The other week, I walked out of my place, down the hill, and out of the property. At the entrance, just on my side of the property boundary, I saw one of these red plastic mesh potato bags, and the rear end of a dead rat sticking out. It was … weird. Out of place. Our brains immediately fill in the blanks when we get a glimpse of something, so before I had time to investigate or even look closely, my mind had come up with the explanation. Someone had tossed a bag with a dead rat over the barbed wire fence when passing. It was WEIRD because why would you dispose of your dead rat on someone else’s property, but stranger things have happened.
I investigated by touching the dead rat with my shoe and pushing the potatoe bag off. That’s when I recognized what I was actually looking at: it was a tiny puppy, no more than a week old. And it wasn’t dead. The moment I touched him with my shoe, he started whining. That moment, my stomach dropped. Do you know that visceral feeling sick to your stomach that comes out of nowhere? The psychosomatic kind? I feel it rarely and almost always in situations like this, where I suddenly become aware of something horrifying about human nature and it strikes out of nowhere.
It’s because all the things I know about puppy developement, rural areas and what I saw right in front of me came together without needing any more processing time, and I knew: This puppy had been thrown over the fence at an age where he was not able to survive on his own, move very far, ingest solid food or regulate his body temperature. He had been left in a place where it was equally likely nobody would find him before he froze or starved to death or died of dehydration than it was that somebody would find him. And if somebody did find him, it would be very difficult to keep him alive until he was old enough to eat solid food because you need puppy formula and a way to keep the puppy warm and a lot of time to keep feeding him and activate his bowel movement and clean him …
I first typed this text on a plane, and I’m retrospectively editing it. I used “it” as a pronound for the puppy and just changed it to “he.” When does an “it” become a “they,” a “he” or a “she”? It’s up to the speaker, I suppose. Right now, I am choosing to make the puppy a him. And that editing choice is going to impact the way you feel as you’re reading this post. The moment someone becomes anything other than a neutral pronoun, we feel less distant. At least I do when I speak English. Back to our puppy story.
My own ethics are never AS crystal clear to me in theory as they are in a practical situation where I simply KNOW. It was the cruelty that struck me. I know about dogs procreating freely in rural areas. I partially grew up on my grandparents’ farm where the same thing happened with cats. My grandparents, in the 80ies and early 90ies in rural Austria, also didn’t spay or neuter their animals. It probably seemed like a grotesquely complicated, time-consuming, stressful and potentially expensive thing to do that maybe city people talked about. They hadn’t acquired the cats on purpose, the cats just moved in, as cats do when there are barns with mice. It was fine for some of them to live there, but my grandparents didn’t want hundreds of cats, so anytime my grandfather found a litter of kittens hidden in the hay, he would quickly and painlessly end their lives.
My cousins and I loved finding kittens and we’d never tell my grandfather and sometimes even hide them because we wanted to keep them around. At the same time, it was very practical and pragmatic; it wasn’t traumatizing to know what he did. It was what small-scale farmers did at the time. It was fast, painless, pragmatic, and kind. He’d cup them gently in his hands. There was no suffering. We got that even when we were kids.
So as I stood there, and it had just started drizzling, and right as the other three puppies started whining in response to the first one … the other three had made it out of the potatoe bag and dug into the grass and the blackberry underbrush … So all of that, together, gave me that feeling in my stomach. It wasn’t the fact that someone didn’t want the puppies. It was that a fellow human being had chosen to not end the suffering or ensure their survival.
So I saw my ethics around this topic clearly, in this moment, and I wouldn’t have been able to tell you about them as clearly before this experience: I don’t have an ethical issue with the fact that dogs in rural communities multiply and puppies are not necessarily wanted, and may be culled. I’m not on a moral high horse in this respect. I grew up with its kitten equivalent, and I understand it.
It’s also not the giving away of unwanted little animals. You could take them to someone who’d raise them. You could leave them with the mother dog until they are a few weeks older and able to eat solid food, and then you could take them somewhere near a restaurant or garbage dump where they stand a chance of finding food. You could do what my grandfather used to do and quickly end their life before suffering has a chance to begin.
What shocked me is what ACTUALLY happened: leaving puppies too young to survive to potentially die of dehydration, starve or freeze.
