Educating the public about service dogs can be one of the most trying parts of being a service dog handler. Sometimes it's fun, when you meet someone nice who is interested in your dog's job. But with gatekeepers—people who can try to deny you access with your SD to a store or other public place—educating can be uncomfortable and downright confrontational.
Sunday is my big public access practice day with Kaline. We frequent most of the same places every Sunday. Yet today, at two of my favorite places, we were confronted by unfamiliar employees who were clearly very misinformed about laws regarding service dogs.
The first place was Penzey's, the spice shop. It is an excellent place to work on leave it, since there are so many interesting smells everywhere. We've also worked on maneuvering in its small spaces. Never before had we encountered a problem. One of the guys who works there is a huge sweetheart and just loves to watch Kaline practicing his skills.
As we walked in, a guy I didn't know asked if Kaline was a service dog. I am always tempted to say something snarky, given that Kaline now wears the BLD harness, several SD patches, and I have a SD leash patch across my chest on my over-the-shoulder leash at all times. Nonetheless, I always restrain myself and just reply, “Yes.” New Guy took in my answer, then bent to peer closely at Kaline. In general, this is a stupid and extremely rude thing to do to a dog. But Kaline doesn't care, so I will usually let it slide. Then I heard the man muttering, “Is he wearing ... ? Yes, he is. You're okay.”
I have friends who work their dogs “naked,” for various reasons. The right to work your dog without identifying gear is protected by federal law. So even though I never work my dogs naked, I like to educate those who seem to think vests or harnesses are required. I calmly told this man that according to law, Kaline does not have to wear anything while working. He shot back, “According to the law, he does.”
Challenge me on a point of SD law and I will not back down. I pulled up the Commonly Asked Questions from the US Department of Justice and pointed out the section stating that not all service dogs wear vests or harnesses. I even used an example of a seizure alert dog, which requires no special gear to be able to help its handler (whereas a guide dog is pretty useless without a guide harness). His face closed and he replied that he had to follow corporate policy as well as local law. I informed him that corporate policy doesn't trump federal law. (Local, California laws, are in line with federal law.) He just said, “Thank you,” which really meant, “I am not going to listen to you anymore. This conversation is over.” Guess who will be contacting Penzey's corporate tomorrow!
Our second confrontation came at Trader Joe's. We have not missed a TJ's Sunday in probably over a year, except for when I've been out of town. Kaline is always extra on top of his game in there, for some reason. We used to have a nice buddy who was on the staff there, and I helped him out when he was unsure of the business' rights when someone brings an ill-behaved dog inside, claiming it's a service dog. This is another place where we have literally never had an issue with any employee.
When we walked in, I saw a Golden Retriever SD from a local program, which was pretty exciting. I was in the middle of praising Kaline for looking away from the dog when an unfamiliar employee came up and asked if Kaline was a SD. Yes. (Duh.) Employee then leaned into Kaline's face and began baby-talking him. Keeping my voice calm while I seethed, I said, “Please don't talk to him. It distracts him from his work.”
“Do you have his papers?”
“There's no such thing as ‘papers.’ You can get illegitimate certification off scam internet sites, that's pretty much it. It's illegal to ask for such a thing.”
“No it's not. It's a new law that went into effect January 1.”
“If that were a new law, I would know about it. Would you like to see the ADA?”
He said no and walked away. I had a panic attack so bad I could hardly breathe. There was no place to go for full DPT so I knelt in front of the cheese and Kaline pressed himself hard into my chest until I was at least somewhat okay again.
So we went to find a supervisor. With the ADA business brief on my phone, scrolled to the point about the two questions and how requiring papers, certification, or ID is illegal, I informed the supervisor about what his employee had said. I asked for a copy of this supposed new law. Ever so shockingly, the supervisor had no idea what new law the guy was talking about. (Could it possibly be because it doesn't exist?) I asked him to please educate his employees on the two questions, and to remember that if the two questions are answered properly, and the dog is not disruptive, unhousebroken, or vicious, they cannot have the handler remove it.
It was not a fun morning.
However, education is extremely important to me. Part of my job as a SD handler, as I see it anyway, is to make things easier for any team coming behind me. When people show ID, or fake certification, they make it harder for the next handler, who will now be faced with a gatekeeper who's learned that teams should be carrying those items. Educating businesses on their rights and SD handler rights can be extremely shitty and uncomfortable. I hate having to do it. But in my opinion, if you cannot handle advocating for yourself as a SD handler in some way, whether it's verbally or simply by handing gatekeepers preprinted law cards, then you probably should not be using a SD. Some people are better at handling issues than others, and of course it takes practice. I'm still not that good at it (see panic attack). It's very, very necessary though.
So, we'll finally be printing up some law cards (I've never really felt the need, until today). Hopefully our crap morning today will lead to easier mornings for other SD handlers.
Showing posts with label Trader Joe's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trader Joe's. Show all posts
05 January 2014
12 August 2013
Practicing airport security
This Saturday, in preparation for our upcoming trip to Michigan, Kaline and I met Sonja and Chief at San Francisco International Airport to practice going through airport security. Handily for me, Sonja already had to be there to meet Hendrik, so I got to tag along. We not only got to do security, we explored the international terminal and got to take the Air Train (like an easier version of BART) over to the domestic terminal, where we did Delta security.
I dressed Kaline in the big vest with saddlebags (which contained barely anything, but tend to cut down on drive-by pets) for realism, and wore a jacket he'd have to get off me. We'd been practicing his retrieves a lot around the house, as well as his tugging.
First we visited the Delta Special Services desk. The first lady we talked to was exceedingly nice and wanted to help us get a pass for security. The supervisor didn't want to, but she did say they'd issue the pass if TSA approved it. So our new friend took us over to security while she chatted with TSA. I know we don't normally think of TSA folks as pleasant, but boy, were they. It was slow at the airport, and you must admit, two adorable SDITs go a long way in making people nicer. The TSA supervisor had no problem approving a pass for me, so our Delta friend printed it at her desk and off I went with Kaline.
We went in the express line to get the pass and ID (mine, not one for him) checked, then got in the actual security line. I quickly discovered that several of the surrounding people were Michiganders, who were delighted to meet a cute boy named Kaline. I took off my shoes; Kaline played with them a little, but eventually delivered them to hand. When we got closer to the bins, I asked him to help me take off my jacket, and he did that flawlessly. He blocked pretty nicely in line. We had a little issue with his saddlebags—one guy wanted me to take them off, which is rather hard for me, and we compromised by emptying them into one of those little dishes and sending them through the X-ray. Otherwise, the TSA folks continued to be super nice.
For the metal detector, I left Kaline in a sit-stay originally while I headed through. He started to slide almost immediately, either because of the way the harness fits or because of the carpet, so I told him to down. Lesson learned for Wednesday, leave him in a down to start with. Once I went through, I called him through—perfect. A female TSA agent came to pat him down (I am not sure why “female assist” was required when my male dog was getting the pat down, and I was getting no pat down at all). Kaline stood nicely for her but did want to kiss her; she assured me that he could and that she loved dogs, so I didn't mess with him too much about it. Kaline plopped under the table while I got all my stuff back on and in my pockets, and then we made an about turn and headed out to Sonja and Chief!
Part of my anxiety involves constructing elaborate catastrophe scenarios in my head about future events. That's why I really, really, REALLY, like to do dry runs! This one definitely increased my confidence, although obviously we still have the plane ride itself to get through. On my own, I am pretty confident in Kaline's ability to handle it, but then I get the doubters and they make me doubt him. Which is stupid, but anyway.
Sunday Kaline did his usual public access work, which was generally very good. He got some looks for doing spontaneous DPT in the bagel store, but he was right—I needed it. He did pretty well in the market, which was freaking full of pets on flexis who aren't supposed to be there. He gets a little distracted by them, but I get huge spikes in anxiety, because generally the people who use flexis and bring their dogs to markets where they don't belong are the people with really badly behaved dogs, and I constantly fear some random dog attacking Kaline and ruining him. (See? Catastrophe.) But it's happened to a lot of people with SDs and SDITs, so it's not an unreasonable fear.
We did Trader Joe's at the end and Kay did really nice blocking there as well. Carts can come within inches of him, and he doesn't even turn his head. He did get surprised by the pop of a guy breaking down cardboard boxes, so we turned around and stood there watching the box breakdown and having cookies. No big.
Oh man, this is a big test coming up. I am excited but nervous to see how Kaline does in Michigan.
I dressed Kaline in the big vest with saddlebags (which contained barely anything, but tend to cut down on drive-by pets) for realism, and wore a jacket he'd have to get off me. We'd been practicing his retrieves a lot around the house, as well as his tugging.
First we visited the Delta Special Services desk. The first lady we talked to was exceedingly nice and wanted to help us get a pass for security. The supervisor didn't want to, but she did say they'd issue the pass if TSA approved it. So our new friend took us over to security while she chatted with TSA. I know we don't normally think of TSA folks as pleasant, but boy, were they. It was slow at the airport, and you must admit, two adorable SDITs go a long way in making people nicer. The TSA supervisor had no problem approving a pass for me, so our Delta friend printed it at her desk and off I went with Kaline.
