Awesome dogs

My future car's current license plate. WTF! It almost makes me want to keep those ... but I won't. TGSONTP is here to stay.

In dog terms, it has been an amazing day. I'm not even just talking about Juno and Kaline, I mean both my packs as well.

Didn't get a ton of sleep last night, because I kept waking up to check on Kaline and see if he was awake and in need of a potty break. Starting at 4:00 a.m., I was up every twenty minutes! Talk about a helicopter mother. Finally, at 7:00, I just woke up the bleary-eyed little pup and took him outside. Then I could finish up sleeping with confidence that his little bladder wouldn't be bursting in his crate.

Empty, Kaline snoozed away the morning placidly as I got ready for the walks and took care of some paperwork (including sending away for his CGC certificate). Our first pack was Ellis and Teddy, and we got to do the beautiful Oak Knoll walk. Hardly anyone pulled, we passed all kinds of semi-unruly pups without incident, and just in general had a lovely time. Then we took Jett and Max to downtown Palo Alto and everyone was brilliant.

Jett ceased (at least for today) his annoying habit of walking behind everyone else and walked with the pack. Everyone behaved wonderfully at the flower store, where they gave their favorite friend, Molly, some much-needed TLC. This being the release date for the iPhone 5, there was a huge crowd of people with no lives outside the Apple store. (I mean it—they started camping out two days ago, as if Apple will somehow run out of phones.) Training opportunity!

We waded into the crowd and, to my glee, no one sniffed anyone inappropriately, or failed to slow to a crawl, or anything remotely bad! Jett kind of wanted to sniff, but I had him on the inside so he got thwarted. On our second pass through the crowd, he was exemplary. Juno and Max did a great job parting the way for us, and Kaline, as he had all morning, did constant visual check-ins with me even though there were tons of interesting people to smell. And then on the next corner, two girls from Peet's Coffee offered me a shot-sized sample of their pumpkin freddo. Yes, please. I view pumpkin much like other people view chocolate: it makes nearly everything taste better! The dogs got tons of compliments and no groping. That's how I like it.

We came home briefly and Kaline got his antihistamines, which have totally knocked him out. We had to meet Mike the Car Guy at the gas station, where we were getting the Lexus checked out. Kaline and Juno snoozed in the car until we headed to Borrone's to wait for the car to be finished. At Borrone's, possibly because of the meds, but I'd like to think because he's learning things, Kaline settled under the table just as fast as Juno. He didn't move as people walked by and over him, although right at the end I think someone tripped over him and he got up real fast. He's fine though, don't worry. They both did great. I thought it was hilarious when an elderly retriever—a retriever!!—came up and gave Kaline a great big sniff in the face, and Kay just stayed there. Normally he'd be like, "Oh boy, oh boy, a retriever! I love you already! May I chew on your ears?!"

We came back to the gas station, got the report on the car, then came home for me to make a round of calls—my aunt, car insurance, credit union, etc. I found out that Farmers, our insurance, is indeed the one insurance company that is breed-blind when it comes to home insurance. They don't care what breed your dog is, only if it has a bite history. Judge the deed, not the breed, in action! I was super glad to hear that.

Normally Kaline will kind of take advantage of me being on the phone and start screwing around. Today, Juno curled up by my feet (wherever those happened to be—whenever I change location, she changes location, even if it's not that big a move), and Kaline contented himself with quietly chewing his pressed rawhide. Then he clambered up on the couch and fell asleep. He is so damn cute when he's being a good boy!

Of course the car drama continued in the afternoon, but mostly with little annoying things and not with big You Don't Exist problems. We'll get it figured out. Kaline slept on my chest and then curled up behind my computer chair while I tried to get my iPhone photos backed up. It's all Kaline's fault too, I never had your-phone-is-too-full problems before he came along! Heehee.

We had a beautiful walk in the Oak Knoll neighborhood with Dad, and now are contemplating what to do for dinner.

Oak Knoll sunset.

Oak Knoll sunset.

We are some tired puppies

I would've written yesterday, since it was a big day in the Life of Kaline: His very first day out with all the other dogs! But Dad, Juno and I ended up at the Giants game, which went extra innings ... so yeah, I needed sleep.

The first walk yesterday was with Teddy and Wilson, in Wilson's neighborhood. Poor Teddy had to be the buffer between the babies. Kaline is used to that walk, with multiple dogs, so that wasn't really much of a milestone. He was even kind of naughty. He and Wilson ratchet up each other's naughtiness. That's why I like Freddie's Saturday class as opposed to the usual puppy class (though, of course, if there was a Play & Learn happening now, we'd SO be there). Kaline isn't around a ton of other unruly puppies like himself, he's with a wide variety of dogs, most of whom are calm to one degree or another.

The second walk was the big deal—the five-pack going from The Willows neighborhood through downtown Palo Alto. Here, Kaline met Jett (Swissie), Max (McNab), and Xena (black Lab). I stuck the little man in the very middle of the pack. Juno and Max, my old hands, go on the outside, Xena and Jett on the inside.

Max fixed Kaline's backseat craziness in a quick second, by the way—this is why he's my No. 1 puppy wrangler. Kaline was romping about with Xena, which obviously is not very appropriate for the backseat of a car. I popped Max in there, he let out one or two really ugly sounding growls, and voila! Peace and quiet.