I only briefly feel the visceral sick-to-my-stomach thing. 5 seconds maybe? Then I move into solution mode. I got a cardboard box for the puppy in the bag and two more I saw. I heard a fourth one I couldn’t find in the blackberry brush. Because it had started raining, I took the box with the first three up to my place and came back to search for the fourth one, digging with my bare hands into the thorny blackberries until I found her.
I don’t know if there as a fifth puppy. I didn’t hear or see another one. It was raining. The fourth one was the last one I picked up.
I have no kitchen and no running water, no working car and no way to heat anything. It gets quite cold at night. Plus I had to leave the country in 2 weeks. Me trying to raise these puppies was unlikely to be successful given the current circumstances.
I reached out to my neighbor to ask where I could take a litter of tiny abandoned puppies. They said they didn’t know. So I waited for the rain to die down, and then carried my cardboard box the two kilometers to the highway restaurant. I planned to ask the folks working there.
Let’s take a step back for a moment. What is really interesting here, and I reflected on this hours later, was that the moment I picked up the first puppy, the litter became MY responsibility. No questions asked; they just WERE my responsibility and you could not have convinced me otherwise. As long as I didn’t touch them, I might even have been able to convince myself that I didn’t look closely enough and it probably was a dead rat. But the moment I picked up that first one, I had crossed an invisible line in the sand and there was no going back. The responsibility had been transferred to me. As long as they were lying in the grass quietly and I didn’t know they were there, it’s like the in-between area of a land border between Latin American countries. If you cross by land, you exit one country and get your passport stamped, and then you walk for a bit through a zone that either isn’t part of either country or at least, it’s unclear what country it belongs to, and then you get your passport stamped again at the tiny immigration booth on the other side, entering the neighboring country. That’s what you did 15 years ago anyways; I haven’t crossed land borders in a while.
When whoever found the puppies and put them into the potato bag and maybe took their motorcycle, and until the bag sailed through the air across the barbed wire fence, the puppies were this person’s responsibility. Then, they landed in no man’s land. And when I picked up the first one who knows how many hours later, they had entered the next country over. They had entered my responsibility. And there was no going back.
As soon as I had scooped them up, I knew very clearly what my options were. There were only two: because of my personal circumstances, I couldn’t raise them myself. Trying to wouldn’t be fair to the puppies; it wouldn’t give them their best shot at survival. My two options were: A, find a place where they would be raised by someone who knew what they were doing. Or B, end their suffering quickly. Given how cold they were, they were already suffering.
I looked at both options and picked A. Not for sentimental reasons. Both are, in my book, morally acceptable options. I picked A because … well, I love dogs, so of course that was my first choice. I wasn’t aware how hard it would be to find someone for them.
The restaurant at the highway was packed when I got there. I talked to one of the girls whose job it is to run back and forth between the kitchen and the counter with plates of food. You always get 3 different kinds of starch at this restaurant: rice, potatoes and a surprise carbohidrate. The pasta is my favorite. Meat of some sort and a little bit of salad. I interrupted her flow, told her I had found abandoned tiny puppies, opened my cardboard box for her to see and asked if she knew who to contact. She said she didn’t, but would ask the cook. The cook was in the area behind the counter, and while I couldn’t hear their conversations over the sounds of dishes and customers and sizzling in the background and the blasting TV that always plays Caracol News, I saw that the cook gesture towards her right as she shook her head and the younger girl’s eyes getting bigger. She returned to me and told me to just put the box outside.
I asked why; did they know someone who could come for the puppies or …? “We don’t know,” she said. I was confused. Why would I put the box outside and leave it there if there was no solution? I asked again, did they know of someone I could call? Or should I take them to the vet myself? If they knew of anyone, that would be my preference. Because I had no car and would have to take a bus with an unwieldy cardboard box. But I would of course go. I just needed to know which one it was; what was the plan if I “put them outside”? The girl went back to the cook, and then told me the cook knew someone; they’d call once the restaurant calmed down. I said, okay, great, I’ll wait. I found a table in a corner and kept the puppy box next to me; it was cold and windy and drizzling outside; no way would I place them there; they were already cold enough. Until I had handed the responsibility over to the next person, I wasn’t leaving their side. Outside the restaurant was no man’s land, and that’s not where I leave puppies.
