Sneaky puppy

It's been kind of a long day, so here's a funny from yesterday. We did our hopefully-to-become-routine walk with Dad to Borrone's for Sunday breakfast. I worked on not pulling with Kaline there and back. He was a ton better today, but we'll have to see if it really sticks.

Anyway, Kaline was under my chair, Juno under the table outside at Borrone's. Kaline kept popping up, because there were Dachshunds under the next table. I kept replacing him in the down. This happened enough that by the time we were almost done, he had no illusions about me wanting him to hold the down.

But now he was cold. I think Lizard (shortened from Lizard Sounds) will be an excellent nickname for Kaline. With his very shiny but not very warm Doberman coat, he's like some cold-blooded reptile. It's August, for crying out loud, and he's shivering in the shade.

I wanna go in the sun. But Mommy told me not to break my down. But I'm cooooolllld! 

Ahhh, warmth.

So my clever little man compromised. I watched the whole process and for some reason it did not occur to me to take video. He'd push his little but up very close to his front legs (not up enough to be considered breaking the down), then crawl forward on the front legs, then repeat. Finally, he was completely in the sun. Also completely in the aisle that servers were using to bring food to people, and people were using to get to their tables. He'd worked so hard though that I let him stay there for a bit while I giggled and marveled at him. Then we worked out a compromise where he got to lie in the sun but was right behind my chair, where there was less chance of him getting stepped on.

Today, Kaline's been on four freaking walks and still had energy up to about ten minutes ago. One walk was just with Juno, and we did some training in the park, like double-dog recall drills. (One dog has to hold a sit stay while the other dog does a recall past him/her; then the positions are reversed.) Kaline seems to have lifted his limit on recalls and is doing more than three, hooray! Sometimes he gets up speed though and chooses to do a drive-by rather than crash into my legs ... While I appreciate the consideration, it's definitely not a habit I want him to get into!

Juno, Teddy and Kaline after pack walk No. 2 (Bentley not pictured).

He then did two pack walks with the different groups, had crate time, snuggle time, more crate time while Juno got her snuggle time, then went on a training walk all by himself back to the park. We worked on "here" aka the informal recall—he doesn't have to sit in front of me, he just has to come back and put his nose in my right hand, and then he can go play again. We did a couple formal recalls too. Remote sits and downs, leave its, walking nicely next to me. In the right situation (i.e. low to medium distraction), he has such fabulous eye contact while walking next to me! We just have to work on him remembering to look out as well, so he doesn't faceplant.


The 'rents babysat Kaline while Juno and I met my buddy Danny for dinner at the Goose. I had briefly considered taking both, because Danny hadn't met Kaline, but I wanted to talk to Danny and find out what's been going on with him, not spend half the time under the table keeping Kaline in a down and peace between the babies. It was a good choice. Got a smart-ass in line who was like, "Didn't I just see you drive into the parking lot?" (As in, how can you be blind and need a guide dog if you can drive?) Other than that, it was great. Juno even managed to resist the peanut shells under the table. (That is one of the charms of the Goose, you can toss your peanut shells on the floor. But Juno really likes to eat peanut shells.)

Danny got to meet Kaline after dinner and my little man was kind of a pest. Okay, he was REALLY a pest. Sigh. But now both dogs are asleep. And I still have to take Kaline's 17-week picture. Oops.

ETA: Here is the 17-week picture!

Oh yeah! Milestone of the Day: It has now been THREE WHOLE WEEKS since Kaline had an accident in the house. Rejoice. And Juno's new pretty dog tag came!

Giants game

Last night, Danny, Juno and I went to the Giants game! We actually ended up getting to see my friends Sonja and Nicole, who both also have service dogs. It was crazy we ended up at the same game! Sonja and her SD, Jolanda (who is the cutest little Australian Cattle Dog ever) came to visit us at our seats. I keep score during ballgames and won't move unless I am forced. Sonja fostered a litter for her local shelter, and it turns out she kept one of the pups, Chief, to train as Jolanda's successor! So that was pretty exciting.

Juno spent the game conked out behind my legs (and Danny's, of course—she's big). Despite worries about squishing her in a small space, that arrangement actually worked out a lot better than having her in front of our feet, which is what we did in Sacramento. She hardly moved at all, where in Sacramento, she was a bit fidgety sometimes. And amazingly enough, people were able to get by us without stepping on any of Juno's paws or her tail! Win.

After the game, we decided to take the elevator down. I do not do well in crowds (like the one going down the ramp). I ended up in a crowd anyway, waiting outside the elevator vestibule, and while we were basically trapped by people, with Juno blocking as best she could, some guy reached down and started fondling her ears. Normally I'm happy to educate the general public, but when I'm trying to hold it together, and Juno's doing her best to help, and someone jumps in trying to pet/distract, I am, shall we say, bitchy.

I smacked his hand lightly, and said, “Don't pet her, she's a service dog.” As if it wasn't obvious, what with the many patches and the harness. He looked at me like I was the meanest person ever. Don't care.

Then I heard Nicole and her family calling—they were in line too! So we moved back a little in line, and Danny got to meet everyone. Juno and Becker, Nicole's SD, were incredibly cute, having their little reunion. Even after we told them to go back to work, they kept sneaking sniffs. And you just have to laugh.

We got on the same elevator, and heard a lovely wonderful mother telling her kids, “Those dogs aren't for petting. They're working dogs.” I absolutely love it when I hear parents educating their kids. I also love going around with other SD handlers, because invariably they're much better than I at answering the various questions we always get.

Juno pulled marvelously all the way back to the car, and did pretty much the cutest thing Danny and I had ever seen. Normally she has no problem walking on any kind of surface, but we came up to this metal plate in the sidewalk (solid, not a grate), and totally nonchalantly, Juno jumped over it and then resumed her steady pulling. Barely broke stride. We were laughing about that for a while!