San Jose with Sonja and Chief

Me and Kaline with Sonja and Chief.

Yesterday morning, Juno, Kaline and I were moseying along on our morning walk when I got a text from Sonja inviting us to San Jose. Sounded like a much more productive way to spend my Sunday than vegging out around the house! Sonja picked up me and Kaline and off we went!

We had such great fun and got to work Kaline and Chief on all kinds of different things. We parked down near where our friend Nicole used to live so we had a nice walk to the convention center. There was a craft fair going on there this weekend—not something either of us humans are real keen on, but an excellent outing opportunity for our boys. Plus there was Christmas in the Park, in a park right near the convention center.

At the craft fair, we met up with another SD team. Manuela was the handler, Sadie the dog. Sadie is a gorgeous border collie/Australian shepherd mix with amazing ice-blue eyes. We walked through all the aisles. Kaline actually did better than I expected with having to walk very slowly and stop frequently, due to crowds, and once I even caught him doing a block on his own! Chief was having a little bit of an off-day in there (when he was on the carpet, coming in and going out, he perked right up and did his delighted rubbing and rolling celebration) so Sonja carried him some of the time. If Kaline has an off-day, too bad, buddy, I'm not carrying you!

Chief, Sadie and Kaline at the convention center.

Little bit of grounding at the craft fair.

Once we'd gone through the fair, we set the boys up and worked on distractions. They held off leash down stays nicely, so then we asked Manuela to move around them with Sadie. We worked on removing each other's dogs, which sounds kinda scary (most people put badges on their dogs, or carry cards, which say DO NOT SEPARATE DOG FROM HANDLER) but it's a good thing for the pups to be accustomed to. In an emergency, emergency responders might have to take our SDs off to the side for safety. In turn, Sonja and I laid down on the floor with our dogs on our chests, and then the other person would come take the dog off to the side. Neither boy had a problem with it, which is very good.

Off leash down stays.

Then we did "bad dog" scenarios—basically, each of us mimicked things that assholes sometimes do when they see service dogs, or things that people who are not paying attention might do. Shaking fingers in their face, saying they're naughty or bad, grumping, "No dogs allowed!", nudging their bottoms, straddling them, stomping around, etc. Kaline had no problem with me straddling him and stomping, but he popped up when Sonja did it, so she worked with him a lot on that. Mostly he did quite well though, and Chief was a total star.

We went to lunch at Johnny Rockets, where Kaline refused to lie down because the floor was too cold (not to mention kind of grimy). I didn't have his mat with me, so I just let him sit there with his head in my lap. He didn't beg or anything, so it was actually really nice. Then we headed over to Christmas in the Park.

Kaline at Johnny Rockets.

Doing a brief down at Johnny Rockets. Sonja took this shot blind!!

There were all kinds of beautifully decorated Christmas trees and displays, plus a mascot roving around. We saw two kids riding razor scooters, so Sonja got them to come over and ride around me and Kaline in circles, doing little tricks. He did so much better than I expected! Normally he hears the noise of scooters or skateboards and gets a little nervous, won't look away from them. But he was really good, focused on me, even did a down stay with the scooters going around!

Me and the boys with the mascot at Christmas in the Park.

Across the street from the park, there was an ice skating rink. One of Sonja's older dogs, Josephine, used to get spooked by the noise of skates hitting the walls. So we took the boys over there and asked a group of girls to bang on the glass with their skates. Neither of them minded, really, though Kaline did some blocking after they did it. Cutie.

At the ice rink with Kaline (blocking) and Chief.

Standing with the boys in front of a kids' ride.

On the way back to the car, we let the dogs run around in an empty dog park. Kaline is getting a bit big for Chief to play with ... how sad. But before Chief ran out of gas, he led Kaline on a merry chase. Kaline can probably run faster than Chief, but Chief is far more agile and can make all kinds of tight turns and thwart Kaline. They both had a fabulous time.

Saturday Class No. 5 and Tour of Gymnastics Champions

Saturday class was back on yesterday, and Kaline did pretty well. There was a ton of heeling going on, and toward the end of class, Kaline even did some of it off-leash! I was really excited about that. He kept looking up to check in with me, as I've been rewarding him for on walks when he's on a "let's go," not a "heel," and that was awesome. We did regular heeling on the circle, except everyone was going different directions (on purpose). That made for some very useful chaos, as dogs were constantly having to speed up, slow down, and go past other dogs. Kaline has no trouble really ignoring dogs moving past in class ... just have to transfer that to the real world!