We went in the express line to get the pass and ID (mine, not one for him) checked, then got in the actual security line. I quickly discovered that several of the surrounding people were Michiganders, who were delighted to meet a cute boy named Kaline. I took off my shoes; Kaline played with them a little, but eventually delivered them to hand. When we got closer to the bins, I asked him to help me take off my jacket, and he did that flawlessly. He blocked pretty nicely in line. We had a little issue with his saddlebags—one guy wanted me to take them off, which is rather hard for me, and we compromised by emptying them into one of those little dishes and sending them through the X-ray. Otherwise, the TSA folks continued to be super nice.
For the metal detector, I left Kaline in a sit-stay originally while I headed through. He started to slide almost immediately, either because of the way the harness fits or because of the carpet, so I told him to down. Lesson learned for Wednesday, leave him in a down to start with. Once I went through, I called him through—perfect. A female TSA agent came to pat him down (I am not sure why “female assist” was required when my male dog was getting the pat down, and I was getting no pat down at all). Kaline stood nicely for her but did want to kiss her; she assured me that he could and that she loved dogs, so I didn't mess with him too much about it. Kaline plopped under the table while I got all my stuff back on and in my pockets, and then we made an about turn and headed out to Sonja and Chief!
Part of my anxiety involves constructing elaborate catastrophe scenarios in my head about future events. That's why I really, really, REALLY, like to do dry runs! This one definitely increased my confidence, although obviously we still have the plane ride itself to get through. On my own, I am pretty confident in Kaline's ability to handle it, but then I get the doubters and they make me doubt him. Which is stupid, but anyway.
Sunday Kaline did his usual public access work, which was generally very good. He got some looks for doing spontaneous DPT in the bagel store, but he was right—I needed it. He did pretty well in the market, which was freaking full of pets on flexis who aren't supposed to be there. He gets a little distracted by them, but I get huge spikes in anxiety, because generally the people who use flexis and bring their dogs to markets where they don't belong are the people with really badly behaved dogs, and I constantly fear some random dog attacking Kaline and ruining him. (See? Catastrophe.) But it's happened to a lot of people with SDs and SDITs, so it's not an unreasonable fear.
We did Trader Joe's at the end and Kay did really nice blocking there as well. Carts can come within inches of him, and he doesn't even turn his head. He did get surprised by the pop of a guy breaking down cardboard boxes, so we turned around and stood there watching the box breakdown and having cookies. No big.
Oh man, this is a big test coming up. I am excited but nervous to see how Kaline does in Michigan.
30 April 2013
Fun with Sonja, going to the doctor, and retrieving tribulations
Sunday we had lovely fun with Sonja after very efficient errand-running with Juno in the morning. I just wanted to get things done, not do real training, so I took Juno to the Farmer's Market, bagel store, and Trader Joe's. We finished everything in about an hour, maybe less. No one noticed I had switched dogs, which I found a little odd. But it was, as always, the best being out with Juno!
In the afternoon, we met up with Sonja on the Stanford campus. While Chief was working on his poolside down-stays, I took Juno and Kaline over to an empty field to romp. They were off-leash most of the time, with e-collars on. Not that I actually need one on Juno, I just had it in case other dogs showed up and she gave stinkeye. Which didn't happen. Kaline had a great time running around and retrieving sticks, and then we came back and moseyed off-leash with Sonja and Chief. It was so delightful. I love the freedom the collar gives me and Kaline.
Sonja, being the fabulous friend she is, drove all of us to Foster City to get my mom's car (she left it with a friend who drove her and Dad the rest of the way to the airport). And then we (Juno and I) got invited to dinner at Buca di Beppo! So freaking delicious. And it was good I brought Juno, cause one of the other people there is afraid of dogs touching her. Can you just imagine Kaline giving her a Doberpoke?! Aaagh! Someday though, we'll go back and I'll take Kay.
Yesterday everybody got to go to the doctor. After our three walks in the heat, Kaline and I headed to my doctor's office so I could get checked out for some things. Also, my wonderful GP totally understood my airport paranoia and wrote me a prescription for a service dog, just in case. Not that I would ever show it to anyone and make them think it was okay to ask for that. I just want to have it.
Kaline was good in the exam room but man, was he squirrelly in the elevator! Ever since he was in the transparent one in Palo Alto, we get the knocking knees. I tried to distract him by asking him to sit, stand, come, touch, all of which he did, but he was not happy. Urgh. And he was pulling and sniffing a bit while we were walking.
Nonetheless, I was proud of how he did at the exam. The nurse always does my damn blood pressure before the exam, which for some reason just sends my anxiety through the roof, plus it's painful. Fibro + squeezing = OW. I sat in the chair and asked her to wait to put on the cuff. I cued Kaline to lap-up, and he did it immediately, and so gently. He was perfect, and I haven't been that calm for the blood pressure ordeal in years.
He tested out our new mat on the slippery floor (not too much sliding, yay) and held a nice down stay during the rest of the exam. Of course, his highness refused to pick up the mat at the end. “Get that? What does that mean? I have never heard that command everrrrrr.”
Next we went to the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions, and since we had to wait, I decided to work on, you guessed it, not pulling and not sniffing. It was a little bizarre. After being such a puppy ass in the doctor's office, he was perfect in the pharmacy. I think I told him leave it once. And I always had a nice loop in the leash. Good boy.
Then later, I had to take Juno to the vet just to make sure nothing was wrong (she's been limping off and on). Kaline came for moral support and still weighs 69.8 pounds. Sigh.
And today we had training. Kaline worked on hold and out (good) and retrieves (AWFUL). So I got Juno, and Anne set up a little course of objects for her to retrieve, going from easy (plastic water bottle, leather dumbbell) to hard (keys with no leather tab, metal Coke can). She picked up every single one like it was the greatest pleasure in the world to do so. I loved on her BIGTIME. I got so spoiled. She learned retrieving so easily with the clicker. Not so for wee Kaline ... He only retrieves the things he likes. Somehow, we shall advance to metal, the leash, and the roll-up mat!!
In the afternoon, we met up with Sonja on the Stanford campus. While Chief was working on his poolside down-stays, I took Juno and Kaline over to an empty field to romp. They were off-leash most of the time, with e-collars on. Not that I actually need one on Juno, I just had it in case other dogs showed up and she gave stinkeye. Which didn't happen. Kaline had a great time running around and retrieving sticks, and then we came back and moseyed off-leash with Sonja and Chief. It was so delightful. I love the freedom the collar gives me and Kaline.
Sonja, being the fabulous friend she is, drove all of us to Foster City to get my mom's car (she left it with a friend who drove her and Dad the rest of the way to the airport). And then we (Juno and I) got invited to dinner at Buca di Beppo! So freaking delicious. And it was good I brought Juno, cause one of the other people there is afraid of dogs touching her. Can you just imagine Kaline giving her a Doberpoke?! Aaagh! Someday though, we'll go back and I'll take Kay.
Yesterday everybody got to go to the doctor. After our three walks in the heat, Kaline and I headed to my doctor's office so I could get checked out for some things. Also, my wonderful GP totally understood my airport paranoia and wrote me a prescription for a service dog, just in case. Not that I would ever show it to anyone and make them think it was okay to ask for that. I just want to have it.
Kaline was good in the exam room but man, was he squirrelly in the elevator! Ever since he was in the transparent one in Palo Alto, we get the knocking knees. I tried to distract him by asking him to sit, stand, come, touch, all of which he did, but he was not happy. Urgh. And he was pulling and sniffing a bit while we were walking.
Nonetheless, I was proud of how he did at the exam. The nurse always does my damn blood pressure before the exam, which for some reason just sends my anxiety through the roof, plus it's painful. Fibro + squeezing = OW. I sat in the chair and asked her to wait to put on the cuff. I cued Kaline to lap-up, and he did it immediately, and so gently. He was perfect, and I haven't been that calm for the blood pressure ordeal in years.
He tested out our new mat on the slippery floor (not too much sliding, yay) and held a nice down stay during the rest of the exam. Of course, his highness refused to pick up the mat at the end. “Get that? What does that mean? I have never heard that command everrrrrr.”
Next we went to the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions, and since we had to wait, I decided to work on, you guessed it, not pulling and not sniffing. It was a little bizarre. After being such a puppy ass in the doctor's office, he was perfect in the pharmacy. I think I told him leave it once. And I always had a nice loop in the leash. Good boy.
Then later, I had to take Juno to the vet just to make sure nothing was wrong (she's been limping off and on). Kaline came for moral support and still weighs 69.8 pounds. Sigh.
And today we had training. Kaline worked on hold and out (good) and retrieves (AWFUL). So I got Juno, and Anne set up a little course of objects for her to retrieve, going from easy (plastic water bottle, leather dumbbell) to hard (keys with no leather tab, metal Coke can). She picked up every single one like it was the greatest pleasure in the world to do so. I loved on her BIGTIME. I got so spoiled. She learned retrieving so easily with the clicker. Not so for wee Kaline ... He only retrieves the things he likes. Somehow, we shall advance to metal, the leash, and the roll-up mat!!
