Rally Trial in Petaluma

Yeah, I know, there goes that New Year's Resolution. So much for once a week blogging. It's been a really bad week. If you know me, you know why, and if you don't ... well, I don't need to broadcast it to the ether.

Last weekend Juno, Kaline, Dad and I headed to Petaluma for a Rally trial. Normally, Dad is kept as far away from these things as possible because he is an enormous distraction. However, I was very low on spoons, and knew that if I didn't take him I'd probably fall asleep driving there or coming home. He's a really great dad—I made him get up at 5:00 in the morning so we would get there early. Need my good parking spot, time to set up, and time to practice.

Dad basically dropped us off and went to go have breakfast, so the first part of the trial went fairly smoothly. Juno was in Excellent and Advanced, still looking for an RAE leg, and Kaline was in Advanced for the first time. Juno was great warming up (except for focusing so hard on my face that she walked into the jump). Got her in the ring, and it was like pulling teeth. Being in the ring is just unpleasant for both of us. She was clean though, and ended up with a 93 and second place.

First through fourth place dogs won toys as well as ribbons!

Dad returned to help with wrangling as I warmed both dogs up for Advanced. This turned out not to be such a great idea, even though he made himself scarce about 45 minutes before Juno's run. Kaline went first, and although it was a little insane—he is much faster than Juno, and it makes me feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants—he was very good and got a 94. All our work off leash with the e-collar paid dividends. Even when he was not looking at me at all, a verbal cue got instant results! Super helpful.

 

Then I took Juno in. She was doing okay, and then halfway through the run, it was like she suddenly realized Dad had left. She lost all focus, and was scanning the crowd, looking for him. I could barely get her through to the end. She got a 70, which is the lowest score you can get while still qualifying. So she got an RAE leg but I think we shall stop there.

Kaline's 94 was good enough for second, which was really exciting. Then we had a long break, during which my wonderful father brought us lunch.

In the second trial, I only entered Kaline. He was again very good, even though we had a bit of a hiccup in our course. Earlier, the judge had let a dog run the course with the wrong jump height, and had to call them back after finishing to have them do a proper jump. Rally jumps only go up to 16", but obviously that's pretty short for a 27" Doberman. So just after Kaline did the jump (second exercise of the course), the judge had an Oh Shit moment and called us back. He was worried the jump was again too short. After a quick check with the stewards, he realized it was right, apologized, and had us restart, promising not to re-judge our first two exercises. I was a little flustered, and Kaline had lost a little focus, but he got it back fairly quickly and did really nicely! Well, except when he heard Juno whining while we were on the far side of the ring. He clearly thought that she was in distress and needed his help (even if she were, she wouldn't want help from him! haha). But he got back on track and got a 95, and another second place finish.

Pretty much unrelated news: Sue Korp, the nice lady with the Doberman bitch with All The Titles, earned her and Jessi's Obedience Grand Master title at the same trial. Very, very cool.

Criteria for Graduation

A friend and I were talking about how you know it's time to graduate your service dog in training to full service dog status, so I thought I'd do a post about it.

One thing that makes a big difference is whether your state gives the same access rights to handlers with SDITs as with SDs. Since California, our state, treats SDITs and SDs the same according to the law, there is no incentive for me, or any other handler, to rush graduation. I think that's a great argument for all states giving SDIT handlers more rights, but that's another discussion. In states where SDITs have limited or no access rights, one might lower the graduation standards to the minimum, just to have the benefit of the dog's help in more areas.

I'm not talking about graduation standards for anyone but myself. (Just wanted to make that clear.) Right now, I hardly ever remember to actually put Kaline's in training tag on whatever gear he's wearing. But if anyone asks, I will say he's in training. Sometimes, when we're working on a new skill or working through a problem, it's pretty obvious to anyone looking that he's in training. But a lot of the time, at least in harness, he's really starting to act the part of a full SD. (At home and off duty, he can still be a crazy boy.)

Here are some of the things I'll be looking to see before I'll officially graduate Kaline. No hard and fast numbers or anything, just a general idea.

Treats: Do I feel dependent on my treat bag, or can I accidentally leave it in the car and still feel like Kaline will do what he needs to? If the answer to the first part is yes, definitely not ready to graduate. At this point, I try to remember the bag just in case, but I've forgotten it several times and not felt remotely panicky. And Kaline has done everything he's been asked to do. So no, we are no longer treat-dependent for known/proofed skills.

Distractions: This is probably our hardest area. Kaline still wants to make googly eyes at people, especially if they talk to him. He also is still very interested in/distracted by children who are either loud or moving abruptly. He is generally good at ignoring being touched by strangers, although we are working on desensitizing him to being touched on the rear. He was fine with that until very recently, and now all of a sudden, if someone touches his butt, he has an out-of-proportion startle response. Recovers quickly though. Food distractions are not an issue. He doesn't go for food he sees around, and he doesn't beg from the table. Animal distractions ... well, I know small prey animals aren't a big issue because a squirrel basically ran under his feet the other day and he just looked at it interestedly for a second and then moved on. Other dogs, however, he still wants to look at for more than a second, and if the other dog is doing something interesting, like pulling toward Kaline or lunging at him, Kay can definitely lose his focus. This is a main reason why I feel Kaline is not ready for graduation.

General public behavior: I'm really quite pleased with Kaline's recent improvements in this area, especially when he's asked to lie down, settle, and be unobtrusive. His popups have decreased a lot. He's not rattled by much of anything, including, as I discovered a week or so ago, exceedingly loud screams at hockey arenas. He hardly ever sniffs inappropriately, and remains focused on his job most of the time. He definitely has a working mode and understands he has to meet higher standards of behavior when in harness. Basically, he acts professional. Different people have different definitions of what “professional” is ... Mine is a little fuzzy, but basically I want anyone looking at him to know, just by his demeanor, that he is a working dog. And now, they do (most of the time. Some people are just dense, what can you do?). Still, I don't feel the same way about him in public as I do Juno. She is my rock, and he just is not quite there yet. Still a bit higher maintenance, if that makes sense. Building that kind of bond and trust takes a very, very long time—we're almost there, I think.

Tasks: Before I graduate a dog, I want him/her to be able to do all of his tasks promptly and correctly the vast majority of the time. If Kaline needs a little extra help occasionally with accuracy on handicap buttons, I don't consider that a huge issue (for someone with a different disability, it might be a big deal). But when I need DPT, he is on it, no problem, no matter what position I'm in. If I ask him to do stairs, up or down, he's almost always doing it right. (Yes, we are still practicing the various components of going down stairs properly.) Momentum pull is practically perfect. His retrieve is getting pretty reliable, although it needs to be better before he graduates. Helping around the house in the kitchen is excellent, probably because we practice several times a day out of necessity. Kaline cannot learn counterbalance tasks until he is cleared by an orthopedic vet after his second birthday. So having that clearance will be a big milestone indicating graduation is near. I don't think the counterbalance tasks will be too hard for him to learn, but we'll have to get them solid before I will graduate him.

