Kaline opened the fridge!

I have been trumpeting this news all day. Last night, Kaline finally figured out how to open the fridge by himself! It was very exciting.

We worked on it again tonight, and he was a bit rusty. So this will be an ongoing thing. The first time is always the hardest though, and it'll only get easier from here on out.

Kaline is also still having nothing-vomit every morning. Thus, we headed to the vet today, skipping out on training in the park for about 45 minutes. Unfortunately, it was not tremendously helpful. Dr. Harish just recommended feeding Kaline the main part of his dinner later (he ate around 8:00 tonight) and also feeding him a snack even later. That way, we hope, he will not have a completely empty stomach in the morning and won't have his acid reflux going on.

They also said he's small (he's 59 pounds today; big brother Montgomery is 73). Of course, I had a mini-freakout over this, since one of the reasons I got a boy was so he'd be taller than Juno. Kaline hasn't quite caught up to her yet. But Maura, despite having two litters on the ground, quickly allayed my fears by assuring me he might not be finished growing vertically until he is 18 months old. So he has, possibly, 11 months to gain those three to four inches! Go Kaline go! This is one of the many reasons you go with a great breeder. So when you freak out over things that are not a big deal, you can ask her about it, and she can tell you everything will be okay.

At training, Kaline got to roughhouse with Lucky the Golden Achiever, and Juno did most of the work between the two of them. Kaline got a chance at being out with the big dogs on a down-stay, but couldn't handle it after a while. Ah well.

I am planning to really ramp up Juno's formal obedience training, because I just got the entry form for a trial (actually three trials in one weekend held at the same venue) at the end of January. I got all excited about entering both dogs, but it turns out Kaline can't compete until he's neutered. And I'm waiting till the last second to do that.

Anyway, Juno and I worked on about-turns and left-about-turns when heeling off leash, as well as straight recalls and drops on recall. Drop on recall is our major homework, since we can't work on the broad jump (the area in which she has almost no experience) except at training. Freddie said she'll bring her jumps next week so I can practice with Juno on the broad jump and the retrieve over the high jump. She's done retrieves over a jump before, but she has to learn to do it at 26 inches. I doubt we'll get a qualifying score at any of the three trials, but it'll be good experience for her. (She will undoubtedly break on either or both of the out-of-sight stays.)

If she's really not ready for Open by January, we'll just go do Rally. That should be fun and pretty easy for her, since I'll be allowed to chatter to her all I want!

Slow week

Freddie and Anne are on the East Coast this week, so there's no training in the park and no Saturday class. So it's going to be kind of a slow week around here.

Today was supposedly the last day of the heat wave. While I certainly don't like being out in the heat, and I stress about getting the dogs out early enough, I really like how much it tires everyone out. Yesterday, after the dogs had their afternoon nap, I had this thought that I'd take them on a walk. I took them across the street. They came back in and both collapsed on the floor for another nap. That's how nasty hot it has been here.

We had two pack walks this morning; then the three of us came home, guzzled water, and crashed out for two-plus hours. I love it when we all want to nap at the same time!

Dad's two painter friends came over in the afternoon to check out the house for an estimate on what it'd cost to do all the painting Mom would like. Kaline was super silly and charmed both of them. It was pretty adorable.

Maura, Kaline's breeder, just welcomed her new litter, all reds! Like Kaline's litter, it's five boys and two girls, and they're all doing very well!

Teddy, who hung out with us on Saturday.

Sleepy Junebug.

Kaline on his couch ... You can really see where he had the cluster of itchy bumps on his leg. Might have the vet recheck that, just to be safe. No longer itchy or swollen, just ugly looking.

They had their heads almost touching and it was super cute ... Of course the minute the camera came out, Kaline moved.

Kaline enjoys a frozen carrot. Om nom nom.

Retrieving and other adventures

The pups had a good day of training yesterday, and are now zonked from three successive pack walks today. The first thing we did at training was try to start all the dogs on retrieving: getting them excited about one of a variety of toys, then throwing it for them and calling them back. Didn't matter if they brought the toy back, but the recall was paramount.

Before working Juno (who knows the retrieve already), I worked Kaline, two Labs, a Golden Retriever-poodle mix and I think one other dog. One of the Labs had already had a bunch of retrieving work—her dad eventually wants her to be able to go hunting with him. So, I was pretty stoked about Kaline when he showed absolutely the strongest retrieving drive of the dogs who really don't have retriever training. My little Doberman retriever! He was on that stuffed lobster every time I tossed it; the coming back was questionable, but that's why everyone was on leash, haha. Juno was the most fun, of course, because she knows her stuff, but I was very encouraged about Kaline.

Big props to Maura, Kaline's breeder—one of the most important tests to see if a puppy will end up being a good service prospect is the retrieving test. If you throw a ball of paper and the puppy goes for it, then at least makes the attempt to bring it back, that's a great sign. She picked me a great one!

Later, Juno got to work in the "big dog" group, as usual. At training, "big dog" refers to our personal dogs. We did lots of heeling, with moving stands and moving downs. I worked Juno on either her shark line or completely off leash, and she did pretty well! Gotta love those moving stands; we had so much fun working on those when she was first learning how to do it. Then we did remote sits and downs, and Juno was held up as the example of how to go properly from a down to a sit (push up, no picking up the butt and creeping forward). Woohoo!