The walk went fairly well, for it being Kaline's first time. He had to be reminded about sitting when we stop (quite understandable), and forgot his manners a little at the flower shop, where all the dogs get treats (he jumped up to get the biscuit instead of staying in a sit). But he stayed in line with the other dogs, for the most part, and didn't lick Xena too excessively. Oh, who am I kidding, he was washing her ears every chance he got. She doesn't mind though, and well she shouldn't, considering she used to do it to everyone.

Juno did amazing at the Giants game. I almost made Dad leave early, and if you know us, you know that's freaking insane. We do not leave baseball games early, ever. But the game went so crazy long, and even though Juno wasn't really showing signs of her bladder exploding, I was worried about her because of her apparent early-onset incontinence. (The vet initially agreed it was a UTI, but then a culture showed no evidence of such, so the current conclusion is a bit of incontinence. Keeping a more rigid schedule of pee breaks seems to have this well in hand.)

However, being inside a ballpark with no in-out privileges kind of puts a crimp in the rigid schedule of pee breaks. It had been almost 7 hours since Juno's last chance to pee. And if Brandon Belt hadn't flied out to end the game when he did, we would have left before the end of the game. As soon as we got outside, we went to the handy gravel across the street and Juno immediately did No. 1 and No. 2. Good dog. 

Juno at the ballpark.

Her pulling on the harness was decent before the game (could've been better), but afterward was excellent. Fabulous even. I'm curious about why ... does she know that pre-game, basically we're practicing, and that post-game, I really need it? Or is she a doggie version of barn-sour, where she's just excited to go back to the car? The world may never know.

The barking when the dogs are together has gotten pretty ridiculous, so we've got a couple different things to try. First stage, removal of whichever dog instigates the barking (usually Juno). If that doesn't work, Binaka, sprayed in the mouth of the instigator. Last resort, e-collar for precisely timed corrections. So far this evening, Juno has been removed three times. It seems to be working, knock on wood.

Kaline and Juno went on a sort of training walk this morning to the park, which went okay. Juno did a lot better than her wee brother; he was just so distracted. We did a pack walk with Gracie, Baxter and Jett. (Just FYI, if Jett is on a walk, we go to downtown Palo Alto.) Kaline looked so cute between the two yellow Labs. For now at least, the very middle is a perfect spot for him.

Junebug did fabulous jumping today at training—three jumps all in a row, almost like flyball! Kaline obviously can't do that kind of thing. We did lots of handling with him, Kumbayayas, and worked on stand.

Kaline, Juno and Teddy during Kumbayayas.

Practical training and Kaline's first mini-pack walk

Sunday was our last day "off," and today I went back to work. Which just means being around a lot more dogs than my two, so it's fun. All of a sudden, Kaline is way more interested in his puppy kibble (which I switched him back to, at the vet's suggestion), so I used a ton of it yesterday for training. We worked on two things which should serve him well In Real Life™: settling and not crossing the threshold at the front door.

Kaline got settle so fast and was even doing it throughout the night when he wanted some attention. A much nicer attention-getting behavior than pawing, or barking, or tearing up inappropriate objects, don't you think? What I wanted from him was a relaxed down—one hip rolled—and head on the floor. At first I was clicking as soon as his head touched the floor, but then I made him wait longer and longer. I moved to different places and just waited for the behavior; he kept offering it, quicker and quicker! Whee.

Working on the front door was a ton of fun. First I just kept leading him up to the door, clicking and treating as we reached the threshold. Then I'd c/t while I walked out and he stayed. He was really getting it, so I did silly things outside the door, like dancing terribly around, or baby talking at him, gently patting my legs, and c/t-ing when he didn't move. Then I started leading him back, and then jogging (then running) at the door. He'd stop at the threshold and I'd keep going. Eventually he just downed there. I ran past him, bounced past him, did recalls with Juno past him. He broke maybe twice. Good boy!

He slept through the night (well, we did have to get up at 7:30). Juno, Kaline and I went out for an hour, and then it was time to go to work. We did two pack walks sans Kaline (he was in his crate, but Mom was home with him to get him out for a potty break), then came home with Teddy, whose schedule had gotten a little messed up.

Kaline, Teddy and Juno waiting nicely to come inside.

When I came in, Kaline gave my jeans such a thorough sniffing. Who have you been hanging out with? Wow, they smell so interesting! He was super gleeful to see Teddy—I had to calm him down before we could really go. Eventually, he'll learn to walk with four other dogs, but a pack of three is a good place to start. Teddy's kind of an old hand, as well. Not as experienced as Max, my No. 1 puppy wrangler, but still quite good at ignoring any distracting puppy antics. Kaline did pretty well as the inside man in the pack of three (good rule of thumb is to keep the least-trained dogs on the inside, best-trained on the outside).

I tried to give him a potty break in the middle of the walk, but he wasn't interested; thus, he continued his habit of stopping dead in his tracks to pee about two blocks from home. I need to nip this habit in the bud. It's important for Kaline to learn that he only eliminates on command (and when off-duty ... not that he has an "on-duty" yet).

After all our dogs were walked, my dogs and I went on a drive to BK and back. I had Kaline's lunch with me, so I treated him whenever he was being cool and calm, lying down in the front seat foot space. Which was a lot (yay!) so he ate about a quarter of his lunch. Hardly any whining today.

Once we got back it kinda all caught up to us. Juno and I had been on four hour-long walks, Kaline on two. So we crashed.