Much better day of training

Yesterday pretty much sucked, in terms of working with Kaline. He was great on pack walks, but oh man, when I tried to actually work on commands with him later, he was not having it. The clicker, which always seems to get Juno hyped up and eager to try out new things lest they yield treats, seemed to totally dampen Kaline. My goal had been to start him on directed retrieves, and the more I clicked him for literally any glance, even, at the bandanna we were working with, the less he wanted to have anything to do with it.

So while he sulked over by the couch—that was kind of shocking, that all he wanted to do was lie around and do nothing—I worked Juno, and that was great fun. Boy, was she up for working! She'd been butting in already, grabbing the bandanna and delivering it to hand with a flourish, like she was telling Kaline, "It's not that hard, see how it's done!" So we did some of that, worked on finding the heel position, finding front, recalls, various tricks. Good pup.

Anyway, hopefully we'll be getting together with Sonja this weekend, and she can magically teach Kaline a formal retrieve! We're planning to do the Circus Club horse show Saturday and a movie at the Stannie on Sunday. Kaline probably won't come to the second one, obviously.

Kaline looking all noble this morning.

Today was a lot better. We got to sleep in, had a great pack walk with the boys, then had lunch and headed to training. We had a lot of dogs, but also a lot of trainers, so I got to spend a lot of time working on things with Kaline.

First we worked on remote sits and downs, one of his strengths. It was hard to keep his attention today, though, because he was right next to a very attractive black shepherd mix named Nora. Nora looks very similar to Juno's boyfriend, Ellis; Kaline found her irresistible, haha. He did a lot better on recalls than I expected, given how hot it was.

We worked a ton on leave it, while I was keeping watch on him, Juno and another dog named Mancha (during jumping, since there were lots of us, we could have about six dogs out on supervised down-stays instead of tethered). Kaline got to where I could put treats on his paws and leave them alone. Now we need to work on him leaving it when the "it" is moving, or Kaline's moving. Still, progress!

Chilling with the Big Dog.

My favorite accomplishment of the day was his stand-stay. We worked on it in a couple different locations, and he held it pretty well! He even let me move his feet around, and on the second mini-session, he left them where I put them (wonder of wonders). Stand is super important—I'm glad he's getting that, at least!

Kaline doing a stand-stay!

Toward the end of training, we got a complete idiot in among the dogs. A paramedic or something. She walked in like she always comes by, which confused us, because she doesn't. Of course, she made a beeline for our most anxious dog, Peter, who has made incredible strides but still is far less tolerant of human rudeness than, say, one of the Labradors.

This woman did everything wrong. Peter was giving "please go away" signals as she approached, and they only got more intense. Instead of asking to pet him and/or coming from the side to let him sniff her, she dispensed with these niceties and just went for his head, no warning. Peter tried ducking away but she had him cornered against a wall. So what'd he do? He snapped, and she would have deserved the bite had it landed. Did she back away then? Nope, kept manhandling the clearly unhappy dog, until Kristin was able to get him out of there. The stupidity of some people fairly boggles the mind. 

My dogs are MINE: A Rant

Yes, this rant has been written before. But I just wanted to add my voice.

Regardless of whether my dogs are vested or not, they are not public property. Even when they're not covered in 2,349,763,498 patches telling you not to touch or distract them, you still don't get to randomly grope them whenever you feel the urge. If I wanted to bring them out to enrich the lives of random strangers, I would train them as therapy dogs, vest them appropriately to that task, and take them to an appropriate place (hospital, nursing home, etc.). They and I would choose to engage in that kind of activity, if we wanted to, and there would be rules.

In just the past couple days, I have had a grown man squat down in front of my approaching pack of five dogs, arms spread, and try to hug them. (No, as far as I could tell he was not impaired in any way ... except by general stupidity.) I have had children run at the outside dogs to touch them. I've had people sitting at tables reach for the heads of my outside dogs. I've had a woman try to distract my working service dog and service dog in training, simply because she couldn't actually touch them.

How many times do we—service dog handlers, dog walkers, your average dog owners—have to say it? Never pet a dog you don't know without asking the owner/handler first. How do you know the dog is friendly? Not all dogs are, for various reasons. How do you know that dog is okay with you reaching at their head from above them? Many dogs find this threatening. When Jett the Swissie leaps back from an outstretched hand, people ask if he's shy or mean. He's neither—you scared him by threatening him in dog language. If you had asked to pet him, I would have politely told you to scratch him under the chin or rub his chest, and you'd have made a friend for life.

