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.

Outings with Chief

Kaline and Chief are fast becoming best friends. They will play with each other until one or both basically collapses from exhaustion. Yesterday, Chief and Sonja came out to training in the park. Kaline's face when he saw Chief arrive was priceless. He was stoked.

Juno and Kaline didn't get a ton of work in yesterday—we had a lot of dogs. Kaline did a pretty good job doing figure eights for the first time, though. It's a great heeling exercise, because the human has to work very hard on keeping a smooth, steady pace regardless of the turns (I usually hum "Do You Remember" in my head because it has a good beat to match my pace to), and the dog has to work on maintaining the heel position through an inside turn (slow down) and an outside turn (speed up). So Kaline got to do figure eights, and Juno got to do jumping and recalls and down-stays. We say it lovingly and jokingly, but her nickname, from all the broken down-stays, is Goddammit Juno. (Just like Peter is Jesus Peter.) We have a little too much fun cracking up and joking about at training.

We left training at exactly 4:30 to get home and be ready for our Animal Control appointment. They were scheduled to come between 5:00 and 8:00. Because Kaline is Canadian, there were all kinds of incredibly preposterous restrictions on him from Customs. Apparently rabies is just rampant there, and all puppies, even from great breeders, are exposed. (That's sarcasm.) Seriously, the restrictions on Kaline were identical to those he'd have had if he were an unvaccinated dog who'd been in contact with a confirmed rabid animal. If one actually followed those rules with a puppy from 9-17 weeks old, you'd have the most maladjusted, antisocial dog ever. Basically no going outside except to pee in the backyard, no contact with any humans or dogs outside the immediate family.

Anyway, yesterday was the day we got our figurative walking papers. The lovely man from Peninsula Humane Society came, I opened the door, he cooed over Kaline, and then said, "Okay, you're all set!" I was a little confused and said, "Um, don't you want to see his rabies certificate?" He shrugged and said, "Sure, if you have it." Clearly enforcing these insane rules is not a huge priority for them (he asked if Kaline had been through puppy classes yet, even though he wasn't ever supposed to set foot outside the house). And that's as it should be, because there are a lot of dogs actually in need of their attention! We had a great time chatting with the Animal Control officer about the improvements made at PHS (Juno is an alum) and about the two wonderful dogs he adopted from there. He just loved Kaline. Of course.

Today we had our pack walks in the morning, then came home for lunch and a lovely snuggly nap. Our tdoc appointment got cancelled, so we went on adventures. First we stopped by Mr. Choo's, the tailor, to introduce Kaline to him (he's crazy about Juno and has been asking my mom to get me to bring Kaline by). He loved the puppy and made sure to lavish attention on Juno too. Kaline was a little more distracted than normal because there was a big mirror; he still doesn't trust that strange dog who looks just like him and keeps copying him without fail!

After that, we went to meet Sonja, Hendrik and Chief over in Burgess Park. We let the puppies play off leash—they ran each other ragged and had a brilliant time. There was one point where their play drifted into a little soccer area for the kids, and one of the kids took off and Kaline took off after him ... I was of course a bit horrified and ran after Kaline to get him. No one seemed worried but me! Turned out, the kid's mom was laughing the whole time because they have two German Shorthaired Pointers, and the kid loves having them chase him. Other than that they did pretty well. Ate some mud, but hey, what are you going to do.

Sonja, who is a dog training genius, taught Juno to bark on command in about two minutes. I have been trying to figure out how to teach her that for years, and could never do it! It was no trouble getting the Labs to do it, but Juno, no way. Apparently you have to make woofie noises (I was doing that) while showing lots of open mouth and teeth (I wasn't doing that). Then they think you're playing and get excited and eventually bark back at you. It was so awesome!

Our last big adventure was going to the Stanford campus, which I've never taken much advantage of despite living here my whole life. It's almost as pretty as Michigan! And it's super service-dog/handicapped friendly. Every building not only has at least one door with a handicap button; there are always two buttons, one at the normal level and one almost at ground level, for people who either use their feet to push the buttons or who have short/small service dogs.

