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

07 October 2012

Full day for the pups!

The dogs had quite the full day today. We did the Farmer's Market, the bagel store, Borrone's, a street fair and then up to our ex-neighbors' house to play with one of their two dogs and also meet their horses.

Kaline only had to work in-vest for the market and bagel store. Dad took Juno into the market unvested—they don't enforce the no-pet rule at all, and it's not like Juno will do anything naughty, like poo or snatch produce. Kay was super cute. I had to let out his vest a bunch on Friday; massive growth spurt, I guess! He's getting longer right now, not so much taller. His chest is already super deep.

For the first time, I took Kaline in the bagel store and actually did the bagel buying—normally I just take him in and work him and come out. He did well focusing on me, blocking a little, not sniffing things while I was busy making the purchase. Woohoo!

We came home briefly to watch the very exciting and satisfying end of the Tigers-A's ALDS Game 2, in which the Tigers won 5-4, and then headed to the street fair in San Carlos to meet Mom. We had lunch in the outdoor space of a restaurant, and I took Kaline around the fair and let him socialize with polite people (i.e. people who actually asked to pet him instead of just reaching for him). He had a lovely time and did quite well. He met beautiful rescued Greyhounds raising money for—what else?—Greyhound Rescue, went into a bunch of stalls and immediately settled on the ground, charmed oodles of Doberman fans. He got to meet a firefighter by a fire truck, and the guy knew all the best scratching spots. Within seconds Kaline had melted onto the ground and one of his back feet was twitching in pleasure.

At the end, Dad and I confronted the hateful "pro-life" (read: anti-choice, anti-feminism, anti-separation of church and state, anti-sex for pleasure, etc.) people at their stand. It got really heated. Kaline ignored it all, curling up on my feet for the duration. Good job, buddy. It's very important that he not mirror my emotions, but only reflect calm back at me, no matter how anxious, fearful, or angry I get. When I get in conflict, part of my brain kind of turns off and I have trouble recalling everything I want to, and saying everything the way I want to; so I thought it was interesting that when one of the patronizing godbots at the stand called me a "poor little child," I angrily replied, "I am not a poor little child! I have a beautiful Doberman!" My dogs are the best thing in my life, what can I say. Of course, as soon as we got away from the stand, the adrenaline rush abruptly shut off and I had a meltdown with Kaline in my lap. Sigh.

After the fair, we drove to Woodside, where our former neighbors, Becky and Kip, now live on a big property with their two dogs (Jack Russell and Chihuahua mixes), their horses, and multiple boarders' horses. Kaline and Juno got to play a bunch in the huge backyard with their younger dog, Badger. Pinto, the older dog, recently injured himself so unfortunately he wasn't allowed to run around. Pinto is the real runner; Badger is more into bitey-face. So there wasn't a ton of running, but Kaline got pretty tired out anyway. Becky brought two of the horses, Slick and Aladdin, down to meet us; Juno was super interested and sniffed noses with them energetically through the fence. Kaline came over but didn't really want to sniff noses with something that big! It was lovely to get a horsey fix. I used to go up there all the time in high school to work on Parelli with Becky's horses. Both dogs are crashed out now.

Other stuff we've done lately ... Friday I took Kaline to Stanford Shopping Center to work on stuff. We went in a ton of different stores and had a great time. He got to do a bunch of buttons and work on obedience in all kinds of different stores. We did more escalator exposure, ignoring displays of stuffies and Christmas trees, and desensitization to the various water features outdoors.

We met a wonderful woman at the Bath and Bodyworks store. She loved Kaline, and it turns out she really could benefit from a SD. It was odd—just before, I had met a guy in a stationery store and stonewalled him completely when he asked about Kaline's work/my disability. When this lady asked, I started telling her about fibro tasks. Maybe subconsciously I could just tell she was asking for a different reason?

She told me she's had so many surgeries on the left side that she physically cannot get up without help if she ever falls. Her husband won't let her go on walks alone, ever. If she falls at home, alone, she is out of luck till someone comes. We talked a little about mobility dogs and I gave her my card and a PDPM card. Might go back in and see if she'd like more info on program dogs, because it didn't sound like she wanted (or felt she could) train her own.

Saturday we had no class, but the dogs got to the vet. It was the best visit we've had in a long time! All is well with the dogs, and we were not sent home with any sort of medication! Kaline's white spots on his hock are merely a sign that things are healing up. Juno's periodically red eyes are from allergies, and she should just have Benadryl, nothing stronger. YAY.

No comments:

Post a Comment