There are blind dogs, old dogs, dogs who have been abused, sick dogs, dogs in pain, dogs with stress-related seizure disorders, shy dogs, dogs who simply prefer not to associate with strangers. It is unfair to force yourself on such dogs, which is exactly what these people are doing when they just swoop in for a pet. Hearing, "It's okay, I'm a dog person," as an excuse makes me want to lash out violently. Maybe this dog isn't a people dog!

And maybe—gasp!—the owner is on her way somewhere and doesn't want to chat with you for fifteen minutes while you manhandle her dog and tell her about how you had a dog just like hers ... only a different color, size, personality, etc.

Even the best trained, best socialized dog may not take kindly to being surprised by contact with a stranger. Do these people enjoy being hugged out of nowhere by complete strangers? I highly doubt it. I trained Juno, and am training Kaline, to at least tolerate being touched anywhere at any time, because of these idiots and because even more shit happens to service dogs than regular dogs. But here's a newsflash: Not everyone trains their dog that way, and they shouldn't have to. They shouldn't have to teach their dog it's okay for humans to pull their tail, or step on their paws, or stick fingers up their nose.

And parents! Keep an eye on your unruly children, and teach them how to meet a dog properly! When my dogs get charged by kids, the parent is inevitably feet away, watching and doing nothing. Oh, how I love parents who tell their children, "Do you want to pet the doggie? You need to ask first." There are just not enough of them.

Kids lead with their faces (sometimes adults do too). Again, dogs can find this very threatening—ask the reporter who was bitten in the face by a dog who'd just saved his owner from drowning. If you invade an on-leash dog's space, he has exactly one option if he feels threatened: FIGHT. And when you invade his space with your face, that's what's going to get bitten. Very simple.

People don't respect dogs' individual space. When owners object, they're often ignored. And when dogs object to that blatant disrespect in limited ways available to them—often using their teeth—who gets blamed? The dog, and the dog's owner. How is this fair?!

Keep your hands off my dogs. All of them. If you want to touch, ask. Maybe I'll let you, maybe I won't. They're my dogs, and it's my decision. Be an adult, and just deal with it.

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.

Sunday funday

The dogs got out and about a bunch today. We got up early and walked downtown, planning to meet Dad at the Farmer's Market. On the way, we stopped at Peet's, where we saw Max with his mom, and another dog we know, Darby, a poodle mix. Darby is working on his dog reactivity, so it's great for him when other dogs in training (as opposed to crazy MDIFs—check out this post if you don't know what I mean) come by. He did very well and didn't bark at Juno or Kaline. Max went crazy when he saw me, was glad to see Juno, and told the puppy in no uncertain terms to behave himself, hehe.

After our impromptu doggy meetup, we headed to the Farmer's Market. I vested both dogs and took them through, and I must say, it's pretty tough trying to work two dogs in a slow crowd like that. They did fine, behavior-wise, but we definitely have to figure out some sort of system regarding positioning. It doesn't help that I really want Juno not to sit, in those situations, and I do like it when Kaline sits. It's a tail thing.

We then did a quick in and out at the bagel store—a sit-stay by the door, then a quick loop to the back of the store and out again. Kaline did well at not sniffing and not soliciting attention. Then we headed to Cafe Borrone for some breakfast. I didn't vest the dogs, because we were going to sit outside and I wanted Kaline to be able to go say hi to people. There were, of course, a lot of people who wanted to pet him and love on him. He took a little while to settle down on his mat, partially because of all the people coming to say hi, and partially because just across the way was a little Catahoula puppy!

We met her foster mom after breakfast—the puppy is up for adoption, along with her six brothers and sisters—and found out the little girl is about Kaline's age. She had very similar coloring as well, though more of a blunt face. And a tail, of course. The hilarious thing was, once they started to kind of play with each other (as much as they could on leash and basically under a table), we suddenly noticed how much bigger Kaline's paws were. Overall, he really wasn't much larger than the Catahoula, but his feet were probably at least twice as large!

After a while, Kaline finally settled on his mat, right at the end of it so he was close to his beloved Juno. A couple times he rested his head on her back, but I was never fast enough with my phone to get a picture. Drat!

We came home briefly after breakfast, then headed out again to the Michigan Alumni Student Send-off. Supposedly this event is for the kids heading off to Michigan at the end of the month, but really it's for the alumni to get a much-needed taste of "home." The club ships in Cottage Inn Pizza, breads, meats and cheeses from Zingerman's Deli, and best of all, ice cream from Stucchi's! It's fabulous.

