Rally Overdose! (Humiliating photos galore)

This past weekend, Juno, Kaline, and I did three Rally trials in two days. This was not, in fact, the best idea ever. Nonetheless, Juno earned her Rally Excellent (RE) title, and Kaline earned his Rally Novice (RN) title! Very exciting.

We had a new setup this year. Juno and I are minimalists and show up at trials with a folding chair and a travel mat, with a collapsible travel bowl hooked onto my belt loop so I can give her water at some point. Thanks to Kaline, we added to that: an enormous, exceedingly light and easy to pop-up Noz2Noz crate, a Ruffwear Mt. Bachelor pad to make the crate cushy, extra traffic lead and snake chain, Tigers jammies, etc etc. I felt slightly ridiculous, until I remembered that this is how “normal” people pack for trials. (Normal in quotes because ... yeah, if you do any kind of trialing, you're not normal.)

Trumbull packed and ready to go, except for the dogs!

 The first day, we got up at 4:30 in order to be at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds by 6:00 to set up and get our course map and start practicing. Juno was going to be first in the ring for Excellent, the first class of the day. So yeah, I was freaking out a bit. We got our favorite setup spot, and though the stewards were really slow/late handing maps out and checking people in, Juno and I were able to pace around the ring as the judge laid out the signs, and start practicing. Kaline snuggled down in his crate and was largely quite good about it. I think he realized it was the warmest, coziest, comfiest place he could really be (the building this trial happens in is SO cold, always).

Our setup at the show; red camp chair courtesy of our very kind friend, Laurie, cause mine is MIA.

The course was pretty nice for us, except for having a broad jump. Usually Juno does not believe in the broad jump. She just walks on it, which is a ten-point deduction. Since you can lose 30 points and still qualify, I don't fight her on the broad jump. We had practiced the send to jump (I'm not going to explain it, suffice it to say that it's really hard if your dog isn't in agility) a lot but that wasn't on the course. Anyway, I did my best to do Juno's usual warmup and got her really amped. Apparently, a little too amped.

We got in the ring and Juno was so excited that she flubbed things she's normally very precise about by just bouncing out of position. I just had to giggle at her, because she was so enthusiastic. We got to the broad jump and I gave her the “over” cue—and she sailed over it like a pro! I was so surprised I almost tripped over myself. She did the other jump fine and we qualified with room to spare, getting 82. That was her last leg for her RE title, and I was so thrilled. Little bummed that they didn't have the little medallions you usually get for a title, but still, it was cool.

Juno and her green ribbon for qualifying in Excellent. Her official title is now (Queen) SD Thundercats Are Go CGC CD RE.

We had to wait a long time for Kaline's debut in Novice. Outside of his crate, he was quite a pill, since he's collar-smart and knows he can get away with all kinds of things on his flat collar. He was most annoying. In the ring, he still got distracted and a little scatterbrained a couple times, but he was largely a very good boy and ended up with an 88 and his first leg!

Kaline's first green ribbon!

Had lunch, second trial commenced. Juno and I had a terrible time in our Excellent run. She was tired—I think that was the issue. Her main problem in general is lagging, and the lagging was extreme in that run. And she refused both jumps, probably because we had done too much jump practice outside the ring. Too many demerits and we NQ'ed. I was so bummed out I scratched from Advanced. (After you get the RE title, the next title is RAE, where you have to get qualifying scores in both classes in the same trial in order to get a leg. You need ten legs for the title). Kaline had a better run than in the morning and got a 93 for his second Novice leg.

Second leg!

The next morning, I was super excited to see that the Excellent and Advanced courses were really nice, in terms of playing to Juno's strengths. As I did the walk-through for Excellent, I noted that the sign for station 11 was in a weird place where it was easy to just miss it entirely. I spent the practice time repeating to myself not to miss that sign. So what happened when we did the course? Juno did rather nicely, other than refusing the second jump—and I missed station 11. Automatic NQ. UGH! Nothing feels worse than a massive handler error. We did Advanced just for giggles and though Juno lagged horribly and trying to motivate her was like pulling teeth, we still got an 89.

You can tell she's really thrilled.