03 April 2013
Birthday fun
Sunday was my birthday, and of course I did a bunch of things with my two best friends, Juno and Kaline.
Kaline got to do his usual morning of work. He was a little spacey in the Farmer's Market—he didn't sniff or really do anything naughty, but he just wasn't as focused as he usually is. He settled in though; after we had worked the market a while, we went to the bagel store and he settled immediately under the table, without being told. And he only had one pop-up, a little while before we were ready to go. I got to do some fun education with this lady who wanted to know how long it takes to train a service dog.
Trader Joe's was not nearly as much fun as usual. At least two separate sets of kids (I assume siblings) had been given miniature carts by their parents, so they could push them around and pretend like they were being useful. Instead, the little trolls were racing the tiny carts around, screaming and yelling as they went. Kaline was understandably unnerved by just the running and screaming. Maybe unnerved is the wrong word. He wasn't frightened, but he was clearly concerned and distracted. Then, in addition to the running and screaming and general racket of multiple tiny carts, one of the kids almost hit Kaline twice, once with his cart, once with a flailing fist.
If it wasn't obvious, badly behaved children annoy me. A lot. I feel like a 9-year-old should definitely be able to behave as well in public as my 11-month-old puppy. Who despite his distraction, never barked, whined, play-bowed, or lunged. We ran into our usual friend, who complimented Kaline on not reacting to the kids beyond the staring. In a moment of passive-aggressiveness, I recounted the misbehavior of the various children to him knowing that just behind him was the mother of the kid who'd almost hit my puppy. Hopefully the semi-indirect calling-out will inspire her to put her spawn on a leash. Or just leave them in the car.
We finished up on a positive note, with a great mini-outing to Walgreen's. I love having Kaline do the buttons there. There are all kinds of fun challenges to work on, and in the absence of the crazy offspring, Kaline was his usual awesome self.
We broke up the day with a double-dog outing to the grove. Juno didn't run much, but I think she enjoyed herself nonetheless. Kaline made several new friends, including a little five-month-old Australian Shepherd named Sierra.
For dinner, my parents took me to Buffalo Wild Wings in San Jose. I know, I should have higher standards. But I absolutely love the food there! I took Juno, and was super glad I did, because once our server found out there was A DOG under the table (Dad told him), he took every opportunity to squat down and try to interact with Juno. Juno wouldn't even make eye contact with him, merely staring off, head comfortably on her paws, while he made a bit of a fool of himself. “You are beneath my notice,” she was clearly saying. He didn't get the message. I probably should have said something, but Juno did such a good job of it nonverbally! It was too funny.
Mom gave me money for my birthday, so I could order the custom 8x8 BLD leash for Kaline that I've been wanting. Woohoo! Definitely a good birthday! Except for the whole getting older part. Boo on that.
Kaline got to do his usual morning of work. He was a little spacey in the Farmer's Market—he didn't sniff or really do anything naughty, but he just wasn't as focused as he usually is. He settled in though; after we had worked the market a while, we went to the bagel store and he settled immediately under the table, without being told. And he only had one pop-up, a little while before we were ready to go. I got to do some fun education with this lady who wanted to know how long it takes to train a service dog.
Trader Joe's was not nearly as much fun as usual. At least two separate sets of kids (I assume siblings) had been given miniature carts by their parents, so they could push them around and pretend like they were being useful. Instead, the little trolls were racing the tiny carts around, screaming and yelling as they went. Kaline was understandably unnerved by just the running and screaming. Maybe unnerved is the wrong word. He wasn't frightened, but he was clearly concerned and distracted. Then, in addition to the running and screaming and general racket of multiple tiny carts, one of the kids almost hit Kaline twice, once with his cart, once with a flailing fist.
If it wasn't obvious, badly behaved children annoy me. A lot. I feel like a 9-year-old should definitely be able to behave as well in public as my 11-month-old puppy. Who despite his distraction, never barked, whined, play-bowed, or lunged. We ran into our usual friend, who complimented Kaline on not reacting to the kids beyond the staring. In a moment of passive-aggressiveness, I recounted the misbehavior of the various children to him knowing that just behind him was the mother of the kid who'd almost hit my puppy. Hopefully the semi-indirect calling-out will inspire her to put her spawn on a leash. Or just leave them in the car.
We finished up on a positive note, with a great mini-outing to Walgreen's. I love having Kaline do the buttons there. There are all kinds of fun challenges to work on, and in the absence of the crazy offspring, Kaline was his usual awesome self.
We broke up the day with a double-dog outing to the grove. Juno didn't run much, but I think she enjoyed herself nonetheless. Kaline made several new friends, including a little five-month-old Australian Shepherd named Sierra.
For dinner, my parents took me to Buffalo Wild Wings in San Jose. I know, I should have higher standards. But I absolutely love the food there! I took Juno, and was super glad I did, because once our server found out there was A DOG under the table (Dad told him), he took every opportunity to squat down and try to interact with Juno. Juno wouldn't even make eye contact with him, merely staring off, head comfortably on her paws, while he made a bit of a fool of himself. “You are beneath my notice,” she was clearly saying. He didn't get the message. I probably should have said something, but Juno did such a good job of it nonverbally! It was too funny.
Mom gave me money for my birthday, so I could order the custom 8x8 BLD leash for Kaline that I've been wanting. Woohoo! Definitely a good birthday! Except for the whole getting older part. Boo on that.
18 March 2013
Fun stuff
Monday, 11 March:
We did four pack walks, tiring out both the dogs, and I got in a shockingly invigorating shouting match with a Crazy Lady in downtown Palo Alto. She took great offense at my dogs and I continuing on our usual route behind her. How dare I harass her with such nasty dogs, etc. I dunno, snapping back at Crazy Lady gave me all kinds of energy for the rest of the walks!
Tuesday, 12 March:
I was attempting to fix the DVD player and it was highly frustrating. Kaline came over to me—I was sitting awkwardly on the floor—slung his head over my shoulder and just licked my ear for a while. I found it delightful even though I probably stank of dog breath afterward.
Wednesday, 13 March:
Not as much fun. Lots of little delays combined to kind of fuck up our four pack walk schedule. Then I had big plans to take Kaline on an outing to Hillsdale Mall with the 'rents. But apparently only Juno was invited. I don't think it's a very good precedent to let others choose which dog I work, so I just stayed home with both and we had a calm, quiet evening.
Thursday, 14 March:
So. Much. Awesomeness. We had a bizarre encounter in the morning. I had my five-pack downtown, and we came to a red light. Across the crosswalk from us, suddenly, was a group of about eight Japanese tourists. First they shrieked and pointed at the dogs and then every single one whipped out an enormous SLR camera and began snapping away like paparazzi. Yikes.
After training and everything, Juno and I drove up to Berkeley to have dinner with Sonja and Chief and our friend Eva and her SD Coral! We had only “met” her online, so it was super exciting to finally meet in person! Eva has cerebral palsy and is nonverbal, so she uses a laser pointer attached to her hat to point at things, and has this fantastic board she made herself. It's covered in little colored boxes, each one containing a letter, number, word, or short phrase. She used her board to spell out things and her aide, Lauren, was super quick to figure out what she was spelling. Eva's aide and cousin joined us for dinner and we had a marvelous time. We had fun times discussing SD drama, and Eva threw back her head and laughed infectiously at the juicy parts. She has the best smile! And red Converse. Love those.
Eva was in town for a rehearsal of a performance which she will come back for in May. Hopefully she'll be able to stay longer and we'll get to go to the beach with the dogs! Sonja and I already put the performance date in our phones and are planning to go. It's going to be amazing.
Friday, 15 March:
Four walks again, and Juno and Kaline got to wear their St. Patrick's Day ties.
Saturday, 16 March:
With Mom out of town, Dad and I had lots of errands so Kaline got to do a lot of PA work. We had obedience class, then went to the post office, Hillsdale Mall, and later Target. At the mall, we worked on under, opening different kinds of fridges, roll (his hip), and the usual Stop Pulling Me and Leave It. We had lunch at a Mexican place that's very dog friendly, so we sat outside in the beautiful weather with both dogs unvested. Kaline did a lovely under and down stay beneath my chair!
Target was a little insane for me—first a kid came out of nowhere, pounding past us and freaking me out, and then we turned down another aisle and there was a pet Lab, lunging at Kaline against his flimsy harness. After that I needed some major deep pressure; then I informed an employee and the situation was taken care of very quickly. Target doesn't tolerate pets because they have such big food areas now. So Kaline was very good in there, very attentive to me especially because I was very edgy after the bad beginning.
Sunday, 16 March:
The usual morning of PA work. Farmer's Market was great except for this random old lady. She complimented Kaline on being handsome, then said, “That top collar. I don't like it.” She was referring to his pinch. At first I was a little taken aback, because we hardly ever get training comments of any kind. I was polite to her, restraining myself, but I wanted to say, “You don't like his collar? Quick, quick, ask me how much I care!” Kaline stood there clearly looking very traumatized as he blocked and didn't sniff people.
