Recap of last week

Pretty good week for us! Very busy on the weekend working my two dogs, while the rest of the time things mostly revolved around our multitudinous walks and recuperating from them.

Thanks to the e-collar, Kaline is now participating in off-leash long down-stays with the “big dogs” at training. Big dogs for now mostly consist of Rio, Peter the Poodle, Xena, Cooper, and sometimes Lucky the Golden. Thursday he was totally awesome. We used him as part of a weaving course and he was down out there for a couple hours. As a reward, at the end all the big dogs got to romp about off leash in the field. (Yes, we have special permission to have dogs off leash in the park, unlike the assholes. It's cause Freddie pays to be there and cause of the e-collars—our dogs will come back, unlike the randoms.) Kaline's recalls are getting so sharp and nice! His fronts in those situations are super sloppy, but man, you call him while he's playing and he turns on a dime and comes racing back. I hardly ever have to nick him.

The next day, Friday, we had three walks and then I planned to take Kaline to a double feature at the Stannie. Knowing that the walks would probably not be enough, before the movie I took him on a quick public access outing to Triple-A, then let him loose in Eleanor Pardee Park (wearing his e-collar) where he ran himself ragged playing with a little black poodle mix. It was awesome. And while he did pop up multiple times during the movies, he was a lot better than the last time. Yay tired puppy! Chief, Sonja and Hendrik joined us for the second movie, Rear Window. Kaline was super thrilled to see his best little buddy.

Saturday, Kaline and I met not only Sonja and Chief, but also the girls, Jolanda and Josephine, to walk around Stanford! It was very exciting to see the girls. They were totally perfect, ambling about off-leash among all the activity on the various athletic fields. Kaline was pulling and being a pain a lot, but a very cute pain. At the end, I let him run around with the girls with his leash dragging, and clearly our collar practice is working, because every time I called, he came (or left it, as the case may be), even though he wasn't actually wearing the collar. The girls were quick to correct him whenever he got out of line. I should've brought Juno but I didn't quite realize until I was in the car that we were doing a very off duty outing! We didn't take any pictures, how terrible of us.

Juno got to come along to dinner with my parents, aunt, and uncle. She was barely visible the way she curled up under our table. When I had to go to the bathroom, we had to wait in a very narrow hallway with waiters going back and forth with plates of food. Juno stoically just held her block in front of me, not even turning her head to acknowledge or sniff the waiters, and just as importantly, not shifting to get out of their way unless I told her to. Grin.

On the way back to the table, a random patron just reached out and started fondling Juno's face. I was tempted to reach out and do the same to him, and ask, “Do you like it when complete strangers mush your face/hair around?!” but his head looked greasy. So I just was indignant and talked to him like a badly behaved toddler. Hopefully he learned his lesson.

Sunday, Kaline did his usual public access in the morning. Our highlight was in the Farmer's Market. Kaline was behind me, blocking, when a tiny little boy barely taller than Kay himself, came up and began stroking Kaline's neck. I had no clue it was even happening until the dad gently pulled the kid away and explained why he couldn't pet Kaline. But I was super proud, cause my puppy who adores children had held his block and his focus through the entire thing! We also got to do some education with the Girl Scouts who were selling their delicious cookies.

Right when we got home from our outings, Sonja called to offer me an extra ticket to the symphony! How exciting! Symphony = big crowds and a huge need for a very quiet dog, thus Juno. So off we went.

We had such a good time. The people at the symphony were extremely friendly, though not terribly concerned with not invading personal space which got my anxiety up a lot. They were totally fascinated by wee Chief and Juno. Juno was totally nonplussed by the crowds and wouldn't respond to anyone's attempts to pet or love on her. I freaking love that about her. Some guy at one point reached for her and she turned her head away from him in an unmistakable we-are-NOT-buddies gesture. She also did lovely lap-ups for me when I needed major calming.

Chief and Juno holding our tickets for their admiring public.

Hold practice during intermission. Cutie pies!!!

Juno doing a lap-up in the symphony hall.