A cyclist sat down next to me. We started talking and a little ways into the conversation, I told him the puppy story and opened the box. The puppies were not whining anymore but piled up in a corner of the box; their bodies still cold. He took out one after the other; his hands were hot after riding all the way from Bogotá and he wanted to warm them up. He was very gentle with them, went back and forth between utter kindness and empathy and problem solving mode, called a friend who was a vet who confirmed what I had told him: no, we couldn’t feed them anything; puppies need formula, not cow’s milk, and we’d make things worse, not better. We hung out for a while, warming the puppies in our hands, moving the box around the table anytime a warm and sunny spot appeared through the clouds. Customer after customer filed out and made the kind of face people make when they see a baby creature of any kind. The cyclist started trying to give them away in an attempt to help me and them, and I stopped him. These puppies were my responsibility; I sure as hell wasn’t going to give them to a random person at a reststop restaurant who’d impulse-take home a puppy too small to survive without proper care.
The place emptied out and the cook and the girl still hadn’t come back. My image of my fellow humans is generally positive, but that entire conversation had not only felt understandably rushed – a lot was going on in the restaurant – but also insincere. And as time kept passing, the puppies spent more and more time away from warmth and food and their suffering continued. Plus the later it got, the less likely it was I’d get to a vet before they closed if I had to.
I asked the cyclist if he’d mind investigating for me. I had a feeling no one was getting called. And indeed, they admitted to the cyclist they were not planning on calling anyone. Lo dijeron para salir del paso, he said, shaking his head. They just said it to get rid of you. I told the girl at the counter that the lie sucked, took my cardboard box and found a bus to town. I found the closest vet on Google Maps and walked there. They told me, no way, they could not take abandoned animals. I kept pressing and they gave me a phone number of someone who supposedly had some sort of rehoming organization. I reached out to this person, still at the vet’s office, and they told me, no way, they already had way too many animals and I should tell the vet to stop giving out their fucking phone number. Next, the vet sent me to a pet store around the corner. The pet store sent me to a different vet. When the second vet also said they couldn’t take the puppies, I asked if we could, if they didn’t know of anyone else, euthanize them. I felt like I had been prolonging their suffering for hours by now, and it felt shitty. They were getting weaker and colder and hungrier by the minute, and it was not okay. The vet said, nope, these puppies aren’t sick, so I can’t euthanize them either. Since they also couldn’t get rid of ME, they sent me to some sort of agricultural government office. This was the least likely place I expected would be able to help me … but since I couldn’t think of anything else, I went. And while this office clearly wasn’t set up to receive animals, two of the people working there took pity on the puppies or my desperation and said they’d do everything possible to sacarlos adelante. They’d do everything they could to keep them alive. We found the warmest spot in the office and they headed out before me to find formula. They knew how to raise puppies, and they clearly wanted to help. I trusted them. And I finally made my way home.
It was an adventure of several hours. I’m glad the puppies are in good hands … but wow, did I not expect things to take this long! With every passing minute, I felt like I was letting them down: they either needed to be in a warm place and get fed already, or I should have ended their life quickly and painlessly when I first found them. The more time passed, the more they suffered, and THAT is what I’m not okay with. I hope those four will go on to have wild and precious lives.
I could use the puppy story as a metaphor for other things in my life. It’s just far enough removed from human-human interactions that I could interpret it in any way I want as I mapped it onto something else; something different. It would feel like cheating though. I don’t think my morals about these puppies have a metaphorical meaning at all. They just mean that I have strong feelings about the suffering of living beings. I imagine most of us do … but what we define as suffering, or a being capable of it, most certainly differs depending on who we are.
For an audio version of this blog post, check out today’s podcast episode.
I’ll refer to the puppies by there (provisional) names from now on because it’s a lot of fun to name dogs! Here’s the run down again, matching names to collar colors. Also and perhaps most importantly, I’ve decided what Black’s name is going to be! Since she is the one puppy who has stood out to me in having more tentative days than the others (so far! It may change tomorrow!), and since she had a few days where she very much did her own thing rather than hanging out with the puppy pile, she’ll get to carry the litter theme forwards: she’s Rebelde (rebel.)