Trader Joe's was awesome. We always have a good time in there. We ran into our friend who loves watching Kaline work and always compliments him on his progress. As usual, he ignored Kaline himself and chatted with me. He ended up telling me about a woman who always brings her poodle in, vested, but doesn't have any control over it. The dog sniffs things, jumps on people, jumps on merchandise, some of which is food, and barks. I gave him a PDPM card and said if she doesn't take steps to control her dog, they have every right to make her take the dog out, and return by herself. She always yells at them when they ask her to control the dog or leave, saying she has papers/certification. TJ's people are so nice! Anyone who is mean to them deserves to be kicked out.
We did four pack walks, tiring out both the dogs, and I got in a shockingly invigorating shouting match with a Crazy Lady in downtown Palo Alto. She took great offense at my dogs and I continuing on our usual route behind her. How dare I harass her with such nasty dogs, etc. I dunno, snapping back at Crazy Lady gave me all kinds of energy for the rest of the walks!
Tuesday, 12 March:
I was attempting to fix the DVD player and it was highly frustrating. Kaline came over to me—I was sitting awkwardly on the floor—slung his head over my shoulder and just licked my ear for a while. I found it delightful even though I probably stank of dog breath afterward.
Wednesday, 13 March:
Not as much fun. Lots of little delays combined to kind of fuck up our four pack walk schedule. Then I had big plans to take Kaline on an outing to Hillsdale Mall with the 'rents. But apparently only Juno was invited. I don't think it's a very good precedent to let others choose which dog I work, so I just stayed home with both and we had a calm, quiet evening.
Thursday, 14 March:
So. Much. Awesomeness. We had a bizarre encounter in the morning. I had my five-pack downtown, and we came to a red light. Across the crosswalk from us, suddenly, was a group of about eight Japanese tourists. First they shrieked and pointed at the dogs and then every single one whipped out an enormous SLR camera and began snapping away like paparazzi. Yikes.
After training and everything, Juno and I drove up to Berkeley to have dinner with Sonja and Chief and our friend Eva and her SD Coral! We had only “met” her online, so it was super exciting to finally meet in person! Eva has cerebral palsy and is nonverbal, so she uses a laser pointer attached to her hat to point at things, and has this fantastic board she made herself. It's covered in little colored boxes, each one containing a letter, number, word, or short phrase. She used her board to spell out things and her aide, Lauren, was super quick to figure out what she was spelling. Eva's aide and cousin joined us for dinner and we had a marvelous time. We had fun times discussing SD drama, and Eva threw back her head and laughed infectiously at the juicy parts. She has the best smile! And red Converse. Love those.
Eva was in town for a rehearsal of a performance which she will come back for in May. Hopefully she'll be able to stay longer and we'll get to go to the beach with the dogs! Sonja and I already put the performance date in our phones and are planning to go. It's going to be amazing.
Friday, 15 March:
Four walks again, and Juno and Kaline got to wear their St. Patrick's Day ties.
Saturday, 16 March:
With Mom out of town, Dad and I had lots of errands so Kaline got to do a lot of PA work. We had obedience class, then went to the post office, Hillsdale Mall, and later Target. At the mall, we worked on under, opening different kinds of fridges, roll (his hip), and the usual Stop Pulling Me and Leave It. We had lunch at a Mexican place that's very dog friendly, so we sat outside in the beautiful weather with both dogs unvested. Kaline did a lovely under and down stay beneath my chair!
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| Poster for the shelter where I got Juno! |
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| Good under! |
Target was a little insane for me—first a kid came out of nowhere, pounding past us and freaking me out, and then we turned down another aisle and there was a pet Lab, lunging at Kaline against his flimsy harness. After that I needed some major deep pressure; then I informed an employee and the situation was taken care of very quickly. Target doesn't tolerate pets because they have such big food areas now. So Kaline was very good in there, very attentive to me especially because I was very edgy after the bad beginning.
Sunday, 16 March:
The usual morning of PA work. Farmer's Market was great except for this random old lady. She complimented Kaline on being handsome, then said, “That top collar. I don't like it.” She was referring to his pinch. At first I was a little taken aback, because we hardly ever get training comments of any kind. I was polite to her, restraining myself, but I wanted to say, “You don't like his collar? Quick, quick, ask me how much I care!” Kaline stood there clearly looking very traumatized as he blocked and didn't sniff people.
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| Ha! If only that rule were enforced. |
Trader Joe's was awesome. We always have a good time in there. We ran into our friend who loves watching Kaline work and always compliments him on his progress. As usual, he ignored Kaline himself and chatted with me. He ended up telling me about a woman who always brings her poodle in, vested, but doesn't have any control over it. The dog sniffs things, jumps on people, jumps on merchandise, some of which is food, and barks. I gave him a PDPM card and said if she doesn't take steps to control her dog, they have every right to make her take the dog out, and return by herself. She always yells at them when they ask her to control the dog or leave, saying she has papers/certification. TJ's people are so nice! Anyone who is mean to them deserves to be kicked out.
04 February 2013
Slow stuff
Not a ton going on around here since the dog show. Our new hectic walking schedule just started, so we've been running ragged. For example, today we had four pack walks, all back to back. And it was cold in the morning, and wet, so for the first walk my whole left arm and shoulder were spazzing with pain. Thank goodness that pack needs hardly any correction and the walk is quiet.
We're definitely loving our new pair of Boxers. Kaline especially enjoys them, because their enormous flews fascinate him and they share his enjoyment in licking anything their tongues can reach.
Kaline got to do some work-work Sunday morning in downtown Menlo Park. Got kind of an offensive question to start out: “Is he a legit SDIT, or did you just get him a jacket?” But the guy was curious and just ignorant, not being nasty, so I educated him about the fact that it's illegal to fake a service dog. Anyway, Kaline did fine in the Farmer's Market, but took a while to settle at the bagel place. Finally he did, and then of course it was time to get him up and go to Trader Joe's. In there, all of a sudden I got “fibro fog” where your brain goes a bit fuzzy and you somehow can't comprehend things at normal speed. Kaline was super attentive, peering up at me constantly and carefully matching his pace to mine, which basically never happens. He was a very good boy in there, and we got to talk to a kid who just learned about guide dogs in school and was super excited to meet Kaline.
Last stop was Draeger's, where we just had to run in and pick something up. It took a little bit for me to figure out what exactly I needed, during which time Kaline was blocking behind me. Juno has a habit of switching the direction of her block based on where the most people are coming from, and for the first time, Kaline did the same thing! I was super proud of him.
Juno did a movie on Saturday and was her usual excellent self except for goosing a woman as we came out! Gotta admit, I laughed a little. She also came to Auntie Jen's to watch the Super Bowl, looking very pretty in her 49ers collar. Too bad they lost, eh?
We're registered for a rally trial in two-ish weeks. Woohoo!
We're definitely loving our new pair of Boxers. Kaline especially enjoys them, because their enormous flews fascinate him and they share his enjoyment in licking anything their tongues can reach.
Kaline got to do some work-work Sunday morning in downtown Menlo Park. Got kind of an offensive question to start out: “Is he a legit SDIT, or did you just get him a jacket?” But the guy was curious and just ignorant, not being nasty, so I educated him about the fact that it's illegal to fake a service dog. Anyway, Kaline did fine in the Farmer's Market, but took a while to settle at the bagel place. Finally he did, and then of course it was time to get him up and go to Trader Joe's. In there, all of a sudden I got “fibro fog” where your brain goes a bit fuzzy and you somehow can't comprehend things at normal speed. Kaline was super attentive, peering up at me constantly and carefully matching his pace to mine, which basically never happens. He was a very good boy in there, and we got to talk to a kid who just learned about guide dogs in school and was super excited to meet Kaline.
Last stop was Draeger's, where we just had to run in and pick something up. It took a little bit for me to figure out what exactly I needed, during which time Kaline was blocking behind me. Juno has a habit of switching the direction of her block based on where the most people are coming from, and for the first time, Kaline did the same thing! I was super proud of him.
Juno did a movie on Saturday and was her usual excellent self except for goosing a woman as we came out! Gotta admit, I laughed a little. She also came to Auntie Jen's to watch the Super Bowl, looking very pretty in her 49ers collar. Too bad they lost, eh?
We're registered for a rally trial in two-ish weeks. Woohoo!
15 December 2012
Christmas obedience class
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| Kaline demonstrates his Doberman comfort-seeking genes. |
We always do Needless Markup (also known as Neiman Marcus) first, then disperse. We paraded through the first floor, went up the elevator in shifts—no one had any issues—then worked on group down stays right in front of the escalators. The dogs were freaking adorable. Whenever I got the chance, I'd work on auto-settling with Kaline. He did pretty well.