And of course, she was totally silent and never popped up during the amazing performance. The organist was Cameron Carpenter and I was floored by his talent. You have to be an athlete to play the organ! Each of his feet and each of his hands were doing totally different things, playing different parts of songs, and not only that but fiddling with innumerable buttons and knobs while still continuing to play the songs! It was totally insane. He wore fabulous sparkly pants and shoes so you could really see his legs gliding about on the foot keys. At one point he made the organ basically fart, and I was thinking, Man, Kaline probably would've barked at that noise! Whenever I take him to his first symphony, I will be a total wreck!

Look at this crazy instrument and bow to the awesomeness of Cameron Carpenter!

We went to the same Italian place we went to with Ashley and Rebekah, and there was drama that I missed (dammit!) while in the bathroom. Sonja told me about it after. This woman at a nearby table flipped out when she saw Chief, saying she had severe allergies and would get bronchitis. Obviously, both severe allergies and service dogs have to be accommodated, not one or the other.

Sonja suggested they get moved to another table, since there were only two in her party and five in ours. She said they were in the middle of dinner and couldn't possibly move. Well, then you just have to deal, don't you? Then her partner jumps in and says dogs can't be in restaurants. Idjit. Sonja of course replied that service dogs are allowed, and asked the waiter if they could be moved. The woman wouldn't move, so everyone just sat back down.

And wouldn't you know it, she lived through dinner!

We had a delicious time, and Juno was perfect. It's so much easier to concentrate on eating when I'm with Juno, heehee.

Second time in Rally Novice A: First leg!

Juno and her qualifying ribbon. If you look really close you can see the long string of drool hanging out of her mouth!

We did much better today! I remembered to keep my leash loose and to pat my leg excessively, and Juno was a very good girl! So good, in fact, that she got second place with 95 points! (A perfect score is 100.) The dog who got first got 97 and was a Border collie. Yay Juno!

There were a lot fewer dogs today and the trial was in the morning, so it was just more ... reasonable than yesterday. I made a point to go watch some regular obedience in addition to the rally stuff, and we were treated to the sight of a Papillon doing Utility! Her dumbbells for the scent discrimination task were so tiny. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. I will admit I am sometimes prejudiced against little dogs in the world generally, but it is such great fun to see them shine at obedience and agility. And of course service dog work! Little dogs are dogs, and it is refreshing to see them treated as such.

We made friends with a Sheltie and her family near us, and had fun watching the various rally competitors. One lady near us had three Goldens of varying ages, all in multiple competitions. She was running around like crazy, as you can imagine! My head would explode if I tried something like that.

The course we got for today was much more straightforward than yesterday's, and I quickly identified the exercises Juno and I would probably have more difficulty with—a 360-degree right turn, the figure eight, and the finish right. I botched the finish right a little in the ring, telling her “around” instead of “park,” but thankfully she cares a lot more about what hand signal she sees rather than the words coming out of my mouth.

She was super into retrieving today as well. Anytime I dropped something, she picked it up immediately and presented it to me with great satisfaction. Or sometimes she'd see something on the ground and decide I needed it, and present that also. She's so damn cute. She successfully begged food off several people too. 

One of the best parts of our spectating was seeing some rather unconventional dogs shine at rally. This included a little pug, who got third place in Rally Advanced, and a beautiful black-and-tan Coonhound. You expect to see Goldens, Labs, Border collies, German Shepherds and now Shelties at obedience, but you don't really expect to see pugs or most hounds. There was also a Shar-pei competing in the regular obedience and two Shiba Inus!

Our little group, Rally Novice A, included a beautiful Rhodesian Ridgeback and this sweet little Whippet. We were last, of course, so I had plenty of time both to practice sporadically with Juno, inside and outside, and to get hella nervous. Our performance passed in kind of a blur; all I could think was KEEP THE LEASH LOOSE. And hey, it worked! I wasn't sure how we did, because the judge said nothing to me after we finished (yesterday, the judge quickly told me I NQ'ed). Then she called all the qualifiers back in the ring and I didn't know if I was supposed to go or not.

Finally someone told me we qualified and I was super, super happy. We went in with the Ridgeback, the Border collie and one other dog, so I knew we'd get some kind of ribbon. I was shocked when we got second place! And a whopping prize of $15, woohoo. It was such a great finish to the weekend.