Kaline did great in his final Novice run. He did all the stations so nicely, except for in the serpentine where we kept knocking into each other. He got a 94 and he got his title! That was a really nice end to the weekend.

Look Mom, I got a medal to go with my ribbon! His official title is now (Princess) SDIT Gatehouse As Time Goes By CGC RN.

I'm going to enter them both in one more trial (at a date to be determined) and if Juno is lagging and lackluster again, I'm just going to bag RAE for her. If she's not having fun and it's a chore and three jumps to practice for and then perform are just too much for her at this point, then it's too much. I'm not going to force her through all this for a title that is supposed to be “just for fun.”

Stay tuned for lots of training with Kaline on how to behave nicely on a flat collar.

Merry Christmas!

We had a lovely low-key Christmas, as usual. (Well, except for one thing.) Kaline, being a wee rambunctious man, didn't get invited to Auntie Jen's, so it was rather a Juno-centric day.

The night before, Juno, as predicted, was a very good girl at Christmas Eve dinner. She was in total work mode too—at the end of dinner but before we had left the restaurant, Auntie Jen asked to pet her and I said sure. Juno wasn't having it though! She kept politely touching her nose to Auntie Jen's hand and then backing up, like, “Yes, I like you, but I'm working right now so maybe we'll say hi later.” It was precious.

Juno in her ruff at the restaurant.

Mom and I stayed up late watching a movie and having doggie cuddles. Kaline was curled up in my lap/on my chest like a baby. Juno was on Mom, so there was no way to take a decent picture of both me and Kaline. So this will have to do:

Christmas morning dawned rainy and yucky, so I scooted each dog out individually to do his or her business (put them together, and they will take exponentially longer to get anything done), and then they had treadmill time. We headed down for them to have breakfast, and just as Juno finished inhaling her kibble, I noticed a bunch of red dots on the kitchen floor, like someone had been making some kind of jelly dessert and dripped everywhere.

And then I saw the wall in the family room, which had a huge red smear on it. Yes, Juno had whacked her lethal tail hard into the wall one too many times, and now she was bleeding everywhere.

I should probably mention that this has happened before, just not recently. When we first adopted her, her tail tip was totally raw from wagging in her narrow kennel run and constantly bashing it into the concrete walls. She kept busting it open and the vet was worried we'd eventually have to dock her tail. But we were careful for a while, she healed, and all was well. A few months later she bashed it open again following a bath, but again, she healed, and that was about the last time she did that. If you look at her tail now you can see the evidence, two little oval hairless patches.

I commenced a futile search for styptic powder and once that failed, stopped the bleeding with paper towels. I protected her tail successfully through her whole Christmas bath, only to have her thwack it against the doorjamb on her way out of the bathroom. Blood everywhere again.

Mom devised a bandage with non-stick gauze and medical tape. Most dogs probably would have nibbled it off, but once it was on (Juno did not enjoy that process) she completely left it alone. It stayed on the entire day, we had no more bleeding, and it would've stayed on probably through the night, if I hadn't cut it off to let her little wound breathe overnight.

So that was our Christmas drama.

Kaline stayed home in his crate while Juno, suitably spiffy in her Christmas ruff, came along to Auntie Jen's. She was great, following me closely almost the whole time (during dinner she left a few times to go beg and had to be called back). I got some excellent dog related presents, including a new Dremel (one that runs off a charger, instead of batteries—my current Dremel burns through four Double-A's every time I do Juno and Kaline's nails) and a lovely bone-shaped necklace charm. On once side it says JUNO in even, neat capital letters, and on the other side it says Kaline in letters that change in size, capitalization, and location. Pretty much sums them up, no?

Juno got to partake of many different Christmas foods, thanks to Mom, who was bubbling with glee due in no small part to the wine. (Usually one glass is enough to make her fall asleep ...) She got honeybaked ham, non-chocolatey bits of cookie, sourdough bread, baby carrots and who knows what else when I wasn't looking and going, “MOM! Whyyyyyy?!” But hey, she has an iron stomach and she deserves her treats, since she's the best dog ever.

Juno in front of the tree and all the presents. She's the best present!!!

