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.

Let the mostly sleepless marathon begin!

Yesterday was the big day! Obviously, there was kind of a lot going on.

We picked up Kaline around noon (we being me, Danny, Dad and Juno). He was at Air Canada Cargo—we could hear him yowling as soon as we walked in. They gave us paperwork there that we then had to drive over to Customs down the road, and then we drove back for the puppy.

Kaline in his crate at Air Canada Cargo.

He is so tiny! Well, except for his paws, of course. I know he won't stay that way for long, but he is little enough that I was able to pick him up yesterday. (I now know that was a bad idea ... well, I knew it at the time too, just didn't care! All muscles are in mutiny today.) He's fun to carry around, because he hugs onto your neck like a little monkey. He cried part of the way home in his crate—he is not a fan!—but then fell asleep. I guess it's a puppy thing, but I find it just so adorable: how Kaline can be totally into something one second, and then the next second, he's asleep!

We came home and mostly had a playful afternoon. Juno wanted/wants nothing to do with Kaline—I think she's afraid of him. He'll go up to her, kissing or playbowing, being very polite for a puppy, and she just walks away. She wasn't talking to me for a while but I think we're friends again as of this morning's training session.

Kaline and Danny!

Kaline smelled kinda bad after his trip, even though he didn't mess in the crate as far as I could tell, so I took him upstairs and gave him a bath. He hadn't peed since we got him, even though we gave him chances (he was distracted). I expected he'd end up going in the tub, but I was slightly off and he peed in the bathroom. Easy cleanup, totally not his fault.

Kaline in the bathtub.

He was very good in the bath, partly because he couldn't jump out no matter how hard he tried, being too small, and mostly because Maura did such a great job accustoming him to being handled. He didn't mind being touched anywhere or having his feet washed or getting his face wet. I loved how I could wrap up his entire body in the towel once I got him out.

What a face!

Danny, Dad and I hung out with Kaline in the living room (Juno wasn't having any of it) for a long time. He was like the Energizer Bunny for a while. We worked a little on sit, down, watch, get busy, and wait. He's really getting the hang of going potty immediately, outside, and on his leash. Hurrah. He had one more accident later that night—because he'd just woken up from a long nap, but instead of getting outside promptly, he got sidetracked being cuddled by Mom!

My stuffie!!

After Danny left for work, Kaline pretty much crashed. He had no problem sleeping in his crate if the door was open, but the minute I shut it, he would go ballistic. You can imagine how attempting to sleep last night went! Not so awesome. But we just have to ride it out; he absolutely can't learn that if he just cries LOUD enough, and LONG enough, he'll get what he wants. I've only been letting him out once he's quiet, and I'm trying to get him to wait. We need to do some crate exercises with the clicker ... First I have to introduce the clicker! (I've just been luring and treating so far.)

Asleep in the crate.

Today, Kaline's sit has been awesome. It's one of his defaults already, and he's starting to make nice eye contact. He'll stay a bit too, long enough for me to get from facing him to the heel position. He goes into a down very easily, but so far doesn't really want to stay there. He comes wonderfully (we're not doing the formal recall yet, just “Puppy puppy puppy!” and the like) and is starting to wait at the doors.

Walks are interesting. I don't know how much time Kaline has had on a leash. So far, he mostly will not walk ahead of me (big plus), but he kind of weaves around behind me. Sometimes he'll just stop ... so yeah, we're having fun on the walks! We've just gone around and back on the back streets here. Kaline was a little surprised by the train when he first heard it outside (inside, he couldn't care less) but he recovered really fast. He's catching on fast with the stairs too—we have a lot of stairs. Watching him go up and down like a little uncoordinated jackrabbit is way too much fun.

Juno finally talking to me again.

I really love Kaline's personality. He's bright, he's fun to do quick training sessions with (he has the attention span of ... a baby puppy!), he doesn't get frightened easily (just startled, and then curious) and he has an off switch! He's definitely up for relaxing/sleeping a lot. He also likes to chew his leash, but I've been redirecting him with a squeaky bone and a Nylabone. Fluffy bone is a big hit. Also sweet potato chews. Juno finishes those in about fifteen seconds; Kaline was still earnestly masticating his twenty minutes on.

Oh, speaking of earnest, have I mentioned his little head wrinkles? So precious. He looks so serious and pensive when he just plops down, cocks his head and wrinkles his forehead while looking at you in a quizzical way. He also makes gurgling noises when he sleeps.

And his ears. They are everything I thought they'd be and more!

Puppies are four weeks old!

Today the pups turned four weeks old, and it was “moving day.” Maura moved them into the main room, where they'll get to be around more of the bustle of the household. They'll also start meeting more people, including children, and they'll get handled by these people.

The pups in their crate, moving to their new spot in the main room. Look at those squooshy little faces!

This is incredibly important for all puppies, but especially for my little guy in his development as a service dog. Service dogs can't be scared of certain kinds of people—they've got to be relaxed around people of different sexes, sizes, shapes, colors, and ages. Juno gets randomly touched all the time by different people, despite all her patches. I tell people not to touch her, and try to block them if possible, but she's got to be relaxed with it happening if it does happen. A service dog has to be able to ignore the idiots and keep focusing on his or her job.

So the more things puppies are exposed to, and become accustomed to, at a young age, the better! Damn, I wish I lived near Maura so I could go visit.