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| Kaline between Bean (Cairn Terrier) and Traci (German Shepherd). |
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| L-R: Bollie (mixed breed), Rex (Golden Retriever), Bean (Cairn Terrier) and Kaline. |
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| Back row, L-R: Gracie (yellow Labrador), QD (Border Terrier), Jessie (chocolate Labrador), and Bollie (mix). Front row, L-R: Phi (Sheltie), Percy (colored Bull Terrier), Sienna (terrier mix), Juno!!, Jockey (Norfolk Terrier), and Rex (Golden Retriever). |
We meandered all over the shopping center, eventually running into our friend Sylvia (I've gotten to know her because her house is on the Black Dog Walk route) and her newest CCI puppy, Scotland! Scotland is a three-month-old Lab/Golden cross. Kaline was crazy about her. She is unspeakably cute, I must say. Sylvia and my dad really hit it off because they are from the same area of Pennsylvania, so we ended up standing around in the middle of the center for what seemed like hours.
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| How many more times do I have to pose with inanimate objects? |
Being an adorable puppy himself, Kaline attracted child after child. And he was excellent with them. I was so proud. He did not jump on a single one, or even appear to think about jumping. He sat very nicely while they petted him, and went for little kisses whenever cheeks came in range. If the kids wanted to give one of the doggies a cookie, they got to visit the chow hound, Junebug, who gleefully slimed their hands as they held out treats for her.
We had an afternoon full of grooming, mostly for Kaline. Juno's toenails are fine if I grind them once every two weeks; Kaline's need to be ground (grinded?) intensively at least once a week. Probably twice if I was really a good dog mommy. So we did that, and then both of them got brushed. And then came Kaline's anti-favorite, the bath.
He still needs "help" getting in. He could, physically, jump in, but he won't, even if I put a rug in the bathtub for traction. He was okay after I helped him in. He was seriously pissed about being bathed in cool water though. I'm hoping the bath in the special sensitive-skin shampoo will help us get through the next week or so till his Paco collar gets here. The skin on his neck has been more flaky than normal lately, in certain spots. Ugh.
For the first time in a while, I accepted an invite to the movies from Dad. Then I agonized for a while about which dog to take. Kaline is more attuned to my psych stuff, but obviously is too young/untrained to really help with anything fibro-related. And he requires a lot more involvement in general. But I really wanted to get him the work, especially on settling. Then dinner got added into the mix, and I pretty much knew that that'd be too much for Kaline. Two hours lying quietly in a theatre, then a couple more hours lying under a table? Yeah, surrre.
So once I settled on Juno, I roped Dad into a Trader Joe's outing for Kaline. He worked the best he ever has in his head collar. He was paying attention, walking with me, responding quickly and enthusiastically to commands. He did hardly any sniffing. I had Dad run the cart by us, very close to Kaline, while he was both sitting and lying down. No problems. Dad walked by us and stomped loudly next to Kaline; he nudged his butt while he was in both sit and down stays; he did the bad-dog-hand-waving that Sonja and I like to play around with. Kaline was a little rock. And then he blocked wonderfully in line.
I put him on the treadmill at a trot for about 15 minutes to drain him before we left for the movies. Juno was perfect at both the movies and dinner. Kaline probably would've been fine at the movie, but oh man, he would've been way overstimulated at the restaurant. It was very crowded there, and we had to wend a very narrow path between oodles of tables to get to ours. Juno does not sniff people or tables, but let me tell you, Kaline sure would have! All at nose height—oh boy.
The one disappointing part of the evening (other than getting scolded for not indulging the curious people who ask intrusive questions) was realizing it was impossible for me to use the bathroom at the Guild Theatre. It was built in 1912, I think, so obviously it doesn't have to comply with the accessible bathrooms part of the ADA. It still sucked. The stalls were so tiny, no one with a medium-sized or larger SD—much less someone in a wheelchair—would have been able to fit. The bathroom itself was not large enough to accommodate a SD doing a down stay outside of the stall. And I couldn't even put her on an out of sight down stay in the tiny bathroom "lobby" because every time the door opened it would have hit her. I wrote them a kindly worded letter about the problem; I doubt there's much that can be done but it can't hurt to bring it to someone's attention.
Maybe I'll use Kaline training as an excuse to be bad and eat fast food tomorrow. Hehe. I loved using the McDonald's near Kepler's as a training ground for Juno when she first started training. Mmm, definitely a possibility.
05 December 2012
Training Kaline cheers me up
So, I've been sick and grumpy. Nobody wants to read other people's vents about being sick and grumpy.
But today I've been doing a bunch of short training sessions with Kaline, and it definitely put me in a better mood.
First, though, an update on his neck. After a few months of being naked as much as possible but using the prong collar when a collar was required looking like the solution to the problem, it turns out it's not. Kaline had a tiny spot of very short hair on the back of his neck for a while, with an irritated follicle in the middle of it. Since it wasn't growing, I didn't really worry. Well, now it's growing. It's where the chain rests on the back of his neck. The hair on the front is still fine, grown in nicely, but he's got a couple irritated follicles there too. Cue despair.
Just kidding. I worked Kaline in the Infinity collar and his flat Tigers collar on Monday, and he worked pretty well in it, though he was pretty spastic in Trader Joe's. Thank goodness we were only there for about 10 minutes. He was trying to smell stuff, swinging his butt around randomly, etc. Then in line he did a perfect block, even leaning gently into the backs of my knees. He's a dog, not a robot, he's a dog, not a robot ...
Anyway. Tuesday I made a call to Paco Collars, based in Berkeley. I told them Kaline's issues, and they seem confident that one of their collars will do the trick. (Kay will end up working in the Infinity plus Paco Collar, until he progresses to the point where he can just work in the flat, like Juno.) I believe the word used to describe the lining of the collar was "buttery." Sounds delicious. So we are going to head up there on Saturday and hope they have a ready-made black Deluxe collar that will fit the wee man. I think they will. Not cheap, but if it finally solves the neck issue, I'll be happy. I know a ton of Dobermans wear Paco Collars, so it should work. Fingers and paws crossed.
Back to the training. Since the weekend, Kaline has gotten way better at doing the treadmill. He has now had seven total fifteen-minute sessions on the treadmill. On the first and second ones, he threw a fit and needed a lot of help to stay on. Three and four, he threw a fit but was able to stay on by himself. Five, he only put up a token fuss and walked nicely after that. Six, he got on by himself. And the rest is history.
It's really nice to know that that is now an option when Kaline needs to burn off some energy, because at least for now, roughhousing with big sis is no longer an option. He's got two little hairless tooth-marks on his neck. And I think we all know how insane I am about his neck (see above). He loves to have Juno chew on his neck, and she loves to oblige, so ...
We also worked a bunch on the fridge, because he was backsliding a little. Today, our new maize-and-blue tug came from Alex, a friend who is raising money for her future SD from Laughing Eyes Kennels. Both dogs love it, and Kaline is already starting to pull on the long middle part of the tug (on the rope toy, he refused to use anything but the little fringey strings at the bottom, which obviously led to the thing slipping abruptly out of his mouth a lot).
His take it is getting pretty good—he'll go for the blue bone on the floor—and he did very nice hold and out today. He walked around the kitchen with the bone in his mouth (I held my hand really close to his mouth in case he decided to drop it) and even did a sit-down-sit sequence with it in his mouth.
While Juno gets her turns on the treadmill, Kaline gets to practice his down-stay and settle, which is going nicely. I really want to just take a day and go to several different places with him and a book, and just work on settling under chairs/tables for extended periods of time. Super exciting, I know.
Juno did such a cute hold yesterday at training. Anne had left her bait bag way far away and was packing up her car. When I went to go grab Juno's leash (she'd been working off-leash), I saw the bag and told Juno to take it. She did, and she carried it all the way from that little area of the park over to Anne's car—where she sat and politely gave the bag to Anne. Yay.
I think the only other thing Kaline has really been focusing on is finding heel and finding front. Finding front is a lot harder for him, but we'll get there!
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| Chilly little Kaline in Juno's Hallowe'en t-shirt. Dad's getting him pajamas for Xmas, hehe. |
But today I've been doing a bunch of short training sessions with Kaline, and it definitely put me in a better mood.
First, though, an update on his neck. After a few months of being naked as much as possible but using the prong collar when a collar was required looking like the solution to the problem, it turns out it's not. Kaline had a tiny spot of very short hair on the back of his neck for a while, with an irritated follicle in the middle of it. Since it wasn't growing, I didn't really worry. Well, now it's growing. It's where the chain rests on the back of his neck. The hair on the front is still fine, grown in nicely, but he's got a couple irritated follicles there too. Cue despair.
Just kidding. I worked Kaline in the Infinity collar and his flat Tigers collar on Monday, and he worked pretty well in it, though he was pretty spastic in Trader Joe's. Thank goodness we were only there for about 10 minutes. He was trying to smell stuff, swinging his butt around randomly, etc. Then in line he did a perfect block, even leaning gently into the backs of my knees. He's a dog, not a robot, he's a dog, not a robot ...