Maturity/endurance: This is a big reason why I think any dog under 18 months of age cannot, by definition, be called a full service dog. As a puppy or adolescent, a dog cannot handle day after day of full-time work without burning out. Burning out is kind of a subjective term, but to me it means a dog loses its drive to work and/or no longer enjoys their work. Puppies and adolescents have bouts of silliness, as well as teenage asshole moments—things that are expected and understandable in a SDIT, but pretty much unacceptable in full SDs. (I say “pretty much” because obviously even adult SDs are not robots, and can have bad days on occasion.) Kaline at this point does have the ability to be a full-time SD, at least for my lifestyle. Being a full-time SD for me involves a lot of off-duty time, given that dogs are my life. It also involves some day-long events, and Kaline has proven he can handle those too. Maturity ... Well, he at least manages to act mature when he's on duty. I guess it doesn't matter terribly much that he acts like a complete idiot sometimes on his own time!

None of this means that training stops. Training NEVER stops, not for service dog teams who want to stay sharp. We will always be working on our weak points, always trying to spice things up with new behaviors whether disability-related or not, and you never know what tasks you might need to teach in the future.

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.

Blast from Juno's past

We were cleaning out some old stuff and found a bunch of Juno's shelter paperwork. I thought it was pretty fun! So here it is for your viewing pleasure. I should probably note that pretty much anyone actively looking for a SD prospect would not have adopted Juno, due to her dog reactivity. I was looking for a pet Doberman/Doberman mix, with an eye to a fun fixer-upper.

The shelter where we adopted Juno.

Juno's intake form (her first family dumped her):

Where does your pet stay during the day? Backyard     At night? Indoors
What ages of people has your pet been living with? 39, 39, 12, 9, 8 months (explains why Juno has always been so chill and relaxed around kids of all ages)
How would you describe your pet's behavior around kids? Friendly, playful, 
How does your pet react to strangers? Friendly
Has your pet ever bitten or snapped at anyone? No
Has your pet lived with other animals? No
Does this pet have any health problems or injuries? No
Have you ever had any behavior problems with this pet? No
Is this dog housebroken? No (she was, actually) 
Does he ever have accidents? Never
Is your pet afraid of anything? Other animals
What type of training has your pet received? Home training (ha, yeah, surrrrre)
What commands does your pet know? Sit, down, stay, fetch (nottttt really)
Does your pet chase anything? She chases other animals when she or the family feels threatened; very protective of family
Words circled to describe pet's behavior: Friendly with people; friendly to other animals; affectionate; playful; shy; too much energy; doesn't like to be left alone (yep, very true); loves affection; good with kids; likes to be groomed; relaxed; likes treats; demands attention often; not used to other animals
Other good or bad habits? Very friendly, loving member of family 
Is there anything else we should know about your pet: I as the owner is (sic) heartbroken. She loves my children and family. Deserves a loving, stable home. 
Please describe your pet in your own words: I can always depend on her to be warm and happy to see me. Full of love. 

Yup, the last part kinda kills me. Juno now has the best life possible—I bet her old family would be happy to know that. She is loved and all her needs are fulfilled to the best of my ability.

Juno was given the shelter name of Bocci. They listed her as a Doberman/Labrador mix. The evaluator found her to be gentle, cautious, reserved, attentive, tolerant, and friendly. They said she was good with some dogs, not good with cats. She was suggested for a home with a medium activity level; house with a yard; a very experienced owner; and someone who was physically strong. 

The yard part amuses me and also pisses me off a little. You can have the biggest yard in the world, and if you don't make an effort to exercise your dog and give it mental stimulation, the yard ain't going to do it for you. If you have no yard but, say, walk your dog 2-4 hours every day plus training sessions, the lack of yard is not an issue. I feel like “yard” is a confusing euphemism for “commitment to physical and mental exercise.” The experienced owner part I agree with, but obviously I'm not physically strong now, and I wasn't that much stronger before I developed fibromyalgia. Dog training is not about physically overpowering the dog, it's about figuring out what motivates them, and how to teach them effectively what is and isn't acceptable. When I walk six-packs, they outweigh me by a considerable amount. I can't physically overpower them. But I use clear signals with body language, collar corrections, and treats, and we don't have problems. Conversely, I've seen ten-pound tiny dogs dragging their owners down the street. Physical strength ... Not really all it's cracked up to be!

Initial assessment: 

Personality: Other (Other choices were Outgoing, Affectionate, Playful, Timid, and Attentive. I have no clue what they meant by “other.”)
Training: Jumps
Housebroken: Unknown
Relationships: Not friendly with dogs; reactive

Juno on her first day at home.

Notes on Juno's interactions/training throughout her shelter stay:

29 February 2008
Bocci slipped her leash and went after Daisy. She becomes very agitated and aggressive with other female dogs. Very resistant to returning to her kennel, took 15-20 minutes to get her back inside. Very food motivated.

3 March 2008—2nd Chance Class
Bocci is very affectionate and walks nicely on leash when it is just her and the handler. She is reactive—pulling, barking, whining—when she sees other dogs. In class we worked on running by other dogs without barking. She seems to get anxious easily. She was reluctant to go back to her kennel, stopping in the lobby and at the door of the kennel. Once inside she immediately relaxed and was very affectionate and calm. 

8 March 2008—2nd Chance Class
Bocci was nervous and agitated, couldn't/wouldn't focus on me or even on treats. We walked, spent time in play yard, then came into class. Gradually she became more focused and would sit, watch me, and touch my hand for treats. But every few minutes she'd stare at another dog and then bark and lunge at them. We practiced time outs! When she did calm a little, she loved being petted.

10 March 2008
 Very affectionate with all people. Reluctant to go back to kennel, so worked on gradually approaching with treats and praise. Saw two Labs in the next play yard—barked at the fence, but with tail wagging and some bowing. I think Bocci's dog reactions are an unsocialized attempt to play—that she really wants to meet the other dogs.

This handler (wrote on 3 and 10 March, then almost every entry thereafter) worked Juno the most and I think had the best read of her character. She still doesn't have great dog social skills, but has been taught to ignore/avoid rather than her old reaction of barking and generally being annoying. When Juno first started obedience class with me, she'd have a meltdown at the 45 minute mark and have to leave for a little bit. It took a good year or so to get her over her dog reactivity.

Juno at her first obedience class.

10 March 2008—2nd Chance Class
Worked on dog reactivity using 18 (probably refers to another dog, unnamed). Gradually approached play yard while he was in it, entered and did some meetings; and walked in the parking lot. She was reactive and hard to settle, barking, lunging, and mouthing him. He stayed calm. She was able to do “walk by” exercises in the parking lot and remain calm.

17 March 2008—2nd Chance Class
Worked on meeting dog-dog. I took Bocci to the outdoor GAR for lots of play (loves squeaky/tuggy toys), treats and pets to get happy and relaxed. Then John brought in Georgia. We worked on treats/praise when she saw Georgia, then had Georgia leave. Then worked on brief sniffing while Georgia was distracted with treats, followed by lots of praise. In just a few repetitions, Bocci was able to ignore Georgia and sit near her for treats. Did this in brief sessions with some time outs to relax. Great progress! Bocci's language was playful, great play bows and no growls. Otherwise she is playful and affectionate.

