Michigan Trip, Day 1

14 August 2013

What a long day our first one was. I got up quite early to make sure Kaline had a long walk before heading to the airport. I've never been quite so glad to have him do No. 1 and No. 2 with great efficiency! I basically let him pee on anything he wanted—I just wanted him empty.

By design, we did not get to the airport terribly early. It worked out perfectly. We had just enough time to check our bags, for me to whisk Kaline for one last pee at the far-away animal relief area, get through security, and board early.

On the way to the relief area, I had Kaline practice his momentum pull. He is still sometimes pulling too hard, but he did great in the few little crowds he had to navigate.

Security went okay, except for the shoe retrieve got botched. I will know for the future not to get caught up talking to the person behind me—while I was doing that, Kaline lost focus a bit and when I asked him to get the shoes, he looked at me like, “Ehhhh, you get 'em.” Dad got them. He did great getting both my jacket and hoodie off though. He held a nice down stay before his recall through the metal detector. A burly bearded guy did the pat down, and before starting he knelt in front of Kaline to get kisses and hugs. Kaline was thrilled.

In the short wait before we boarded the plane, Kaline, as I expected, had a nothing-vomit. Luckily, this was literally nothing (sometimes there is a tiny amount of yellow bile). He gave me so much warning with the heaving that I had time to search through my backpack, find the collapsible bowl, and position it in front of his mouth. Everyone was staring, it was a little embarrassing, but not too big a deal.

Kaline in the airport, post-nothing-vomit.

Kaline settled into his spot on the plane between my feet pretty well, but then got very scared by the takeoff. I was feeding his treats the whole time but it wasn't enough (then again, he never got so scared he wouldn't eat them!). For a while after we got in the air, he was trembling on and off, popping up, yawning, licking his lips, panting. Finally he settled down again and took a series of cat naps, mostly with his head on my knee. For his first flight, not too bad. He did pretty well on landing, just opened his eyes very wide.

On the plane, pre-takeoff.

Settled for a catnap.

My knee made an excellent chin rest.

In the Detroit airport, he was fantastic, just a bit overzealous with his momentum pull. We got our bags, then got the Hertz bus. Kay was very good on there. Getting the car took forever—I gave Kaline a long potty break, reapplied liquid bandaid to his ear, etc.—and Dad ended up getting a hulking Escalade (we exchanged it the next day because it was so monstrous).

Kaline on the Hertz bus.

We drove to TownePlace Suites, a hotel by the mall, which is not only pet friendly (so no hassle at the front desk about paperwork, ID, certification, or anything else) but also gave us an accessible room which had a separate bedroom, yay! We got dinner at nearby Red Robin and Kaline slept under the table.

In a kind way at dinner, the parents asked if I felt I would ever not need to use a SD, if I could “conquer” the psych stuff. I explained that since a SD works for me, that would be a reason to keep going, not stop. If I were on medication that treated my conditions, I would continue to take it, because it's doing what it's supposed to. I wouldn't see the fact that meds were working as a reason to discontinue them. Since medications don't work for me, I treat myself using a service dog. But it's the same basic idea. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I dressed Kaline in his Tiger pajamas when we got back to the hotel and he looked unspeakably adorable. He also tried to take over both the regular bed and the fold-out bed. Attaboy.

Kaline's bed.

Tigers jammies!

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.

Settling and the airport

We continue to work on Kaline's retrieving foundation, but lately I have found myself focusing on his long down/settling. Once he settles, he's good, but it takes him quite a while to actually do that sometimes. So with that being an unintentionally emphasized skill the past week or so, he's definitely improved.

In the mornings when I'm getting the dogs ready to go out on our pack walks, it's pretty common for me to forget something. So lately, instead of letting Juno and Kaline follow me around while I try to remember where I left what I forgot, I've been leaving them on sit or down stays and going to get it. Not exactly settling, but it's definitely stay practice and I go out of sight for either a brief time, or a longer time. They've both been holding their stays really well, and it's hard for both of them. Kaline because he's a baby, and Juno because she's always had some separation anxiety. I adopted her at 18 months and she'd basically been neglected outside up to that point, so I can understand her not wanting to let me out of her sight if she can help it.

Then at training, Kaline's been coming out with the big dogs to do long downs. He's being holding his long downs better than Juno! He still whines, and sometimes will do his patented slo-mo commando crawl, but mostly he just stays there! It's very exciting. The slo-mo commando crawl is hilarious also. He pops his little butt in the air, oonches his front feet forward, plunks his butt down. Lather rinse repeat, until he gets where he wants to be.

Kaline and Juno in front of the Rin Tin Tin poster at SFO.

Night before last, Dad and I had to pick up Mom at the airport. I took both dogs in (Mom would never forgive me if I brought just Kaline and not Juno to pick her up) and worked with them a bit in the accessible areas (i.e. areas where you didn't have to go through security). We stood around by security a while, and to my delight, when I told the dogs to down, they both did and Kaline laid his head on his paws! Sometimes he rolled on a hip without being asked! He hardly ever rolls on a hip by himself—perhaps it's a Doberman thing?

Kaline settles; Juno gives me the "I can't believe you're working me with him" look.

I took them walking up and down the largely empty area by the check-in desks, and it was pretty interesting to see the difference in Juno and Kaline's demeanors. Juno is, as one client calls her, "dogged." She is all business, head level with her back, ears relaxed and back, eyes mostly ahead except for quick occasional checks behind and to the sides. Automatically, she matches her pace to mine or walks slightly behind me.

Kaline, on the other hand, does not yet possess a Serious Work Face. His ears are up, his head's up, he's looking all around, he bounces, he speeds up, he slows down, all that good puppy stuff. Also, he seemed taller than Juno! I was super excited about that, let me tell you.

We came back to security to meet Mom; Juno thumped her tail but held her down when she appeared, and Kaline just stayed in his comfy little ball. Good puppies. They were great down at baggage claim too. I was waiting around a while, so I had Kay practice an "across," a deep pressure task where he lies across my lap while I sit cross-legged. Then once we had all Mom's stuff and the crowd had cleared, I made a circuit around the now-empty but still moving carousel so Kaline could see there was nothing scary about it. Nice, short and sweet outing.

I'm hoping to go out for some more work with the not-so-wee man tonight, and then tomorrow we have our Christmas obedience class.