Blue is Chispa, Purple is Oso, Green is Bravo and Red is Fierro. Three puppies have ended up with the names I had on my list of rebelde-themed names. Oso and Rebelde weren’t on my list. Oso just works for Purple (right now anyways; he’s a big fluffy teddy!), and Rebelde fits better than anything else I had on my list. It’s also a strong, brave name, and I want Rebelde to be strong and brave! If she is the most sensitive – which may of course change – she will need it the most.
Back to today!
Before heading back to Teotihuacán, we went to Fresa Parque early in the morning and got in some more dog interactions:
Park time before our puppy road trip.
Once again, two strangers asked me to sell them a puppy. This is getting old!
By 8AM, we hit the road. The shade structure did a great job and we got to our temporary yard before it was unbearably hot.
Open roads (with good music) and cats symbolize freedom for me. To be untethered to places because you choose rather than need to feels sleeping-under-the-stars kind of good.
More de-parasiting
Everyone had their first round of Heartgard, on the same day it was Game’s and Chai’s monthly turn. Oso (Purple) had the easiest time eating his and did so right away without hesitation. The others took a little longer. Only Rebelde (Black) needed hers diluted in a little milk or she wouldn’t touch it.
6 weeks, 2 days (May 7)
Game and Chai enjoyed a round of morning fetch in the yard while the puppies (who were smart and got out of the way) watched with curiosity. When a ball became available, two of them went for it!
Solo adventures
Bravo
I took Bravo (Green) on a 20-minute solo trip in the carrier. Even though it was already very hot when we got out, he didn’t complain at all. We met a free-roamer I let him sniff to bring up his dog count, which is the lowest of them all right now. He walked up to the wagging dog lying in the shade and investigated the waggy tail. No pictures because I wanted to safe myself some editing time! We went to a butcher shop and got ground chicken: the better food I’ll start adding to most meals in order to teach the puppies that hands near food are great news rather than a cause for concern. I also got chicken feet to gnaw on for everyone. I took Bravo out while the store owner ground up our meat and he got to see the goings-on.
Fierro
At 2PM, it was Fierro (Red)’s turn to go on a solo adventure to El Chichimeca. It was hotter now and he hung out under the bench, panting. For the first time, I saw him startle at a motorcycle sound. He didn’t respond to the second motorcycle going past.
A thought on socialization periods
I wonder whether we really are in the most important socialization and environmental exposure period now, and whether my early socialization has made a difference. OR if the main socialization period is already over, contrary to common knowledge, now that startle responses have intensified and fear responses set in. I’d probably have to have at least another litter with the same sire and do things differently to find even a little bit of an answer.
… and Fierro again
Tonight, I took Fierro on an errand without the carrier. At first, he was a little stiff in my arms, then he relaxed and soon fell asleep. I had been hoping we’d run into a free-roamer to catch up on his dog count, but no luck today.
Preventing resource guarding
This is what the ground meat is for! Today was the first day I added something better to the puppies’ kibble: raw meat! The idea is to create the association that my hand near food means good things for dogs: I will either add something better to what the dogs are currently eating or trade something they are playing with or chewing on for something better; then give the first object back right away. The hope is that by learning this from the beginning, the thought of guarding food or toys won’t cross their minds in the future because human hands near food mean good things. If someone happens to visit while I feed the puppies, I’ll have them do it too to generalize a little.
My raw meat is in the tiny plastic container and I just sprinkle a few flakes of it over the kibble every time my hand approaches. It doesn’t have to be a lot – it just has to be yummy!
So social, so interactive, so mobile!
Everyone continues getting bitier, which is delightful. Tonight, Fierro and Rebelde tugged with each other on a rope for the first time, and Oso discovered that he could try and dig holes!
For the last three or four days or so, they’ve also shown a new play move: they will sneak-stalk up to each other Border-Collie style and then play-attack! It is VERY cute. Yesterday, Bravo had the first puppy zoomies in the yard. Today, the others followed suit!
6 weeks, 3 days (May 8)
There were morning firecrackers – I suspect the left-overs from the saint’s day last Friday. The puppies are most playful in the morning, and we played through all of the firecracker background noise for about half an hour. (These aren’t the next-door firecrackers anymore, but a little further out. Still – good practice for any dog who’ll live in Mexico State!)