21 March 2008
Tried introducing Bocci to Ricky. After a lot of initial barking and excitability, she calmed down and was able to be in the GAR with Ricky without reacting to him.

24 March 2008—2nd Chance Class
Repeated above meeting exercise with Tenilla. More energetic introduction for both of them with Bocci doing a lot of barking and mouth but no growling/aggression. Bocci needs now to learn to play and to have more meetings like this.

26 March 2008
Just did regular TLC today. Bocci was reactive (barking/jumping) when she saw other dogs, but settled quickly when we had passed. Playful and very affectionate.

28 March 2008
Fantastic progress in a play session with Tenilla. Bocci is calming much more quickly. Although they are energetic players, there was no aggression or escalation. At one point they seemed saturated (??) and we worked on leash proximity. They did great! Bocci finally seemed tired.

31 March 2008—2nd Chance Class
Another play session with Tenilla. Her play patterns (sheet cut off, argh!)


3 April 2008
Much calmer on leash today than previously. Play yard with tennis balls. Friendly to everyone but a little unsure about the field service uniform. OK on leash, seeing some dogs at a distance—could be refocused. In the big GAR she was very excited (a lot of barking and jumping) when another dog walked past.

14 April 2008
Play session with Tenilla. Went very well. her play style is very energetic but is able to calm/refocus much faster and able to break the play behavior and show calm behaviors.

20 April 2008
Amy and I took out Bocci and her kennel mate (the German Shepherd/pointer). Bocci doesn't really know the language of play—she goes from 0 to 60 (i.e. growling) very fast. Reactive (barking esp.) with every dog she saw today. Great with people, but her dog manners need a lot of work.

23 April 2008
Typical Bocci—sweet and affectionate. Very energetic today, ran around the play yard with toys. Reactive when she saw dogs—but we know this is her play style. She just needs another dog who knows it too. Some fence fighting on the way back to the kennel. She needs a lot more exercise. 

Once I got Juno home, the first thing I did was start giving her a ton of regular exercise. It was like magic. Within just a few days, she was incredibly calm the majority of the time.

28 April 2008—2nd Chance Class
Attempted to intro Bocci to Shasta, but both were so reactive we did not have a meeting. Worked on approaching and returning. Both seemed frustrated and overly excited, but no growling.

2 May 2008
Played in the big yard. Was distracted when she saw other dogs in the nearby yard, but her attentiveness improved after a lot of exercise (energetic game of fetch). Also spent time calming and getting lots of affection. Bocci needs exercise to help her calm. Some fence fighting on the way back to the kennel.

12 May 2008 (the day we took her home)
Played a good game of fetch (with a fuzzy toy—not interested in tennis balls) in the play yard and also chased each other around. Loves affection and likes to lean and be in contact with you while she chews on toys. Alert and interested in surroundings. Barked at chickens and got excited; may have some small animal prey drive. A sweet girl who needs lots of exercise and interesting things to do.

Juno with her new tiger stuffie on her first day home. We still have the tiger!

Huh ... Lots of exercise and interesting things to do? I think we got that covered! You can tell how much time and love the shelter staff put into Juno. I love Peninsula Humane Society to pieces. Anytime I hear of someone looking to rescue, I always point them to PHS.

I must reiterate that reactivity like what Juno had (note past tense) is not acceptable in a working dog. We adopted Juno in May of 2008 and she did not start her SD training until January 2011—after her dog reactivity had been worked through. Obviously dogs are not robots, and will have bad days every once in a while, but reactivity on a regular basis is, at the very least, a reason to pull the dog from public work until it's resolved. If it can't be resolved, the dog must be washed out. A reactive SD puts both its handler and the public in danger.

Movies!

Kaline and I just finished up the six-week package of “classic” movies at the local Cinemark 20 theatre. It was a great help with his long-down consistency. The first couple movies, he'd pop up a bunch, starting mid-movie. By the final couple, pop-ups were down to two or fewer per movie!

He also got to do a lot of practice with hitting handicap buttons, not rushing into or out of elevators, and going at a measured pace down the stairs. He is great at pulling up the stairs, just needs to work on going in a straight line, haha.

I've been working with both dogs, but especially Kaline, on various Rally exercises as well. Kaline has several different things he needs to get down before he competes in Advanced on March 22. He's doing really well with the new finding-heel exercises, but having more trouble with finding front when I don't move my feet. Next week, we're going to work on learning the broad jump!

I'm totally preoccupied right now with new Paco collars for Juno and Kay, as well as new tags to go with them from Aggie's Anvil. I have to wait, however. Kaline's birthday is on April 23, and Juno's Gotcha Day is May 12, so that's the soonest I'm allowing myself to get this new expensive stuff, haha. The new collar for Kaline was supposed to be for his graduation, but yeah, I can't wait that long.

If you couldn't tell, we haven't done a whole lot of exciting stuff lately. Oh well!

Service dog meetup at the Golden Gate Kennel Club Dog Show

Left to right: Bella, Kiyah, Baja, Rhydian, Juno, Kaline, Delphine, and Bruce.

This past weekend was another where I just did way too much. Every year the Golden Gate Kennel Club hosts an all-breed dog show for two days at the Cow Palace, and we go and wear ourselves out. I always meet up with Sonja, but this year at one point we had eight service dog teams together!

Saturday, Juno and Kaline both got to go, since Sonja's Chief was still recovering from a paw injury and wasn't supposed to walk a lot on concrete. Juno won't work for most people, but she adores Sonja and will work for her. She was absolutely delighted to be able to go. Especially since Sonja gave her french fries.

We hung out a lot with our new friends Lindsay and Bruce the Painted Doberman (lots of people wanted photos of the Doberman service dogs in training) and with Ashley and her insanely cute Shar Pei-shepherd mix, Delphine. Probably the most commonly asked question of the whole weekend was, “What kind of dog is that?” We also met Tiffany and Baja, a German shepherd; Hillary and Kiyah, a pit bull; Heather and Bella, an Ibizan hound who won Best of Breed on Sunday; and Clara and Rhydian, another German shepherd.

Kaline and Bruce

Saturday we got there early and left early, due to a Michigan-Stanford men's gymnastics meet in the evening. Kaline did pretty well, other than our usual bugaboo of pulling too hard in harness, and pulling at all on leash. Everyone was just in love with him. I don't know why I get all surprised by that, but I guess I assume I'm in love with him cause he's, you know, mine. (Not that I don't get freaking frustrated as hell with him several times a week ...) But yeah, he was very popular among the other handlers. I of course let them love on him when he was just chilling out. He was most pleased with his new fan club.

We watched the Dobermans show, and among them was a stunning, all-natural, eight-month-old male Doberman from Poland. It was his owner/handler's first time ever showing in conformation and it was just so sweet to see all the experienced handlers coming over before they went in the ring to try to help her prepare. Argo won some ribbons, being the only one in his age group. Such a sweet, cute boy. Makes me want a Polish Doberman, haha! He had a much thicker coat than Kaline and the other Dobermans—looked like it might actually help him keep warm. What a concept!

