Goodbye, Fussy Eater, and Other Stories

Kaline has always been a fussy eater, more or less. He goes through phases of eating really nicely, and then phases of just NOT EATING. As you may have guessed from my all-caps, I find this extremely frustrating.

It seems (I am trying not to jinx it) as though the fussy eater days are over! My genius friend Amber, handler of Kaline's cousin and fellow SDIT Rowan, sent me Sue Ailsby's fussy eater protocol and for the most part, it worked like a charm!

DISCLAIMER: What I am about to say is a paraphrase of Sue Ailsby's method. I did NOT think of it myself.

I was pretty desperate, as Kaline hadn't eaten anything in about a day and a half. I finally had gotten him to put on weight so that his ribs could be easily felt but not seen, and was very afraid he was going to lose it all. Amber sent us the protocol, and off we went.

For Kaline's first meal on the plan, I cut him back to about a cup (normal meals are two cups). I filled his bowl, then did what I almost never do when feeding dogs: I tried to amp Kaline up. I squeaky-talked to him, got him racing out to his food bowls, put the bowl down with a great flourish and released him. He rushed up to it, stuck his nose in ... then walked away. I counted to five, then took away the bowl.

At the next meal, I only put in about half a cup. Same excitement ritual and what do you know? He ate it! Scarfed it all down! With one or two hiccups, I got him back to two cups per meal and now he is eating like a champ. You put down that bowl and he eats until the food is gone. I am a very happy dog mommy. Here is the link to the detailed method if you too have a fussy eater and want him to be replaced by a chow hound.

In other news, I have been in a funk that I would find interesting, I suppose, were I not actually in it. I am exceedingly anxious most of the time, churning tummy, racing thoughts, etc., plus just really depressed and negative about most things. Usually it's one or the other. Usually if I'm in a depressed funk I am too low and lethargic to have this much anxiety.

Anyway. I obviously don't do this all the time, and don't really recommend it as a regular mood-booster unless you've just won the lottery, but I treated myself with some Paco collar retail therapy in addition to having the dogs help me over the weekend. With help from Lindsay and Bruce the Painted Doberman, I ordered a new black/silver deluxe super-bling Stardust for Juno, with blue and light blue sea glass along with abalone rhinestones, and a new tan/brass deluxe super-bling Stardust for Kaline, with red, blue, and purple sea glass. We are not going to talk about how much these collars set me back. It is a very great secret. However, I feel much better knowing that I didn't do nearly as badly in my dog walking income for this past month as I thought I would. (Short month, ski week, etc. and I was still only off the previous month by a few hundred dollars. Wooooo.)

After ordering the Pacos, we headed to Lindsay's grooming shop where she very kindly bathed Kaline and Juno in scrumptious-smelling shampoo and conditioner. The dogs smell so good I want to EAT them. And they're extra shiny. Kaline whined and wailed like he was being beaten, because he is Mr. Drama Queen. Never believe it when people tell you Dobermans are tough and scary. They are THE biggest babies ever. It's why we love them!

On Sunday, Kaline got to work my mom's second birthday dinner. (Juno did Real Birthday Dinner.) This was planned by my mom and her sister, so my Auntie Barbara, Uncle Paul, and cousins Walker and Whitney joined us at an Italian place in Burlingame. Kaline was pretty excellent aside from some sniffing as we walked to the back of the restaurant. First we had a table by the kitchen, but Mom didn't like that location, so we went upstairs—where the AC was making an incessant, eardrum-collapsing rumble. You know that bad feeling you can get in your ears if your car windows are open just enough while you're going kinda fast? That feeling, only more. Instant major headache. So we moved again, and Kaline was very excellent matching my pace as we went down the stairs. Then he settled nicely at the table and mostly slept through dinner. He had his head on my feet a lot, which was awesome. And then after dinner I let the kids love on him, which made all of them quite happy.