I was hoping this would be sort of a chill-out event for the dogs, but as we drove into the park where the event was held, we saw a ton of No Pets signs. I was so bummed. You've got this absolutely gorgeous big park, and no one can bring their pet dogs! How awful! So the pups had to go vested. No biggie for Juno—I actually think she likes it better when strangers leave her alone. She really doesn't have any interest in them unless they scratch her Happy Spot or they have food for her. Kaline, though, is my little social butterfly and would have loved getting to go schmooze with everyone.

Nonetheless, both dogs did very well. Kaline settled much more quickly at the picnic than at the cafe. It was on dirt, so everyone's gear has to get washed, but hey, it's an occupational hazard. The kids got in a bit more crowd work, and just relaxed with all the people around. We got to do some service dog education, and I even met (in person) someone I had met years ago online when we were both part of a Brad Ausmus-obsessed Yahoo group! That was really cool. I was pretty pleased with how Kaline did, given all the people he wasn't allowed to say hi to, and all the food he wasn't allowed to have. He pawed at his head collar a bit, but that was about all.

And an update on Kaline's neck: The hair loss isn't getting worse, at least. I emailed Maura about it, and she said that fleece-lined flat collars or no flat collar at all would be the way to go. Kaline can go naked at home, but outside a lot of the time he needs to be wearing a collar with tags, so I guess we'll be getting a fleece-lined collar soon. Also coming soon: two spare, magnetic closure, super awesome bait bags! Hurrah!

All the things, and Saturday Class No. 3

Thursday night, Juno was an absolute star. I had the worst lower-body fibro flareup that I've had in a long time, and it started in the middle of a University of Michigan alumni networking mixer. Once it started, I sat down, and that did nothing. To get up, I had to brace on Juno. To get up the stairs, she had to pull me slowly forward. Dad and I stopped briefly to get takeout Thai for dinner, and Junebug had to give me momentum pulling there too. My knees and calves were starting to burn like they were on fire.

We got home, and I stayed on the couch. When I tried to get up again, everything was a million times worse. Dad took Kaline out for his last potty break, and I took Juno, thank goodness. She took tiny, tiny steps to keep pace with me hobbling around. Going down the stairs, she went one at a time so she could support me. I basically crawled back up the stairs, because it was easier to have my knees taking the pressure than my feet. I was kind of wondering about my options for becoming upright when Juno helpfully popped out of the kitchen and braced wonderfully for me to get up. What a fabulous girl. It's days like those when I'm like, "Gawd, I want a BLD!" But those days don't happen that often, and a BLD is very expensive, so at least for now I'm holding off.

Friday we tired the crap out of wee Kaline with three pack walks, back to back to back. After that, he took a big ol' nap, then came to the tdoc appointment with us—in his adorable vest—and after a little bit of being antsy, went to sleep again. How glorious.

Naptime!

 However, by about 7:30 or so, Kaline was fully recharged, so we went on a very long walk (Juno stayed home to beg dinner off my parents). We went to downtown Menlo Park, and Kaline met a ton of people, including two little girls. The girls were all over him, hugging and petting, and I would have said something if Kaline looked uncomfortable (most dogs don't like to be hugged). These kids hugged him, both at once, and he just closed his eyes and leaned harder against them. He looked positively blissful.

Kaline also finally encountered the stone dogs outside this one downtown store. It took a while before he was completely convinced that they weren't real. First he stayed back, stretching out his long neck and sniffing energetically. Then he got a little closer, for more sniffing. He went all over both the stone dogs, sniffing and sniffing. Then, as a final test, he playbowed before them and did his very best to get them to play, even barking and running in little circles. It was pretty amusing.

I took him to the park at the end, and he ran around me in circles, like he was a horse on a lunge line. More hilarity. He slept very well once I brought him home.

This morning we had obedience class. After starting in the back seat, this is where Kaline ended up by the time we got to the park.

Kaline did really well at the beginning, and of course started to lose focus toward the end. Now that I think back, I could just see the gas gauge getting to zero during the remote sits and downs, usually one of his best things. At first he was doing it, and then all of a sudden, he'd go down and he was down. Head on the ground, eyes saying, "Do not ask me to get up again."

I'm staying right here.

