Fourth of July and aftermath

Kaline and Juno had a pretty fun day! We got invited, along with my parents, to the house of a family friend for a 4th of July party. They just redid their backyard and it looks so pretty! They've got a little mix named Joey who is about Kaline's current size, so Kaline was really excited to play with him. Joey, unfortunately for the pup, has a pretty one-track mind when there's food around, so Kaline was not high on his priority list! Nonetheless, Kaline had a good time following Joey around.

Kaline under one of the stools. Enjoy it while it lasts, buddy!

Juno hopes for a bite of hot dog.

Pretty backyard.

Kaline and Juno's paws.

Kaline fell asleep, as he is wont to do.

Oh the cuteness.

Kaline hanging out with Joey, the 4-year-old, and her grandparents.

Raaawwwrr, chase me!

Kaline and our lovely hostess.

Kaline and his new buddy.

Good puppy.

The noble, regal, dignified Doberman.

Joey.

Kaline and Joey playing.

Pooped puppy!

There was a low table with a bunch of food on it, and Kaline and Joey were around that a lot, but Kaline never really offered to beg or (worse) take any of the food. Good puppy! He did drink out of a plastic water cup that was on the ground, but can you blame him? There were two bunches of balloons as well, and it was a little windy—Kaline was a little curious, definitely not afraid. He seemed surprised that he would get treats for being around the balloons, but certainly wasn't going to refuse!

Black dogs by the balloons.

Juno was fantastic. She shadowed me the entire time, lying down whenever I stopped for a bit. She did her usual share of begging with her big, sad brown eyes, but that was it. She only begs from people she knows, anyway. At one point she was asleep next to my left foot, and Kaline was asleep between my feet. Too cute.

Juno supervises the playtime.

Juno and Kaline napping during lunch.

In addition to Joey, Kaline got to meet several tall men, a four-year-old girl, and a bunch more women. Hurrah. He did great with everyone, and everybody wanted to fawn over him. At the end he even played a little fetch with the four-year-old.

Later that night, we went out for a walk, during which we could hear firework booms. Neither Juno nor Kaline reacted at all. I taped the Boston Pops fireworks show for Kaline, to use as desensitization, but he slept through it. On our walk, we met many new friends, got charged (again) by the local Pekes, and met a carful of beautiful Greyhounds. Kaline is doing so awesome with meeting new people and dogs!

Today he's been kind of naughty. Lots of mouthiness, ignoring his own toys to go bite hands/electric blankets/power cords, pestering the crap out of Juno, etc. I took him on an evening walk with Juno, during which he peed and pooped, and then when we came home he promptly peed in the big blue bed. Twice. Sigh. At least we got three decent (not pudding) poops out of him today! TMI, I know.

Send back that puppy. He peed in my bed, you took it apart, and LOOK HOW SAD I AM.

But he was really good when we took him to lunch at a local burger place, just slept under the table. And he was very good about his couple of stints in the big crate. We're basically scrapping the little crate, even though he still fits. He will willingly go in his big crate, and he doesn't cry in there like he's being tortured.

We had a training session out in the common area (grass, leaves, cement, etc.) Kaline did pretty well. We worked on his sit and down stays, watch, come, a little heeling, sit-down-stand, and not being mouthy. I started teaching him to lie on his side as well. He's finally getting touch! I even moved my hand from directly in front of his face to either side, and he still got it. Yay.

Kaline's post-meal cottage cheese face, before he licked it off.

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.

Best training session so far!

Kaline and I had a great training session this afternoon. I finally feel like he's starting to get some of this stuff, rather than just following the treat. His sit-stay is getting really good! Well, except when he's supposed to be sitting and staying, waiting for me to put down his food bowl, but that's a bit of a different situation. So here's our progress.

Sit—Easily sits for lure; usually sits for verbal cue; oddly sits the slowest for hand signal. He will hold a sit-stay fairly well and for a decent length of time without distractions. If Juno gets up from her down-stay, usually all bets are off! I was able to circle Kaline both directions with him staying and watching, and play "Beat the Clock."

Down—Generally, but not always, goes down for lure; still haven't moved on to verbal cue or formal hand signal. Watch/stay in a down is inconsistent but getting better. Once he rolled onto one hip, I was able to circle him and play "Beat the Clock" with success. I also straddled him with no issues. The way he's reacted to basically everything, I wasn't real surprised that he wasn't fazed by having me stand over him.

Stand—Goes into position with lure fairly easily, and tends to stay in position while nibbling chicken. Given his background as a show puppy, this is also not surprising (although super awesome from my point of view). I can stroke his back without him sitting, and pick up all his feet with no problems.

