Last night, Juno and I went with Sonja, Chief & Co. to the Giants game! It was a night game, plus ballgames require very long down-stays, so I figured it would not go well to have Kaline. Well, the temperature at least would've agreed with him. It was absolutely lovely out at the park. Juno was incredible as well—I was so glad to be with her.
During the game, Juno curled up so tiny and silent behind my legs and under the seat that no one in our section except for the fan right next to me knew she was there—until I got her up during the seventh inning stretch and told her to “shake off.” Chief charmed everyone, because he is so freaking adorable! He was an extremely good boy.
Something about being with Sonja gets Juno to do her best with momentum pulling. She doesn't even require a target (which she does if we're with family), just Sonja's presence. It's bizarre but I'm not gonna complain. After the game, when I really needed the pulling cause I was stiff and sore from sitting, Juno pulled magnificently! I was so thrilled! It makes me super excited for our BLD, since maybe because it's so comfortable, she'll want to pull more.
Juno was great in the crowds, as always, great with her blocking on the elevator (which is so much fun, because usually I end up with the singing elevator operator). She is such a wonderful girl, a perfect baseball buddy.
Kaline has been doing well also. He came to a lunch with some family friends, who pretty much never see me working him—I always take Juno to their house. He was perfect. It was funny: the under-table space looked very uncomfortable, so I set him up next to the table instead; but he would not settle until I put his mat behind my legs and told him “under.” Once he was in Proper Service Dog Position he immediately settled and didn't move until it was time to go. Attaboy.
He also had his best movie-settle ever. Friday we did the last Hitchcock double feature and during the first film, Psycho, he had one tiny pop-up. Just one! I was beyond thrilled. He was more fidgety during The Birds, but you gotta have reasonable expectations for an energetic adolescent. His blocking in the crowded lobby was excellent. He stood in front of me and just kept watch, not sniffing people or trying to stare at them and solicit attention. Though we do still have a lot of work to do with The Stare. He stares at dogs because he's interested, but it's rude and some dogs can see that as a challenge—that's problem one. Usually taken care of with a leave it and if necessary a correction. Problem two is him staring at people, generally because he wants to keep watch, but humans interpret it as an invitation to pet or distract him in other ways. A bigger problem, because strange humans are nearly impossible to train!
We had a huge windstorm the other night and Kaline seemed to be completely unbothered by any of it. Another plus.
This coming weekend, the Tigers will be in town to play the A's. Juno is going to the night game, Kaline to the two day games. I am hoping against hope to somehow run into Al Kaline and get to introduce him to my little Kay. Either way, we will have a great time. I love taking Kaline to baseball events, because many fewer people give me blank stares when I tell them his name.
Showing posts with label Stanford Theatre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stanford Theatre. Show all posts
09 April 2013
02 April 2013
Hitchcock night at the Stannie, and pre-birthday
Last Friday, Kaline and I went to our second-to-last Hitchcock night at the Stanford Theatre. He got to burn off all his energy at the grove right before we headed to the theatre, and he had probably his best night ever, behavior-wise.
We met Sonja, Chief, and Hendrik there to see North by Northwest. We had pops, candy, and a big tub of popcorn. Kaline really wanted some popcorn but eventually listened to my leave it command. The people in front of me and Sonja were so taken by our awesome puppies. They were amazed at how mellow Kaline was acting (thank you, grove!). He only had two really legit pop-ups during the movie; the majority of the time, he was asleep between my feet. Sometimes he'd fidget and get up momentarily to switch positions, but Juno does that too so I didn't count that. I figure it only counts if I have to give him the cue back into the down.
Obedience class was off the next morning for Easter weekend, so everyone got to sleep in. Because Juno was coming to the movies and pre-birthday dinner, I got in a bunch of work with Kaline in the morning. We came along with Mom to Stanford Shopping Centre and did stuff in Nordstrom. We had lunch in the upstairs bistro, where we had the mini-access challenge a little while ago. No problem this time.
I initially set Kaline up next to the table, where they'd kindly taken a chair away. He was not settling though and kept rolling his hip so that half of his body was sticking out from under the table. So I moved his mat to just in front of my chair, so he would be lying behind my legs. Once I put him there, he hardly moved at all. Yay! I would be thrilled if that became his favorite settling spot. Then we're in physical contact and that always makes me warm and fuzzy.