We did a lot of heeling work, especially in close with the other dogs. We also did a ton of individual recalls, and even when I dropped the leash, Kaline didn't break once. And that's a tough thing for a baby, to have to hold a sit when he sees all the other dogs running to their handlers. We did a lot of meet and greets with variation with a lovely German Shepherd named Harley (Juno, inexplicably, cannot stand either Harley or his biological brother, Wheeler). Kaline did all right there too—broke one sit when he got greeted by Harley's handler—but he was losing it, so all the sudden recalls started to not be tons of fun for him. He was totally fine when I left him in a down with Harley's handler and went out of sight for a few minutes. Woohoo!

After class, we did our first two-service-dog outing, to Red Robin. I was so nervous. What if they gave me a huge access challenge over having two dogs in the restaurant? What if Kaline peed in the restaurant? What if he suddenly barked at Juno and she barked back? What if he refused to hold any kind of a stay and just made a pest of himself?

Kaline on the way to Red Robin ... I was just hoping he didn't totally recharge by the time we got there.

It ended up being completely fine. Both dogs were very professional. Kaline wore his head collar, so I'd have more control if he started to go for something on the floor. We brought his new mat, which is (I kid you not) made of memory foam and has a super soft blue outside. Juno and Kaline walked in together, and I set their mats up on either side of my chair. I got Kaline settled, with Juno waiting patiently, then gave her the "on your mat" command. Kaline immediately snuggled down in his mat (hey, who wouldn't snuggle into that thing?) and only got up once or twice. I rewarded him periodically for his lovely settle.

And I must say, the staff at Red Robin were fabulous. They didn't ask any intruding questions, or give us trouble about the two dogs. Our server grinned at the dogs but never talked to or touched them. She was so sweet: "Yep, I could tell the little guy is in training—the big one is just cool." They sat us in an area with few other people, so there was plenty of space to put the dogs and have them out of the way of anyone walking.

Needless to say, I was very proud of the kids! Took them to Petco after (unvested, of course) to get some treats and loving up. Yay, our first real Juno-and-Kaline outing was a success!

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.

Randoms

We're having a more lazy day ... not a ton going on. So here's some random stuff.

Kaline's fur on the front of his neck is really thin, like Angel's was. (Juno has a very furry neck.) I'm fairly sure it's not from his prong collar, because it was like that when he hadn't been introduced to it. I think it's mostly from the flat collar, which I'm trying not to put on him except for walks. Nonetheless, he's got a couple little bumps there now and I'm a little concerned.

So today I dug out my old Infinity head collar I got for Juno (she hated it, so we stopped) and tried it on Kaline, just to have a backup/alternative. He got pretty used to it pretty fast. He pawed at it a bit but not obsessively, and had no problem walking with me or doing basic obedience practice with it on. I may try using that on walks now ... but that still doesn't solve the problem of the flat collar, which you kinda have to have on with the head collar as a safety measure. Argh. Vet appointment in about a week and a half, so we'll see how it's going then.

Mom's rule about no dogs on the furniture has now been pretty much demolished. See, when we got Juno, everyone had rule changes they wanted implemented. My changes were: Unless the dog is sick, she gets only dry kibble (Angel got so picky that for the last few years of her life, Mom basically cooked for her and hand-fed her) and no feeding dogs from the table. Mom started feeding Juno from the table within a week. Now she begs like crazy (from Mom, not really from me or Dad). Mom's rule was no dogs on the furniture, which I mostly respected unless I needed Juno on the couch for deep pressure tasks.

Pwecious.

Well, Kaline is not into the whole "You may only get on the couch if invited" business. He just jumps up, over and over, no matter how many times you push him off. The thing is, if you let him stay up there, instead of running around the family room making a huge pest of himself, Kaline will just curl up and go to sleep. Mom seems quite willing to trade the couches for extra quiet time.

I never liked keeping dogs off the couches anyway. It's much easier to snuggle them when they're up here!

Operation Peace and Quiet is going fairly well. In total, Juno ended up with about 7 timeouts last night, Kaline 3. And overall we had far less barking. It also helps that Kaline just got a new pressed rawhide bone and is very enthused about it, when he's allowed to chew on it.

We tired him out pretty well with two five-packs this morning (Teddy, Wilson and Gracie, then Jett, Max and Xena). Our stint with Wilson finishes up on Friday, which will kind of be a relief. He and Kaline are not, shall we say, calming influences on each other. Kaline does much better when he's the only newbie in the pack, and the same goes for Wilson. Once Kaline's older I think he'll be a good influence though!

Odd little behavior starting, that I am planning to nip in the bud: Kaline sees other dogs coming when we're out at night, and gives a little rumble. Oh hell no.

And isn't this crazy?

On June 23 ...