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| Mom found a hidden stash of Christmas collars, yay! |
Anyway. Tuesday I made a call to Paco Collars, based in Berkeley. I told them Kaline's issues, and they seem confident that one of their collars will do the trick. (Kay will end up working in the Infinity plus Paco Collar, until he progresses to the point where he can just work in the flat, like Juno.) I believe the word used to describe the lining of the collar was "buttery." Sounds delicious. So we are going to head up there on Saturday and hope they have a ready-made black Deluxe collar that will fit the wee man. I think they will. Not cheap, but if it finally solves the neck issue, I'll be happy. I know a ton of Dobermans wear Paco Collars, so it should work. Fingers and paws crossed.
Back to the training. Since the weekend, Kaline has gotten way better at doing the treadmill. He has now had seven total fifteen-minute sessions on the treadmill. On the first and second ones, he threw a fit and needed a lot of help to stay on. Three and four, he threw a fit but was able to stay on by himself. Five, he only put up a token fuss and walked nicely after that. Six, he got on by himself. And the rest is history.
It's really nice to know that that is now an option when Kaline needs to burn off some energy, because at least for now, roughhousing with big sis is no longer an option. He's got two little hairless tooth-marks on his neck. And I think we all know how insane I am about his neck (see above). He loves to have Juno chew on his neck, and she loves to oblige, so ...
We also worked a bunch on the fridge, because he was backsliding a little. Today, our new maize-and-blue tug came from Alex, a friend who is raising money for her future SD from Laughing Eyes Kennels. Both dogs love it, and Kaline is already starting to pull on the long middle part of the tug (on the rope toy, he refused to use anything but the little fringey strings at the bottom, which obviously led to the thing slipping abruptly out of his mouth a lot).
His take it is getting pretty good—he'll go for the blue bone on the floor—and he did very nice hold and out today. He walked around the kitchen with the bone in his mouth (I held my hand really close to his mouth in case he decided to drop it) and even did a sit-down-sit sequence with it in his mouth.
While Juno gets her turns on the treadmill, Kaline gets to practice his down-stay and settle, which is going nicely. I really want to just take a day and go to several different places with him and a book, and just work on settling under chairs/tables for extended periods of time. Super exciting, I know.
Juno did such a cute hold yesterday at training. Anne had left her bait bag way far away and was packing up her car. When I went to go grab Juno's leash (she'd been working off-leash), I saw the bag and told Juno to take it. She did, and she carried it all the way from that little area of the park over to Anne's car—where she sat and politely gave the bag to Anne. Yay.
I think the only other thing Kaline has really been focusing on is finding heel and finding front. Finding front is a lot harder for him, but we'll get there!
19 November 2012
Our Sunday
Kaline had another mostly excellent Sunday. We walked downtown with him in his vest, which is not the usual way of things but turned out to be a good idea. On the corner of Santa Cruz, we ran into a barefoot man who seemed ... off. I did what I do with Juno when I feel very wary of a person—I told Kaline "break" when we got to the corner, instead of making him sit beside me. That way his back wouldn't be to this man, and he could move around.
Kaline made a circle around me, and then just stood staring at this guy. For all I know, it could have been his regular, "A new person! Do you want to be FRIENDS?!" look that he does to a lot of people. But anyway, it made me feel better. And then the guy asked to pet Kaline, and I was so grateful he had his vest on, because I could say, "No, he's working right now."
Which sent the guy into a rant, yelling at me about how could I not know he's a dog lover, does my dog work for the government, something must be very wrong with me, etc. Luckily we got the walk signal right as the rant started and booked it across the street. I was panicking, bigtime.
As soon as I saw an empty chair outside Stacks, the restaurant on the corner, I plopped down in it and with the tiniest invitation, Kaline practically threw himself on me, paws on my shoulders, leaning his whole upper body into my chest. Such a good boy! Right at this time a veteran saw him and started telling me about this Paws For Purple Hearts program they have at the VA nearby, and how he's training a service dog. Which is awesome, don't get me wrong. Big yay for programs that train dogs for vets, because there aren't enough and the VA makes nothing easier.
But jeez, dude, you're training dogs to respond not just to physical problems but PTSD and other mental issues. And you see a baby SDIT clearly doing a task ... maybe not the best time to try and engage the handler in conversation. I did the best I could responding, because I knew he meant well, but still.
Once Kaline had calmed me down, we headed off to the Farmer's Market. It was the first time in a long time we didn't have to deal with pets in there—so nice. Kaline did good blocking, didn't pull as much, paid attention, etc. He was not as good in the bagel place, where he was very antsy for the first ten minutes or so before settling down. It was kinda tight quarters, so at one point he was down but blocking the tiny aisle. This kid had to get through and just stepped right over him—sometimes I love kids! Cause Kaline stayed perfectly still and it was nice practice.
Trader Joe's went really well. We were in the meat and cheese aisles and he showed no interest in sniffing anything. He did a little bit of blocking in line, even though it was again a very tight space and there was another person right next to him that he was keeping away from me.
Later in the evening, we had a bunch of tiny fridge sessions. (Kaline also amused himself at times by just opening and closing cabinets.) Kaline got the fridge door unsealed (he doesn't quite open it the way Juno does, to the point where you can reach in, but it's early) twice all by himself. I worked with Juno on retrieving metal objects (in this case, a butter knife). She hates to have metal in her mouth so it's an ongoing thing. She could get the knife off the bed, but had a harder time getting it off the rug or the floor. She did fine retrieving my keys, because they have two leather strips (from BLD!) as keychains.
I'm not going to be hard and fast about the one task per week resolution. I'd rather get Kaline's fridge-opening skills to be very reliable before we move on.
Kaline made a circle around me, and then just stood staring at this guy. For all I know, it could have been his regular, "A new person! Do you want to be FRIENDS?!" look that he does to a lot of people. But anyway, it made me feel better. And then the guy asked to pet Kaline, and I was so grateful he had his vest on, because I could say, "No, he's working right now."
Which sent the guy into a rant, yelling at me about how could I not know he's a dog lover, does my dog work for the government, something must be very wrong with me, etc. Luckily we got the walk signal right as the rant started and booked it across the street. I was panicking, bigtime.
As soon as I saw an empty chair outside Stacks, the restaurant on the corner, I plopped down in it and with the tiniest invitation, Kaline practically threw himself on me, paws on my shoulders, leaning his whole upper body into my chest. Such a good boy! Right at this time a veteran saw him and started telling me about this Paws For Purple Hearts program they have at the VA nearby, and how he's training a service dog. Which is awesome, don't get me wrong. Big yay for programs that train dogs for vets, because there aren't enough and the VA makes nothing easier.
But jeez, dude, you're training dogs to respond not just to physical problems but PTSD and other mental issues. And you see a baby SDIT clearly doing a task ... maybe not the best time to try and engage the handler in conversation. I did the best I could responding, because I knew he meant well, but still.
Once Kaline had calmed me down, we headed off to the Farmer's Market. It was the first time in a long time we didn't have to deal with pets in there—so nice. Kaline did good blocking, didn't pull as much, paid attention, etc. He was not as good in the bagel place, where he was very antsy for the first ten minutes or so before settling down. It was kinda tight quarters, so at one point he was down but blocking the tiny aisle. This kid had to get through and just stepped right over him—sometimes I love kids! Cause Kaline stayed perfectly still and it was nice practice.
Trader Joe's went really well. We were in the meat and cheese aisles and he showed no interest in sniffing anything. He did a little bit of blocking in line, even though it was again a very tight space and there was another person right next to him that he was keeping away from me.
Later in the evening, we had a bunch of tiny fridge sessions. (Kaline also amused himself at times by just opening and closing cabinets.) Kaline got the fridge door unsealed (he doesn't quite open it the way Juno does, to the point where you can reach in, but it's early) twice all by himself. I worked with Juno on retrieving metal objects (in this case, a butter knife). She hates to have metal in her mouth so it's an ongoing thing. She could get the knife off the bed, but had a harder time getting it off the rug or the floor. She did fine retrieving my keys, because they have two leather strips (from BLD!) as keychains.
I'm not going to be hard and fast about the one task per week resolution. I'd rather get Kaline's fridge-opening skills to be very reliable before we move on.
05 November 2012
Why is it Monday again?
Despite having a "job" I really love, I still don't like Mondays. They're long. Three hour-long walks in the morning—four-pack, five-pack, four-pack—followed by an afternoon siesta and then a training session, which is supposed to be an hour but always ends up being two, not that I really mind. It seems like not that much when I write it that way. But it's a lot.
Anyway, Monday is over (yay!) but I'm still way stressed. Obviously the election is tomorrow. I need Barack Obama to win. Aside from all the multitudinous reasons I like him tons and absolutely despise, loathe, and abominate Romney, if Obama is elected, one day I will be able to get my own health care. If Romney is elected, I will never be able to get health care on my own. So tomorrow is going to be a little bit of hell. Hopefully I will get to go to bed knowing I don't need to think seriously about how to move to the Netherlands.