Argo!

We came home for a nap after our time at the show, and then headed to Stanford for the meet. It was insanely loud and crowded due to the Stanford Open being held that weekend (for young gymnasts). The nice “redcoats” made us a little disabled section between two of the bleachers where the dogs (Sonja and Chief came) were protected. Michigan won, rather miraculously, and we got to see all our friends. Had one annoying stranger totally butt in on a conversation I was having with my friend, complaining about how her husband is searching for a Doberman but all the breeders he's called are “sold out” and want the princely sum (being sarcastic here) of $1500-2000. UGH. But mostly it was great. Kaline was so exhausted from the dog show that he held his down perfectly the whole evening. His pre- and post-meet crowd work was pretty excellent.

Kaline at his first men's gym meet.

Sunday we went to the dog show a bit later, though not as much later as I thought given how tired I was Saturday. We visited the Lagottos, both of whom turned out to be closely related to Kaline's little boyfriend, Lupo. We again wandered with Lindsay, Sonja, and Ashley, shopping and watching the breed judging.

Lindsay and I are both Paco addicts. WIN.

All the cute.

Five of us—Ashley, Lindsay, Heather, Clara, and I—ended up at our dinner, which we did at Buca di Beppo in the city. It was interesting getting five service dogs/service dogs in training all under or next to the table, but the staff were quite nice and set us up in a less crowded area. It was very yummy, and definitely a lot of fun to hang out with people who just get it. By the time I got home, though, I was totally zonked! Waking up the next morning to a full schedule of four pack walks: Not the best thing ever. But the exposure and distraction work are great for Kaline, and it's always wonderful to meet up with other handlers.

Snuggles at dinner.

Rally Overdose! (Humiliating photos galore)

This past weekend, Juno, Kaline, and I did three Rally trials in two days. This was not, in fact, the best idea ever. Nonetheless, Juno earned her Rally Excellent (RE) title, and Kaline earned his Rally Novice (RN) title! Very exciting.

We had a new setup this year. Juno and I are minimalists and show up at trials with a folding chair and a travel mat, with a collapsible travel bowl hooked onto my belt loop so I can give her water at some point. Thanks to Kaline, we added to that: an enormous, exceedingly light and easy to pop-up Noz2Noz crate, a Ruffwear Mt. Bachelor pad to make the crate cushy, extra traffic lead and snake chain, Tigers jammies, etc etc. I felt slightly ridiculous, until I remembered that this is how “normal” people pack for trials. (Normal in quotes because ... yeah, if you do any kind of trialing, you're not normal.)

Trumbull packed and ready to go, except for the dogs!

 The first day, we got up at 4:30 in order to be at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds by 6:00 to set up and get our course map and start practicing. Juno was going to be first in the ring for Excellent, the first class of the day. So yeah, I was freaking out a bit. We got our favorite setup spot, and though the stewards were really slow/late handing maps out and checking people in, Juno and I were able to pace around the ring as the judge laid out the signs, and start practicing. Kaline snuggled down in his crate and was largely quite good about it. I think he realized it was the warmest, coziest, comfiest place he could really be (the building this trial happens in is SO cold, always).

Our setup at the show; red camp chair courtesy of our very kind friend, Laurie, cause mine is MIA.

The course was pretty nice for us, except for having a broad jump. Usually Juno does not believe in the broad jump. She just walks on it, which is a ten-point deduction. Since you can lose 30 points and still qualify, I don't fight her on the broad jump. We had practiced the send to jump (I'm not going to explain it, suffice it to say that it's really hard if your dog isn't in agility) a lot but that wasn't on the course. Anyway, I did my best to do Juno's usual warmup and got her really amped. Apparently, a little too amped.

We got in the ring and Juno was so excited that she flubbed things she's normally very precise about by just bouncing out of position. I just had to giggle at her, because she was so enthusiastic. We got to the broad jump and I gave her the “over” cue—and she sailed over it like a pro! I was so surprised I almost tripped over myself. She did the other jump fine and we qualified with room to spare, getting 82. That was her last leg for her RE title, and I was so thrilled. Little bummed that they didn't have the little medallions you usually get for a title, but still, it was cool.

Juno and her green ribbon for qualifying in Excellent. Her official title is now (Queen) SD Thundercats Are Go CGC CD RE.

We had to wait a long time for Kaline's debut in Novice. Outside of his crate, he was quite a pill, since he's collar-smart and knows he can get away with all kinds of things on his flat collar. He was most annoying. In the ring, he still got distracted and a little scatterbrained a couple times, but he was largely a very good boy and ended up with an 88 and his first leg!

Kaline's first green ribbon!

Had lunch, second trial commenced. Juno and I had a terrible time in our Excellent run. She was tired—I think that was the issue. Her main problem in general is lagging, and the lagging was extreme in that run. And she refused both jumps, probably because we had done too much jump practice outside the ring. Too many demerits and we NQ'ed. I was so bummed out I scratched from Advanced. (After you get the RE title, the next title is RAE, where you have to get qualifying scores in both classes in the same trial in order to get a leg. You need ten legs for the title). Kaline had a better run than in the morning and got a 93 for his second Novice leg.

Second leg!

The next morning, I was super excited to see that the Excellent and Advanced courses were really nice, in terms of playing to Juno's strengths. As I did the walk-through for Excellent, I noted that the sign for station 11 was in a weird place where it was easy to just miss it entirely. I spent the practice time repeating to myself not to miss that sign. So what happened when we did the course? Juno did rather nicely, other than refusing the second jump—and I missed station 11. Automatic NQ. UGH! Nothing feels worse than a massive handler error. We did Advanced just for giggles and though Juno lagged horribly and trying to motivate her was like pulling teeth, we still got an 89.

You can tell she's really thrilled.

Kaline did great in his final Novice run. He did all the stations so nicely, except for in the serpentine where we kept knocking into each other. He got a 94 and he got his title! That was a really nice end to the weekend.

Look Mom, I got a medal to go with my ribbon! His official title is now (Princess) SDIT Gatehouse As Time Goes By CGC RN.

I'm going to enter them both in one more trial (at a date to be determined) and if Juno is lagging and lackluster again, I'm just going to bag RAE for her. If she's not having fun and it's a chore and three jumps to practice for and then perform are just too much for her at this point, then it's too much. I'm not going to force her through all this for a title that is supposed to be “just for fun.”

Stay tuned for lots of training with Kaline on how to behave nicely on a flat collar.

Pet Expo

Yesterday, Dad and I took Juno (off duty) and Kaline (on duty) to a pet expo in Santa Clara. As an expo it was kind of disappointing, but as a training challenge for Kaline, it was awesome. We went for the distractions, and they were everywhere! There were a ton of dogs, since the event was pet-friendly, and though none of them (to my surprise and delight) were reactive or aggressive, many were very friendly to the point of being a bit rude. And owners were mostly letting them greet any dog around. Kaline did a really nice job of ignoring the many noses in his face and up his butt!

