Full day for the pups!

The dogs had quite the full day today. We did the Farmer's Market, the bagel store, Borrone's, a street fair and then up to our ex-neighbors' house to play with one of their two dogs and also meet their horses.

Kaline only had to work in-vest for the market and bagel store. Dad took Juno into the market unvested—they don't enforce the no-pet rule at all, and it's not like Juno will do anything naughty, like poo or snatch produce. Kay was super cute. I had to let out his vest a bunch on Friday; massive growth spurt, I guess! He's getting longer right now, not so much taller. His chest is already super deep.

For the first time, I took Kaline in the bagel store and actually did the bagel buying—normally I just take him in and work him and come out. He did well focusing on me, blocking a little, not sniffing things while I was busy making the purchase. Woohoo!

We came home briefly to watch the very exciting and satisfying end of the Tigers-A's ALDS Game 2, in which the Tigers won 5-4, and then headed to the street fair in San Carlos to meet Mom. We had lunch in the outdoor space of a restaurant, and I took Kaline around the fair and let him socialize with polite people (i.e. people who actually asked to pet him instead of just reaching for him). He had a lovely time and did quite well. He met beautiful rescued Greyhounds raising money for—what else?—Greyhound Rescue, went into a bunch of stalls and immediately settled on the ground, charmed oodles of Doberman fans. He got to meet a firefighter by a fire truck, and the guy knew all the best scratching spots. Within seconds Kaline had melted onto the ground and one of his back feet was twitching in pleasure.

At the end, Dad and I confronted the hateful "pro-life" (read: anti-choice, anti-feminism, anti-separation of church and state, anti-sex for pleasure, etc.) people at their stand. It got really heated. Kaline ignored it all, curling up on my feet for the duration. Good job, buddy. It's very important that he not mirror my emotions, but only reflect calm back at me, no matter how anxious, fearful, or angry I get. When I get in conflict, part of my brain kind of turns off and I have trouble recalling everything I want to, and saying everything the way I want to; so I thought it was interesting that when one of the patronizing godbots at the stand called me a "poor little child," I angrily replied, "I am not a poor little child! I have a beautiful Doberman!" My dogs are the best thing in my life, what can I say. Of course, as soon as we got away from the stand, the adrenaline rush abruptly shut off and I had a meltdown with Kaline in my lap. Sigh.

After the fair, we drove to Woodside, where our former neighbors, Becky and Kip, now live on a big property with their two dogs (Jack Russell and Chihuahua mixes), their horses, and multiple boarders' horses. Kaline and Juno got to play a bunch in the huge backyard with their younger dog, Badger. Pinto, the older dog, recently injured himself so unfortunately he wasn't allowed to run around. Pinto is the real runner; Badger is more into bitey-face. So there wasn't a ton of running, but Kaline got pretty tired out anyway. Becky brought two of the horses, Slick and Aladdin, down to meet us; Juno was super interested and sniffed noses with them energetically through the fence. Kaline came over but didn't really want to sniff noses with something that big! It was lovely to get a horsey fix. I used to go up there all the time in high school to work on Parelli with Becky's horses. Both dogs are crashed out now.

Other stuff we've done lately ... Friday I took Kaline to Stanford Shopping Center to work on stuff. We went in a ton of different stores and had a great time. He got to do a bunch of buttons and work on obedience in all kinds of different stores. We did more escalator exposure, ignoring displays of stuffies and Christmas trees, and desensitization to the various water features outdoors.

We met a wonderful woman at the Bath and Bodyworks store. She loved Kaline, and it turns out she really could benefit from a SD. It was odd—just before, I had met a guy in a stationery store and stonewalled him completely when he asked about Kaline's work/my disability. When this lady asked, I started telling her about fibro tasks. Maybe subconsciously I could just tell she was asking for a different reason?

She told me she's had so many surgeries on the left side that she physically cannot get up without help if she ever falls. Her husband won't let her go on walks alone, ever. If she falls at home, alone, she is out of luck till someone comes. We talked a little about mobility dogs and I gave her my card and a PDPM card. Might go back in and see if she'd like more info on program dogs, because it didn't sound like she wanted (or felt she could) train her own.

Saturday we had no class, but the dogs got to the vet. It was the best visit we've had in a long time! All is well with the dogs, and we were not sent home with any sort of medication! Kaline's white spots on his hock are merely a sign that things are healing up. Juno's periodically red eyes are from allergies, and she should just have Benadryl, nothing stronger. YAY.

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.

Going to the horse show (and Saturday Class No. 4)

I think Kaline and I were both a bit tired for Saturday morning class—we stayed up really late watching the Olympics! So I was not too surprised when 10:45 hit and he couldn't concentrate very well anymore. He did a lot better on his heeling! I'm trying to use "let's go" for when I want him to just walk with me informally (i.e. not looking directly into my face 95% of the time) and "heel" for the formal heel we'll use in (hopefully) obedience competitions. I've been having to lure his face back up a lot, but at class he pretty much stayed locked on that treat and kept his head up! Hurrah.

