Big weekend

I am exhausted! Juno is about to fall asleep standing up ... and Kaline has a second wind. We just got back from an awesome fundraiser for the Menlo Park Legends, a semipro baseball team run by one of my friends from high school, David Klein. I worked for them for their first summer, so it was a nice little reunion for me.

Yesterday was obedience class day. Kaline figured out, within minutes of class starting, how to escape from his playpen. First you pull up the “floor,” which is velcroed to the walls of the pen. Then you throw yourself at the walls until one of them caves inward, and finally you squirm out from under the now-breached wall. Sometimes he is a little too smart! Luckily, another dog parent (whose significant other was handling their Whippet) was overjoyed to have a puppy to look after. Kaline got to be a distraction several times (yes, he was a planned distraction).

To my great joy, Kaline seemed totally on board with napping away the afternoon. I'm still very sleep deprived even though he is basically sleeping through the night now (massive sleep debt and all) so I needed major naptime! Juno did too.

In the evening, we went on a big walk. We walked all the way over to the rec center, where there was a big barbecue going on and where the local skate park is located. Kaline is a kid magnet—as soon as we appeared on the outskirts of the barbecue, every kid in attendance came over wanting to pet the dogs. I tried to keep it to one at a time for Kaline—luckily Juno loves kids, so she was able to take some of the focus off the puppy—but eventually we got surrounded. This wasn't good for him or me, so we said our goodbyes and headed to the skate park.

I found a bench outside the fence, put Juno in a down-stay, and lifted Kaline onto the bench so he could see the skaters. He started trembling. I was like, “Oh crap, he's totally scared of the skaters.” Then I realized that his trembling didn't change regardless of noise/lack thereof, or proximity of skaters. The bench had very smooth slats ... I put Kaline down next to Juno, and presto! No problem with skaters. The bench and his lack of traction on it was what had him freaked out. He was so nonplussed by the noisy skaters that he was fully able to concentrate on doing sit, down, watch, even high five. We're going to keep going back periodically though, just to make sure he stays cool with skaters of all sorts.

Today, Kaline had two big outings, one to my cousin's house in Berkeley, and then the other to the fundraiser. There was a little family gathering at my cousin's. It was one of the longest car rides Kaline has done, and he did pretty well. I mean, he was in the backseat with me and Juno, so there wasn't too much to be unhappy about!

We had to stay on the porch due to allergies, but we still got to hang out with pretty much everyone, and the weather was gorgeous. The backyard is amazing as well—it took forever for Kaline to pee because he was so busy checking things out, and this is a puppy who pees nearly instantly when you tell him to. We worked on training several different times with both dogs. They got to meet my cousin Harris' new baby, along with various other adult cousins and my aunt. Kaline and Juno both got to sunbathe a lot and seemed to enjoy the relaxation. My aunt and her husband had a great time entertaining the pup—they have two Labs at home, one just a year old, so they're definitely puppy people!

In the car on the way home.

Both dogs slept on the way home; everyone took a nap for a while once we got here, and then around 5:30 we left for the Legends fundraiser. It was at a local park. There were tons of people there, lots of activity and food. I was super impressed at Kaline's behavior in the food line. Obviously it's not something we've had a chance to work on before. Kaline sat whenever I paused (not next to me or anything, but hey! he sat!) and even though there was food on the ground, he didn't move to go for it. What a good boy.

He did get a bit antsy while we were eating. He was great at mingling, going to meet all these different people (men, women, children, woohoo!), but sitting still, not so much. Periodically there'd be these agonized yelps coming from under the table. I had brought Kaline's dinner in my bait bag though, so whenever he did a down, he got rewards and started offering that more. Like at my cousin's, we periodically did quick training sessions. Just for shits and giggles, I taught him to high five with his other paw (cue: other hand). Everyone was in love with him and Juno.