Come—Kaline comes with great enthusiasm! Since he's still little, I haven't started saying "Come" until he's already committed to doing it. He has stopped jumping up when he gets to me, and will either sit automatically or sit quickly in response to a verbal cue. He'll turn away from something he's interested in to come.

No Mouthing—Thank goodness for Kikopup, amirite?! We are, predictably, dealing with a ton of mouthiness from the pup. Gradually, using the clicker, I got him to where I was waggling my fingers ridiculously around his snout with no mouthy reaction, as well as giving him butt scratches. We're going to have to work on that a lot more and in more locations, but I'm encouraged! I also worked on him not mouthing his leash.

No Mugging/Leave it—Well, it goes. Sometimes I can't tell if he's actually leaving it, or if his puppy-ADD has kicked in and he's just having a *SQUIRREL!!* moment. But he did have a moment where I held out a piece of chicken in an open hand in front of his nose, and he just stared straight into my eyes and didn't go for it. Yay. So "leave it": not too bad, but "no mugging": gaaaah, still working on it.

Heel—Kaline walks nicely in the heel position already when he's on leash and we're just out walking, but today in the living room we worked on turning and automatic sits when I stop. I'm not terribly concerned about the auto-sit at this point, because he does stop when I stop, when we're out and about. He's quite good about that. And when he's actually working, in the future, I actually prefer stopping in a stand rather than a sit. Better for blocking, being there for me to put a hand on, keeping one's tail out of danger (yeah, that's more of a Juno concern!).

Kaline has also spent a decent amount of time in his crate today, napping. He just woke up though and is now yowling. Time for a pee break!

Quiet day

The second night of Kaline sleeping in the big crate in my room went better than the first. I ran him around with a "forbidden" toy, Juno's stuffed dragon—he's quite good at fetch! I call him my Doberman Retriever. Sometimes he doesn't want to give the toy up at the end, but that's the easy part to work on. He goes out to get the toy with great gusto and then comes lolloping back. So we did that until he seemed quite tuckered out, and then I brought him upstairs. He went right into his crate and set to work on the antler (doesn't make any progress whatsoever—that's kind of the point of antlers, I guess—but he seems to think he's doing well).

He only had to get up once during the night, really, and he made it across the street to pee. Then he didn't have to go until about 7 or so, which I feel like is a normal time for a puppy to want to get up. We went on our usual walk in Felton Gables for about an hour, thinking gleeful thoughts because Sam Mikulak and Jake Dalton, along with Jonathan Horton, made the Olympic team. (Chris Brooks and Steve Legendre, two other friends, along with Alex Naddour, are the alternates.)

Kaline is not having the runs as much, thanks to his cottage cheese. We just kind of hung around the house today, lots of naps. We had a really good training session, Kaline and I; I tried out Just Chicken, from Trader Joe's, and Kaline finds it quite acceptable as a high-value treat. (He also approves of Natural Balance Lamb, but that, I think, gives him the runs.) As the name might suggest, there is nothing added whatsoever to this chicken, so it should be very gentle on his tummy. I mean, when my dogs really have major tummy upsets, they get boiled chicken and rice. So this shouldn't be a problem!

I only had to use three pieces of chicken for a 15 minute training session, because he's so tiny and satisfied with itty-bitty shreds of chicken as rewards. We worked on sit, sit-stay, down, down-stay, watch, formal come, leave it/no mugging, and just for fun, the flip-finish and touch. My clicker was malfunctioning a little bit, which was very annoying, but Kaline did fine. Juno also did a great job "honoring" her little brother working, and got treats for that too. Bizarrely, the only one of those things that seems to really confuse Kaline is touch. But we'll get it!

Juno goes to the Olympic Trials!

Juno had a great day today. Kristin came to babysit Kaline, and Juno, Dad and I headed to the Olympic Trials for men's gymnastics in San Jose!

I am obsessed with men's gymnastics. I got into the sport while I was at the University of Michigan, and ended up covering the Wolverines for four seasons. Most of the fifteen guys competing for spots on the Olympic team are guys who were in college when I was, who I saw all the time during the season and know to one degree or another. Juno now knows a bunch of them too, since she went to Winter Cup in Las Vegas this year. (That was actually right before her temporary retirement.) She has a special affinity for the Oklahoma guys!

We took the train down to San Jose. To a lot of dogs, a train squealing into the station might be a huge scary thing, but to Juno it's old news. She's great at trains. As soon as we got off we saw a bunch of the Stanford alums, which was lovely fun. Stanford, with three competitors, had the second-biggest contingent in the competition (Oklahoma had five).