There were also several demonstration areas running. One had flyball, which was the most difficult for Kaline to ignore. If you don't know, in flyball dogs race over a series of hurdles, pop a ball out of a box, then run back over the hurdles as the next dog in their relay is coming. It's action packed, to say the least. Everything else, even if Kaline did get distracted, he was very easy to refocus. This included the obedience/protection demo with two awesome, high drive Malinois. The OB is pretty easy to ignore, but Kaline had his “meh” face on even when one of the Malis was sent on a bark-and-hold—go find the decoy and stand in front of him barking until the handler calls the dog off. He wasn't even that distracted when the Malis got sent on bites! (I was. I was totally entranced.) The miniature horses also posed something of a challenge. So cute though.

After the obedience demo we were allowed to take our dogs on the obstacle course. Juno just took everything in stride with Dad. Kaline was a little more ... eccentric. I'd lead him onto an obstacle, say the ramp to a catwalk, or onto a teeter-totter. He'd just go the first time. Then he'd hit a certain point where he'd get a look that said, “What am I doing?!” and that would just be the end of it. I'd take him back and try to get him to go on again, and he'd look at me like, “Ha, you're not tricking me with that again.” The best was the A-frame. He eagerly went to the top at my urging, then had no idea what to do once he got there. He sure as hell wasn't going down the other side ... but he didn't really want to back down the side he'd just come up either. Silly, silly dog. For going through and giving my email, we get a free class with this training group, so I'll try to take advantage of it (location could be an issue). I think it would be a great confidence builder for Kaline.

Toward the end we met up with new and old friends: a brand-new SDIT handler and her beautiful Doberman, Bruce, along with her wee pittie puppy, Ember, both wearing gorgeous Paco collars that had me drooling; and our friends Amie and Matt from Growing Up Guide Pup, with Eli, Ricki, and Ozzy. I was all over Ricki because I am her fangirl, basically; lucky for me, she loves everyone and I am included in that! Kaline and Ozzy hit it off great—Ozzy doesn't even mind being smacked in the face by enormous Doberman feet! I let Kaline be off duty to hang out with our buddies, and then we all just went home and crashed.

We had an uneventful Sunday of PA work today, phew. I also got a nice return email this week from Penzey's corporate, saying that their policy is indeed in line with federal law and does not allow for employees inspecting SDs for acceptable identification. Education will happen. That's a win in my book!

After our errands, Juno, Kaline, and I did a bunch of Rally and crate practice (whoever wasn't practicing Rally got to work on quietly chilling in our pop-up crate). Kaline did nicely on learning his left about turns (also known as the Schutzhund turn) and with Juno I practiced things like the moving stand and down, pivots, and finding front. They both did a lot of work with pivots and finding heel, as well as doing finishes in both directions. I used Kaline's newly learned finish right for our trick of the week—I joined a Facebook group where the challenge is to teach your dog a new behavior every week. I will probably end up doing some known behaviors, just cause I'm not sure if I can think of 52 new things to teach Kaline, much less Juno, but it'll be fun regardless. Keep us sharp and all.

Last week's “trick” was retrieving keys, which has been a seemingly unattainable goal for Kaline for a while, until Sonja's magic. Here are videos for the first two weeks.

New Year's Resolutions (or Goals)

One of my resolutions for the new year is to blog at least once a week, hopefully more. I slacked off, obviously, but hopefully I will start writing again with new dedication in 2014. Here are all my dog-related goals for 2014.

1. Be a more patient and methodical trainer. Sometimes I get frustrated too easily, and that does not help my dogs learn. I also sometimes do things haphazardly, and though they can generally figure it out anyway, I'd like to be more “scientific” about it. Think up my various criteria beforehand and stick to them, that kind of thing.

2. Graduate Kaline at the end of June/early July. He will be 24 months old at the end of April, at which time I plan to have an orthopedist evaluate his elbows and hips for mobility work. Assuming (fingers crossed!) that he is cleared, that gives us about two months to train and polish his bracing and counterbalance. Obviously, this is not a hard and fast deadline. If he needs more time for me to be comfortable calling him a full-fledged service dog, then he shall have it.

3. Earn Juno's Rally Excellent title, get more than one leg toward her RAE title. She is only one leg away from RE, so that's doable. For RAE, she has to qualify in both Excellent and Advanced in the same trial to get a leg. Not sure how many trials we'll be able to afford this year, hence the vague number of RAE legs.

4. Earn Kaline's Rally Novice title, start on Rally Advanced.

The first trial for the three of us is in a few weeks, the Mission Bell Cluster trial. Three trials in two days. It could be a little bit exhausting. I'm hoping against hope for eight qualifying runs (pause for guffaws) ... But what I really need is Juno to get her RE in the first trial. Cause we entered Advanced and Excellent for the second and third. Eek.

So, things that have been happening. Juno is no longer doing any mobility work, because it makes her too sore. Kaline just started working in the BLD harness and is doing pretty great in it. Today we worked a lot on going up stairs (he's pretty good except for swinging his head) and going down (where he tries to go way too fast). The movie theatre people seemed rather perplexed by us, but we went up and down the enormous set of stairs somewhere around five or six times. And he got way more careful and attentive about going down!

The biggest recent breakthrough came courtesy of Sonja. Kaline clearly understood the concept of retrieving, but generally was not excited to do it with any object that he wasn't already interested in. In fifteen minutes, Sonja had him gleefully retrieving practically everything. The key? A pink retrieving dummy filled with treats, and making the objects, all of them, super super fun. Kaline now retrieves almost anything I ask him to (we're still working on being comfortable with metal). I got a key fob from K9 Lifeline Designs, a fantastic SD gear company—it's made of paracord, so Kaline loves the feel of it in his mouth. I'm working on adding weight to it, and eventually I'll attach my keys to it so he can retrieve them using his fob. 

Michigan Trip, bonus entry: Juno's Spa Week with Sonja

Juno spent the time we were in Michigan with Sonja and her pack: Chief, Josephine, and Jolanda. She basically didn't wear a leash the whole time and had a blast.

She accompanied the pack to get coffee and breakfast.

She went with them to the beach.

She ran around like a maniac at Stanford.

Sonja took an adorable photo of her at the beach with ... beach stuff ... in the shape of a heart!

The beach happened a LOT.

There were many yummy treats to be had ...

And a lot of comfy napping to do as well. She had a wonderful time.

 

All photos by Sonja!

Michigan Trip, Day 6

19 August 2013

Our last Michigan day was another long one. Mom and I got up early to walk Kaline and do some errands. I ran him behind the hotel to take the edge off a bit. We walked from South U. across the Diag again in beautiful weather to State St. On the way back to the car we stopped at Ray's Red Hots, formerly Red Hot Lovers (a much better name in my opinion), so I could get a delicious red hot and waffle fries. Delicious. Kay again did great momentum pull.

Morning walk, stopping at my favorite restaurant, Charley's.