Juno supervises present opening, using the table as a chin rest.

Me and Juno in front of the tree.

Juno and the mini-tree.

Saturday Class No. 5 and Tour of Gymnastics Champions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Juno in the box.

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

The Shark Tank before the show.

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

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

Juno and Pilaf on the ride home.

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

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

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

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

Dogs cuddling.

Saturday Class No. 4 and a San Francisco trip for Juno

Used up all my spoons for the day, oh boy. We got up early because the parents were having the carpets cleaned. Dad, the pups, and I went to Borrone's to grab breakfast before class. Kaline worked on under and attention with other dogs around; I tried to follow Sonja's advice but sometimes it's hard, when Kaline is just staring away at other dogs. I'll work on myself.

Kaline on the way to class. He looked like an alien.

Class was great fun. We did retrieving stuff at the beginning; Juno got to demo hold and out, and then I got to play with Kaline. He's too little to really do hold and out yet, but I had a stuffed anteater for him that he could work on fetching. He had an excellent time.

Heeling didn't go as well as it has been, for some reason—I worked with him on informal loose-leash walking after class though, with the clicker. We gotta get cracking on that for the CGC in mid-September! We did a ton of different recall stuff and Kaline did pretty well. Still working on coming in straight, but his sit-stay was rock solid and at least he came gleefully in my direction. One time Percy, the young colored bull terrier, practically sat on Kaline and my guy didn't get up, just shifted a little. He got compliments on his confidence—we had the dogs in really close quarters, in down-stays, and Kaline just rested his head on his paws, chilling out. Not a lot really bothers him.

All through class, whatever we were doing, I had my clicker in my hand and was c/t-ing Kaline for choosing to give me attention. It was really fun, it was like our own little class within a class. And our loose-leash work was cool too, he really seemed to be having a good time and understanding what I wanted. We'll get it in time for the CGC!

We came home, everyone's brain fried, and had naptime, Kaline in his crate and Juno snuggling with me on my bed. Then I did grooming for both dogs—I got their nails so short, what a great triumph! (Yeah, I know, my life is super exciting.)

There was a San Francisco Atheists event in the city at 4:30, so Juno and I took BART there. I was already getting hyper-anxious; Juno had to do a lap-up before we even got on the train.

Juno keeping watch before BART scared the crap out of her.

Juno had only been on BART one time before, and she did not at all enjoy her second trip. She does fine on trains, in cars, and on airplanes, but something about the BART train's noise and movement really bothered her. It makes kind of a high-pitched noise at some points, and then you'll go through tunnels and the crashing noise of the train on its rails reverberates all around. Juno's head was up, her ears were at attention, her eyes were wide, and she even whined a little, all very out of character for her.

Luckily, I had brought her dinner in a baggie, and Juno is about the most food-motivated dog int he whole world. I treated her whenever the weird noises happened and whenever she looked at me. Right at the end of our 40-minute ride, she finally sighed and put her head on her paws. Grin.

She was so stoked to leave the BART station that she did some of the best momentum-pulling she's ever done! Juno was excellent going to the pub, pulling steadily and following my directionals. Being in the city on our own ratcheted up my anxiety, but Juno kept me moving. We found the pub without too much trouble, but it was really crowded when we got in. Another lap-up. Then we settled in at a group table and listened to Greta Christina's excellent talk on Atheism and Sexuality. Juno curled up cozily on her mat and slept through the whole thing.

Chilling out at Schroeder's with the SF Atheists.

Greta Christina!

Juno on the way back to BART.

Getting back on BART was the absolute worst part. After sitting through the talk, I was having flareups in pretty much every joint I could think of, and I was basically out of spoons. I was anxious about how Juno would be on the train, anxious about going underground, riding in the toilet-smelling elevators ... And then the train arrived, crammed to the windows with people. It was all I could do just to get on.