At least on the job, I think my wee man is maturing. He can still be a bit of a hellion when he gets bouncy around the house, but when he's working, he's been doing really well.

Christmas obedience class

Kaline demonstrates his Doberman comfort-seeking genes.

Today was our Christmas class at Stanford Shopping Center! We had a pretty good time. Kaline is used to the shopping center, but obviously today he was more distracted than normal since all his friends were there. His little buddy Lupo now has a snazzy bright red Ruffwear Cloudchaser—he looked so cute. Poor Kaline should've been wearing some sort of jacket. I thought we'd be mostly inside stores, but we turned out to be mostly outside between stores, and it was cold.

We always do Needless Markup (also known as Neiman Marcus) first, then disperse. We paraded through the first floor, went up the elevator in shifts—no one had any issues—then worked on group down stays right in front of the escalators. The dogs were freaking adorable. Whenever I got the chance, I'd work on auto-settling with Kaline. He did pretty well.

Kaline between Bean (Cairn Terrier) and Traci (German Shepherd).

L-R: Bollie (mixed breed), Rex (Golden Retriever), Bean (Cairn Terrier) and Kaline.

Back row, L-R: Gracie (yellow Labrador), QD (Border Terrier), Jessie (chocolate Labrador), and Bollie (mix). Front row, L-R: Phi (Sheltie), Percy (colored Bull Terrier), Sienna (terrier mix), Juno!!, Jockey (Norfolk Terrier), and Rex (Golden Retriever).

We meandered all over the shopping center, eventually running into our friend Sylvia (I've gotten to know her because her house is on the Black Dog Walk route) and her newest CCI puppy, Scotland! Scotland is a three-month-old Lab/Golden cross. Kaline was crazy about her. She is unspeakably cute, I must say. Sylvia and my dad really hit it off because they are from the same area of Pennsylvania, so we ended up standing around in the middle of the center for what seemed like hours.

How many more times do I have to pose with inanimate objects?

Being an adorable puppy himself, Kaline attracted child after child. And he was excellent with them. I was so proud. He did not jump on a single one, or even appear to think about jumping. He sat very nicely while they petted him, and went for little kisses whenever cheeks came in range. If the kids wanted to give one of the doggies a cookie, they got to visit the chow hound, Junebug, who gleefully slimed their hands as they held out treats for her.

We had an afternoon full of grooming, mostly for Kaline. Juno's toenails are fine if I grind them once every two weeks; Kaline's need to be ground (grinded?) intensively at least once a week. Probably twice if I was really a good dog mommy. So we did that, and then both of them got brushed. And then came Kaline's anti-favorite, the bath.

He still needs "help" getting in. He could, physically, jump in, but he won't, even if I put a rug in the bathtub for traction. He was okay after I helped him in. He was seriously pissed about being bathed in cool water though. I'm hoping the bath in the special sensitive-skin shampoo will help us get through the next week or so till his Paco collar gets here. The skin on his neck has been more flaky than normal lately, in certain spots. Ugh.

For the first time in a while, I accepted an invite to the movies from Dad. Then I agonized for a while about which dog to take. Kaline is more attuned to my psych stuff, but obviously is too young/untrained to really help with anything fibro-related. And he requires a lot more involvement in general. But I really wanted to get him the work, especially on settling. Then dinner got added into the mix, and I pretty much knew that that'd be too much for Kaline. Two hours lying quietly in a theatre, then a couple more hours lying under a table? Yeah, surrre.

So once I settled on Juno, I roped Dad into a Trader Joe's outing for Kaline. He worked the best he ever has in his head collar. He was paying attention, walking with me, responding quickly and enthusiastically to commands. He did hardly any sniffing. I had Dad run the cart by us, very close to Kaline, while he was both sitting and lying down. No problems. Dad walked by us and stomped loudly next to Kaline; he nudged his butt while he was in both sit and down stays; he did the bad-dog-hand-waving that Sonja and I like to play around with. Kaline was a little rock. And then he blocked wonderfully in line.

