on the scariest steepest road in the whole world. Trumbull handled superbly on it! It was kind of funny—none of the dogs had been jumping out without permission when I'd open the back hatch, but on dropoffs, whichever dog was getting dropped off would just jump right out as soon as there was room. They all know when they're home.
"Oh Juno, I love you." "How long are you planning to stay in my personal space bubble?"

Juno and Kaline snuggled on the way home; at least, Kay snuggled, Juno tolerated the touch. I love the look on her face: "Mom! He's touching me!" They've both been extremely pleasant all evening. A night without Puppy Witching Hour is a big win!

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