Of course, did anyone sitting in the disabled seats get up for us—a clearly marked service dog team? Nope, not a chance. I couldn't grab any of poles or straps, cause my hands hurt. We were pressed in on all sides by people. Juno was doing touch, over and over, hard, on my open right hand because I was about to have a panic attack. The train lurched and to save myself from falling I went on my knees on the floor next to Juno, trying to ground myself by stroking her and concentrating on keeping her from sliding around. After one stop, when a couple people got off and we could get next to a wall, I moved us there, Juno blocking in front of me. The guy whose bike was behind me against the wall started yelling not to bend his spokes, and I almost just melted down. It was just really bad.

Juno doing grounding work on BART.

Finally we got an actual seat, and Juno laid down behind my legs and put her head on my feet—more grounding. This third time on BART, she was the cool, collected one. It was like she'd gotten all her scared-ness out on the previous ride, and she was back to normal for the ride home. I was really proud of her. She did an awesome job today. Best dog ever.

Cuddling to keep warm waiting to get picked up at the BART station.

Sometimes I wish Kaline was being filmed 24/7

Last night, Kaline had a big milestone! And damn, I wish I had video of it. Juno had just opened the fridge for me—there is actually a rope toy looped onto the door handle for this purpose. As always, Kaline had watched intently. Sometimes he'll mouth the toy, but that's as far as it's gone.

But last night, once the door had closed, Kaline took the knot in his jaws and just started tugging away! The whole family were in the kitchen, so all of us were just cheering him on. He had a hard time, because he is wee and also because he was pulling from a bad angle, but he kept on going, and eventually he got the door open! We all made a huge fuss over him.

I was really impressed not just with the physical aspect of it—I didn't think he was strong enough to open the door—but with the fact that Kaline learned all of this just from watching Juno. I never did any work with him on opening the fridge. Sometimes I'd verbally praise him for mouthing the rope, but nothing more. No treats, no focused attention, nothing!

Juno is a very good teacher, and Kaline is one smart, observant little boy!


Some notes ...

Operation Peace & Quiet Update: Kaline went on a lot more timeouts than Juno last night—they swapped. I didn't really keep count, although at one point Kaline was in and out three times in about three minutes. It really seems to be working—the barking has decreased markedly, even when Kaline doesn't have his pressed rawhide or a bully stick.

Training in the Park: Juno did bar jump, instead of flyball jumping, and did her usual 26 inches, woohoo. She also did fabulously on heeling figure eights. Usually this is a problem for us, as Juno is a chronic lagger on the outside turns. We watched Kristin and Ben go first (a very tough act to follow), and when it was our turn, I tried to position my free hand (left) and the hand holding the shark line (right) just like Kristin had. And Juno did much better than normal! It was very exciting to have her actually watching while she was heeling and staying exactly where she was supposed to be.

Kaline also got to work on some heeling, though not figure eights, more up and back along a line of dogs doing down-stays. We did lots of left turns and left-about turns. Kaline actually does okay at left-about turns because he doesn't really have the automatic sit yet. Most dogs have issues learning that because they sit right in the middle of it, but not Kaline. Yay.

Kaline's Neck: Freddie agrees that the flat collar is probably the culprit. The head collar was only a so-so solution for pack walking, unfortunately. So Kaline may just end up going collar-less as much as possible, and wearing the prong collar for walks and training only. For walks he'll have to wear the super-soft flat as well, just in case. No prong when he's tethered, either. (Obviously he'd never be tethered using the prong, but usually we leave those collars on just for convenience. Dogs are always tethered on their flats.) Hopefully that will help. I remember having tons of issues getting Angel's hair to grow and stay nice on the front of her neck too ... sigh.

Pet Peeve: Between yesterday and today, I had to explain to people that there is no such thing as a Miniature Doberman Pinscher, and neither is there such a thing as a King (sometimes called Warlock) Doberman. Miniature Pinschers (note the absence of "Doberman"!) may look similar, but they are an unrelated breed. The woman who believed they were actually miniature Dobes had MinPins. I guess I have unrealistic expectations that if something is your breed of choice, you actually know something about it. Silly me. Oh yeah, she doublechecked with me if Kaline was in fact a miniature Doberman. Did ya look at his feet?