We got a courtesy driver to the airport (yay Hertz!) so we didn't have to do luggage unloading twice. There was really no line at security. Kaline got my hoodie off, refused the first shoe retrieve, then did the second one. Progress. He was the best yet at his pat-down, holding his stand very nicely. We really lucked out getting all dog-lovers on the pat-downs.

We went to Max and Erma's for a bite and Kay settled perfectly. When we boarded the plane he was fine, but he started to tremble when I sent him into our row. He stopped, then started again during takeoff. He sat up and all three of us were stroking him and making soothing sounds. As soon as we started cruising, he relaxed and went to sleep for most of the flight. Huge improvement! This one flight attendant kept coming by to just check on how Kaline was doing, how sweet. He did fine on the landing and did mostly nice, sometimes too hard, pulling through the airport. Super antsy on the car ride home, but I couldn't blame him. He went from being cooped up five hours in a plane to being really cooped up in the car.

Kay on the plane home.

When we got home, I was the first one to go in. Hendrik had dropped Juno off earlier, and her welcome home greetings are the best! She jumped, she wagged, she kissed, she leaned, she even whimpered in glee. I kissed and hugged and rubbed and made squeaky sounds. Brilliant. When I released her to go outside, she raced to Dad and “attacked”; then she realized Mom was in the back seat of my car and jumped into the cargo area, trying to vault into the back seat. She was not terribly thrilled to find Kaline in the back seat. “I thought you got rid of him!”

To wrap up, Kaline exceeded my expectations for this trip. I asked a lot of him, and he was fantastic. I am super proud of him, and especially glad that both my parents noticed and acknowledged how well he did. And to put the cherry on top: I finally wore Mom down, and Juno will be coming with me to Michigan in October! I cannot wait.

The Ear Saga of Woe

The Ear of Woe. Spot the injury—if you can!

Holy crap. Most exhausting, stressful week in quite some time.

After Kaline got the sutures in his ear, he had to be in a bandage, snood, and cone for three days. On day two, I noticed the snood's mesh starting to cut into the exposed underside of his ear, so back we went to have that off. The bandage and cone remained. Kaline, on sedatives, stayed mostly quiet and actually had a fairly good appetite. We got the poor little invalid some baby food to tempt his palate. Mom has been especially solicitous, even to the point of telling off her “girlfriend” Juno for barking at Kaline!

Sunday was day three, and we took Kaline back to the e-vet to have the bandage completely off. He was in the back an interminably long time. I heard the ominous sound of him being allowed to do a whole body shake. A long while after that, a vet (not the last one we had) came out to talk to us.

He had, indeed, busted his ear yet again. They'd glued it and were bandaging him again. I was extremely frustrated that they had allowed him to shake off as hard as he wanted right after the bandage came off. I was frustrated that they only wanted to leave the bandage on three days. (The reasoning for that—limiting the risk of other problems arising due to moisture in the ear—was explained to me by one of the excellent techs.) The vet just said we needed to be patient. Which was also frustrating, because I for one would've been happy to leave the bandage on for a week! (Before learning that that would be bad.)

Then came the kicker. The vet goes: “Well, he is a Doberman. You could always crop his ears.” Were I a cartoon character at that moment, my face would've turned bright red, smoke would've come out my ears, and my eyes would have zoomed about a foot out from my face. Kaline's cut is measured in millimeters. And somehow a solution to that would be cutting off most of his ears? Also, HELLO, you don't crop the ears of a fifteen-month-old dog. Twelve weeks old is considered late to do it. I was just furious and way overwhelmed with anxiety and worry. And I'd been stupid and left Juno home with Mom.

When Kaline finally came out, with a bandage that looked like a diaper on his head in addition to his cone, I immediately went to hug him because I was just so relieved to see him. Despite being sedated and probably in some pain or at least discomfort, Kaline immediately started deep pressure into my chest. I almost started sobbing right there. I couldn't believe he was trying to take care of me when he was the one all the bad things were happening to.

Diaper bandage and cone.

Everything just looked disastrous—we might have to cut off a piece of his ear (again, explained by the tech as to why that could be helpful/necessary—the techs are unfailingly excellent over there), the entire trip to Michigan could be off, Kaline was back in the cone and clearly not a happy camper.

Three more days of tense waiting commenced. The appetite stayed fairly good, amazingly, and somehow my family were all able to work our schedules so Kaline was almost never by himself. The sedatives were a really big help, because it stopped him wanting to shake so often and also meant that the 20-30 minutes of exercise he was allowed per day were enough. I shudder to think of an un-sedated Kaline forced to endure days with that little exercise!

Poor little invalid.

Yesterday, we headed to our regular vet to have the bandage off. I formulated a plan, we followed it exactly, and it worked!

When we went in, Noel carefully slid the cone off and cut the bandage off Kaline's head. He had a ring of adhesive residue around his neck and some irritation from the bandage on the front of his neck, but the ear looked pretty good. I kept a good hold on his collar, preventing him from shaking, and gently held his bad ear in a piece of gauze. Dr. Mihalek came in with the little plastic vials of glue and applied that while I held Kaline and his ear. Once it was dry, we let him go but I still didn't let him shake. Brilliant.

Yay, Real Kaline™ is back!

We got home, and I gathered my supplies bought earlier in the day: wound cream, wound powder to stop bleeding, and liquid bandaid. All we needed was liquid bandaid. I applied it liberally to his ear and since then, it has held up beautifully! I've been watching Kay carefully, and he's always either on leash or on an e-collar so we can nip any shake in the bud. Nonetheless he's managed about three full-body shakes (mostly in the car) since yesterday afternoon, and his ear is still intact! Liquid bandaid, you are my hero. The trip to Michigan is back on, and boy, is it ever wonderful to see my puppy's beautiful face framed by his marvelous, silky ears again. I feel like I worked really hard to get those ears! I don't want anything bad to happen to them. Kaline is clearly so much happier out of the cone (shocking, I'm sure). I'm still a little on edge and checking his ear obsessively anytime he gets a good shake in, but I feel loads better.

In case they're reading: Big, big thanks to all my friends who supported me through all the stress and offered excellent advice. Especially everyone who said, “Just GLUE IT already!” Should've listened to you much earlier. And extra super special gratitude to Maura, Kaline's breeder, leader of the Glue It Already group, who is always there with super helpful advice and encouragement. 

It's JUST a teeny cut on the ear!

Wednesday night, during one of Kaline's usual and numerous full-body shakes, I discovered (thanks to the blood spatter) that somehow, he had gotten a tiny cut in the tip of his right ear. We're talking maybe a centimeter. At most.

Well, that sucker bled like crazy. I put styptic powder on, then used some vet wrap to wrap his ear against his head. Which worked until the next full-body shake. Then I wrapped both ears, using more copious amounts of vet wrap. Which worked until the next full-body shake. After he'd popped the cut open about four times or so, we headed off to our friends at the emergency vet.

Unsuccessful.

There, a very talented tech fitted Kaline with what I can only describe as a mesh snood. Tape was strategically applied, Kaline's ear flattened against the top of his head. She cut a hole for his good ear to flap out. He was to wear this snood, and accompanying Cone of Shame™, for a day or so.