Moooooving right along. We had a decent weekend. Kaline is working really nicely, I must say. We didn't do a ton Saturday because I felt crappy. Sunday though, we did the Farmer's Market and Trader Joe's and the bagel store. I took both Juno and Kaline into the bagel store and they practically spooned. It was really cute and they did really well. We definitely got some looks, but whatever. Dad took Juno on a walk while Kay and I went with Mom to the market.
For some reason, after breakfast, my brain got really slow and fuzzy. I have heard people talk about "fibro fog," but I have never had that happen to me and I am not sure if that is what actually happened. Nonetheless it really sucked. I would be trying to talk to someone and it took three times as long to just process what they were saying, and then it was really difficult to respond appropriately. Kaline did his job even though I wasn't totally there. Yeah, he was doing more than the usual amount of sniffing, but otherwise, he was great. He did great blocking, even when rude people basically walked right into him (one woman huffed her way by and conked him with her enormous bag—I actually said, "Yeah, just walk right into him like he's not there!" in a slightly loud voice, but she didn't notice). He did "touch" when I asked but it wasn't enough, unfortunately, to bring my brain back into focus. Usually if I can feel myself getting out of it, repeated hand-touching will get me back again.
Oh yeah, right as we walked into the market, some guy shouted after us, "NO PETS!" Kaline had on his bright blue vest, which shows up very nicely against his gleaming black coat, and is covered in service dog patches. If I'd been thinking fast enough, I would've really given him an education; all I could get out was "He's not a pet." Damn you, failbrain.
Kaline was awesome in TJ's. About a minute after we came in, someone working there dropped one of those big plastic crate-type things. It was a big loud noise. Kaline didn't flinch, just stopped and then looked up at me—"Treat?" Yes, indeed, young man. Of course we had to go to the cheese aisle (second in challenging-ness only to the meat aisle) because I am totally addicted to Gouda. (Side note: NEVER call it "goooooo-duh." It's "chhhhh ow dah." You have to kinda hock up a loogie for that first sound.) He blocked, then sat when I asked and did an adorably alert down-stay while I stocked up. A guy in the checkout line said it was very hard to resist petting such a beautiful dog. Heehee.
And then we had Monday. Kaline was good; of course a few of the others were annoying. Naughty naughty children. Our midday siesta was not enough but it was very lovely. Kaline's presence was requested for our training session; the puppy loves him and thus so does his owner, even though Juno is a much better demo dog.
Anyway, Monday is over (yay!) but I'm still way stressed. Obviously the election is tomorrow. I need Barack Obama to win. Aside from all the multitudinous reasons I like him tons and absolutely despise, loathe, and abominate Romney, if Obama is elected, one day I will be able to get my own health care. If Romney is elected, I will never be able to get health care on my own. So tomorrow is going to be a little bit of hell. Hopefully I will get to go to bed knowing I don't need to think seriously about how to move to the Netherlands.
Moooooving right along. We had a decent weekend. Kaline is working really nicely, I must say. We didn't do a ton Saturday because I felt crappy. Sunday though, we did the Farmer's Market and Trader Joe's and the bagel store. I took both Juno and Kaline into the bagel store and they practically spooned. It was really cute and they did really well. We definitely got some looks, but whatever. Dad took Juno on a walk while Kay and I went with Mom to the market.
For some reason, after breakfast, my brain got really slow and fuzzy. I have heard people talk about "fibro fog," but I have never had that happen to me and I am not sure if that is what actually happened. Nonetheless it really sucked. I would be trying to talk to someone and it took three times as long to just process what they were saying, and then it was really difficult to respond appropriately. Kaline did his job even though I wasn't totally there. Yeah, he was doing more than the usual amount of sniffing, but otherwise, he was great. He did great blocking, even when rude people basically walked right into him (one woman huffed her way by and conked him with her enormous bag—I actually said, "Yeah, just walk right into him like he's not there!" in a slightly loud voice, but she didn't notice). He did "touch" when I asked but it wasn't enough, unfortunately, to bring my brain back into focus. Usually if I can feel myself getting out of it, repeated hand-touching will get me back again.
Oh yeah, right as we walked into the market, some guy shouted after us, "NO PETS!" Kaline had on his bright blue vest, which shows up very nicely against his gleaming black coat, and is covered in service dog patches. If I'd been thinking fast enough, I would've really given him an education; all I could get out was "He's not a pet." Damn you, failbrain.
Kaline was awesome in TJ's. About a minute after we came in, someone working there dropped one of those big plastic crate-type things. It was a big loud noise. Kaline didn't flinch, just stopped and then looked up at me—"Treat?" Yes, indeed, young man. Of course we had to go to the cheese aisle (second in challenging-ness only to the meat aisle) because I am totally addicted to Gouda. (Side note: NEVER call it "goooooo-duh." It's "chhhhh ow dah." You have to kinda hock up a loogie for that first sound.) He blocked, then sat when I asked and did an adorably alert down-stay while I stocked up. A guy in the checkout line said it was very hard to resist petting such a beautiful dog. Heehee.
And then we had Monday. Kaline was good; of course a few of the others were annoying. Naughty naughty children. Our midday siesta was not enough but it was very lovely. Kaline's presence was requested for our training session; the puppy loves him and thus so does his owner, even though Juno is a much better demo dog.
18 September 2012
Bad day, the sequel
The car drama continues, and the dogs continue to have to work on me. Feeling positive, I called the credit union once the dogs and I got out on our walk. I told the woman what my aunt had found with only five minutes' actual work. She said she had not received any emails from or about me (possible lie) but she was going to "head me off at the pass." Because the credit union only uses information from one credit score reporting company, and she had doublechecked whatever she'd done, she would not even look at the credit score I actually possess. The disapproval for the loan still stood, and if I wanted to do anything about it, I'd have to call Experian and fight with them.
Then I got some gobbledegook about how all the different credit score companies can have different information (how this is possible, I don't know). I told her that sounded incredibly stupid. She talked about having a contract with Experian, yadda yadda. Did I understand now? No, in fact, none of it made a jot of sense whatsoever. "Am I not speaking clearly?" she retorted. About to cry, I hung up, then had the meltdown.
I called my aunt, who had me call her friend who'd done the credit check on me yesterday. He agreed that given my credit card (MasterCard, nothing obscure) and the places I'd made purchases (again, not obscure) the idea that none of it would show up on a credit report was completely preposterous. So he called the credit union; the woman said she is not in the business of trusting people but making good loans. He got the same treatment: rude and stonewalled. So we're going to try somewhere else ... trying online at Chase, my parents' bank, led to a rejection within seconds, though. Gotta go in person, I suppose.
Again with the completely hopeless feelings. Not fun. Even less fun: I was giving my mom an update on the situation on my phone and walking the dogs. A grown bloody man stepped in front of Juno, didn't even make eye contact with me, and started freaking GROPING her. I snapped his head off: "You're supposed to ask before you manhandle other people's dogs!" He snapped something back but I wasn't listening. Sometimes, I wish Juno was a less tolerant dog toward strangers ...
Thankfully, training in the afternoon was lovely and made me feel a little better. Kaline did pretty well, participating in big dog heeling with the moving sit, moving down, and moving stand. If none of that makes sense: "moving" means that your dog does the command, while the person continues moving out to the end of the leash or some other point. Moving stand, naturally, was hardest for Kaline, but not terribly difficult. I got him stacked really nicely at one point! Then of course he moved. Ah well.
Juno was a freaking star. She did lovely off leash heeling, then worked on doing sits and downs while not moving out of the heel position (harder than it sounds!). Once she got the hang of it, she was gleeful—"up-down" is one of her absolute favorite games. Then we went in a big field with the other advanced dogs and did really long recalls. The best one was where I left Juno at one end and headed for the other, probably 75-100 yards (but I am not good at guesstimating measurements, so don't quote me!). Periodically I looked back to reinforce the stay; about three quarters of the way to my destination, I looked back and Juno was standing up.
"Sit!" I called. And her butt plopped down. I actually did a little fist pump of glee. Woohoo!
I made it to the end of the field, called her, and she came like a bat out of hell. Such a good dog. She got many treats and a good long belly rub.
After a long nap and cuddle, Kaline and I accompanied Mom to Stanford Shopping Center for a quick training outing. We worked on attention, as always, as well as not pulling (gaaaaah). He settled nicely behind me while we were at counters, if I asked; he also did pretty decent blocking if I asked for that. I had a good time exposing him to the escalators. His reaction was very Kaline—not scared, but utterly fascinated. We hung out there for a while; I gave him treats for looking calmly at the escalators, and for looking at me.
We also did a quick stop in at Trader Joe's and went up and down some aisles. Kaline did a lovely sit-stay with great attention while I got cream cheese off a high shelf. I had him do a down-stay and rolled one of these TJ bags on wheels all around him; he was fine until someone rang one of the big brass bells, and then Kaline had pretty much had enough. Ah well, he did fine!
Vet update: Kaline had a pretty big breakout, all of a sudden, of those little bumps last night after the CGC test. They were clustered on his left hock, and definitely itchy. So off we went to the vet; she called them "pyometra" and put Kaline on antibiotics and antihistamines. Woohoo for antihistamines and their knockout properties, hehe. Hopefully this will take care of those. I also started him on Frontline, and Oct. 1 he'll start getting a Heartgard with Juno.