King or Warlock Dobermans are simply irresponsibly bred Dobermans, bred to be oversize on purpose. Anyone who breeds for large size (i.e. above the breed standard) is not a reputable breeder. Dobermans should be medium sized, athletic, graceful, elegant dogs, not lumbering hulks. In case anyone is reading this and thinking about looking for a puppy: When researching, if a breeder's site says they breed King, Warlock, or extra-large Dobermans, or they brag about how big their dogs are, run away.

Ending on a Positive Note: Kaline's being cuddly on the couch right now. Excellent. He's also started a new habit of being very chilled out in his crate in the morning. He usually wakes up when I do, but stays all curled up. So instead of rushing him outside in my pajamas, I can shower and actually get dressed, and then he's ready to go out for his first potty break of the day. Fantastic development from my point of view.

Also super cute—when my mom went to put Kaline to bed last night (I was out with Juno on her last potty break), he jumped up, put his paws on top of his crate, got his new rope-dog that I'd left there, then trotted right inside. Awwwww.

Two days of Gracie!

Kaline is having a most excellent time, and Juno is getting a bit of a break from puppy pestering: Miss Gracie is here! She was in “daycare” yesterday and again today, and she and Kaline just play nonstop. Really quietly too—when Juno and Kaline are “playing,” it's a nonstop barkfest that will give you a headache in 15 seconds. Because Juno cannot manage to play without barking incessantly. To that end, I finally found her old bark collar in the recesses of my trunk. No idea if it actually still works, but while wearing it, there's no barking! So yay.

The pups had a good time at training yesterday in the park, though I was preoccupied most of the time with the fact that Kaline had still not had his post-breakfast poop. He'd had a walk, an awesome play session with Gracie, then fun before training actually began, yet still, no poop. I worry about these things. (He finally went after “jumping”—4-6 inches, worry not.)

The big dogs were excellent. We had every single dog out doing an off leash down-stay except for one seriously spastic poodle-mix. (I won't rant here ... yet ... but “Labradoodles” and “Goldendoodles,” these are not actual breeds.) First they were in a long line, so one or two working dogs at a time could practice weaving and heeling, and then they were in two parallel lines, so we could do The Gauntlet, a recall exercise where the one working dog does a recall between the two lines of dogs in downs. The Gauntlet is probably my favorite exercise ever.

Dogs on left, front to back: Ben, Gracie, Shadow, Tex, Juno; dogs on right, front to back: Xena, Phi, Rocky, Lucky, Peter, Rio.

After the stays, weaving and recalls, most of the dogs got to go play in the sprinklers. I use sprinkler time mostly as a way to work on Juno's recall some more, teaching her to come even when having tons of fun. And once she comes, she gets to go play more. She gets all gleeful and soaking wet. I must figure out a way to get Kaline to love sprinklers as well.

As usual, Kaline got to participate in what we jokingly call the Kumbayaya Session, where most of the dogs come out and do group down-stays in a loose circle. He worked on his sit, down, watch, stay, stand and newest one, high-five. (I realized a bit belatedly that for him I would like “shake” to mean shake like after a bath.)

He was so not tired after his long day though. It was kind of insane. He even got a visit, after training, from two of my former Kepler's colleagues, who gleefully played with him and entertained him for half an hour or so. Everything he did was the New Cutest Thing Ever. He got handled everywhere, and was cool with it. But still, there was much leaping onto couches (he has never been invited onto the couch, only lifted there when sleepy, so I don't know why he thinks he can go there), and much chewing of things that are not his toys. Sigh. Even his last walk did not do much to curb the zoomies.

Happily, he slept through the night. This seems to be becoming, dare I say it, a habit. I love.

I got up extra early this morning so I could go get Gracie before Juno and Kaline's walk. Another mini-pack experience for Kaline. He did well again, though we still have to work on not licking other dogs' ears while walking. We ran into the UPS man, who Juno loathes for no good reason, and Kaline loves, just like Angel did. UPS man loves dogs back and was quite happy to see his little buddy. Oh yeah, and yesterday Kaline met an older lady with a walker. Not fazed in the least.