After lunch, we let Kaline run in the grove, then came back to do Macy's and See's Candy. As we came into See's, one of the employees said something kind of loudly, trying to get the attention of another customer. My brain, however, interpreted the noise as MAJOR ACCESS CHALLENGE STARTING so I got this huge rush of anxiety and adrenaline even though nothing was actually happening. I went off to the side and got down toward Kaline's level, and being the wonderful boy he is, he put his head over my should and leaned into my chest. I never taught him that particular position, he just does it, like he's giving you a hug. Good little man.
Junebug came to see Admission with me, Mom, and a family friend. Our friend just loves Juno, so I don't quite know how to tell her not to try and get Juno to come over and say hi while she's working. Luckily, with Juno, I don't really need to—unless you're my dad, or former coworker Alex, you can do whatever enticing things you want and she'll just stand there and not look at you. Maybe you'll get a little tail wag if she knows you, but that's it. One of the many reasons I am totally crazy about my little Scoots.
For dinner, we went to this Italian place. I am not the biggest fan ever of their food—it's decent, nothing to write home about. But they have the most amazing olive oil for dipping the incredibly delicious bread in. The olive oil has all this garlic in the bottom of it ... it's heavenly. So, with Juno comfortably snuggled under the table, I basically had bread for dinner. And then ice cream. I always get peppermint at this ice cream place because then Juno can lick out the bowl in the car. Heehee.
We met Sonja, Chief, and Hendrik there to see North by Northwest. We had pops, candy, and a big tub of popcorn. Kaline really wanted some popcorn but eventually listened to my leave it command. The people in front of me and Sonja were so taken by our awesome puppies. They were amazed at how mellow Kaline was acting (thank you, grove!). He only had two really legit pop-ups during the movie; the majority of the time, he was asleep between my feet. Sometimes he'd fidget and get up momentarily to switch positions, but Juno does that too so I didn't count that. I figure it only counts if I have to give him the cue back into the down.
Obedience class was off the next morning for Easter weekend, so everyone got to sleep in. Because Juno was coming to the movies and pre-birthday dinner, I got in a bunch of work with Kaline in the morning. We came along with Mom to Stanford Shopping Centre and did stuff in Nordstrom. We had lunch in the upstairs bistro, where we had the mini-access challenge a little while ago. No problem this time.
I initially set Kaline up next to the table, where they'd kindly taken a chair away. He was not settling though and kept rolling his hip so that half of his body was sticking out from under the table. So I moved his mat to just in front of my chair, so he would be lying behind my legs. Once I put him there, he hardly moved at all. Yay! I would be thrilled if that became his favorite settling spot. Then we're in physical contact and that always makes me warm and fuzzy.
After lunch, we let Kaline run in the grove, then came back to do Macy's and See's Candy. As we came into See's, one of the employees said something kind of loudly, trying to get the attention of another customer. My brain, however, interpreted the noise as MAJOR ACCESS CHALLENGE STARTING so I got this huge rush of anxiety and adrenaline even though nothing was actually happening. I went off to the side and got down toward Kaline's level, and being the wonderful boy he is, he put his head over my should and leaned into my chest. I never taught him that particular position, he just does it, like he's giving you a hug. Good little man.
Junebug came to see Admission with me, Mom, and a family friend. Our friend just loves Juno, so I don't quite know how to tell her not to try and get Juno to come over and say hi while she's working. Luckily, with Juno, I don't really need to—unless you're my dad, or former coworker Alex, you can do whatever enticing things you want and she'll just stand there and not look at you. Maybe you'll get a little tail wag if she knows you, but that's it. One of the many reasons I am totally crazy about my little Scoots.
For dinner, we went to this Italian place. I am not the biggest fan ever of their food—it's decent, nothing to write home about. But they have the most amazing olive oil for dipping the incredibly delicious bread in. The olive oil has all this garlic in the bottom of it ... it's heavenly. So, with Juno comfortably snuggled under the table, I basically had bread for dinner. And then ice cream. I always get peppermint at this ice cream place because then Juno can lick out the bowl in the car. Heehee.
12 March 2013
Recap of last week
Pretty good week for us! Very busy on the weekend working my two dogs, while the rest of the time things mostly revolved around our multitudinous walks and recuperating from them.