A thought on noise sensitivity
We could, of course, wonder why most dogs I know in Mexico, including free-roaming ones, are not comfortable with firecrackers, given the fact that most of them grow up with firecrackers. I wonder if the population – pre-firecrackers – started out average: most of them not noise sensitive, but with the possibility to sensitize (like Game.) Once they had sensitized, they had litters and those litters socially learned from their dams to be afraid. OR they themselves sensitized later in life. OR it is something epigenetic. In any case, my favorite scenario would be the one where the puppies socially learned to be afraid: that is the only scenario in which my puppies won’t eventually be afraid of firecrackers because I’m removing my adult dogs when the firecrackers get too loud and pairing firecracker sounds with play. I have no idea how likely or unlikely the social-learning hypothesis actually it is. (If you read this and know – show me a study; I’d love to read it!)
Here’s a few excerpts from our morning play! The puppies now play with each other as well as with anything they find: figs from the tree in the yard, a rope, my socks, my pants, balls, toys, Chai, long grass roots, twigs from a shrub, sandals, my phone’s lanyard. Everyone and everything is a toy, and I love it!
Chispa (Blue) and Rebelde (Black) say, lanyards make great tug toys!
Here’s Bravo having fun with a sock I let either Fierro or Chispa win – both of them got one each. I’ve been slipping socks for particularly fervent pulls like we do with bite sleeves in bigger dogs.
So! much! play!
It strikes me just how much play there is. I knew there was going to be a lot – but not the true extent of that lot. The puppies must be using ALL their muscles this way! By now, they chase each other as well as wrestle, and they roll all over the place in all the ways pretty much nonstop. What a way to exercise and learn about their bodies and each other! I would absolutely love to have another litter for them to play with – I bet this would have HUGE advantages for them: the newness of dogs AND play. It would be an amazing opportunity! I’m hoping to find someone on Facebook who is willing to have a playdate with us.
Solo adventures
Purple
went on today’s Chichimeca trip. He left the carrier, lied down in the shadiest place he found under the bench and complained: the heat. I feel it too. It’s too much!
Frontlining
Everyone got Frontline-sprayed again while asleep. I want to minimize them having to deal with the terrible smell, so half-asleep puppies are perfect. Nobody complained! Now that the pups are bigger, I’m using the spray the way it’s supposed to be used (more of it and massaging it in.) This way, we’ll hopefully be able to go a little longer before the next round!
Crate training
Fierro
mastered his 9 minutes (slept through them like a stone) and
Oso
mastered his 8!
Once they are up to 10, I’ll increase duration in 5-minute increments rather than 1-minute ones. My goal is to get up to 30 before one of these two boys goes on their plane trip.
Husbandry
everyone got the nails of their right front paws clipped – for the first time today, with the “big dog” clippers! They all did well – Fierro, Oso and Chispa were rather awake during their turn though and struggled to get off, having more important things to do and places to be. It’s not a fear-based but clearly a “Hold on, I’d rather be on the ground and do that other thing” kind of struggle. Big difference! Rebelde and Bravo got their turn later at night, and were very chill and relaxed – it was sleepy times already. Nobody batted an eyelash at the big dog nail clippers.
6 weeks, 4 days (May 9)
Velociraptor morning greetings are getting more fun by the day! I’m still slipping socks and sandals when they pull strongly. I’m loving my mornings: it’s the good kind of pain. Like getting a tattoo.
When I took Game and Chai for their morning walk, EVERYONE flooded out the gate. So far, it has always only been one puppy, and they’d been more tentative about it (usually Fierro or Chispa.) Today, everyone wanted to come!
I wish I lived in a street where I could let them come on an abbreviated morning walk, but as is, this is not a puppy-walking street. There’s about 2-3 cars a minute, but they are fast and I have already seen them not stop for dogs. It’s not that kind of town – other towns – even with more traffic – absolutely are. It is fascinating to me how within the same state, the human/dog culture differs.