It's kind of interesting, Kaline changes my whole approach toward other people. Generally I try to avoid contact of all kinds. No touch, no talk, no eye contact, right? But with Kaline, I'm always thinking, “Oooh, that person totally fits a demographic I want to make certain Kaline is comfortable with! Oooh, ze is looking at the puppy with interest! Let's go meet hir!!!” Basically, I'm looking for humans who are not completely able-bodied women (because I have so many of those in my life that Kaline is in no danger of being underexposed to them). Obviously, if such a woman wanted to meet Kaline, I would never say no! Men, children, extra tall men, people in wheelchairs, people with crutches, people with walkers, people in uniform, people with strollers—all these people have become targets (I mean that in the best way possible!). So I constantly find myself asking, “Can he say hi?” And the answer is pretty much always yes.

After the first walk, Kaline went for crate time and Juno, Gracie and I went on our two pack walks. Then Kaline and Gracie had a massive play session. It's unbelievable the things Gracie will put up with! I find it hilarious that Kaline ended up tiring her out, not the other way around. I feel kind of accomplished though—I devised a morning that crashed out a one-year-old Labrador! Hurrah!

Everyone is currently crashed for their afternoon siesta. Sounds like a plan to me.

We are very tired

Well, “we” being me and Juno. Kaline is in his crate, hopefully having a cooldown. He was doing all the tired, cranky puppy things, so I figured it was time for a nap.

Yesterday, Kaline actually got to participate in training. It was super exciting. We did his basic things, but this was in a far more interesting environment—grass underfoot, dogs all around, birds, squirrels, etc. But Kaline was pretty awesome.

He did watch, sit-stay, down-stay, and stand pretty well. One time he was doing a down stay and I was walking around him, and he was paw-to-paw with Rocky, a little Golden-Poodle mix (basically the only representative of his mixture that I actually like). We also worked on recalls, alongside two other dogs. Kaline came, but when he goes to sit, he will rock way back. So Freddie said to work on having him run all the way through—throwing a toy between my legs for him! That's gonna be fun.

Kaline's idea of where he should sit in the car. (Worry not, my ancient car lacks passenger-seat airbags. All airbags, actually.)

Juno and I had a lovely time at the park as well. At training, since Juno has to be tethered when I work other dogs, she gets all stoked about being with me. (At home right now, she is still giving me the doggie silent treatment most of the time.) She did fantastic recalls, and we practiced finding the heel position. I love doing that with her. I can get her to adjust where her butt is in her sit by just peering at her from different angles. She also, oddly, responds to the words “move up” and “tuck it in, eh?” I never meant to use those as cues but they just happened. You have to say “eh” or it won't work, by the way. (Yay Canada.) We also did remote sits and downs, and worked on her doing sits and downs in heel position without rolling her hip over.

When we came home, everyone crashed.

Awww.

We worked on the front position (where Kaline should end up in the recall) a bunch today, though not with the toy because all we had was the kitchen/family room, and there's just not enough space. I was just clicking and treating for touching my knees with his nose, sitting close to me, etc. It was kinda haphazard, I admit ... but hey, we'll figure it out.

Kaline also got to work on: sits and downs with no food lure, just hand signal; sit from a down position; stand from sit and stand from down; leave it; settle; flip finish (going to heel position from front position); and his first trick, shake. It started with me holding a treat in my closed fist, waggling it under his nose in an annoying manner (if I hold it still, I want him to leave it, generally). Eventually he pawed my fist with his left paw, the one I want (!). C/T, and off we went. He's not quite to the point where I can hold out my hand and ask for a “shake” and it'll happen, but we are thiiiiis close. Touch, with his nose, is going really well now. He will take several steps to get to my hand and touch it, and will turn to either side as well. Usually the touch comes with a lick. I sure don't mind.

I can't wait till next week when, hopefully, Kaline can start coming out on pack walks. I was a little worried about him today because he had to spend about three hours in the big crate while Juno and I were out with the packs. He just graduated to an actual bed in there (I really hope I don't regret that!), and he didn't rip it apart or anything. He was trying to remove the tags when I got back, but otherwise, no issues. (I removed the tags. Kaline is industrious but his jaws are, as yet, not very effective at destruction.)

Kaline in his new bed. Don't destroy it!!!!