Yesterday!

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.

First vested outing; and the only time I will ever use a Flexi

This morning was super exciting to me, because Kaline got to have his first vested outing! It lasted all of about 15 minutes. Before we left the house, I had to kind of jerry-rig the vest, safety-pinning the long straps up so they don't dangle (obviously, at this point I have both straps as short as they'll go). I put Kaline and Juno's vests in Dad's car—he drove to the Menlo Park Farmer's Market, and the dogs and I walked, to take the edge off Kaline's morning energy.

Kaline models his vest up in my room. Still needs to grow into it a little more!

We met Dad at the fish stand, and he had already completed the shopping! So he held Juno at that end while I vested Kaline and then headed in. We made one circuit of the market, just up and back. I was well-armed with treats, and Kaline was excellent. We wove through the crowds and he was interested, looking around, but anytime I asked him to watch, he did, pretty much immediately. He didn't sniff too much, and only pulled a little to go say hi to people. I was pleased at how he handled the quick up-and-back, and very pleasantly surprised at the fact that no one even asked to pet him, much less molested him without asking. Woohoo!

Dad had to pick up a few things at nearby Trader Joe's, so the pups and I followed him across the parking lot and just sat on a bench outside. I didn't think Kaline was ready to go inside TJ's, but I kept him vested, put him in a down next to Juno, and we just did some quality people watching. People-with-carts watching, even better. I admit, I feared that Kaline would have a cart phobia. Thankfully, he does not. He was very cute. Okay, fine, he's always very cute. But he just looked so adorable and businesslike in his vest!

Good settle, buddy.

We came home for a while, and then Dad started going on about finding somewhere for Kaline to run. Basically he had two ideas, dog park or tennis courts. I nixed the dog park because I will never allow either of my dogs into one; the benefits don't come close to outweighing the risks. Tennis courts got nixed because Kaline is way too young to be running on such a hard surface. Then he suggested the beach, and I thought, "Hey, that's an awesome idea!"

So, if you've known me more than five minutes you know I absolutely hate, loathe, and abominate Flexi leashes. However, when we go to the beach, I make a rare exception. I want the dogs to have a lot more freedom and play than on a normal walk, and it's appropriate for them to have more freedom. I don't want to let them completely off leash, though, because obviously the baby doesn't have a solid off-leash recall, and even if both dogs did, sometimes it's pretty hard to hear right by the ocean. So a Flexi, much as I hate to admit it, is a good compromise.

We ended up at a Half Moon Bay beach and had a lovely time. Juno likes to go walk around in the waves—not interested in swimming or getting in deep water, but definitely doesn't mind getting wet up to about her hocks. Kaline very plainly did not want to get wet. He had a good time running around though and after watching me scrabble in the sand with my feet, he went nuts digging. It was hilarious, because instead of alternating front feet, he tries to dig using both front feet at the same time. So there are frequent faceplants and he ended up with a lot of sand on his nose and in his mouth. A lot of it was in his mouth because he, um, was trying to eat sand. I have a silly puppy.

My goobers!

Wee Kaline on the beach.

Yooooo-no!

Diggin' a hole!

Which one of ...

... these is cuter?

I tried to get photos of Juno and Kaline's pawprints next to each other, cause they're practically the same size. Unfortunately, while Juno leaves beautiful clear prints, Kaline doesn't really weigh enough to do that yet. Ah well! Everyone seems to be pretty zonked now; Kaline is being a more muted pest than normal, haha.

Saturday Obedience Class No. 2

Kaline did a lot better this week, I thought! Enough better that I could glance over and see what Juno and Dad were doing sometimes (but we, um, won't talk about that). It was kind of funny—Juno, when I first got her at 18 months old, could only handle 45 minutes of the hour-long obedience class. Today, when Kaline all of a sudden started losing focus and being like, “Oh, treats ... maybe later,” I checked my phone, and what do you know? It was 10:45.

But yeah, he largely was good. We started off with heeling, as usual. Kaline kept up nicely, and mostly stayed with me on turns. Freddie had everyone come through the middle of the circle multiple times, which Kaline had never done. It can be difficult, because you have all 10-15 dogs going through at the same time from different directions, so you not only have to keep your dog's attention with intensified distraction, you have to make sure he modifies his pace to stay with you, so you don't crash into anyone. Kaline did quite well. He air-scented, definitely, which is a no-no, but at this point I'm not all that freaked out about it. (With Junebug back in the day, you saw air-scenting, and two seconds later you'd have stink eye and probably some ugly growling.)