We walked around campus a bunch, then found a set of buttons to practice on. Juno was freaking awesome. I got her to push the button with both her paw and her nose. And since I was using the clicker, she'd get her treat and immediately bounce back to hit the button again (her cue is "Hit that"). Fabulous girl. Chief worked on the low button and did great, and I tried Kaline on both. He actually had a much easier time with the higher button; he's already tall enough that when he puts his paws on the wall, he can either hit that high button with his paw or his nose. He got the door to open once and I jackpotted him. It was a lot of fun.

We went to another courtyard and sat on the ground while the little boys wrestled some more. Damn, they're cute. Kaline is so clumsy and yet gentle with Chief, and they do tons of bitey face. And of course they really didn't have much traction on the smooth cement, so if they got up any speed chasing, they'd slide for a while if they tried to stop. Chief finally decided he was done, so we made our way back to our cars with our very tired babies. We're going to make a weekly thing of this—it's going to be great for the dogs!

Pictures hopefully to come ... Next week I'm gonna try and remember to take my Real Camera™, not my little phone.

Horses, ponies, grocery store, and other fun things!

Kaline finally got some good exposure to horses yesterday. We live about 30 minutes (walking) from the Menlo Circus Club, which has a big charity horse show each year. After the two morning walks and a nap, I took the pups over there to see the horses.

Five-pack waiting for their treats at Mills Florist on University Avenue in the morning.

It turned out that it was just a warmup day, so we didn't have to pay admission. It's a dog friendly event, they just have to be on leash. (Should be common sense, having dogs on leash around a ton of horses, but some people are idiots. There's a big sign as you walk in that if your dog is loose, they'll call the SPCA to come pick him/her up.) The big polo field was divided into several smaller rings, with shady corridors in between with bleachers in them. We went in the first corridor and plopped down in the cool grass.

 On one side were the big jumps, and on the other side people were just putting their horses through their paces. Horses would come cantering by fairly regularly on the jumping side. At first, every time Kaline heard thundering hooves he'd startle. I kept treating him for lying down, for looking calmly at horses, anything good. Pretty soon, a fast-moving horse didn't concern him. Two people just let their horses stand, hanging out, near the dogs, which was also great.

Once Kaline was calmly lying down and not paying much mind to the horses, I kind of got to enjoy myself looking at them. In middle school and high school, I used to ride and work with horses (I liked working with them on the ground much more than riding). So I miss them a bit, especially the way they smell. And these horses were just gorgeous. I was especially taken with this exquisite pony. I guess normally I expect ponies to be little chunky, shaggy, somewhat ungainly creatures; this pony was just a small horse. Delicate legs, a gleaming coat, and a fine and sensitive face. So, so pretty.

Pony from far away.

After about half an hour, Juno had had enough and was whining softly (she is still not completely convinced that horses are not enormous dogs). Kaline was a little antsy, too. So off we went back home.

We ended up going out to dinner at Milagros. We ate outside, because there really wasn't sufficient space for the dogs to both be inside. They still went vested, so Kaline would have a signal that it was work time. There were many crushed tortilla chips under our table, so I spent about fifteen minutes not paying attention to anything but Kaline, and trying to redirect him off the chips. Eventually he curled up nicely on his mat, facing away from the crumbs. He will get the hang of this!

The Milagros patio is very pretty.

Training today went really well. I got to work Kaline briefly on a ton of different commands. The only thing we're really struggling on outside is the recall—he can count, I'm convinced. Three recalls, when it's warm outside, and then he is done. On those first three, at least, he is coming in closer, not rocking back as much, and sitting a bit straighter. After three, he'll come in grudgingly, won't sit, and won't even make eye contact. Maybe when the weather cools off, and his attention span gets bigger. Plus, my new bait bags just came, and they have hidden pockets where you can keep super high value treats separate from the rest. Maybe I'll start taking some hot dogs or something, just for recalls.

Other than recalls, he was great. We worked on heeling—right and left turns, about turns both ways, five-step halts, quarter-turns in place. We did remote sits and downs; I think he's ready for me to start separating the verbal cue and the hand signal. We did touch, both hands, with him having to take several steps to get to my hand. For fun, we also did "high five" and "other hand." Last we worked on stand, and I was actually able to stand up and move around him without him moving any of his feet! And he maintained eye contact! Very exciting. A solid stand is key for blocking, which Kaline will need to do when he gets bigger (blocking = standing in a designated position relative to me to keep strangers out of my personal space/keep them from sneaking up on me).