Recalls went okay. He's not breaking when the other dogs go, which is really nice. He still has issues coming in though. We're working on it! Every time he did kind of a half-assed front, I'd back up little steps (sometimes repeatedly) until he was in straight and close, where he was supposed to be. Meet and greets went pretty well; long sit-stays and down-stays at the end of class were kind of beyond him.

After class, Kristin got out the dokken she just got (a pair of fake ducks with floppy heads) and Freddie tossed one for Kaline. He was so intrigued! He would chase it down with great enthusiasm and then bark and playbow to see if it might be alive. On the last throw, he finally mouthed the duck and we all cheered for him.

In the afternoon, Sonja and Chief came and she, Dad, Juno, Kaline and I all went over to the Circus Club to see a bit of the horse show. I was amazed at the number of people who came over to me and said they had Dobermans at home! They're just not real common here. Sounded like everyone had reds though, haha.

Kaline was already tired, so he did pretty well at the show. I'd woken him up from a nap to go, and then the walk there was pretty hot, so he was perfectly content to lie down anywhere, pretty much whenever I stopped moving. We met some lovely people and dogs at the Muttville booth—Muttville is a rescue for senior dogs, how wonderful!

We took a stroll down the aisle of booths, most filled with insanely expensive horse stuff, and met tons of nice dogs. There was a baby black Lab about Kaline's age who was adorably asleep in his ex-pen; there was a very handsome Corgi with actual legs; and a nine-month-old stunning black Great Dane named Bella, who Kaline was a little unsure about. He'd go up and smell her, then kind of dive back under the table—"She's really big!" I joked with the owner that Bella could take some of the attention off of Kaline's enormous paws.

We had lunch from one of the stands, and all the dogs chilled out under the table. Chief had been a little unsure about Kaline at first, but soon they were great friends and Kaline was rudely swatting Chief's face with his paw under there. When he could find the energy, that is. Kaline handled all the people and dog attention with no problems.

Miss Junebug

Kaline

Adorable Chief.

I am so used to protecting Juno's space that I kind of have to remind myself I don't need to protect Kaline's in the same way. Juno does not appreciate strange dogs coming up in her face; Kaline really doesn't care, as long as they're nice, obviously. And pretty much all the dogs we met were nice—something about horsey dogs, Sonja says.

We went to watch the hunter-jumpers for a while, which was fun, and then we walked down past the ends of all the aisles of temporary stables. All the dogs did just fine with the horses, which seemed way larger than I remember (I used to do horsey things forever ago). The endcaps of these aisles were fascinating—they were like portable living rooms, from really nice houses. Nice couches, nice chairs, usually with bright green grass/sod underneath and possibly some nicely arranged bricks. There'd be tables and framed photographs and ribbons and usually a dog lounging on one of the very nice couches. One place had an actual fountain! Yes, we were among the 1%. The dogs had a good time, though they were definitely hot.

Portable living room with cute dog.

Kaline in the small-dog-sized judge's booth outside one of the endcaps. Soon he won't be able to masquerade as a small dog anymore!

Chief got to be carried most of the way home, because he was so tired (nothing better than a tired puppy). Somehow though, he and Kaline found the energy for a really long play session once we let them go on the grass in front of the apartments down the street! They were so cute together. I don't think Kaline's ever really gotten to play with a dog significantly smaller than himself, and it was nice to see that he didn't play overly roughly with Chief. He'd practically flatten himself into the ground (yes, there were many faceplants, not all of them intentional!). They chased each other around, but interestingly they confined themselves mostly to the grass right in front of me and Sonja. We have to make sure they keep having playdates—I want Kaline to stay very gentle, and to stay anything, you have to practice!

Post-play session.

After we finally separated the puppies (they would've kept going, I'm sure, until they collapsed) we both went home. Kaline basically slept away the evening, which Juno certainly appreciated. There was much cuddling, which is also practice for Kaline's eventual deep pressure tasks. I figure the more he sleeps on top of me, and enjoys it, the more he'll enjoy doing tasks like "on me" (lie completely on top of me, head under my chin), "cuddle" (lie next to me with your back pressed into my chest/stomach), and "across" (lie across my lap and lean into my chest while I sit on the floor). There's totally a method to my madness. Promise.

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.

Kaline meets Gracie; gets a snuggle from Juno

Yesterday (Friday), Kaline had a playdate with Gracie, Baxter's sister. Also a yellow Lab, she's a little over a year old. She and Baxter like to play pretty rough, but once Gracie saw that the puppy couldn't handle that level of play, she really toned it down and they had a great time.

Gracie is a most excellent retriever, so once she got going with her ball, Kaline was all about chasing her around the yard, and then leaping on her when she would lie down in the grass. She let him jump on her face, flop over her back, whatever he wanted. They had a fantastic time wrestling. Kaline got tired after a while so he employed the time-honored Doberman strategy of placing himself somewhere in Gracie's path and waiting for her to run over to him—that way he could jump on her without actually having to give chase. This is something my first dog, Angel, used to do; Kaline reminds me a lot of her.