We also worked on the moving down, and again Kaline did fine. He was a tad rough at times, but I've never asked him to down suddenly by my side while we were walking. By rough, I mean he was slow to get all the way down; but as soon as I stopped and gave the cue, he stopped and started to fold himself. So yay.

Kaline did freaking awesome on remote sits and downs. Most of the time, I only have to give the cue—no stepping into him. And he didn't creep forward either! Wheeeeee, I always feel so accomplished on remote sits and downs. Not so accomplished when we're heeling and we halt and Kaline wanders around for a while and then sits way out and cockeyed.

We did individual recalls, and Kaline did all right. At this point, he'll give you three recalls or so, and then he's pretty much done. He didn't break at all when the other dogs were racing to their owners (or when his sister broke to run to Dad like five times). Of course, I didn't back too far away from him. Just trying to set the puppy up to succeed! Gotta know what he's capable of doing right now, and what is just too much to expect.

We did three meet-and-greets, and by the third one Kaline was able to stay in his sit while he was patted and given a treat by our partner. On the third one as well, we had to leave our dogs in down-stays and move around them—harder because the dogs were inches from each other and basically face-to-face.

Kaline was paired up with Max the beagle, and Kaline currently has a thing for beagles (they're about his size), so that was a challenge for him. And after the stay exercise, I had to leave him with my partner and go out of sight for three minutes or so. Thank goodness, Kaline has absolutely no problem with this. When Juno and I went for her CGC, the time when I had to leave her and go out of sight was the longest couple of minutes of my life! That was the one exercise where I thought she might fail (she didn't).

When I came back, my partner left, so I had to keep Kaline and Max both in their downs, which was definitely hard at first! They were like Whack-A-Moles, whenever one would go down, the other one would pop up. (Obviously there was no whacking.)

We went for a little snack at Paris Baguette in downtown Palo Alto after class. Kaline had some trouble holding his down by the table at the beginning, but eventually he settled down. I think once he has his own travel mat he'll do better. He reminds me so much of Angel! We couldn't figure out for the longest time why she'd never down outside, no matter how much we worked on it. Then the instructor told us to bring a towel for her to lie on, and voila! Successful downs all over the place. Gotta appease the Dobie comfort-seeking genes.

After napping in the afternoon, Juno and I did another double feature at the Stanford Theatre (Meet Me In St. Louis and The Secret Garden). We had a lovely time. Junebug unfortunately got some popcorn spilled on her at the concessions stand, but she didn't try to eat any of it, my fabulous girl.

At home, I was eating dinner on the couch, which Kaline has never seen. He was in full pest mode. Nose next to my plate, demand barking, etc. I just kept correcting him and then putting him into a down, and eventually he settled and lay down very nicely by my feet, not even looking at my plate. For this he was handsomely rewarded with random kibbles. Maybe I should eat on the couch more often.

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!

He's enormous

I took Kaline's 13-week photo yesterday, finally remembering that maybe I should take these things from the same angle every week. Check this out! A comparison of Kaline at 9 weeks and at 13 weeks:

He's so huge! Look at those crazy long legs.

He used to fit on one step.

Yesterday Kaline got his first little taste of crowd work. It wasn't intentional, but it ended up being a great beginner crowd for a pup. This pup anyway! Mom had this brilliant idea to go to a small gathering of food trucks over by Willows Market. The gathering itself ended up being disappointing: cramped, my favorite food truck wasn't there, the ones that were there were subpar, etc. But I was pleasantly surprised with Kaline!

There weren't that many people, but they were all packed in the long, narrow space between the trucks and the market. So it was kind of a baby crowd. Kaline handled it superbly. (I hated being in it, baby crowd or not. I hate crowds, and unfortunately Kaline is not big enough or trained enough to really help me in one.) But at least he was cool—if he hadn't been, we'd have had to hang on the periphery for more than one reason.

Kaline met a baby, and was great with her, super gentle. The way the dad introduced the two of them annoyed me a little, and reminded me of an article I read once, on the crazy crap people let their kids do to their dogs, and proudly say, “He'll let them do anything with him.” (And then eventually the dog has enough of it and bites someone. Here is a similar article.)

This man just plopped his child down in front of my puppy, who he'd never met before, without asking. (Luckily I was paying attention.) And then, when Kaline was licking the baby's face and she clearly didn't want him to, I redirected him and put him in a sit; yet the dad kept insisting the baby was fine with being slurped. She clearly liked having her hand kissed better than her face. Like many dog people, I don't get why people think it's acceptable either for dogs to invade children's space, or children to invade dogs' space, willy nilly.