A happy kind of snood. Disclaimer: Not my photo, not my dog, not my snood.

Snood of Shame™

I cancelled my whole schedule on Thursday and stayed home with him, because he seemed determined to get off the cone and kill the snood. Not a happy little camper. So miserable he didn't want to eat, drink, pee, or poop. Attempting to sleep with him trying to find a comfortable position was an exercise in futility. Poor little guy. Toward the end of the day, the snood was sliding so we headed back to the vet.

My mizrubbel princess (50 Internet points for identifying the reference! Not an unintentional misspelling!)

The tech said since he'd had it on for 24 hours (or close enough) he could just have it off. We removed the cone, she cut off his snood, Kaline pranced about and was a very happy puppy. Then he jumped in the car to go home, did a full-body shake, and poof! Blood everywhere.

So I had to leave him there to get sutures. I was all nonchalant letting him go back with the tech but then outside, I lost it and held onto Juno for dear life. I felt terrible for little Kay.

When I picked him up a few hours later, I found out that all the handling I've done with him since babyhood really paid off. They didn't have to do any anaesthetic gas on him, because he was so calm and accommodating when they were messing with his ear. They just gave him the local painkiller and he was fine while they put in two sutures. Then he got a sedative, to keep him from messing with his new, sturdier snood, and the Cone of Shame™. He was out, all through the night.

He didn't want to eat or drink in the morning, though he did pee. Gave him another sedative pill (we get to do this for three days at least), and he conked out through all our morning walks. Juno and I came back to check on him after each of our three walks. Usually he hadn't even changed position.

In the afternoon, Juno came with me on a lunch date, and then to Safeway a couple times and to grab takeout dinner. We got cussed out by a random homeless guy in Safeway because I told him not to touch Juno. It was actually kind of amusing; he was just ranting. He was incensed that I was not blind and had the temerity to say Juno was working, and then tell him that my disability was none of his business. Then he told me I was under arrest for lying about needing a service dog and that he knew people with the CIA. What fun.

Mom worked her magic with Kaline in the evening. For her, he peed like a wee racehorse. For her, he gobbled up baby food, slurped water, then chowed down on dry kibble. I swear, she has special powers or something. Or maybe it was the baby food. It smelled like delicious pumpkin or something.

Obviously, Kaline is not going to be working for a while (probably a week). I'm glad I got in some harness training on Wednesday afternoon before all the drama. He did great except in that parking lot. And our new pull strap for the harness-vest came—it's in Tigers colors, so Kaline will look super snazzy when we go to the game in Detroit. Thank goodness he's got a solid two weeks for this ear to solidify to diamond hardness.

Juno models our awesome new pull strap from Action Leashes!

Going to the fair, plus harness training

Lately we have been going to fairs and doing harness training with Kaline (what it says on the tin). Two weekends ago was the street fair in Menlo Park, where we live, and then last weekend was the street fair in Redwood City. Vendors at both were pretty disappointing, but it was definitely good for the pups.

I have discovered that while Kaline has no problem doing walks, or even trotting briskly, in shoes, he does not believe he should be asked to do what I think of as fine positioning work while wearing them. We're talking swinging into a block position or coming back to heel. He kinda freezes up and then you have to ... unfreeze him. Other than that, he was fantastic. We did a lot of going through crowds, and Kaline's sniffing was exceedingly minimal. Most of the time he didn't even turn his head at all. He mostly ignored the various other dogs around too. I won't get into a rant on those but let's just say a lot of people brought dogs who were not prepared to be in that situation, either in a physical or a mental sense.

Kaline at the street fair in Menlo Park.

People lost their marbles over Kaline and Juno's shoes. I enjoyed spreading the Gospel of Shoes to anyone who asked where they could get such awesome protection for their dogs' feet, but the pointing and squealing got tiresome very quickly. I told several adults curtly, “It's rude to point.” We met another Doberman, Duke, a month older than Kaline and significantly larger and goofier! So adorable. Kaline also worked on ignoring people petting him (I want to do a practice Public Access Test with him soon, just for shits and giggles).

The Redwood City fair had even worse vendors, was much smaller, and had great blues acts and freaking delicious barbecue. It wasn't that hot, but Kaline started doing the dance on the pavement so on went the shoes. We met up with Sonja, Chief, Hendrik, and their two friends from Germany, which was delightful. Later we all went to Crissy Field to let the dogs run about.

Kaline and Chief at the blues concert.

Kaline and Chief ignoring the delicious barbecue.

On to harness training. Kaline is going on the Michigan trip, due to the fact that all the people I know who normally would be able to take him cannot—and neither can a shit ton of people I don't know. Juno is going to have a delightful spa week with Sonja, Chief, and the “old ladies.” She's obviously much lower-maintenance than Kay and more importantly, can be trusted to be around Chief without a human hanging onto her front paws.

Obviously, going on the trip means Kaline's duties are going to expand, at least temporarily. He's not old enough to do counterbalance or brace work, but thankfully he is old enough to do what I need most in terms of mobility: momentum pull. Basically it's the same as when you see crazy dogs pulling like sled dogs in back-attaching harnesses, only Kaline will be paying attention, pulling at an appropriate level, and not going nuts. And instead of pulling on a leash he'll be pulling against a handle. Point is, doesn't hurt a young dog.

Our first session was really short and kind of feeling things out. I just took Kaline outside with the Petjoy harness on, and any time he made the floppy handle taut, I rewarded him. Then Juno decided to come participate, so I put her in a down stay by our house walkway and took Kaline away from her. Then I just let him walk back to her—he pulled beautifully and slowed to a stop right in front of her, so we started practicing a stop command too. Saying “easy” was not so good at first as a slow-down cue because that usually means he's about to be told to sit. We've worked on it since, and now he's just slowing down, and not turning to face me as much.

We did another session where I gave Kaline a target like I give Juno. BAD IDEA. Well, bad idea in the sense that I used Juno as the target. Kaline practically pulled my arm off in his frantic efforts to catch up to the Holy Grail of his big sister. He freaking hates it when he can see her pulling away from him and I make him keep heeling or whatever. Yeah, need to work on that. I took the harness off and just made him do very basic obedience with Juno far in front. Any time I asked him to sit, for like fifteen minutes, the word “sit” would elicit the most agonized shriek from my puppy. It was almost funny.

Our latest session went really nicely. I had gotten a lot of great suggestions on harness training from others with mobility SDs, and one of them was to take Kaline on a routine walk (i.e. he knows the exact path already) with the harness. So we did that, and mostly it went really well. Without the target, he did not pull nearly so hard. We worked on our various harness commands: forward, easy, stop, left, and right. For left and right, I'm making these huge ridiculous hand signals right now, exaggerations of the ones I do when we're heeling. Kaline got a break in the middle of the session to pee and sniff and all that; I had to hype him up about pulling afterward. Like Juno, he seems to like having a sidewalk to follow, and we were in a parking lot. So, I made a fool of myself, got Kaline all bouncy again, and off we went home. I was really pleased with his progress!