Juno had to do a ton of crowd work today, her favorite kind. The command is “Follow Dad,” and she thinks it's great fun. She completely ignores everyone in the crowd, focusing intensely on where my dad is headed and leading me through, so I can ignore the crowd as well. Thanks to Juno, we got to sit in a nice area with folding chairs near the vault runway, instead of up in the nosebleed seats.

Before the competition we hung out as close to the floor as we could get, so we could say hi to people. We saw Kurt Golder, the Michigan head coach, and talked with him a bit about Sam Mikulak, the awesome Michigan Wolverine who may just make the Olympic team (!!!). Sam is a little past my time (he was a freshman two years after I graduated), but I still know him a bit. We also saw our old buddy Paul Ruggeri, a big Juno fan, and Juno's bestest gymnastics buddy of all, John Roethlisberger. They met at Winter Cup and Juno was in love! We also got to see my two Michigan buddies Evan and Scott, who are working for Inside Gymnastics and USA Gymnastics respectively. Men's gymnastics is such a small world that every meet is like a lovely little reunion.

The meet was amazing, and so was Juno. I have never been at such a loud gymnastics meet, even at NCAA championships—I mean, people were shrieking, en masse! And the floor where we were vibrated like it was going through an earthquake anytime someone walked on it. Juno took it all in stride and went to sleep. I love her so much!

Juno at the Shark Tank!

I have to admit, I was a little worried that Juno's poutiness over Kaline would carry over into her work. But that was decidedly not the case. She was her usual excellent self, and I think she appreciated the opportunity to work even more than normal because it was a chance for us to focus just on each other, and for her to get away from the puppy. We had such a wonderful time!

When we got home, Kristin said Kaline was a little star for her (yay!). Since he was awake and peppy, I took him and Juno over to a Kepler's event. I used to work at Kepler's (it's a bookstore, in case you're unaware), and it's closing for the summer, so all the current and former staff were invited back for a sort of indoor picnic. Of course everyone wanted to meet Kaline, and I thought it'd be a great chance for socialization for him (and for Juno to see all her friends!).

It went very well. While Kaline was awake, he mostly played with his chewy ball that I brought to occupy him. He was polite with everyone, not timid and not mouthy either. He met tons of new people, and got held on many different laps with absolutely no issues. He fell asleep on my lap for a while amidst all the hustle and bustle. He was extremely curious when he saw Juno go nuts over her best friend, Alex. If she even smells him in the store, she starts whining and dancing around; once they get together, she basically attacks him (in a very loving way), whimpering and growling and wagging her entire body as she pounces on him.

Everyone loved both the dogs, naturally. Kaline settled nicely on each person's lap, snuggling into their chests and making his insanely cute little gurgly lizard noises. They said he sounds like a baby dinosaur from Jurassic Park!

Juno is warming up

We are all just pooped! Kaline is snoring away in his crate, and Juno is crashed on her thick brown bed. I want to be asleep also ...

After his restaurant excursion yesterday, Kaline and Juno came along to dinner at Danny's parents' house. They met Danny's mom, dad, brother, two cousins, Chihuahua mix Chiquita, and cat Slippers (Slippy). Kaline met Slippy in the garage and was far more interested in a crack in the floor than in looking at the kitty. Who, it should be noted, looked horrified at having to submit to the meeting!

Kaline did great with all the meetings, and Juno was delighted to see Danny and his dad, who always spoil her. Kaline was brilliant during dinner, curling up on the floor next to Juno and not begging one bit. He's never begged and I'm hoping to keep it that way.

After attempting to play with Chiquita a bit, and getting passed from lap to lap, Kaline finally crashed across my lap and Danny's. He barely whined in the car on the way home, and when I stopped at a red light after getting off the freeway, I turned around to see him totally snuggled up to Juno in the back, fast asleep. I practically died it was so cute. She just let him do it too ... And then when we got home, she actually played back when he playbowed at her! Basically she wanted to chase him, and there wasn't room, so nothing really came of it, but it was still a big deal. Usually she barks incessantly while staring at me, like, “JEEZ, can't you make this thing go away?” Last night, she was barking and looking at Kaline, playbowing back.

Snuggles!

The puppy quickly crashed, and was so deeply asleep I didn't want to (and didn't think I could) wake him up to go on the last walk of the night. Mom finally prodded the poor little bleary-eyed guy awake. I felt so crappy that I have now instituted a rule that we will 1) walk the dogs right before or right after dinner and 2) if the puppy's that deeply asleep, he can skip his last walk. Cause when he does wake up needing to pee in the middle of the night, I'll be right there.