Kaline also met a bunch of adult men who were very lovely to him and complimented his ears. (I have not yet met a person who thinks he'd look better cropped. Everyone says, “Oh, I'm so glad you left his ears alone!”) When we were in line for food, he just downed by my feet and dozed there, oblivious to all the big feet around him. At our table, he again lay down, with Juno this time, and calmly chilled under the table. Good puppy.

Juno and Kaline under the table.

Both dogs did well at training today, though Juno's down-stay-breaking continues. How can you get mad at her, though, when after she breaks she comes over and squeezes her head between your legs? She's so damn cute.

With Kaline, I worked on heeling and recalls, his two weaker areas, as well as attention, which he's good at. It was hot and we were doing recalls partially in the sun; after three pretty decent ones, he'd had it. Freddie could tell, and just told me to give him water and put him up. I really need to work on knowing when to work through something, and when to just stop for a bit, with Kaline. (With Juno, the answer is almost always “work through it,” because she's an experienced adult.) I always tell people, and now I have to take my own advice: You have to have different, and reasonable, expectations for young puppies.

Heeling went okay, and will definitely get easier as Kaline gets taller. Which he's doing at an alarming rate, of course. I have to make sure I don't turn into the puppy as we're halting, and try to get him to sit up with me, rather than rocking back into his sit (same problem as we have on the recalls).

His attention was excellent, especially for a baby as young as he is. At training, there are lots of distractions—dogs, both silent and annoyingly whiny/barky; grass; trees; leaves; the wind; sounds of kids playing on the playground nearby; multiple people with bait bags; the list goes on. But when we worked on sit and down stays, Kaline was pretty darn focused for a pup! I can go the length of the leash away from him when facing him; I can go in a complete circle around him, both directions; and I can stand behind him without him breaking his stay, either kind. Little smarty pants!

Juno and I did a lot of heeling work, along with Kristin and Ben. Juno is actually better at left about turns, which at least in my view require tougher footwork from the dog, than she is at regular about turns, where she always lags. She did well at transitions and at the moving stand. Remote sits and downs, with verbal and without, went pretty well too. One of Juno's favorite games, haha.

Both dogs got to have playtime in the sprinklers with Ben and Phi. Kaline is smitten with Phi and was chasing her all over the place. Juno just chased whoever was moving at that particular time. Both dogs also did really well in our abnormally crowded car—they were in the front, Juno on the seat and Kaline in the footspace, while on the backseat we had two poodle-mixes and a Golden, and in the backseat footspace we had Baxter. (Kaline had a grand play session with him in the afternoon; see video below.) I thought six dogs in the car would be utter chaos but we really didn't have any issues.

Terrifying thought of the day: Things like training really used to tire Kaline out, to the point where he'd need a couple-hour nap. Now he sleeps for maybe an hour, if you're lucky, and then he's raring to go again. He recovers way too fast! Thank goodness for bully sticks and pressed rawhide chews.

Asleep in the car.

Dog boots

Or shoes, what have you.

I took Juno back to the fair on Sunday, in work gear because I knew there would be crowds. Dad and I were hungry, and we were like, “Hey, there's yummy food at the fair!” It was hot, though nothing like disgusting Saturday. Hot enough that the pavement would be uncomfortable to walk barefoot on. So I put on Juno's boots.

I don't think I had to answer a single of the usual unintentionally rude, sometimes annoying service dog questions. All I got was, “Why is your dog wearing boots?” It was actually kind of nice, in a way, since none of the people who asked had dogs.

The first person we met, in fact, turned to look at Juno and while I was bracing for the usual questions, she said with feeling, “Thank you for putting boots on your dog.” It's one of her pet peeves when people bring dogs to hot places and don't protect their feet; she will often, apparently, confront people about the fact that their dogs' feet are burning, and get nastiness back. Good for her for keeping on, though.

I don't understand why you'd be defensive about it. As soon as I saw pavement was starting to bother Juno (which it hadn't before), I got her shoes as quickly as I could manage. The idea that if I wouldn't walk barefoot somewhere, I shouldn't force my dog to do so, makes perfect sense. If it's hot, you prepare your dog for the environment with as much care as you would prepare yourself, or you leave the dog at home.

Anyway, Juno was the only dog at the whole fair wearing any kind of protection on her feet. We actually saw a big, very furry Collie-Shepherd-looking dog dancing his paws around because they hurt to touch the street. And people were asking why she was wearing shoes. “Why are you wearing shoes?” I sometimes retorted (in a gentle, laughing way).