Thanks to the e-collar, Kaline is now participating in off-leash long down-stays with the “big dogs” at training. Big dogs for now mostly consist of Rio, Peter the Poodle, Xena, Cooper, and sometimes Lucky the Golden. Thursday he was totally awesome. We used him as part of a weaving course and he was down out there for a couple hours. As a reward, at the end all the big dogs got to romp about off leash in the field. (Yes, we have special permission to have dogs off leash in the park, unlike the assholes. It's cause Freddie pays to be there and cause of the e-collars—our dogs will come back, unlike the randoms.) Kaline's recalls are getting so sharp and nice! His fronts in those situations are super sloppy, but man, you call him while he's playing and he turns on a dime and comes racing back. I hardly ever have to nick him.
The next day, Friday, we had three walks and then I planned to take Kaline to a double feature at the Stannie. Knowing that the walks would probably not be enough, before the movie I took him on a quick public access outing to Triple-A, then let him loose in Eleanor Pardee Park (wearing his e-collar) where he ran himself ragged playing with a little black poodle mix. It was awesome. And while he did pop up multiple times during the movies, he was a lot better than the last time. Yay tired puppy! Chief, Sonja and Hendrik joined us for the second movie, Rear Window. Kaline was super thrilled to see his best little buddy.
Saturday, Kaline and I met not only Sonja and Chief, but also the girls, Jolanda and Josephine, to walk around Stanford! It was very exciting to see the girls. They were totally perfect, ambling about off-leash among all the activity on the various athletic fields. Kaline was pulling and being a pain a lot, but a very cute pain. At the end, I let him run around with the girls with his leash dragging, and clearly our collar practice is working, because every time I called, he came (or left it, as the case may be), even though he wasn't actually wearing the collar. The girls were quick to correct him whenever he got out of line. I should've brought Juno but I didn't quite realize until I was in the car that we were doing a very off duty outing! We didn't take any pictures, how terrible of us.
Juno got to come along to dinner with my parents, aunt, and uncle. She was barely visible the way she curled up under our table. When I had to go to the bathroom, we had to wait in a very narrow hallway with waiters going back and forth with plates of food. Juno stoically just held her block in front of me, not even turning her head to acknowledge or sniff the waiters, and just as importantly, not shifting to get out of their way unless I told her to. Grin.
On the way back to the table, a random patron just reached out and started fondling Juno's face. I was tempted to reach out and do the same to him, and ask, “Do you like it when complete strangers mush your face/hair around?!” but his head looked greasy. So I just was indignant and talked to him like a badly behaved toddler. Hopefully he learned his lesson.
Sunday, Kaline did his usual public access in the morning. Our highlight was in the Farmer's Market. Kaline was behind me, blocking, when a tiny little boy barely taller than Kay himself, came up and began stroking Kaline's neck. I had no clue it was even happening until the dad gently pulled the kid away and explained why he couldn't pet Kaline. But I was super proud, cause my puppy who adores children had held his block and his focus through the entire thing! We also got to do some education with the Girl Scouts who were selling their delicious cookies.
Right when we got home from our outings, Sonja called to offer me an extra ticket to the symphony! How exciting! Symphony = big crowds and a huge need for a very quiet dog, thus Juno. So off we went.
We had such a good time. The people at the symphony were extremely friendly, though not terribly concerned with not invading personal space which got my anxiety up a lot. They were totally fascinated by wee Chief and Juno. Juno was totally nonplussed by the crowds and wouldn't respond to anyone's attempts to pet or love on her. I freaking love that about her. Some guy at one point reached for her and she turned her head away from him in an unmistakable we-are-NOT-buddies gesture. She also did lovely lap-ups for me when I needed major calming.
And of course, she was totally silent and never popped up during the amazing performance. The organist was Cameron Carpenter and I was floored by his talent. You have to be an athlete to play the organ! Each of his feet and each of his hands were doing totally different things, playing different parts of songs, and not only that but fiddling with innumerable buttons and knobs while still continuing to play the songs! It was totally insane. He wore fabulous sparkly pants and shoes so you could really see his legs gliding about on the foot keys. At one point he made the organ basically fart, and I was thinking, Man, Kaline probably would've barked at that noise! Whenever I take him to his first symphony, I will be a total wreck!