Zonked.

I was afraid he'd get a second wind after the walk , so when I put him to bed, I sat in there with him humming the Mary Poppins song about not going to sleep until he was out. I love how if he's asleep anywhere near me, he has to be touching me, as much as possible. When I got up I left him cuddled with his stuffed beehive, and he only had to get up to pee twice during the night.

Today we had our new walk, about 45 minutes long into Felton Gables. When we got back, Dad helped me with nail trimming. We took the dogs out in the common area (shhhh!) and while Dad held Kaline's leash, I let him watch me grind Juno's nails down. She's incredibly calm about it, just goes to sleep on her side while I work on her feet. Then I had Dad hold Kaline against his chest, feet hanging down, so I could work on his nails. At first I just turned the Dremel on low and touched it to his nails briefly—he was totally cool. So I turned it on high and actually took something off of each of his nails. I couldn't believe how okay he was with it! Such a good boy.

Kaline draped in his in-training vest, which will actually fit all too soon!

Before training, we had a playdate with Teddy, one of the dogs I walk. He is a beautiful, sweet, silly pit bull-whippet mix. He is excellent with pups, and Kaline was no exception. The two of them were fast friends, ending up underneath the table playing bitey-face for a solid half hour or so.


Once again, at training Kaline spent most of the time in his playpen. Anne came today and brought Kaline a new chewy toy. He got cuddles from everyone, met a couple new men (I'm kind of obsessed about him meeting men and children), and did not only the group down-stay at the end, but did a tiny jump! Very exciting. I did a quick obedience training session with him further away from the other dogs—they're such a huge distraction for him right now, along with ... leaves—and we did sit, down, stand, watch, and come.

Kaline with Ben, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, during group chill-out.

Juno did awesome recalls—she comes with great enthusiasm, which is so marvelous to watch. She broke down-stays a lot ... sigh. And she got to run gleefully through the sprinklers with the other dogs who have decent recalls. She's hilarious with the sprinklers; she bites the water sometimes, and other times just lets it soak her chest. Kaline was a little more apprehensive about the whole getting-wet thing. There are two theories among Dobies: Water Is Fun and Water Makes Dobermans Melt. I think Kaline subscribes to the second theory!

Kaline's first restaurant experience

Today Kaline came along with me, Juno and Mom to Stacks for lunch. I wasn't sure quite what to expect from Kaline, cause, ya know, he's a wee baby. We brought his chewy toothbrush thing and a soft mat for him to lie on (we were outside; I've pretty much decided no pet-unfriendly places until Kaline is at least 16 weeks old).

He'd been out for an hour-long walk in the morning with Juno, and then had a long nap in his little crate while Juno and I went on another walk. For all that he doesn't like the little crate, the one he was shipped in, every time he races upstairs and I go looking for him, I find him standing proudly in his big crate. Precious. And yay, clicker training. He had some zoomie time as well before lunch, fetching his fluffy bone. And he's now wearing his Go Blue collar, woohoo. It's a little loose, but thanks to his big ears it can't slip over his head.

Handsome little Wolverine.

He was a little better in the car this time, because he could press up against Juno. She was clearly not best pleased about this, but she endured quietly (with a huge pout). We didn't want to put him down in the parking lot, so Mom carried Kaline to the restaurant—in her purse! A Doberman as a purse dog, can you believe it? I was pretty amused.

Juno and Kaline in the backseat.

He kinda fits! He was totally cool about it too.

I set Juno and Kaline up with their respective mats (when Kaline is a big boy Service Dog In Training, I'll get him his own spiffy portable SD mat ... for now, he gets this random but quite soft thing that we brought home from my dad's hospital stay in January). I got Kaline his chewy toothbrush, sat him on the mat, and just kinda waited and watched.

Stacks is on Santa Cruz, the main street in Menlo Park. The outside tables are a flight of stairs up from the sidewalk, and set back a bit, but you can still hear and see all the traffic going by. There is also a bit of foot traffic by the tables themselves, mostly kids going to Color Me Mine next door.

Kaline keeps tabs on downtown activity.

Kaline was quite curious about everything, but not stressed or worried in the least! I was pretty amazed. He stayed sitting for a bit, watching the cars go by and putting his ears forward at the sounds of the trucks, then lay down with his chewy. One truck had a big clattering load, but apparently this was no big deal. Junebug, of course, provided an excellent example, chilling out right next to Kaline on her own mat. People walked by, and neither of the dogs left their mat, just politely watched as they passed. I was actually pleasantly shocked that no one ran up and started manhandling the puppy (as so often happens with Juno). People cooed from afar, but that was it.