Juno did heeling and off-leash long recalls, which are always great fun. She finally got to do the flyball jumping (four low jumps in a row). Once she was doing all four, running to me at the other end, we started working on getting her to go out and get the dumbbell. This proved to be harder than expected. I think it's partially due to Juno's eyesight, which is good but not great. She's also not a trained retriever—she's locked on my face, while you can tell the trained retrievers to "mark" and they'll pay attention to where the bumper/dumbbell lands.

So we backed off a bit. I put the dumbbell in her mouth, then went to the other end of the jumps and had her do the jumps with it in her mouth. Then I stood with her and only threw the dumbbell over one jump, sending her while it was in the air. She has a much easier time if you send her while the dumbbell is still moving. She did fine on that, so then I threw it over two jumps and she did that too. Then we decided she'd jumped enough for one day!

Kaline and Juno both did nice Kumbayayas with the crazy doodles, plus Peter the Poodle, who has come incredibly far in his training. (Speaking of doodles, Freddie just found out that some idiots calling themselves "breeders" are now producing—I won't say breeding, because that implies actual thought of a breed's well-being—things called "double doodles," Lab x Poodles combined with Golden Retriever x Poodles. How insanely dumb can you get.)

On the way home, I got a call that we needed eggs, so Kaline's first grocery store outing happened. I usually like to plan such firsts, but it went fine. He peed before we went in, and pretty much held his focus the whole time. He was fine with the cold aisle where the eggs were and sat nicely next to Juno while I picked a box.

Kaline being a focused, good little boy in Draeger's.

 Our only issue was waiting in line to check out. Kaline was sitting next to me in heel position, with Juno blocking behind me. Suddenly this woman came up and in an injured voice said, "I can't touch them?" Well, no, that's kind of why both dogs are covered in patches saying that very thing. I tried to be nice, explaining that they were working and that I was training the puppy. She smiled and nodded—and as soon as my back was turned, leaned down to Juno-face-level and said, "I can't touch you—but I can talk to you!" I was so tempted to say something snarky, but by then our eggs were paid for and we could just walk away. The pups actually did a decent job of ignoring her. Pissed me off a bunch though. Perhaps after this training entry I will post a wee rant. Grin.

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.

We are some tired puppies

I would've written yesterday, since it was a big day in the Life of Kaline: His very first day out with all the other dogs! But Dad, Juno and I ended up at the Giants game, which went extra innings ... so yeah, I needed sleep.

The first walk yesterday was with Teddy and Wilson, in Wilson's neighborhood. Poor Teddy had to be the buffer between the babies. Kaline is used to that walk, with multiple dogs, so that wasn't really much of a milestone. He was even kind of naughty. He and Wilson ratchet up each other's naughtiness. That's why I like Freddie's Saturday class as opposed to the usual puppy class (though, of course, if there was a Play & Learn happening now, we'd SO be there). Kaline isn't around a ton of other unruly puppies like himself, he's with a wide variety of dogs, most of whom are calm to one degree or another.

The second walk was the big deal—the five-pack going from The Willows neighborhood through downtown Palo Alto. Here, Kaline met Jett (Swissie), Max (McNab), and Xena (black Lab). I stuck the little man in the very middle of the pack. Juno and Max, my old hands, go on the outside, Xena and Jett on the inside.

Max fixed Kaline's backseat craziness in a quick second, by the way—this is why he's my No. 1 puppy wrangler. Kaline was romping about with Xena, which obviously is not very appropriate for the backseat of a car. I popped Max in there, he let out one or two really ugly sounding growls, and voila! Peace and quiet.

The walk went fairly well, for it being Kaline's first time. He had to be reminded about sitting when we stop (quite understandable), and forgot his manners a little at the flower shop, where all the dogs get treats (he jumped up to get the biscuit instead of staying in a sit). But he stayed in line with the other dogs, for the most part, and didn't lick Xena too excessively. Oh, who am I kidding, he was washing her ears every chance he got. She doesn't mind though, and well she shouldn't, considering she used to do it to everyone.

Juno did amazing at the Giants game. I almost made Dad leave early, and if you know us, you know that's freaking insane. We do not leave baseball games early, ever. But the game went so crazy long, and even though Juno wasn't really showing signs of her bladder exploding, I was worried about her because of her apparent early-onset incontinence. (The vet initially agreed it was a UTI, but then a culture showed no evidence of such, so the current conclusion is a bit of incontinence. Keeping a more rigid schedule of pee breaks seems to have this well in hand.)