The bed makes the crate look so much more comfy than the towel/pad combo. It has this roll around three sides of it—we originally got it for Juno when she was blind and suddenly had to stay home more, and she is all about chin rests, let me tell you—so Kaline can lean his back against something that's not the wire side of the crate. Seems warmer too. Not that it's been cold here. I've been walking dogs early because of the heat.

Anyway, going on pack walks means 1) Kaline will spend less time alone being bored and 2) he will get a ton more exercise and exposure! It's going to be super exciting. It will be interesting to see who gets more attention downtown, Kaline or Jett, the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog. So far, a succession of baby Labradors have not been able to pull passersby's eyes away from enormous handsome Jett, so we'll see how Kaline does.

Kaline's 11-week-old photo.

Fourth of July and aftermath

Kaline and Juno had a pretty fun day! We got invited, along with my parents, to the house of a family friend for a 4th of July party. They just redid their backyard and it looks so pretty! They've got a little mix named Joey who is about Kaline's current size, so Kaline was really excited to play with him. Joey, unfortunately for the pup, has a pretty one-track mind when there's food around, so Kaline was not high on his priority list! Nonetheless, Kaline had a good time following Joey around.

Kaline under one of the stools. Enjoy it while it lasts, buddy!

Juno hopes for a bite of hot dog.

Pretty backyard.

Kaline and Juno's paws.

Kaline fell asleep, as he is wont to do.

Oh the cuteness.

Kaline hanging out with Joey, the 4-year-old, and her grandparents.

Raaawwwrr, chase me!

Kaline and our lovely hostess.

Kaline and his new buddy.

Good puppy.

The noble, regal, dignified Doberman.

Joey.

Kaline and Joey playing.

Pooped puppy!

There was a low table with a bunch of food on it, and Kaline and Joey were around that a lot, but Kaline never really offered to beg or (worse) take any of the food. Good puppy! He did drink out of a plastic water cup that was on the ground, but can you blame him? There were two bunches of balloons as well, and it was a little windy—Kaline was a little curious, definitely not afraid. He seemed surprised that he would get treats for being around the balloons, but certainly wasn't going to refuse!

Black dogs by the balloons.

Juno was fantastic. She shadowed me the entire time, lying down whenever I stopped for a bit. She did her usual share of begging with her big, sad brown eyes, but that was it. She only begs from people she knows, anyway. At one point she was asleep next to my left foot, and Kaline was asleep between my feet. Too cute.

Juno supervises the playtime.

Juno and Kaline napping during lunch.

In addition to Joey, Kaline got to meet several tall men, a four-year-old girl, and a bunch more women. Hurrah. He did great with everyone, and everybody wanted to fawn over him. At the end he even played a little fetch with the four-year-old.

Later that night, we went out for a walk, during which we could hear firework booms. Neither Juno nor Kaline reacted at all. I taped the Boston Pops fireworks show for Kaline, to use as desensitization, but he slept through it. On our walk, we met many new friends, got charged (again) by the local Pekes, and met a carful of beautiful Greyhounds. Kaline is doing so awesome with meeting new people and dogs!

Today he's been kind of naughty. Lots of mouthiness, ignoring his own toys to go bite hands/electric blankets/power cords, pestering the crap out of Juno, etc. I took him on an evening walk with Juno, during which he peed and pooped, and then when we came home he promptly peed in the big blue bed. Twice. Sigh. At least we got three decent (not pudding) poops out of him today! TMI, I know.

Send back that puppy. He peed in my bed, you took it apart, and LOOK HOW SAD I AM.

But he was really good when we took him to lunch at a local burger place, just slept under the table. And he was very good about his couple of stints in the big crate. We're basically scrapping the little crate, even though he still fits. He will willingly go in his big crate, and he doesn't cry in there like he's being tortured.

We had a training session out in the common area (grass, leaves, cement, etc.) Kaline did pretty well. We worked on his sit and down stays, watch, come, a little heeling, sit-down-stand, and not being mouthy. I started teaching him to lie on his side as well. He's finally getting touch! I even moved my hand from directly in front of his face to either side, and he still got it. Yay.

Kaline's post-meal cottage cheese face, before he licked it off.