By the end of lunch, little Kaline had copied his big sister's position exactly—lying down, rolled over on one hip, head to the side and resting on a paw. He actually fell asleep and ended up totally sacked out (on his side, legs sprawled) next to the table! I love that he always wants to copy Juno. This is one amazing, awesome little puppy!

Big day for Kaline!

The little man met a ton of people and dogs today, took it in stride, then crashed bigtime. We had another quiet night in the family room, although he needed to go out more than the night before. Almost had a poop accident, but I was able to rush him outside again before anything came out!

Kaline seems to like arising at 7:00 a.m. I can't say I support this, but for now, whatever. It gets us started on everything early, that's for sure. I took him and Juno down to Curves on the corner, where Mom exercises, because all her friends wanted to meet the baby. Comments on his paws, of course, were very plentiful.

I took the two dogs on about a half hour walk, then gave them breakfast. Kaline cleaned his bowl again! He went in the crate (more yowling) while Juno and I went on a long peaceful walk around the Circus Club. We saw a gorgeous high-stepping horse pulling a carriage! It was very cool.

We did some crate training with the big crate upstairs. I had the Kikopup video going for review, sitting on top of the crate, and was following along with Kaline, treats and my clicker. After about 10-15 minutes, he was happily offering the behavior of going in the crate. I still had to lure him into a down, but he'd stay in until I invited him out. Progress! I also got a picture of him lying on the bone-shaped mat that Mom got him, our nine-week photo.

Nine weeks!

When I got Kaline's food for lunch, he demonstrated his smartie-pants-ness. Juno knows she has to lie down before she'll be fed, so she doesn't bother crowding me at the kibble container—she just trots over to her bowls and lies down. Well, Kaline watches everything she does, and once I put food in his bowl, he promptly trotted over to Juno's bowls and sat expectantly. So cute! Later, when I was getting food together to take to Danny's uncle's house, Kaline heard it rattle and ran to his bowls and sat. I practically died.

We all took had a nice group nap before training, Kaline in the big blue bed, me and Juno cuddled on the couch. My girl needs her cuddle time. Normally she's not allowed on the couch if she's not working, but it's a safe place for her to be when Kaline is nippy, and it gets her some special individual time. Kaline is snuggly, but Juno really knows how to cuddle. She gets in position, and just stays there. Delightful.

My cuddly couch hog.

Today was Kaline's first day of training in the park—big day! Kristin brought a playpen for him to hang out in; Freddie got him a stuffed hive filled with stuffed bees, which Kaline can “de-stuff.” She had a crate pad for him and I put in his little Nylabone. Everyone was just enchanted with him. He was so great meeting all these people (mostly women, but one small child and a couple adult men also participated) and a bunch of dogs. He's polite, as a puppy should be, but he's not timid. At the end of training, everyone was doing relaxed down-stays on the grass in the shade, and Kaline participated with no problem. I mean, obviously he couldn't do a long down-stay, but he had no issues being in the midst of all the dogs.

Conked out in the playpen.

Kaline got to meet Freddie and Kristin, and our friend Suzie, who is also a trainer and used to have Dobermans. She was smitten with my little guy. She and Freddie had a great time pointing out nice things about his conformation. Diane, Peter the Poodle's mom, was also in love with wee Kaline. Yeah, he's super cute. He got to run around the little field with me a bit, hang out with Juno, sleep in his playpen, yowl, etc. Juno got to do more stuff, obviously—down-stays during weaving, high jump, bar jump, and broad jump (sort of), and a little dumbbell retrieving. She was not feeling that today, for some reason, but her recalls were awesome.

Post-potty break in the grass.

After training, we went over to Danny's uncle's house, where Kaline met Danny's grandparents, uncle and aunt, and young cousins. He was only awake for a little while; after attempting with great enthusiasm to excavate a tiny hole in the stone of the patio, he absolutely crashed. At one point, Juno was playing with Danny and barking her head off; Kaline sleepily opened his eyes, looked at her, then snuggled down and went right back to sleep. Everyone was amazed at how calm and mellow he is. I'm amazed at how mellow he is!

What do you think is in there, little man?

Kaline was so sleepy, he didn't even wake up for dinner!

He came home and continued to sleep. Guess being out at the park really wiped him out!

First vet visit, etc.

Puppy zoomies just ended and Kaline has fallen asleep, so I thought I'd get in a little blogging.