We also did figure eights, great for getting dogs to keep pace with you, and meet and greets. The figure eights went quite well, I thought, and the meet and greet was good too. Kaline is still sitting about one step behind where the heel position actually is, but after I move him up enough times, I know he'll get it!

Recalls went pretty well too. He even did one or two off-leash! Of course, I didn't go very far away from him, and as soon as his attention started to wander, I'd move in really close to get it back. I just have to remember to keep both hands down to guide him in. Both hands, and he comes in straight. One hand, regardless of which hand, and he will do a drive-by on my right.

There was also a really cool bit of class where we were only allowed to use hand signals and the verbal cue for "watch." Any command other than watch had to be nonverbal. It was so neat to watch everyone work with their dogs in silence, and Kaline did fairly well. It was toward the end of class, so all he really wanted to do was lie down. So, whenever I would raise my hand in the down/drop signal, he'd drop, but for sit, even though he knows the hand signal, he'd lie there and look at me like, "Are you sure I have to get up? Positive?" Not too worried about that, since longer focus will come with age. I keep having to remind myself that he is only about 4 ½ months old, and I need to keep expectations reasonable. Sounds like a broken record, but it's so important, and I am so terrible sometimes.

Last we did long sits and downs; predictably, Kaline had issues with the long sit because he was tired. Also, Juno kept lying down for Dad, because when he'd signal her to stay, he'd move his hand in such a way that it looked way too similar to the hand signal for down. And Juno is very accommodating, haha.

She also was one of the dogs who took off on a joyride during the off-leash portion (since she qualifies as an "advanced" dog—Kaline was the only one at class not ready for an entire off-leash section). Our class Whippet took off, and even after everyone got reminded to pay attention to their own dog, the Lab was next to go, and then I guess Dad was asleep at the wheel cause Juno bolted after them. Everyone was gotten back safely, the children's soccer game nearby wasn't harmed, and everyone got a good lesson on focusing in the right spot! Also Juno looked pretty gorgeous stretched out running as fast as she could. Whippets, shockingly, are super fast.

After class we went to see the Prius V and give it a test drive. To my dismay, it is pretty much out of the running. The setup inside is a bit weird; the surface in the cargo area is not completely flat like in the CRV and Rav4; the one with leather seats is the second-most expensive option, and with dogs you pretty much have to have the leather seats for clean-up-ability; and the kicker is I barely could close the hatch in the back. Just getting it down the one time hurt, and there is no way I could close it multiple times per day. Ah well. A used 2011 CRV in glacier blue has turned up, so we are going to check it out Wednesday and see if it might be a winner. Faithful Little Tygs On Top is already starting to make weird noises again. Sigh.

Last night, Kaline stayed home while Juno, the 'rents and I joined two friends for the Tour of Gymnastics Champions in San Jose. One of the friends was Amie, with wonderful Pilaf! We had a great time taking the dogs together—it's definitely a plus when you aren't the only one in the group who has to think about feedings, potty breaks and the like. We with dogs ended up in one of the cement boxes, but we could see fine and the dogs had a ton of room to stretch out; the other three were in the row below us.

Juno in the box.

Juno was a champ, and so was Pilaf. Juno has never had an issue with Caltrain, just went right to sleep on my feet on the way there. She did awesome momentum pulling basically the entire night. Once she knows a route, her pulling improves tremendously (a sign we should probably work more on directionals at some point). I was really glad I didn't bring Kaline cause this was definitely a show to pay attention to!

The Shark Tank before the show.

It was loud, with crazy lights, and a good dose of screaming (especially when Aly Raisman's distinctive floor music began to play and a spotlight suddenly picked her out on a corner of the floor). That bothered Pilaf at the beginning, but that was pretty much the only time she got unsettled. She was super. Juno is an old hand at the screaming (she only can't stand it if it comes from rollercoasters, as I discovered on a trip to Great America). She slept most of the time and I got to concentrate on the show. Sam Mikulak, Michigan Man, was not there, I assume because he has to be in school. (Jake Dalton is a junior too, though, and he was in it. Hmm.) Danell Leyva also was MIA. Figures, he does not seem to be much of a team player at all. All the Olympic girls were there, plus Jon Horton, John Orozco and Jake Dalton from the guys' team. Other National Team guys were some of my faves, like Chris Brooks, Steve Legendre and Josh Dixon (Stanford!). We tried to go down and say hi after, but no luck.

On the way home, the girls tucked themselves (or got tucked, as the case may be!) under the seats and Amie and I got to talk service dogs the whole way. It was quite nice, though we were very tired. Poor Amie had no sleep to look forward to either—she had to go to work for ten hours, then a meeting! Yikes.