We went to the same Italian place we went to with Ashley and Rebekah, and there was drama that I missed (dammit!) while in the bathroom. Sonja told me about it after. This woman at a nearby table flipped out when she saw Chief, saying she had severe allergies and would get bronchitis. Obviously, both severe allergies and service dogs have to be accommodated, not one or the other.
Sonja suggested they get moved to another table, since there were only two in her party and five in ours. She said they were in the middle of dinner and couldn't possibly move. Well, then you just have to deal, don't you? Then her partner jumps in and says dogs can't be in restaurants. Idjit. Sonja of course replied that service dogs are allowed, and asked the waiter if they could be moved. The woman wouldn't move, so everyone just sat back down.
And wouldn't you know it, she lived through dinner!
We had a delicious time, and Juno was perfect. It's so much easier to concentrate on eating when I'm with Juno, heehee.
Thanks to the e-collar, Kaline is now participating in off-leash long down-stays with the “big dogs” at training. Big dogs for now mostly consist of Rio, Peter the Poodle, Xena, Cooper, and sometimes Lucky the Golden. Thursday he was totally awesome. We used him as part of a weaving course and he was down out there for a couple hours. As a reward, at the end all the big dogs got to romp about off leash in the field. (Yes, we have special permission to have dogs off leash in the park, unlike the assholes. It's cause Freddie pays to be there and cause of the e-collars—our dogs will come back, unlike the randoms.) Kaline's recalls are getting so sharp and nice! His fronts in those situations are super sloppy, but man, you call him while he's playing and he turns on a dime and comes racing back. I hardly ever have to nick him.
The next day, Friday, we had three walks and then I planned to take Kaline to a double feature at the Stannie. Knowing that the walks would probably not be enough, before the movie I took him on a quick public access outing to Triple-A, then let him loose in Eleanor Pardee Park (wearing his e-collar) where he ran himself ragged playing with a little black poodle mix. It was awesome. And while he did pop up multiple times during the movies, he was a lot better than the last time. Yay tired puppy! Chief, Sonja and Hendrik joined us for the second movie, Rear Window. Kaline was super thrilled to see his best little buddy.
Saturday, Kaline and I met not only Sonja and Chief, but also the girls, Jolanda and Josephine, to walk around Stanford! It was very exciting to see the girls. They were totally perfect, ambling about off-leash among all the activity on the various athletic fields. Kaline was pulling and being a pain a lot, but a very cute pain. At the end, I let him run around with the girls with his leash dragging, and clearly our collar practice is working, because every time I called, he came (or left it, as the case may be), even though he wasn't actually wearing the collar. The girls were quick to correct him whenever he got out of line. I should've brought Juno but I didn't quite realize until I was in the car that we were doing a very off duty outing! We didn't take any pictures, how terrible of us.
Juno got to come along to dinner with my parents, aunt, and uncle. She was barely visible the way she curled up under our table. When I had to go to the bathroom, we had to wait in a very narrow hallway with waiters going back and forth with plates of food. Juno stoically just held her block in front of me, not even turning her head to acknowledge or sniff the waiters, and just as importantly, not shifting to get out of their way unless I told her to. Grin.
On the way back to the table, a random patron just reached out and started fondling Juno's face. I was tempted to reach out and do the same to him, and ask, “Do you like it when complete strangers mush your face/hair around?!” but his head looked greasy. So I just was indignant and talked to him like a badly behaved toddler. Hopefully he learned his lesson.
Sunday, Kaline did his usual public access in the morning. Our highlight was in the Farmer's Market. Kaline was behind me, blocking, when a tiny little boy barely taller than Kay himself, came up and began stroking Kaline's neck. I had no clue it was even happening until the dad gently pulled the kid away and explained why he couldn't pet Kaline. But I was super proud, cause my puppy who adores children had held his block and his focus through the entire thing! We also got to do some education with the Girl Scouts who were selling their delicious cookies.
Right when we got home from our outings, Sonja called to offer me an extra ticket to the symphony! How exciting! Symphony = big crowds and a huge need for a very quiet dog, thus Juno. So off we went.