Last night everyone got a lot more sleep, even me. Kaline and I worked on crate training during the day, and then last night, he slept in the kiddie pool bed with his leash tethered to a kitchen chair. I was on the couch up here, right next to him. He actually slept! I woke up a lot, worrying about whether he was awake and needing to pee, or chewing on the bed, or the towel, or the leash. (Despite having a fluffy bone, a Nylabone, a Kong and now a toothbrush thing, the leash remains the most popular thing to put in his mouth. Thank goodness it's not the BLD leash!)

But there was no yowling, so what sleep I got was a lot better. Kaline did some time in his crate today as well, when I went next door to feed my neighbor's cats, and later when I took Juno out on a walk by herself. She needs a lot more exercise than Kaline does at this point, and of course she really needs her individual time. Kaline did well in the crate—Mom reported that he yowled at the beginning, but by the time Juno and I got back, he was lying in there quietly and calmly.

Brief moment of sibling peace and closeness.

Can I just say, I cannot begin to imagine how much more stressed out I would be right now if Juno were still blind. It takes off so much pressure to know that I don't have to depend on Kaline for anything anytime soon, seeing as how I can't. Juno and I are going to go on a longer walk tomorrow, plus we'll have training in the park.

Kaline got more of his intro to the prong collar today, and he's doing quite well. He started pulling on leash last night (getting some more confidence!), so he wore the collar this morning. Juno is great at teaching new dogs to walk nicely, so between the two of us we really got Kaline going great! He looked so cute. He has the most gorgeous little trot, even at nine weeks.

We also did clicker introduction. He gives such amazing eye contact! Before he gets distracted by Juno, of course. All he wants is to play with her ... Sigh. She barks at him and runs away. Or just stands there and barks. It's loud. Kaline is much less intimidated already, haha. He always goes for her tail, he's utterly fascinated by it.

This. All the time.

Anyway, I think he's getting the clicker ... I will have to use higher value treats tomorrow to make sure. I've been using his leftover kibble, because he's leaving a lot at each meal and I worry, but he is not terribly motivated by it. Damn, I knew Juno would spoil me. (She will work/train for vegetables.)

Kaline did a lot of sleeping. Thank goodness, cause then I can recharge! This afternoon, I pulled the extra downstairs dog bed into the family room (we now have literally no floor space) and ended up snuggling on it between Juno and Kaline. Kaline snuggled so wonderfully, and even pillowed his head on my neck. He also fell asleep in my lap at another point. He's so bloody cute when he sleeps. Okay, he's cute when he's doing practically anything.

Cuddling between my dogs!

This afternoon Mom and I took both dogs in to the vet. Kaline had to go for a puppy checkup, and we wanted to see what's up with Juno blowing her coat all of a sudden (she normally doesn't). Everyone thought Kaline was very cute, and commented on his enormous paws. We got our first, “What is he?” comment. First guess, if you can believe it, was DACHSHUND (admittedly, his face does look Doxie-like) and the second guess was Rottweiler. Third guess was mix. Nope. Kinda knew I was in for that with his natural ears. (The thing that is really annoying me, so far, is that everyone calls Juno “he” and Kaline “she.”)

Kaline was pronounced lookin' good by the vet, Dr. Harish, who also said that yes, walks around the neighborhood are fine, just no high-traffic areas. It's what I thought, but it's nice to get vet confirmation. Juno got blood drawn to make sure her thyroid is working properly. Kaline managed to almost fall off the exam table twice, and later tried to perch on my shoulders like a parrot. Oh, puppy.

Kaline at the vet on the exam table.

After the vet we went to Pet Place to get Kaline's play pen (turned out it was the wrong model, oops). Kaline waited in the car with Mom; Juno came with me and milked everyone in the store for treats. She's really good at convincing people she's starving, neglected, no one feeds her, etc. I love my girl. Lynn, who owns Pet Place, came out to the car to meet little Kaline and cooed over him. Teehee.

He got zoomies when we came home, sliding down the stairs a couple times, pouncing on all his toys like they were running away from him, running around in circles, etc. And then he crashed. I feel like I haven't done anything all day, yet I'm wiped. Guess this is puppyhood!

Let the mostly sleepless marathon begin!

Yesterday was the big day! Obviously, there was kind of a lot going on.

We picked up Kaline around noon (we being me, Danny, Dad and Juno). He was at Air Canada Cargo—we could hear him yowling as soon as we walked in. They gave us paperwork there that we then had to drive over to Customs down the road, and then we drove back for the puppy.

Kaline in his crate at Air Canada Cargo.