Kaline got to do a bit of heeling and weaving through the advanced dogs on down-stays. He was a bit ADD—Look! There's Chief! Oh, hi Mom, yes, I'm watching. CHIEF! Hi! Oooh, leaves. Right, right, I'm watching ... We have been working a lot though on him responding to his name with eye contact while we're walking, so I think eventually that'll pay off. He's been doing great at that on pack walks, even when he's in the middle of the pack.

We had a bunch of training opportunities on our walks today—seriously, everything feels totally manageable when I'm wearing a bait bag! Multiple times, we either had to pass or got passed by dogs who were growling and/or showing other reactive behaviors. Every time, I was like, "Oooh, yay! Time to reinforce proper behaviors!"

In my first pack, I have a lovely but somewhat reactive dog—he won't start crap, but he will definitely respond if the other dog keeps on long enough. At one point, we got passed by a pack of four dogs, way out in front of the woman walking them, growling and straining toward my guys. Well, my guys were all sitting and staring at me, getting little yummy morsels popped into their mouths. Definitely the message I want to get across: See a reactive dog, look at human, get food—nothing bad will happen and the human will handle it.

On the second pack walk, the one that goes to downtown Palo Alto, we got passed by lots of loud buses and trucks; Kaline's reaction to them is getting more and more muted. We didn't even run into any idiots on that route today, it was fantastic!

We did get an idiot, I think, on the third walk, which was the most relaxing one: just Juno, her boyfriend Ellis, and wee Kaline. Some guy kept asking me which dog was the MGM Lion, and when I was confused, he assumed I didn't know what MGM was, or that a roaring lion is their symbol. Let me assure you that that's untrue, I don't live under a rock! If anyone reading this happens to know what three dogs have to do with the MGM Lion, please tell me so I can retract my statement that this guy was an idiot. (One other idiot: Saw me passing with three dogs trotting at my heels—they were all tired—and said, "Who's walking who?" Um, I think that should be pretty clear.)

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!

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.

One week to Kaline!

Kaline will be here in just seven days! Brown-collar puppy, now wearing a brown and blue collar, is for sure The One. I am so excited! He's super sweet and pretty sure of himself, which I love. The puppies met Maura's potbellied pig, Stella, this week, and Kaline went right up to her to check her out. The little red girl ran away when she realized how big Stella was, but Kaline was just cool. He and the red boy are both unfazed when they go exploring and find themselves without their siblings. I guess the others don't really like that.

I'm guessing this is before Stella was let out; all the pups going, “WHOA, what is that?!”

Handsome red boy, Wilson, in the yard with his black sister, Olive.

One of the black boys approaching Stella.

Puppy pile on a young friend! Kaline has been quite calm and friendly meeting all kinds of strangers. WIN.

More introductions to Stella!

Juno has had a busy week! On Wednesday, we went to the Giants game, likely our last of the season, and if you're a baseball fan, you know that Matt Cain pitched a perfect game that night! (If you're not a baseball fan: In a perfect game, the pitcher allows no baserunners. No hits, no errors, no walks, no dropped third strikes. NOTHING.) It was amazing, and Juno handled everything with her usual no-sweat attitude. She got to watch the game a little (we had several empty seats around us) and otherwise slept through pretty much everything. She worked the crowds like a champ.

Juno at the perfect game—“What do you want me to watch you for? I'm watching the game!”

She also got to go to a couple new pubs (new to her) to watch some Euro 2012 games. One was the Rose & Crown, where my friend Ben and I watched England play to a 1-1 draw with France. That one wasn't too crowded, but when the goals were scored, it got fairly loud. Then on Wednesday afternoon, we went to Rudy's for the Netherlands-Germany game. Rudy's is the local pub where all the Dutch fans gather to watch their team, so Rudy's was packed wall-to-wall with crazy people in orange. (Yes, I too was a crazy person in orange, though sadly I am not Dutch.) Juno, who had just been on two hour-long walks, sacked out under the bar with Ben and me standing behind her, guarding her paws from wayward human feet. Lots of loud noise, crowding, food everywhere—no big deal for Junebug!

Juno at the Rose and Crown.

It's been really hot here lately, so much so that Juno has been dancing about uncomfortably on pavement, so today I got her Ruffwear Skyliners—dog booties. She pranced hilariously when I first put them on her, but I think they will really make a big difference. Yet another small proof of global warming: Juno has never, ever had this issue with pavement before, even in summer. This year, it's hot enough around here that her paws are hurting and her nails were getting ground down to an uncomfortable point. But not anymore! Yay booties. I also got her some ointment for her pads.

We picked up Kaline's puppy food (Royal Canin), one of the last things I need for him. I also got him a Zoom Groom, cause they've been highly recommended and I certainly can't use a Furminator on him. (Juno, on the other hand, has been Furminated nearly every day in the past two weeks, and the amount of hair that's still coming out of her is absolutely preposterous.) I'm sure there'll be more things I have to get for him—dogs are 'spensive, jeez!—but I think I'm as prepared as I can be for now!