Juno has been busy as well. She came to a play with me and my bestie, Rachel, in Aptos. We did a walk along the beach, where a little girl saw Juno and said, “That dog is alllllllll princess!” Most adorable thing ever. I was stiff and in a lot of pain after the play ... something about the seats. Juno supported me carefully and slowly down the stairs, and in the lobby afterward. She's just the best.

Juno at the beach.

Juno is my Rally champ

We just had an awesome weekend in Carmel at the Del Monte Kennel Club Dog Show! Dad and Kaline accompanied me and Juno, though they weren't allowed to be around while we were prepping and competing (Juno will book it out of the ring to go to my dad).

After walks on Friday, we loaded up the dogs and all our crap in the car and headed to Carmel. We stayed in this really adorable dog-friendly hotel, which kindly didn't charge us pet fees for even one dog (which they totally could have, since only Kaline was working this weekend). It was Kaline's first time since babyhood sleeping out of the crate at night, and it was wonderful snuggling with him. If only I had a queen bed he'd sleep on in my room at home! Juno slept with Dad, although during the rest of the weekend it became clear she wasn't above sleeping on the same bed as Kaline, as long as he behaved himself. Much snuggly cuteness.

We got up ridiculously early Saturday to get to Carmel Middle School by 7:30 (Excellent check-in was at 8:00; I like to watch them). It was crazy cold and foggy, and the Rally ring, regular OB rings, and the Rottweiler ring were all on the grass within the school track. Literally everyone not only had a crate for their dog(s), but also these huge shade tents (i.e. not the kind of tent you camp in) to put them under. And big plastic tarps to protect everything from the damp grass. And here came Juno and I, with our one folding chair and roll-up mat.

The cold was actually good, because Juno is peppier in the cold. A nice lady set up a high jump and broad jump and said anyone could practice on them, so thank goodness, we were able to warm up jumping before going in the ring. Cause, yeah, we don't actually have a jump at home to practice on.

Right before we were set to do our Advanced B run, the sun came out and all of a sudden it was hot. Juno started panting, I was freaking out a little inside, etc. I tried to keep her shaded and did stationary practice to keep her amped in some kind of controlled way. The run went pretty well, though at the jump, I was so focused on not leaving Juno room to go around it that I actually clanged into it myself. There was no figure eight or broad jump, so hurrah! We ended up getting a 96, and earned a fourth-place ribbon! Not to mention our third leg and thus our title! It was super exciting, because I never thought that competing in B-level anything I'd ever get a ribbon.

Fourth-place ribbon!

Once our Rally stuff was done, Juno and I trundled over to conformation with our rollie to find Dad and Kaline. I was on the phone with Dad, about to tell him that oh my goodness, there was another Doberman SD at the show, when I realized it was my Doberman. Heehee. We ran into our Dobie friends and got to chat with them a bit; I had missed the Dobie breed judging, but oh well. I managed to resist the vendors, just got some gelato. Kaline did fairly well; he still looks at other dogs for too long, but it's not terribly hard to get his focus back. No one gave us crap about his prong collar either.

After a cuddly nap, we took the dogs to a baseball field that wasn't in use. Kaline got to have a blowout run and work a bit on recalls, while Juno and I practiced exercises for Excellent. I pulled up the regs on my phone and had Dad call out all the different exercises to us. Except for the jump, we practiced all of them until I was satisfied Juno was solid on them. 

For dinner, that was the one time Juno went vested; I worked both dogs for the first time in ever. We met one of my mom's friends at a place called the Forge, which was so dog-friendly it had a dog menu.

I was really glad we were inside, because outside were show people with their dogs including a Rhodesian Ridgeback bitch who was in heat. Yeah, don't need my intact teenage male around bitches in heat! Plus, even inside, Kay was cold. He was snuggled up as tight as possible to Juno. He was a bit overly antsy, but when I felt how cold his mat was when I was rolling it up, I couldn't blame him.

Hardly slept Saturday night, due to Tim Lincecum pitching a no-hitter for the Giants, and when I did sleep, I had nightmares. I woke up from a really terrifying one with Kaline curled up into a tight ball, pressed into my stomach. I love my puppy so much, even though he's going through a lot of teenage brattiness right now.

Today, we had our first run in Excellent, and that's just what Juno was. Everything worked in our favor: we went in the first group, so it stayed cold; the course was full of things Juno is good at, and lacked pretty much all our major weak points; and Juno was just freaking on. The practice jumps were out again, and I think our little run-throughs really helped—we not only practiced jumping but also all the turns that preceded and followed the two course jumps. In the ring, I kept both my hands up like I was holding a treat, and just tried not to rush and to do things right instead of fast. Juno was staring up at me all the time, which she doesn't usually do. She was freaking awesome, I was so proud of her! And we got a 98—ended up being good enough for first! There was a nice photographer ringside, and hopefully I can get a print of this one photo he got, where Juno is flying over the jump with her eyes locked on my face. I am so proud of my wonderful girl!

Blue ribbon girl!

Kaline and Dad came over to meet us after awards, and we watched Kristin and Ben run (perfect 100 to earn their Advanced title!) and also got to see Sue Korp run her fantastic Dobe bitch with All The Titles in Utility. What an amazing working Doberman! She was just unbelievable. Kaline was a bit less focused today, probably tired from the day before. But no big issues; I think it's really good for him to have this exposure to tons of dogs. We saw another service dog team, a big gorgeous Leonberger, which was pretty cool. And I gave in and ordered myself a beautiful leash I don't need, as my reward for the first place.

Juno's reward for first place? A hamburger and gelato and later, some french fries! She liked that a lot better than she would've liked a leash, haha.

We went to lunch at a burger place and had both dogs outside and off-duty. Juno flopped down in the shade, while Kaline switched back and forth between snuggling with his oddly permissive sister and coming next to me to be a solar panel. And then we drove home. We were very tired when we arrived, as you might imagine!

Which brings me to last weekend, which was also really fun. Dad and I took the pups to Crissy Field for a blowout run, intending to eat Let's Be Frank hot dogs there. No hot dogs, but the dogs had an absolute blast—even Juno ran around like a maniac!

We headed to Pier 39, with Juno on-duty because I needed the momentum pull pretty bad after Crissy Field.

We found a lovely Italian place, but they had just closed the outdoor seating. Nonetheless, the sweet hostess said that since Kay was a SDIT, it'd be fine to take both of them in. They were impeccably behaved (it helped that Kaline was exhausted) and we had a wonderful time. And then on Sunday Kaline did really good work in his morning PA, and then we met up with Marissa and Macro for a run at the grove, and a little PA at Stanford. I was really proud of my wee man, he was such a pro, for the day.

Lest this sound overly gleeful, let it be known that Kaline has definitely hit his Doberteens. Sometimes it's like his brain has fallen out. We're working through it, I'm not freaking out, but it does suck a little. I can't wait for his brain to come back, you know? Sometimes he will just look at me like, “Make me.” This too, however, shall pass. We're not having any huge behavior problems, just annoying stubbornness and hardheaded-ness. And of course my champ Juno provides a much-needed break from all that, whenever I need it. Grin.