He is so tiny! Well, except for his paws, of course. I know he won't stay that way for long, but he is little enough that I was able to pick him up yesterday. (I now know that was a bad idea ... well, I knew it at the time too, just didn't care! All muscles are in mutiny today.) He's fun to carry around, because he hugs onto your neck like a little monkey. He cried part of the way home in his crate—he is not a fan!—but then fell asleep. I guess it's a puppy thing, but I find it just so adorable: how Kaline can be totally into something one second, and then the next second, he's asleep!

We came home and mostly had a playful afternoon. Juno wanted/wants nothing to do with Kaline—I think she's afraid of him. He'll go up to her, kissing or playbowing, being very polite for a puppy, and she just walks away. She wasn't talking to me for a while but I think we're friends again as of this morning's training session.

Kaline and Danny!

Kaline smelled kinda bad after his trip, even though he didn't mess in the crate as far as I could tell, so I took him upstairs and gave him a bath. He hadn't peed since we got him, even though we gave him chances (he was distracted). I expected he'd end up going in the tub, but I was slightly off and he peed in the bathroom. Easy cleanup, totally not his fault.

Kaline in the bathtub.

He was very good in the bath, partly because he couldn't jump out no matter how hard he tried, being too small, and mostly because Maura did such a great job accustoming him to being handled. He didn't mind being touched anywhere or having his feet washed or getting his face wet. I loved how I could wrap up his entire body in the towel once I got him out.

What a face!

Danny, Dad and I hung out with Kaline in the living room (Juno wasn't having any of it) for a long time. He was like the Energizer Bunny for a while. We worked a little on sit, down, watch, get busy, and wait. He's really getting the hang of going potty immediately, outside, and on his leash. Hurrah. He had one more accident later that night—because he'd just woken up from a long nap, but instead of getting outside promptly, he got sidetracked being cuddled by Mom!

My stuffie!!

After Danny left for work, Kaline pretty much crashed. He had no problem sleeping in his crate if the door was open, but the minute I shut it, he would go ballistic. You can imagine how attempting to sleep last night went! Not so awesome. But we just have to ride it out; he absolutely can't learn that if he just cries LOUD enough, and LONG enough, he'll get what he wants. I've only been letting him out once he's quiet, and I'm trying to get him to wait. We need to do some crate exercises with the clicker ... First I have to introduce the clicker! (I've just been luring and treating so far.)

Asleep in the crate.

Today, Kaline's sit has been awesome. It's one of his defaults already, and he's starting to make nice eye contact. He'll stay a bit too, long enough for me to get from facing him to the heel position. He goes into a down very easily, but so far doesn't really want to stay there. He comes wonderfully (we're not doing the formal recall yet, just “Puppy puppy puppy!” and the like) and is starting to wait at the doors.

Walks are interesting. I don't know how much time Kaline has had on a leash. So far, he mostly will not walk ahead of me (big plus), but he kind of weaves around behind me. Sometimes he'll just stop ... so yeah, we're having fun on the walks! We've just gone around and back on the back streets here. Kaline was a little surprised by the train when he first heard it outside (inside, he couldn't care less) but he recovered really fast. He's catching on fast with the stairs too—we have a lot of stairs. Watching him go up and down like a little uncoordinated jackrabbit is way too much fun.

Juno finally talking to me again.

I really love Kaline's personality. He's bright, he's fun to do quick training sessions with (he has the attention span of ... a baby puppy!), he doesn't get frightened easily (just startled, and then curious) and he has an off switch! He's definitely up for relaxing/sleeping a lot. He also likes to chew his leash, but I've been redirecting him with a squeaky bone and a Nylabone. Fluffy bone is a big hit. Also sweet potato chews. Juno finishes those in about fifteen seconds; Kaline was still earnestly masticating his twenty minutes on.

Oh, speaking of earnest, have I mentioned his little head wrinkles? So precious. He looks so serious and pensive when he just plops down, cocks his head and wrinkles his forehead while looking at you in a quizzical way. He also makes gurgling noises when he sleeps.

And his ears. They are everything I thought they'd be and more!

TOMORROW!

I am excited out of my mind. Kaline will be here tomorrow. Since I got home from walking my packs today, I've been doing cleanup and puppy prep. Mom and I washed down our whole back patio—this will be the first place he learns to eliminate—and then sprayed the whole thing with a weak bleach solution. I'm hoping that soon Kaline can learn to hold it between his crate and getting outside in the morning/after naps, and then I can take him out the front door and across the street, to a nice big patch of gravel. Much easier cleanup!