After the playdate, Kaline crashed for basically the whole afternoon. He was one tired puppy. Late in the afternoon though, he had two appointments. He came along with me and Juno to see my psychologist, and did pretty well. It was his first time there. He was a little antsy at the start, but I had brought his new hit toy, a tiny tire with a rope attached (ropes are the new hot thing in Kaline-land), and soon he focused on that. And then he crashed again.

Kaline settling in the waiting room with his rope toy.

Then we went to see the vet, because Kaline's puppy acne has not gone away, and when the vet last saw him, he said he wanted to get him on antibiotics if the acne stayed longer than a week. So yesterday, Kaline got to see Dr. Cortesi. He is mostly retired now; but when I had Angel, he was the main vet there. It was really nice to have my brand new puppy seen by the same vet who treated Angel her whole life.

Dr. Cortesi prescribed a short dose of antibiotics for the acne, said to get Kaline back on only the puppy food until he has consistently good poops, and gave me the puppy pack I forgot last time. (It's got kind of a pre-heartworm preventive in there.) Kaline was a very good boy, and Juno suffered her role as moral supporter with mostly good grace. She got lots of treats, and with his sensitive stomach Kaline hardly got any, so she was a pretty happy camper.

Later that night, Juno sacked out on the brown bed that has become her main spot downstairs since Kaline commandeered the blue bed. Once her eyes were closed, Kaline very carefully crept over and snuggled in next to her. Juno opened her eyes in horror, but Mom and I both told her, "It's okay, just stay there." Kaline wasn't doing his usual routine of "How hard can I gnaw your feet?" He just wanted to sleep cuddled up and was being very good. So Juno went back to sleep. See photos for how this progressed!

How is he still awake?

I don't comprehend how Kaline is still bouncing around after the day he had. (Okay, maybe it had something to do with the 2+ hour nap he had ...) Right now he is writhing around on his back in the kiddie-pool bed adorably, growling to himself. Sometimes this can be an indication that a nap is in the offing. And sometimes it means he's just getting started.

Today Kaline got to meet Baxter, one of my favorite pups. I've known him since he was about five weeks old, and I've always thought of him as very small—until today! Next to Kaline, he looked enormous. He was a little overly rambunctious for Kaline, but the little guy kept going back for more. Baxter was constantly leaping into the pool, which is insanely cute. Any excuse and splash! Kaline was not real into the water (big shock), but I did get him on the first step, and supported him under his already-substantial chest as he did paddles in the water. When Kaline got tired, I held him on my lap a while as Juno and Baxter ran like crazy people all over the backyard, barking gleefully. Baxter could play really rough with her, and they had a blast.

After the playdate, we went to training in the park. My play yard for the puppy came last Friday, so today was the first time I got to use it. I thought it'd be a lot bigger, but it'll do. It's super spiffy, and Kaline took to it pretty quickly. Inside, he had his lunch, a little water bowl, his soft mat, his beehive and his chewy from Anne. A little puppy palace.

Juno next to the new playpen, with Kaline inside.

We had three client dogs today, and six trainer dogs, haha. Juno got to do a lot. She did fantastic recalls, never broke once and came in nice and straight. She did retrieves over the bar jump and retrieves on the flat. We did moving downs and moving sits, flip finishes, the "get around" for the first time (I like flip finishes much better), and sequences of sits and downs in the heel position. That's kind of hard for her, because when she does a down, she knows I expect her to roll on a hip and get comfy immediately. But when you're doing quick sits and downs, it helps if she stays in more of a sphinx position. Stuff to work on!

Juno just gets so stressed out at training ...

Kaline got to come out a little later and we worked on his basics some more, just in a much more interesting and distracting environment. He did pretty well at focusing on me, at least for the length of his baby puppy attention span. At the end, he got to play off leash with everyone. He really took to Shadow, Kristin's beagle, probably because they're about the same size (Shadow is not really into him). He also really liked her Sheltie, Phi, who has never met a boy dog she didn't adore. They played excellent games of chase. And of course Kaline had to go play with his big hero, Rio, Freddie's big black Lab. It was precious.

I'm so glad Kaline is so social! I know it's normal for puppies to be that way, but with Juno and her predecessor, Angel, they were both rescues who lacked a lot of dog social skills. Juno was so dog-reactive on leash when we first got her that the vet told me to get her evaluated immediately before I got attached and left her with my parents after going back to school. They each had to be taught, and you still kinda had to be vigilant about them and whoever they were playing with. With Kaline, I can just be so much more relaxed. It's not like I don't watch him and his playmates carefully, but I don't worry in the same way.

After training, I brought the pups home. Kaline said hi to Mom and Dad, then promptly trotted to his big crate and conked out. Gawd, he's just so freaking cute! Big day for him tomorrow—we're going to a 4th of July party, where he'll get to meet at least one dog-friendly kid, multiple tall men, and a dog almost his size to play with! Poor Juno has to stay on-leash and out of the play because no one wants to listen to fifteen minutes solid of non-stop barking.