We had such a good time. The people at the symphony were extremely friendly, though not terribly concerned with not invading personal space which got my anxiety up a lot. They were totally fascinated by wee Chief and Juno. Juno was totally nonplussed by the crowds and wouldn't respond to anyone's attempts to pet or love on her. I freaking love that about her. Some guy at one point reached for her and she turned her head away from him in an unmistakable we-are-NOT-buddies gesture. She also did lovely lap-ups for me when I needed major calming.
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| Chief and Juno holding our tickets for their admiring public. |
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| Hold practice during intermission. Cutie pies!!! |
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| Juno doing a lap-up in the symphony hall. |
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| Look at this crazy instrument and bow to the awesomeness of Cameron Carpenter! |
We went to the same Italian place we went to with Ashley and Rebekah, and there was drama that I missed (dammit!) while in the bathroom. Sonja told me about it after. This woman at a nearby table flipped out when she saw Chief, saying she had severe allergies and would get bronchitis. Obviously, both severe allergies and service dogs have to be accommodated, not one or the other.
Sonja suggested they get moved to another table, since there were only two in her party and five in ours. She said they were in the middle of dinner and couldn't possibly move. Well, then you just have to deal, don't you? Then her partner jumps in and says dogs can't be in restaurants. Idjit. Sonja of course replied that service dogs are allowed, and asked the waiter if they could be moved. The woman wouldn't move, so everyone just sat back down.
And wouldn't you know it, she lived through dinner!
We had a delicious time, and Juno was perfect. It's so much easier to concentrate on eating when I'm with Juno, heehee.
24 February 2013
Kaline's ten months old!
Kaline turned 10 months old yesterday, and did great today in his usual round of Sunday morning public access. First was the Farmer's Market. Just as we were heading in, we saw a super adorable Large-Eared Black-and-White Dog tethered at the entrance: Max! I of course had to say hi to him and love him up, so Kaline got to practice a little self-control and try to hold a sit while I did so. He was great at heeling and blocking through the market and only did a little illicit sniffing.
We were in the part of downtown with several handicap buttons, so Kaline got to work on those, including the difficult one at Walgreen's which is mostly blocked by a trashcan. (He will usually hit the trashcan at least once before figuring out how to orient himself to aim at the button.) In there, Mom and I did things with the small rolling baskets to work on proofing. I had him do a block and then got Mom to gently nudge him from different angles with the little basket (came up to about his thigh). I also had fun flipping it around in front of him, sometimes clipping his toes gently. No problems.
In Village Stationers, we ended up having a big training opportunity. Kaline was lying at my feet while Mom talked to one of the cashiers when a lady with a Basset hound came in. Kaline had no clue the dog was even in the store until she started barking at him. At first he was startled and jumped up with a little growl. Then he was like, “Oooh, a dog! Playtime?” The Basset continued barking away (no, I have no idea why the owner didn't find a way to shut her up) so I decided to take advantage of it—I turned Kaline away, so he was facing me, and just had him do very basic commands that he knows well and likes, such as touch and the “up-down” game. Once he was mostly focused again, we headed out.
Trader Joe's was the best. As I've noted, Kaline is always really on in there. He was being really great and we were almost done. Mom sent us to the other side of the store, and for some reason my anxiety just started rising. Kaline stared up at me and then started nudging my leg (yay!!!), then my drooping sweatshirt pocket for more emphasis. Once I stopped he leaned into me with his whole body. I was so thrilled with him. And then soon after that, I started getting all foggy like I sometimes do, where it's like my brain is on a seven-second delay. We were standing in line and Kaline jumped up on me, trying to press into my chest. It wasn't like when he's being a goofball and leaping up at me; he came up pretty carefully, for him, and just tried to stay there. I acknowledged him, cause I definitely want him to be proactive, but then I got him down, had him do some leg nudges, and gave him treats. Excellent little boy!
In retrieving news, Kaline continues to steal shit all over the house and deliver it to me with great pride. On command, he is very glad to retrieve clothing, but not my sneakers. (Mom's nice shoes, or Dad's leather dress shoes, not a problem!) He will also gleefully retrieve things like plastic water bottles or vitamin bottles, which I find a little odd just because Juno didn't want to get stuff like that for the longest time. When I dropped my chapstick (capped, thankfully) in the kitchen, both dogs went to get it for me and Kaline was the one who came up with it.
