Big day for Kaline!

The little man met a ton of people and dogs today, took it in stride, then crashed bigtime. We had another quiet night in the family room, although he needed to go out more than the night before. Almost had a poop accident, but I was able to rush him outside again before anything came out!

Kaline seems to like arising at 7:00 a.m. I can't say I support this, but for now, whatever. It gets us started on everything early, that's for sure. I took him and Juno down to Curves on the corner, where Mom exercises, because all her friends wanted to meet the baby. Comments on his paws, of course, were very plentiful.

I took the two dogs on about a half hour walk, then gave them breakfast. Kaline cleaned his bowl again! He went in the crate (more yowling) while Juno and I went on a long peaceful walk around the Circus Club. We saw a gorgeous high-stepping horse pulling a carriage! It was very cool.

We did some crate training with the big crate upstairs. I had the Kikopup video going for review, sitting on top of the crate, and was following along with Kaline, treats and my clicker. After about 10-15 minutes, he was happily offering the behavior of going in the crate. I still had to lure him into a down, but he'd stay in until I invited him out. Progress! I also got a picture of him lying on the bone-shaped mat that Mom got him, our nine-week photo.

Nine weeks!

When I got Kaline's food for lunch, he demonstrated his smartie-pants-ness. Juno knows she has to lie down before she'll be fed, so she doesn't bother crowding me at the kibble container—she just trots over to her bowls and lies down. Well, Kaline watches everything she does, and once I put food in his bowl, he promptly trotted over to Juno's bowls and sat expectantly. So cute! Later, when I was getting food together to take to Danny's uncle's house, Kaline heard it rattle and ran to his bowls and sat. I practically died.

We all took had a nice group nap before training, Kaline in the big blue bed, me and Juno cuddled on the couch. My girl needs her cuddle time. Normally she's not allowed on the couch if she's not working, but it's a safe place for her to be when Kaline is nippy, and it gets her some special individual time. Kaline is snuggly, but Juno really knows how to cuddle. She gets in position, and just stays there. Delightful.

My cuddly couch hog.

Today was Kaline's first day of training in the park—big day! Kristin brought a playpen for him to hang out in; Freddie got him a stuffed hive filled with stuffed bees, which Kaline can “de-stuff.” She had a crate pad for him and I put in his little Nylabone. Everyone was just enchanted with him. He was so great meeting all these people (mostly women, but one small child and a couple adult men also participated) and a bunch of dogs. He's polite, as a puppy should be, but he's not timid. At the end of training, everyone was doing relaxed down-stays on the grass in the shade, and Kaline participated with no problem. I mean, obviously he couldn't do a long down-stay, but he had no issues being in the midst of all the dogs.

Conked out in the playpen.

Kaline got to meet Freddie and Kristin, and our friend Suzie, who is also a trainer and used to have Dobermans. She was smitten with my little guy. She and Freddie had a great time pointing out nice things about his conformation. Diane, Peter the Poodle's mom, was also in love with wee Kaline. Yeah, he's super cute. He got to run around the little field with me a bit, hang out with Juno, sleep in his playpen, yowl, etc. Juno got to do more stuff, obviously—down-stays during weaving, high jump, bar jump, and broad jump (sort of), and a little dumbbell retrieving. She was not feeling that today, for some reason, but her recalls were awesome.

Post-potty break in the grass.

After training, we went over to Danny's uncle's house, where Kaline met Danny's grandparents, uncle and aunt, and young cousins. He was only awake for a little while; after attempting with great enthusiasm to excavate a tiny hole in the stone of the patio, he absolutely crashed. At one point, Juno was playing with Danny and barking her head off; Kaline sleepily opened his eyes, looked at her, then snuggled down and went right back to sleep. Everyone was amazed at how calm and mellow he is. I'm amazed at how mellow he is!

What do you think is in there, little man?

Kaline was so sleepy, he didn't even wake up for dinner!

He came home and continued to sleep. Guess being out at the park really wiped him out!

More stuff for the dogs!

Well, I finally ordered Kaline's in-training vest. He won't start wearing it in public for a while, but I want to be sure that 1) I have enough time to get all the patches sewn on before he needs it and 2) I have it when he gets here so I can take unspeakably adorable photos of him basically swimming in it.

This will end up being his backup vest—generally, I prefer the Petjoy Harness Vest (sometimes with saddlebags!) because it has the handle if I need it. And it looks more Serious And Professional. Obviously Kaline's not going to be doing any pulling for a very long time, so I'd rather he start off with this real light, basic vest. Why can't he use Juno's backup light vest? Cause I was an idiot when I purchased it and had “JUNO” embroidered upon it. Thus leading to all sorts of people going, “Look, a dog! Hey, Juno!”

I'm also in the process of ordering a kind of pop-up exercise pen, which I plan to use for both Kaline and Juno long-term at obedience trials. In the short term, I'm going to use it so Kaline can come out to training in the park without me worrying over him eating something/catching some sort of disease. Originally I was getting your basic six-sided pen, but then Lynn, the wonderful proprietor of Pet Place downtown, alerted me to a larger, taller pen which also has a top and bottom.

This baby.

If it isn't a ton more expensive than the other option, we're going with it. It looks awesome!

Juno also just got gifted a doggie puzzle. We put her dinner in it and it was pretty hilarious. She caught on fast. Definitely gonna use that for Kaline as well, provided he's as interested in his dinner as Juno is.