We came home and found the parents in the middle of the street with Kaline, using a Flexi so they could do super long recalls with him. The Flexi was actually attached to the end loop of his leather leash, which I thought was a good idea. Juno and I hopped out and Juno schmoozed with Mom while I did recalls with Kaline. He was not bad! With my parents he'd crash into their legs and/or leap on them, but with me he only did one drive-by in several tries. Mom and I let Juno crash with Dad, and took Kaline with us to drop off my chair at the storage unit and go to BK for lunch.

Mom had expressed disbelief that Kaline would be good at lunch, so I was extra gratified when he was basically perfect. He did a little sniffing, but that was it. Curled up very nicely on his mat under the table, and snoozed until we were ready to go.

I was exhausted, so I basically slept away the afternoon. Kaline snuggled a little in my bed, then leapt off to go sleep in his own bed in his crate with the door open. Such a good little boy.

But as of now, Juno is the No. 1 Champion in this house! Two more legs to go ... I gotta actually find rally trials around here now!

My cutie pie champ!

I need a Pet Net

Great day with the pups! We had one pack walk and then a lovely afternoon of training. Boy, do I ever need a Pet Net—it's a netting barrier you can put up between the back of the car and the two front seats. Every time I got out of the car, Kaline was in a different section of the car. And Juno, you can tell, just wants her front seat back in the worst way. Poor baby.

The only dogs I can trust not to leap out of my car without permission.

We had one stupid person on our walk, the usual dog-groper type. Most people will get snapped at once ("Didn't your mother teach you never to pet a strange dog without asking?") but this guy groped Juno and Baxter twice. I was livid. If I had lots of money, I would buy two bright red capes for Juno and whoever is the next dog in, with HANDS OFF written in white. Maybe I should start putting Jett on the outside. Then gropers would either get totally slimed with his copious drool, or he'd leap back with his mouth wide open which usually freaks people out.

Anyway. Training was excellent! My car quite easily holds five dogs in the back, I learned, probably six. I kept Kaline up front to reduce chaos. I thought it was pretty amusing that Lucky the Golden, the biggest dog I transport, was the only one who had issues getting in the back. Kaline and Juno were both awesome at the park. Kaline worked first, doing recalls and then figure eights. He held his sit-stays, waiting to be called, perfectly, even with Rio and Peter running past. He did whine a bit while he was on his stay. He's coming in way better, hopefully because I'm improving how I bring him in. Only one crotch-bash today, haha! He's so damn cute when he's staring holes through me, waiting to be called, with those big silky ears perked forward.

His figure eights were fabulous. One of my dreams is to have a dog who makes consistent eye contact when told to heel, and I think we're on our way! He was looking at me the whole time, matching pace with me, not sitting when I went slow, just being awesome in general. I was so happy with him.

Of course, Juno had to go show him up, because she is The Queen. She did her figure eights off leash, with excellent attention! Who is this dog, and where is my Juno? If only I were allowed to talk during obedience trials, I think her heel free wouldn't be so bloody awful. We should definitely get into rally. But I am pretty excited to compete in Open sometime soon, even if it's just in a fun match. I would pretty much die of glee if she ever got her CDX. Juno also did group down-stays, as a sort of group post, for other dogs to do figure eights. By the end of that little part of training, we were doing figure eights around "posts" of four dogs each. One "post" didn't need monitoring: Juno, Lucky the Golden, Rio the Lab, and Mia the Poodle (what a fun dog to work!). I had the "naughty" post: both poodle mixes, Cooper the baby Lab, and sometimes Bailey the Border Collie.

We took home our usual three blondes, plus Mia. Mia lives on the scariest steepest road in the whole world. Trumbull handled superbly on it! It was kind of funny—none of the dogs had been jumping out without permission when I'd open the back hatch, but on dropoffs, whichever dog was getting dropped off would just jump right out as soon as there was room. They all know when they're home.

"Oh Juno, I love you." "How long are you planning to stay in my personal space bubble?"

Juno and Kaline snuggled on the way home; at least, Kay snuggled, Juno tolerated the touch. I love the look on her face: "Mom! He's touching me!" They've both been extremely pleasant all evening. A night without Puppy Witching Hour is a big win!

Saturday Class No. 6, etc.

Today was the big garage sale, which I figured would kill my day. Happily enough, it didn't, and we've actually had a pretty good day.