All Juno's stuffies, except her current favorite, Mr. Rhino, are either hidden away in the garage or up on a high counter in the little bar area off the living room—no stuffies for the wee one until I know he's not going to kill them. Mom did a last Pet Place run while I was out with the packs, and came home with a ton of goodies. A little stuffie bone for Kaline (yeah, we'll see how long that lasts!); a couple free packets of little treats; a smaller, softer Nylabone (I already have a big one for Powerful Chewers); and of course, an enormous container of Nature's Miracle. We've got spray bottles now ready, one full of the bleach solution for cleaning up on the back patio, and one full of Nature's Miracle for accidents.

I got a bunch of little stuff up off the floor throughout the house. Filled up the smaller black Kong with peanut butter and some pieces of puppy kibble, and popped it in the freezer. Moved the thick awesome bed out of the big crate and into the guest room (Kaline can have it when he's not gonna destroy it, and when the crate no longer needs to be partitioned) and lined the crate with a big towel and the adorable soft pad Mom got for him when she was at a craft fair. We have grand plans for that thing. It's vaguely bone shaped, very soft, light blue with puppies on one side and red with puppies on the other. We're gonna take a photo of Kaline on the pad tomorrow, and then every Monday thereafter for a couple months. (Who knows, given my tendency toward obsession/sticking to routines, it could be every Monday for a YEAR.) Why Monday? Cause he was born on a Monday, and then I can say things like, "This is Kaline at nine weeks."

Juno got a bath, mostly because she was sticky from training yesterday at the park. She was tethered on the lawn when not working ... there were plums ... thus stickiness. Also she'll be all super-pretty now for the arrival of her new brother. I even put more ointment on her pads—such a gorgeous girl!

I also got in touch with Air Canada Cargo. I got a Real Live Person™ on the first try! It was amazing. The Real Live Person™ helpfully told me the address of Air Canada Cargo—a completely separate place from San Francisco International Airport—and said to arrive there about an hour after Kaline's plane is due to give him time to get transported from the airport to cargo. Once I get him at cargo, I have to take his health certificate over to customs, and then we can go home. Not entirely sure if I have to leave him (and his undoubtedly full bladder) at cargo while I do this; hopefully I'll at least be allowed to take him for a pee break first!

Man, tomorrow is just going to be insane and momentous. Gotta at least try to get a decent night's sleep, since I won't even have the opportunity to do so for the foreseeable future. I've done the first-day-with-a-new-dog thing twice, but Kaline is my first puppy. And like most people, I've wanted a puppy since forever. I'm actually really glad that I had to wait this long. I feel like I'm finally ready for a puppy.

Let's see if I still feel that way by the end of tomorrow!

Stacked photos, 8 weeks, 1 day

There are new stacked photos of most of the pups, and wow, do the cropped pups ever look different and grown-up. It turns out three of the six pups are being left natural (Kaline of course is one), which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I can appreciate the look of a beautifully cropped Doberman, but to me, there is nothing more gorgeous than a natural-eared pup! Just four days!

My boy Kaline! I cannot wait to stroke those silky ears.

Olive, the black female who the breeder will co-own. Show pup! :)

Red collar boy (blue collar boy was asleep! Red boy probably was too.) Love the face on this little one.

Red girl.

Five days!

This countdown is getting crazy! Okay, actually I'm the one who's crazy. Today I got Kaline's flight information. He should be arriving at SFO at about 10:35 on Saturday morning. I'm not entirely sure just yet where I actually pick him up, but I seem to remember seeing someone pick up a puppy in an office by the baggage claim. I wonder how long it will take to reach a live human being at the airport who can give me the one answer I need ...

I went back to observe puppy class again this past Sunday, this time with Danny in tow. I'm hoping that if I can get Kaline into the class, Danny will be able to come to help with the recall and stuff. Kaline may end up falling into a sort of limbo between classes—might be too young for any but the last meeting of the current five-week session, and may be nearly too old for the next one. It's not the end of the world, as Freddie also has puppy classes going on. I just have my heart set on Amy's!

The puppies are ever so cute, as always. This time around, there's a yellow Lab (my fave, of course); a Golden Retriever; a poodle/Golden retriever mix; a gorgeous blue Great Dane with the most hilarious ears; a Wheaten terrier; and a delightful little Bernese Mountain Dog. Hopefully Kaline can get his second-round shots at 11 weeks and make it to the final meeting. We'll see what the vet says, just one week from today!

Did I mention that the local vets are Doberman people? There is a married couple now in charge at Peninsula Pet Hospital (originally, Angel's and Juno's vet was Dr. Cortesi, but he's mostly retired now) and they have a gorgeous young black and tan male named Anchor. Juno likes Dr. Ulla a lot, which is a big deal cause she is not generally a vet fan. The techs are all stoked to meet the puppy, of course.