Then I got some gobbledegook about how all the different credit score companies can have different information (how this is possible, I don't know). I told her that sounded incredibly stupid. She talked about having a contract with Experian, yadda yadda. Did I understand now? No, in fact, none of it made a jot of sense whatsoever. "Am I not speaking clearly?" she retorted. About to cry, I hung up, then had the meltdown.
I called my aunt, who had me call her friend who'd done the credit check on me yesterday. He agreed that given my credit card (MasterCard, nothing obscure) and the places I'd made purchases (again, not obscure) the idea that none of it would show up on a credit report was completely preposterous. So he called the credit union; the woman said she is not in the business of trusting people but making good loans. He got the same treatment: rude and stonewalled. So we're going to try somewhere else ... trying online at Chase, my parents' bank, led to a rejection within seconds, though. Gotta go in person, I suppose.
Again with the completely hopeless feelings. Not fun. Even less fun: I was giving my mom an update on the situation on my phone and walking the dogs. A grown bloody man stepped in front of Juno, didn't even make eye contact with me, and started freaking GROPING her. I snapped his head off: "You're supposed to ask before you manhandle other people's dogs!" He snapped something back but I wasn't listening. Sometimes, I wish Juno was a less tolerant dog toward strangers ...
Thankfully, training in the afternoon was lovely and made me feel a little better. Kaline did pretty well, participating in big dog heeling with the moving sit, moving down, and moving stand. If none of that makes sense: "moving" means that your dog does the command, while the person continues moving out to the end of the leash or some other point. Moving stand, naturally, was hardest for Kaline, but not terribly difficult. I got him stacked really nicely at one point! Then of course he moved. Ah well.
Juno was a freaking star. She did lovely off leash heeling, then worked on doing sits and downs while not moving out of the heel position (harder than it sounds!). Once she got the hang of it, she was gleeful—"up-down" is one of her absolute favorite games. Then we went in a big field with the other advanced dogs and did really long recalls. The best one was where I left Juno at one end and headed for the other, probably 75-100 yards (but I am not good at guesstimating measurements, so don't quote me!). Periodically I looked back to reinforce the stay; about three quarters of the way to my destination, I looked back and Juno was standing up.
"Sit!" I called. And her butt plopped down. I actually did a little fist pump of glee. Woohoo!
I made it to the end of the field, called her, and she came like a bat out of hell. Such a good dog. She got many treats and a good long belly rub.
After a long nap and cuddle, Kaline and I accompanied Mom to Stanford Shopping Center for a quick training outing. We worked on attention, as always, as well as not pulling (gaaaaah). He settled nicely behind me while we were at counters, if I asked; he also did pretty decent blocking if I asked for that. I had a good time exposing him to the escalators. His reaction was very Kaline—not scared, but utterly fascinated. We hung out there for a while; I gave him treats for looking calmly at the escalators, and for looking at me.
 |
| Kaline and the escalator. |
We also did a quick stop in at Trader Joe's and went up and down some aisles. Kaline did a lovely sit-stay with great attention while I got cream cheese off a high shelf. I had him do a down-stay and rolled one of these TJ bags on wheels all around him; he was fine until someone rang one of the big brass bells, and then Kaline had pretty much had enough. Ah well, he did fine!
Vet update: Kaline had a pretty big breakout, all of a sudden, of those little bumps last night after the CGC test. They were clustered on his left hock, and definitely itchy. So off we went to the vet; she called them "pyometra" and put Kaline on antibiotics and antihistamines. Woohoo for antihistamines and their knockout properties, hehe. Hopefully this will take care of those. I also started him on Frontline, and Oct. 1 he'll start getting a Heartgard with Juno.
29 July 2012
First vested outing; and the only time I will ever use a Flexi
This morning was super exciting to me, because Kaline got to have his first vested outing! It lasted all of about 15 minutes. Before we left the house, I had to kind of jerry-rig the vest, safety-pinning the long straps up so they don't dangle (obviously, at this point I have both straps as short as they'll go). I put Kaline and Juno's vests in Dad's car—he drove to the Menlo Park Farmer's Market, and the dogs and I walked, to take the edge off Kaline's morning energy.
We met Dad at the fish stand, and he had already completed the shopping! So he held Juno at that end while I vested Kaline and then headed in. We made one circuit of the market, just up and back. I was well-armed with treats, and Kaline was excellent. We wove through the crowds and he was interested, looking around, but anytime I asked him to watch, he did, pretty much immediately. He didn't sniff too much, and only pulled a little to go say hi to people. I was pleased at how he handled the quick up-and-back, and very pleasantly surprised at the fact that no one even asked to pet him, much less molested him without asking. Woohoo!
Dad had to pick up a few things at nearby Trader Joe's, so the pups and I followed him across the parking lot and just sat on a bench outside. I didn't think Kaline was ready to go inside TJ's, but I kept him vested, put him in a down next to Juno, and we just did some quality people watching. People-with-carts watching, even better. I admit, I feared that Kaline would have a cart phobia. Thankfully, he does not. He was very cute. Okay, fine, he's always very cute. But he just looked so adorable and businesslike in his vest!
We came home for a while, and then Dad started going on about finding somewhere for Kaline to run. Basically he had two ideas, dog park or tennis courts. I nixed the dog park because I will never allow either of my dogs into one; the benefits don't come close to outweighing the risks. Tennis courts got nixed because Kaline is way too young to be running on such a hard surface. Then he suggested the beach, and I thought, "Hey, that's an awesome idea!"
So, if you've known me more than five minutes you know I absolutely hate, loathe, and abominate Flexi leashes. However, when we go to the beach, I make a rare exception. I want the dogs to have a lot more freedom and play than on a normal walk, and it's appropriate for them to have more freedom. I don't want to let them completely off leash, though, because obviously the baby doesn't have a solid off-leash recall, and even if both dogs did, sometimes it's pretty hard to hear right by the ocean. So a Flexi, much as I hate to admit it, is a good compromise.
We ended up at a Half Moon Bay beach and had a lovely time. Juno likes to go walk around in the waves—not interested in swimming or getting in deep water, but definitely doesn't mind getting wet up to about her hocks. Kaline very plainly did not want to get wet. He had a good time running around though and after watching me scrabble in the sand with my feet, he went nuts digging. It was hilarious, because instead of alternating front feet, he tries to dig using both front feet at the same time. So there are frequent faceplants and he ended up with a lot of sand on his nose and in his mouth. A lot of it was in his mouth because he, um, was trying to eat sand. I have a silly puppy.
I tried to get photos of Juno and Kaline's pawprints next to each other, cause they're practically the same size. Unfortunately, while Juno leaves beautiful clear prints, Kaline doesn't really weigh enough to do that yet. Ah well! Everyone seems to be pretty zonked now; Kaline is being a more muted pest than normal, haha.
 |
| Kaline models his vest up in my room. Still needs to grow into it a little more! |
Dad had to pick up a few things at nearby Trader Joe's, so the pups and I followed him across the parking lot and just sat on a bench outside. I didn't think Kaline was ready to go inside TJ's, but I kept him vested, put him in a down next to Juno, and we just did some quality people watching. People-with-carts watching, even better. I admit, I feared that Kaline would have a cart phobia. Thankfully, he does not. He was very cute. Okay, fine, he's always very cute. But he just looked so adorable and businesslike in his vest!
 |
| Good settle, buddy. |
So, if you've known me more than five minutes you know I absolutely hate, loathe, and abominate Flexi leashes. However, when we go to the beach, I make a rare exception. I want the dogs to have a lot more freedom and play than on a normal walk, and it's appropriate for them to have more freedom. I don't want to let them completely off leash, though, because obviously the baby doesn't have a solid off-leash recall, and even if both dogs did, sometimes it's pretty hard to hear right by the ocean. So a Flexi, much as I hate to admit it, is a good compromise.
We ended up at a Half Moon Bay beach and had a lovely time. Juno likes to go walk around in the waves—not interested in swimming or getting in deep water, but definitely doesn't mind getting wet up to about her hocks. Kaline very plainly did not want to get wet. He had a good time running around though and after watching me scrabble in the sand with my feet, he went nuts digging. It was hilarious, because instead of alternating front feet, he tries to dig using both front feet at the same time. So there are frequent faceplants and he ended up with a lot of sand on his nose and in his mouth. A lot of it was in his mouth because he, um, was trying to eat sand. I have a silly puppy.
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| My goobers! |
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| Wee Kaline on the beach. |
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| Yooooo-no! |
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| Diggin' a hole! |
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| Which one of ... |
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| ... these is cuter? |
I tried to get photos of Juno and Kaline's pawprints next to each other, cause they're practically the same size. Unfortunately, while Juno leaves beautiful clear prints, Kaline doesn't really weigh enough to do that yet. Ah well! Everyone seems to be pretty zonked now; Kaline is being a more muted pest than normal, haha.
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