Junebug did fantastically well. There was a much bigger crowd than in the morning, unsurprisingly, and she led me through nicely, if at a slower pace than normal due to heat. We tried to keep to the shade, took lots of breaks, didn't stay long. There were several areas where dog water bowls were available but Juno took a couple sips and was done.

People were better than normal about not touching her and not letting their dogs screw around with her, right up to the end. Then two people, who were together in some way, one after the other let their ill-behaved dogs run right up on Juno. I'd watched the dogs pulling their owners through the fair—we kept seeing them. In the crowd and trying to stay in the shade, there was no way to avoid them. The first one pulled the dog back as soon as I said, “Please don't let your dog run up on her.” The second one, the guy, let his bigger dog get his nose halfway up Juno's butt before listening to what I was saying, in a vastly peeved tone: “Do NOT let your dog run up on her! She's WORKING!” Grrrr.

Other than that, though, an excellent outing for Juno, an interesting one for me.

Big brag on Juno, and Kaline's first street fair

Last night, Juno and I went with the parents and some neighbors to see The Intouchables, which was a fantastic movie. Juno's new BLD leash came, which I plan to use for outings where we're going to be sitting a lot. She has a rare talent for tangling herself in her 8x8 in such situations; the 8x8 is awesome though if we're going to be walking a lot, especially if I might have to carry something. The new leash is great, but Juno was even greater!

A little way into the movie, Mom dropped the bag of popcorn we'd been eating all over the floor—all over Juno. It was at least half a bag. Even before I whispered, "Leave it," Juno never even reached for a single piece. She slept the entire movie away with an enormous mound of popcorn just past her outstretched feet (she likes to sprawl, if the opportunity arises). I tried to take a photo after the movie was over; it didn't come out great, but you get the idea.

Today, we got up real early to do the Connoisseur's Market, the annual Menlo Park street fair. We went early for several reasons. It wasn't prohibitively hot, as it will be later in the day, brutal on pups in general but especially their feet. It also was not crowded, which it will be later. Juno is a pro at crowds, but obviously Kaline hasn't had a chance to become a pro yet. And, now that Kaline is thoroughly worn out, the rest of us get to have a relaxing afternoon. (He was a terror last night before he fell asleep. An absolute horror.)

Dad handled Juno while I handled Kaline, and he did so well! As I had expected, he got to meet a ton of new people, one of the biggest reasons I wanted him to go to the fair. After the first little bit, he also did really well matching his pace to mine, much slower than we are used to walking. He also had to ignore a lot of other dogs, both well-behaved and basically out of control.

(Tangent for the day: I cannot believe people come to street fairs with their dogs on Flexi-leads. You're going to be in a crowd, and you think that having your dog 26 feet away is a good idea? Also, Flexi-leads attached to prongs. Saw those everywhere. A Flexi, by its design, keeps constant tension on the dog, one of the reasons they teach dogs to pull. A prong collar is meant to have no tension on it unless you are giving a pop-and-release correction to the dog at a precise moment. Why would you ever use the two together?! End tangent.)

First we went to breakfast at a bagel place. Kaline was not really into lying down under the table; we compromised with a sit. He was super antsy to get going, at that point; he was ready for his walk! So as soon as we finished, we headed out into the fair.

Kaline at Bagel Street Cafe.

We stopped at a bunch of booths, and Kaline was very polite most of the time. Early on, he would whine if we stayed especially long, but after a while, he would just collapse in a puppy puddle to wait. He was definitely running on fumes by the end! He is asleep now and probably will remain so for a good long time, hehe.

He's out.

So's the big girl.

Kaline was definitely not overwhelmed by the atmosphere, though. Anytime I asked him to get up from his puddle, he immediately did and trotted by my side to our next destination, then plopped there. He only tried to chew on one person's tablecloth, and I quickly stopped him. Amazingly, he did not pee anywhere inside the fair. I wouldn't have blamed him if he had done (it's outside on a street, after all), but I'm very pleased he didn't! He was his usual super-social self, and no one could resist such a cute, well-behaved puppy.

Just try and resist this face.

Totally different subject: Kaline has been meeting a lot of cats in the past few days, and I'm pretty happy with the interactions. He is cautious but curious, and the cats have shown very plainly by their behavior that they don't find him threatening at all. Kaline shows no urge to chase them—he would just really like to smell one, please and thank you.