I put him on the treadmill at a trot for about 15 minutes to drain him before we left for the movies. Juno was perfect at both the movies and dinner. Kaline probably would've been fine at the movie, but oh man, he would've been way overstimulated at the restaurant. It was very crowded there, and we had to wend a very narrow path between oodles of tables to get to ours. Juno does not sniff people or tables, but let me tell you, Kaline sure would have! All at nose height—oh boy.

The one disappointing part of the evening (other than getting scolded for not indulging the curious people who ask intrusive questions) was realizing it was impossible for me to use the bathroom at the Guild Theatre. It was built in 1912, I think, so obviously it doesn't have to comply with the accessible bathrooms part of the ADA. It still sucked. The stalls were so tiny, no one with a medium-sized or larger SD—much less someone in a wheelchair—would have been able to fit. The bathroom itself was not large enough to accommodate a SD doing a down stay outside of the stall. And I couldn't even put her on an out of sight down stay in the tiny bathroom "lobby" because every time the door opened it would have hit her. I wrote them a kindly worded letter about the problem; I doubt there's much that can be done but it can't hurt to bring it to someone's attention.

Maybe I'll use Kaline training as an excuse to be bad and eat fast food tomorrow. Hehe. I loved using the McDonald's near Kepler's as a training ground for Juno when she first started training. Mmm, definitely a possibility.

Rain is my least favorite weather

We had training in the rain today. It was not the most fun ever.

Kaline was (undeservedly, it turns out) in the proverbial doghouse from the time we got to training. After being good for a while, he started wrestling with the other puppy, who is much younger, in the back of the car. That crap drives me nuts, and I've been trying so hard to teach him that it's more rewarding to lie quietly right behind my seat and get fed little bits of bait. This other puppy though, will not take no for an answer. Hence, I was pissed at Kaline when I should've been pissed at the other pup. Ah well.

Sometimes it was just overcast, and sometimes we got poured on. Eventually Kaline needed the big coat. I was cold and wet and grumpy. Nonetheless, both my dogs did pretty well when I worked them. Kaline, understandably, did not want to do anything but stand in the wet grass, but when asked, he grudgingly did sit and lie down. Then when he realized we were going to play "up-down" he got more and more into it. Heeling went quite well. Recalls were interesting. He came nicely enough, but he kept looking away when I'd back up. Freddie had me pop him toward me and call him if he looked away when given the watch cue, and lo and behold, much better attention pre-recall!

Juno was my training dessert. She didn't care that it was wet and rainy and cold and shitty. She was stoked to work. We did finding heel exercises, which she is really good at and loves. I really need to do the rear-end exercises with Kaline that I did with her—it really helps, I think, with pivoting into position in many situations. I'd earlier been doing the same finding heel stuff with less experienced dogs, and trying to teach them where to be; with Juno, she sticks to you like ... something really sticky. (I can't stand the cliches that are popping into my head right now.)

We did long recalls, where she'd get going super fast and then put on the brakes so she could slide to a sit right in front of me. And then we did fun retrieving with a bumper. It's really neat to see how much her retrieving drive has increased. I just have to keep reminding myself that this didn't happen at all quickly, it took a long time.

But now, you whirl that bumper and she's amped. You chuck it and she goes for it like it's a steak or something, and then best of all, she comes lolloping back with it in her mouth and sits right in front of you, all proud of herself.

Everyone was much better on the drive from training, except of course our little troublemaker in the back who was chewing on Juno's good leash. (Looks like BLD will be getting some more of my money soon.) This time, Kaline ignored him and stuck right to his spot, gleefully gobbling up his tidbits. And once the puppy was gone, everyone else—Juno, Kaline and Lucky the Golden Achiever—crashed.