Juno and Pilaf on the ride home.

I came home to a zoomie baby Doberman, so we played fetch a bit before we had to head back to bed. I was very proud of him that he hadn't made any mess or destroyed anything in his crate, because he was in there for a long time. I tired him out beforehand and made sure he was empty, but still!

Today we did downtown Menlo Park and hit all our favorite handicap buttons. Juno reminds me of Hermione when we're doing buttons. She watches Kaline flub around with this look of mounting frustration on her face, then finally shoulders him out of the way and smacks the button right on with her paw. She knows the answer, dammit! He's getting better at the buttons though, probably because he's getting taller every day. Maybe a little more coordinated too ... I hope!

We also had our usual Borrone's walk/outing with Dad, and today we met Freddie there to talk about dogs as a business. I always end up really discouraged after such conversations, even if they're not meant to be discouraging. I always feel so limited in what I can do, because of my limitations from fibro. The fatigue is a huge problem, almost as big as the problems with my hands. So now I'm wondering if I can ever make it work ... and by the same token, I wonder how I could ever get a "normal" 9-5 job when I probably could not actually work such a schedule long term, spoons-wise.

But anyway, the dogs were good; Juno even let Kaline cuddle with her a bit under the table. We're having a quiet afternoon and I'm just trying to stave off the latest edition of the funk. Another hell week begins tomorrow, and maybe after that things will be a little better.

Dogs cuddling.

Juno goes to the Olympic Trials!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Juno at the Shark Tank!

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

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

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

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

Outing to the San Jose Giants with GDB pups!

Yesterday Juno and I went to see the San Jose Giants (Single-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants) with my dad and my friend Julie, and her guide dog Honda. It was so much fun, not just because of the baseball, but because we got to tag along with the Mid-Peninsula Puppy Raiser Group for Guide Dogs for the Blind!

It's kind of a funny story, actually. I've been a huge fan of the YouTube show Growing Up Guide Pup, for a while. Then when I was out walking dogs several months ago, I ran into a guy walking three or four dogs of his own. And two of them looked so familiar ... Suddenly I realized that two of the dogs were Ricki and Eli from the show, and the guy walking them was Matt Chapman, one of the show's creators! It was so cool! I of course was all full of hero worship and probably couldn't really talk coherently, but Matt seemed quite pleased that I was such a big fan.

From that, and through Facebook, we were able to set up a fun dinner meetup with Amie and Matt (and of course their new puppy, Pilaf!). Juno was in her temporary retirement at the time, so we went to a restaurant with dog-friendly outdoor seating. It was great fun getting to talk to them, and especially get puppy-raising tips for Kaline.

We kept in touch on Facebook and they knew I definitely wanted to do more meetups, especially since Juno got her sight back. When I picked up a Brian Wilson gnome at the Giants game with Danny, it was a great excuse to get together—Matt really wanted one, and I find gnomes creepy, so I was glad to get it off my hands! And the baby Giants game was a perfect time to do the handoff. Not to mention a great opportunity to do an outing with Julie and Honda.

The group had reserved rows right at the top of the little stadium, one of which was in the shade. The majority of the puppies were up there, out of the heat. We went to the barbecue (one of the best barbecues you will ever taste, I highly recommend it!) so we ended up in one of the sunny rows. Luckily, Julie and I had brought a towel and mat respectively for our dogs to lie on, and kept them well cooled with water and ice cubes. And when we were able, we moved up to the shady row.

The puppies were absolutely amazing. They ranged in age from pretty little (I think the lone black Lab, Adidas, was about five months old) to about a year old, I think. Everyone but Adidas was a yellow Lab, my favorite! Pilaf was there, naturally, so we got to schmooze with Matt and Amie, who were very gleeful to meet Julie and Honda. The other puppies were Andretti, Skittle, Felicia, Mecca and Blake. They were so cute, and they all just chilled out under their raisers legs, some of them working on Nylabones, some just lying there. Gigante, the mascot, came by, and rather than being afraid, little Felicia enthusiastically licked his hands.

I hope my little guy can behave as well as these puppies when he's five months old! Bravo to all puppy raisers—they are fabulous, amazing people who provide a tremendous service. They put so much love and effort into these puppies, knowing that if all goes as planned, they'll have to give them up. I really hope I get to do more things with this group—they're such fun! Wish I had pictures, but with all the dogs staying in the shade behind legs, it wasn't exactly the best photo op. Oh well!