Puppy evaluations and grading

The pups are supposed to get evaluated (temperament) and graded (physical conformation) today or perhaps tomorrow. The testing is super important, at least to me, in ensuring I have the best service dog candidate of the bunch.

The temperament test will likely be the Volhard Test, or something similar. There are ten parts to the test, and they are as follows (from http://www.volhard.com/pages/pat.php):

1. Social Attraction—degree of social attraction to people, confidence or dependence.   
2. Following—willingness to follow a person. 
3. Restraint—degree of dominant or submissive tendency, and ease of handling in difficult situations.
4. Social Dominance—degree of acceptance of social dominance by a person. 
5. Elevation—degree of accepting dominance while in a position of no control, such as at the veterinarian or groomer. 
6. Retrieving—degree of willingness to do something for you. Together with Social Attraction and Following a key indicator for ease or difficulty in training.
7. Touch Sensitivity—degree of sensitivity to touch and a key indicator to the type of training equipment required.
8. Sound Sensitivity—degree of sensitivity to sound, such as loud noises or thunderstorms. 
9. Sight Sensitivity—degree of response to a moving object, such as chasing bicycles, children or squirrels.
10. Stability—degree of startle response to a strange object.

Puppies are evaluated on a scale of 1-6. What kind of scores are “good” depends on what kind of dog you're looking for, and what you hope to do with the dog. For service work, you want a dog who scores mostly 3's, and who does well especially on the retrieval test. You also want a dog who, when startled, recovers quickly and heads off to investigate whatever scared him. (You don't want a dog who either cowers and never recovers from the startling, or a puppy who doesn't startle at all and just pounces on the thing.)

The tester is not the breeder, but an independent third party. The important part is that the person is someone the puppies don't know (obviously they'd be pretty willing to follow the breeder, etc.) The puppies are also tested individually, not together.

A “mostly 3's” puppy is friendly but not over-the-top, cuddly and not bitey, startles but recovers, is curious but not overly assertive. Basically a chill, middle-of-the-road pup who will probably be able to adapt quickly to new situations, and who enjoys working with people. Obviously Doberman puppies are not what most people would ever call “chill,” but a “mostly 3's” puppy will (I fervently hope!) learn to settle down readily. A big part of being a service dog, other than learning tasks, is going to distracting places and still managing to chill out or even sleep. The vast majority of dogs are not born able to do that, but a “mostly 3's” puppy will be a lot more able to learn than a big-time high-drive pup, or one who is scared by everything.

I expect that most of the pups will be in the 3 range—Gatehouse is known for producing smart dogs with solid temperaments. But one of those puppies is really going to stand out as a (relatively) calm, confident guy—and that'll be Kaline!

Stacked puppies at 6 weeks, 3 days

Pretty much everyone's collar has switched, so here we go! I still haven't found the stacked picture of the wee red girl, but I've got everyone else.

Black girl with her new pink collar.

Blue collar boy (was no collar boy).

Blue/brown collar boy (was brown collar boy).

Red collar boy (was white/grey collar boy).

Black collar boy ... not that he needs a special collar, cause he's the only red boy ...

 And now, some squooshie puppy cuteness.

Red boy (I'm pretty sure), fast asleep.

One of the black puppies, no clue who!

Gotta be that little red girl!

Pups outside again!

More photos! I made them bigger than usual because the puppies seem so super small in them. Is it June 23 yet?!?!?!?!

One of the red pups, I *think* it's the girl, outside.

Formerly brown-collar boy, now blue-collar boy (at least I'm hoping I got the collar switch right!)

Blue collar boy.

I think that's still blue-collar boy.

Outdoor play and STACKED PHOTOS!

There are so many gorgeous photos of the puppies from today I just don't know where to start! They got to play outside. I don't know if it was their first time or not, but it must have been very exciting! I tend to view things through my service-dog lens, so as I was looking through the photos, I was full of delight at seeing all the different surfaces and objects the puppies had to explore. There was wood, grass, rocks to clamber over—learning to be comfortable and relaxed on all manner of surfaces is very important. Plus it looks like the pups had a fantastic time.

Chilling in the grass.

Exploring the deck.

Insane cuteness from no-collar boy.

Exploring the rocks.

Exuberance!!!

Additionally, Maura posted the first set of stacked photos! In case the word “stacked” doesn't mean anything to you when it comes to dogs, the term means that the dog (or puppy in this case) is standing squarely, with their back feet far enough back that their hocks are straight and their topline is nice (i.e. not hunched over or way stretched out). It may look easy, but it's really not! Not even with an adult dog—teaching them to stand properly can take a really long time, and getting puppies to stand in the right position, and stand still, is a big task.

Brown collar boy stacked.

Brown collar boy.

White collar boy stacked.

White collar boy.

No collar boy stacked.

Red boy stacked.

Red boy. What a face!

Black girl stacked.

Black girl.

Red girl stacked.

Don't you just love their fat little bellies? Precious.

Kaline's in-training vest came yesterday. I'll post photos once the patches are sewn on—taking it to the tailor tomorrow!