When the three of us finally got home, we had a hot shower. Yes, I know, hot water is not ideal for bathing dogs. But I don't think any of us were really up for adding more cold. So far, dandruff hasn't appeared, so I'm going to cross my fingers and just hope that we've escaped this time. Afterward, there was much group cuddling with blankets and such. Also, I apologized for Kaline for being pissed at him: little tastes of mashed potatoes and a piece of cheese.

I can't wait till he's grown up enough to have his own Cozy Horse coat. He and Juno are going to look so awesome when they match!

Other news from today: We started a new walking dog, a female yellow Lab who is the littermate of one of my absolute favorite dogs, who I unfortunately don't walk anymore. She accomplished in about two seconds what Juno still can't do: she made Kaline give her a respectful amount of space in the car. All she had to do was curl her lip a little, and he was like, "Ack! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

It was pretty hilarious to see how the dogs grouped themselves on the walk. Our new Lab and Juno walked on the outside, with plenty of space. The three boys mashed themselves together next to me—Kaline did an excellent job shouldering the other two away so no one was mashed against me. The doodle was constantly getting his head smushed between the other boys. Maybe it's the blondes! The whole squishing business doesn't happen with the Black Dogs.

Really though, it probably comes down to girls just being smarter than boys. Hehe.

I have clean puppies!

This was supposed to go up last night ... oops.

Juno and Kaline are clean, and they look so pretty! Kaline is super shiny and silky, while Juno is silky and almost fluffy. I read this post on DobermanTalk a while ago about the "proper" way to bathe a Doberman (or any dog with a very short, sleek coat), and tried it out. You use cool, almost cold, water instead of warm or hot, and try to go with the hair as much as possible at all times—shampooing, washing off, drying off. I think it worked! Haven't noticed any dandruff on either dog, and usually there is some on Bath Day or Bath Day plus one.

Kaline post-bath

Juno post-bath. I tried to get it so you can see her fluffy chest but I guess it didn't work that well!

We had three pack walks this morning and got to try out Trumbull with lots of dogs. It went okay, but I came home and immediately ordered a "pet net" online that I probably don't really have money for. I have to keep the pups—basically Juno and Kaline—from getting into the front seat. Not that they did it while I was driving, fortunately, but still. It's unsafe for either of them to sit in the seat while the car's going because now we have these newfangled things called airbags, and I don't want the seats getting clawed up like the Honda's. Kaline, of course, is still welcome to ride in the foot space; he just has to stay there.

Kaline may have to keep riding up front, because he loves to play in the back with whoever I pop in, since there's so much space to do it! Can't really blame the little guy, but it's never nice to hear thumping from the back while driving. Teddy really doesn't like the new car. He has incredible jumping ability, but does not want to use it for jumping into the back. Sigh. Xena took to it with no problem. Of course. Kaline has really perfected his running leap into the cargo area.

I attempted to use our new camera to do Kaline's weekly shot, but I couldn't get it to focus. I definitely need to have a long play session with it, to figure out how it works. I measured Kaline before dinner, and he has grown a little over two inches in four weeks! Wow!

Juno came along for the last bit (I hope) of loan paperwork with me and Dad. She was odd about momentum pulling—she'd do it fine if Dad was there, but if not, she would go slower and slower, giving me the Super Sad Face™ and finally rest her head against my legs. Not very normal for her, so I will definitely be keeping an eye on it. We got everything finalized, hurrah, and now I just have to make sure that I put enough money in the account so that it can make automatic car payments each month. Then when we got home, my letter from Chase arrived saying why I got rejected there. HA!

In other news, the pups are now (almost) insured. Kaline will be once he gets approval, and when I get approval on Juno, we have to coordinate getting rid of Trupanion so that we're not paying for two kinds of insurance at once. Dog insurance is a lot cheaper and easier to get than human insurance. I am a little jealous, not gonna lie!

There was very little Puppy Witching Hour (yayyyy!) and much adorable sleeping and snuggling. Love that.

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!