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| Kay doing deep pressure and looking extremely cute while doing it. |
This weekend we also headed up to Berkeley to pick up Juno's beautiful new Paco collar. It's a black rainbow Glow and she looks fantastic in it. She posed for pictures while we were there, which hopefully will end up in the Paco Gallery (fingers crossed!). Kaline was uninterested but Juno did a paws up on the lowest shelf with collars and then when asked looked fetchingly over her shoulder to show off both the collar and her insanely cute face. She got to come along to Johnny Rockets later that night, teehee.
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| Hard at work in her new bling. |
Bizarrely, after the movie, when Ben and I headed to Pizza My Heart across the street, Kaline blocked fairly well (he wanted to sniff some people, and also to lie down sometimes), and then when we got to our table, he went under, curled up and didn't move till we were ready to go. Explain yourself, wee one! So he really ended the night on a good note.
14 August 2012
First solo outing
Tonight Kaline and I went on our first service dog outing sans Juno. I will admit it, it was weird. I think it was good for both me and Kaline, though, because I was able to focus completely on him.
I tried so hard to tire him out beforehand. We did a pack walk in the morning; I got to borrow Gracie for the afternoon, so he had a nice long wrestling session with her; and then we went to training in the park. He did so well. He did literally the best recalls he has ever done—came galloping in, lovely enthusiasm, and if he didn't sit straight, at least he didn't rock back and away from me at the end. He did good heeling and weaving through dogs too. At the end, he did an awesome down-stay, off leash, next to Juno while I gathered up the other dogs we had to drive home. I even ran him around in the sun trying to basically fry his little brain.
It all seemed to have worked when we arrived at the Stanford Theatre after dropping Juno off at home. Kaline was fantastic in line, standing next to me (not sitting, even though we've worked on auto-sits). He's not really capable of blocking, since he's still pretty small, but it was definitely great behavior to build on. He gave me really nice attention. When we waited on a bench for Sonja and Chief to arrive, Kaline did an automatic settle. He did really nice in the concessions line as well, standing again and watching the whole time. Didn't go for any popcorn or anything!
Then his buddy Chief arrived, and both the boys were like, "Wait, what? We can't have a play session?" Up in the theatre, they both took a while to settle down. We just had to laugh at them and their adorable puppy-ness. Chief was kinda crawling about on Sonja's lap, and Kaline kept trying to sneak over to Chief's mat. Once Kaline got half on my lap and gave Sonja a very presumptuous poke with his massively oversized paw. He was the first one to go to sleep, and then Chief conked out. I thought we were home free. And then they both woke up again.
Kaline, having done lap-ups at my request out in the lobby, just started doing them over and over once he woke up. Again with the muffled giggling. I cuddled him, and once he got off, put him back in his down on his mat. Over and over and over. Sonja joked that when we want to actually watch a movie, we should bring our girls. And then right as the movie finished up, both boys curled up on their mats and pretended to be model service puppies in training. Gotta love them!
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| Everyone loves the Stannie! |
It all seemed to have worked when we arrived at the Stanford Theatre after dropping Juno off at home. Kaline was fantastic in line, standing next to me (not sitting, even though we've worked on auto-sits). He's not really capable of blocking, since he's still pretty small, but it was definitely great behavior to build on. He gave me really nice attention. When we waited on a bench for Sonja and Chief to arrive, Kaline did an automatic settle. He did really nice in the concessions line as well, standing again and watching the whole time. Didn't go for any popcorn or anything!
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| Auto-settle in the lobby. |
Then his buddy Chief arrived, and both the boys were like, "Wait, what? We can't have a play session?" Up in the theatre, they both took a while to settle down. We just had to laugh at them and their adorable puppy-ness. Chief was kinda crawling about on Sonja's lap, and Kaline kept trying to sneak over to Chief's mat. Once Kaline got half on my lap and gave Sonja a very presumptuous poke with his massively oversized paw. He was the first one to go to sleep, and then Chief conked out. I thought we were home free. And then they both woke up again.
Kaline, having done lap-ups at my request out in the lobby, just started doing them over and over once he woke up. Again with the muffled giggling. I cuddled him, and once he got off, put him back in his down on his mat. Over and over and over. Sonja joked that when we want to actually watch a movie, we should bring our girls. And then right as the movie finished up, both boys curled up on their mats and pretended to be model service puppies in training. Gotta love them!
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