Juno was a huge hit because in 2009, my summer with the Legends, she ended up becoming the mascot. All the guys from then are still crazy about her. She used to chill in the dugout every game. I always tried to enforce a no-dip zone around her, because she would usually manage to lie down in a little puddle of it if the opportunity arose. Ew. Once, we were in a dugout that featured a ton of yellow jackets. Juno was avidly following the insects with her eyes. We kept telling her not to try anything, she'd be sorry. Eventually, she lunged, snapped, caught a yellow jacket in her mouth, killed it, and spat it out. Then she gave me a look like, “Really? I'm not sorry!” Juno's a badass, what can I say.

At the fundraiser, Kaline also experienced his first concert. He was basically asleep by then, so the lovely sounds of Windy Hill didn't wake him up. He got chilly in his thin little Dobie coat (Juno, with her nice double coat due to her Lab and/or GSD heritage, was fine), so I ended up wrapping him in a nice blanket that David let us use for the remainder of the concert.

Windy Hill!!!

How is he still awake?

I don't comprehend how Kaline is still bouncing around after the day he had. (Okay, maybe it had something to do with the 2+ hour nap he had ...) Right now he is writhing around on his back in the kiddie-pool bed adorably, growling to himself. Sometimes this can be an indication that a nap is in the offing. And sometimes it means he's just getting started.

Today Kaline got to meet Baxter, one of my favorite pups. I've known him since he was about five weeks old, and I've always thought of him as very small—until today! Next to Kaline, he looked enormous. He was a little overly rambunctious for Kaline, but the little guy kept going back for more. Baxter was constantly leaping into the pool, which is insanely cute. Any excuse and splash! Kaline was not real into the water (big shock), but I did get him on the first step, and supported him under his already-substantial chest as he did paddles in the water. When Kaline got tired, I held him on my lap a while as Juno and Baxter ran like crazy people all over the backyard, barking gleefully. Baxter could play really rough with her, and they had a blast.

After the playdate, we went to training in the park. My play yard for the puppy came last Friday, so today was the first time I got to use it. I thought it'd be a lot bigger, but it'll do. It's super spiffy, and Kaline took to it pretty quickly. Inside, he had his lunch, a little water bowl, his soft mat, his beehive and his chewy from Anne. A little puppy palace.

Juno next to the new playpen, with Kaline inside.

We had three client dogs today, and six trainer dogs, haha. Juno got to do a lot. She did fantastic recalls, never broke once and came in nice and straight. She did retrieves over the bar jump and retrieves on the flat. We did moving downs and moving sits, flip finishes, the "get around" for the first time (I like flip finishes much better), and sequences of sits and downs in the heel position. That's kind of hard for her, because when she does a down, she knows I expect her to roll on a hip and get comfy immediately. But when you're doing quick sits and downs, it helps if she stays in more of a sphinx position. Stuff to work on!

Juno just gets so stressed out at training ...

Kaline got to come out a little later and we worked on his basics some more, just in a much more interesting and distracting environment. He did pretty well at focusing on me, at least for the length of his baby puppy attention span. At the end, he got to play off leash with everyone. He really took to Shadow, Kristin's beagle, probably because they're about the same size (Shadow is not really into him). He also really liked her Sheltie, Phi, who has never met a boy dog she didn't adore. They played excellent games of chase. And of course Kaline had to go play with his big hero, Rio, Freddie's big black Lab. It was precious.

I'm so glad Kaline is so social! I know it's normal for puppies to be that way, but with Juno and her predecessor, Angel, they were both rescues who lacked a lot of dog social skills. Juno was so dog-reactive on leash when we first got her that the vet told me to get her evaluated immediately before I got attached and left her with my parents after going back to school. They each had to be taught, and you still kinda had to be vigilant about them and whoever they were playing with. With Kaline, I can just be so much more relaxed. It's not like I don't watch him and his playmates carefully, but I don't worry in the same way.

After training, I brought the pups home. Kaline said hi to Mom and Dad, then promptly trotted to his big crate and conked out. Gawd, he's just so freaking cute! Big day for him tomorrow—we're going to a 4th of July party, where he'll get to meet at least one dog-friendly kid, multiple tall men, and a dog almost his size to play with! Poor Juno has to stay on-leash and out of the play because no one wants to listen to fifteen minutes solid of non-stop barking.