Juno had already been up a couple hours, supervising set-up and the beginning of the garage sale, when Kaline and I got our lazy selves out of bed. Scoots had to stay home while I took Kaline to class, since Dad couldn't leave to come handle her. We hung out at the garage sale a bit; Kaline was actually shivering, so I got out one of Angel's old coats and put it on him. It's a little big (shocker!). He looked like a superhero. Or at least a puppy wearing a cape.

Super Kaline!

It was a big day at training—Kristin's last class before she leaves for freshman year at UCSD this coming Thursday. Kaline did pretty well, especially considering that I only brought a bait bag full of kibble (made higher value by some crushed up pieces of freeze-dried liver). He did some nice heeling and leave it; right at the beginning Freddie placed two plates she found elsewhere in the park, with nasty old pizza and such, in the middle of the arena. We had to walk past those, and all the other dogs, repeatedly. And he was pretty nice about it!

Then we did group sit-stays and down-stays, with the dogs grouped close to each other. This was the first week I not only dropped Kaline's leash but walked around with everyone else among all the other dogs. I even left with everyone else to stand on the stairs outside the circle where we train. And Kaline did fine! Hurrah. Then there was a dog-switch, but with Kaline I don't want to do that. Just like I don't want other people (except Kristin, Freddie or Anne) giving him treats. I don't want him viewing other people as potential handlers or treat dispensers. Yes, I realize than in an emergency strangers might have to handle him, but at least at this point, he'd probably have no problem walking off with someone, as long as they'd brought him food or made squeaky sounds at him.

Group down-stays, Kaline front left in blue coat.

Kaline did very well on meet and greets. Our partner was Peter the Poodle, who has just come such a long way. He's like a different dog. Once the meet and greets were over, we had to go out of sigh in turn. I went first, and Kaline was totally fine; then when Dianne, Peter's mom left, only Kaline whined! Peter was a very cool customer. She's done an amazing job with him.

Last we did all kinds of recalls. It was pretty fun when the dogs all sat in a tiny circle, butts together, waiting to be called. The waiting was killing Kaline though, especially cause it was at the end of class and he was pretty much done. He just wanted to lie down and chill; having to stay up in a sit was hard for him, especially if I went too far away. So I just stayed in close to try and keep the tired little guy focused. He did fine on the recalls, I just need to work on my technique! It's always the handler, isn't it?

Cupcakes!

After class, we had cupcakes in honor of Kristin. Her mom and Freddie did lovely speeches about what a great trainer she has become, and what a magnificent job she's done with Ben, her Toller. He was a kennel dog when she got him, very skittish, afraid of men, prone to bolting randomly. Now, he's a total star, and just earned his CDX and rally novice title! Juno and I aspire to be Ben, haha. We're really going to miss Kristin, but I know she'll have an awesome time at UCSD. After first quarter, she'll probably get to have Ben with her!

Kaline and I headed to Gracie's house to pick her up after class—her family was settling one of the daughters in her new dorm today. We pulled up at home, Juno leapt into the car, and Mom sent us off to go grab lunch for everyone at Burger King. Finding places in the car to put four large cups of pop and two bags of food while ferrying three dogs is interesting, especially when you only have two cupholders. Thankfully Gracie and Juno have good leave its, and Kaline doesn't care about the food because he has never been fed any of it. So it was just a matter of not spilling the pop everywhere!

When we got back, Juno stayed outside with the adults, while Kaline and Gracie came in with me. Of course, they began an epic roughhousing session that has basically lasted all afternoon. Once I was done with the food, I came out to the driveway where the sale was happening and ground down Kaline and Juno's nails. I tried Gracie, but she was not having it. We came in, there was roughhousing, and then a lovely group nap—Gracie on the floor, Juno on her couch, Kaline on me.

Gracie lets him do this. Then, of course, she pins him to the ground with her chest and lies on top of him.

When everyone woke up, we went on a walk to downtown Menlo Park and back. Walking three dogs is a great way to get me to pass the used book store without buying anything—I feel awkward taking two dogs in there, and three is just out of the question. They have such a great WWII section ... Anyway, the roughhousing has finally ebbed away; Kaline is now chewing a bully stick instead of Gracie's ears. Seriously, this dog has the patience of a saint. Gracie's conked out on my feet, Juno under the table. Time to feed the hounds!