However, being inside a ballpark with no in-out privileges kind of puts a crimp in the rigid schedule of pee breaks. It had been almost 7 hours since Juno's last chance to pee. And if Brandon Belt hadn't flied out to end the game when he did, we would have left before the end of the game. As soon as we got outside, we went to the handy gravel across the street and Juno immediately did No. 1 and No. 2. Good dog. 

Juno at the ballpark.

Her pulling on the harness was decent before the game (could've been better), but afterward was excellent. Fabulous even. I'm curious about why ... does she know that pre-game, basically we're practicing, and that post-game, I really need it? Or is she a doggie version of barn-sour, where she's just excited to go back to the car? The world may never know.

The barking when the dogs are together has gotten pretty ridiculous, so we've got a couple different things to try. First stage, removal of whichever dog instigates the barking (usually Juno). If that doesn't work, Binaka, sprayed in the mouth of the instigator. Last resort, e-collar for precisely timed corrections. So far this evening, Juno has been removed three times. It seems to be working, knock on wood.

Kaline and Juno went on a sort of training walk this morning to the park, which went okay. Juno did a lot better than her wee brother; he was just so distracted. We did a pack walk with Gracie, Baxter and Jett. (Just FYI, if Jett is on a walk, we go to downtown Palo Alto.) Kaline looked so cute between the two yellow Labs. For now at least, the very middle is a perfect spot for him.

Junebug did fabulous jumping today at training—three jumps all in a row, almost like flyball! Kaline obviously can't do that kind of thing. We did lots of handling with him, Kumbayayas, and worked on stand.

Kaline, Juno and Teddy during Kumbayayas.

Stuff I have to work on

Pups ready to go to training! Yeah, not the best picture ever ...

Kaline had another good day at training this afternoon. Perhaps it helped that before we went, he had about half an hour to wrestle with Baxter. Kaline sometimes yelps because Baxter is pretty rough, but then he immediately goes back for more. He's nuts.

We worked on heeling and recalls, as well as the usual sit-stays and such. I really need to work on not moving into Kaline (or anyone else I happen to be working) when we stop. It pushes the dog away and back, which obviously isn't what I want, especially in Kaline and Juno. I want to compete in obedience with them, plus their SD work requires a certain closeness. And it's not just remembering not to do obvious stuff, like take steps into him. I have to control myself so I don't lean toward him, or slide my left foot at him, or turn it into him. Argh.

With recalls, it's kind of the same thing. As Kaline comes in, because he has that habit of rocking back when he sits, I tend to stay bent over toward him, not straightening until he has completely come in and has plunked his little butt down where I want it. What I really need to do is straighten and pull the treat upward in one motion, and get him to come all the way in that way. I also have to remember not to adjust to the dogs as they come in, and make them adjust to me (this was more an issue with a client's dog, not so much Juno and Kaline). Kaline either comes in straight, or he kind of loses his mind a few feet away—“Oh look! A butterfly, over there! Maybe I should saunter over and check that out ...” So yeah, if he actually does come in, he does it straight! Juno will sometimes lean to one side or another, but she's easy to adjust.

Juno did better on down-stays today; still had a couple breaks, but not constantly like it is some days. She did awesome bar jumps—we now warm up on 24 inches, then go to 26, the maximum on this particular jump. And she did the broad jump! Kristin helped us, tilting the middle two boards up so it was more of a jump and Juno wouldn't be as tempted to walk on it. Kristin also set up the target—today, a treat on a dog show program. Juno would jump over the boards, go grab the treat (this is to teach her to jump straight, not cut the corner to come to me), and after eating her treat she'd come to the front position. Woohoo, perhaps a breakthrough!

Kaline was a bit of a pest tonight. Also had another accident on a bed (only partially, at least). I can't figure it out—he has no problem anymore sleeping through the night, and holding it after I let him out of his crate until I can get him outside and across the street. Yet sometimes during the day he can't even go two hours! And his “I need to pee” signs bear a remarkable resemblance to his “I am bored” signs. In some ways, I definitely do want him to grow up a bit!