This particular street also has a lot of barky dogs behind fences. This, too, isn’t the case in all towns, even if the number of resident dogs is similarly high! In any case, to get to the place where walking is enjoyable (it’s still a cactus desert, but without cars), we need to walk through the street with barking left and right and cars who won’t stop for dogs. Walking two adult dogs who mostly stay on the sidewalk is just the right number to do so relatively relaxedly. I’m going to drive to the cactus wasteland with everyone and the puppies though … maybe tomorrow. That way, they can have a little walk with the big girls without getting run over. And we can stop to meet our free-roaming friends. When I’m not bringing the puppies, I’ll have to move the x-pen to the gate to create an airlock … this morning, the simple act of leaving took me a couple minutes because they were very determined. I don’t expect them to want to go to the same extent if the adults don’t head outside, but just seeing Game or Chai them step over the threshold is now enough to make them want to come along. It would be fun to live in a super quiet street where I could watch them naturally expand their home range without worrying about cars. This morning showed me that they’d venture off this fenced property by now. Bravo even ran a few meters after a pedestrian passing! Yay for being attracted to new folks!
Social life
Solo adventures
Chispa
went on a brief out-of-carrier solo adventure to the store, and the person attending the store briefly held her. One new human – check!
Rebelde
went to El Chichimeca in the carrier. She was fast to leave it, briefly explore and soon fell asleep under the bench in the shade. It is SO hot!
Fierro
went on my evening hunt for ice cream. I wasn’t going to take anyone, but he was latched on to my sandals when I tried to leave – so picking him up and bringing him along for an adventure was the easiest solution. The first two places were out of ice cream (have I mentioned it is hotter than in Mexico City?) So our adventure was longer than expected – and Fierro got to meet a friendly free-roamer and take turns eating pieces of kibble with him!
Heading home with Fierro after finally succeeding at our ice cream hunt. Marveling at the beauty of not only murals, sidewalks and fading paint, but also rooftop water tanks. Everything turns beautiful under the right kind of sky.
Visitors
Around noon, Carla, Emmerson and Axel visited for a bit. Every puppy got held by either Carla or Axel – we’ll count them as new people again! Fierro was the first puppy to show object play with a person other than me: he tugged with Axel! What a good boy!
All puppies played with each other while Emmerson (the 3-year old) ran around the yard. These little social visits are perfect: they usually stay for about half an hour because by then, Emmerson gets bored. Both for me and the puppies, that’s an excellent amount of time to socialize.
We’ve done these visits over my lunch break so far, which is also convenient: during the hottest hours of the day, none of the puppies have enough energy to eat visitors, making it a great time to have a kid over and running around. Earlier or later in the day, I’d worry, especially since Emmerson is a bit tentative around the puppies. They are fast now, and I can see Emmerson running and screaming while 5 Malinois puppies think this is the best game ever, catch up with Emmerson, latch on to them and … ahm … like the cute tiny dinosaurs in this Jurassic Park scene:
In the evening, when it cooled down, I decided to try 2-puppy adventures this week as a change from solo- or everyone.adventures. The first two puppies got to go today:
Oso and Fierro’s 2-dog adventure
I carried them a little in the carrier, then set it down and gave them a chance to come out (once we were off the car street my temporary house is on). Both did so pretty quickly – when there are two rather than one, their confidence doubles! I walked a few steps and called them. Sure enough they came running! A piece of kibble for everyone and the opportunity to go back into the carrier. Both ate the kibble and wanted to stay outside, so we walked some more along the sidewalk. We saw several people, got touched by someone and Fierro responded slightly suspiciously when someone shooed him away from their plastic cup of beer. With a little encouragement, he then ran past them when I called. Brave Fierro!
I walked ahead and called a few times, feeding a piece of kibble or two each or offering water. I LOVE that they are already eating kibble out and about, and it was great to see their confidence on the sidewalk, and how they approached rather than retreated from two strangers (who reatreated into a portón before the puppies caught up with them.)
They also met a free-roamer, upping both their weekly dog count by one! Go puppies!
Tomorrow, I’ll take the next two. I’ll spontaneously decide who gets to go!
Crate training
Fierro
was tired and did his 10 minutes without issues as I was getting ready for bed.
Oso
was still wide awake. Both he and Chispa were in sleep deprived toddler mode, which goes along with panting quite a bit. I waited until Oso had chilled out and then went for his 10 minutes. Unfortunately, I hadn’t given him enough time to be able to modulate his energy down from crazy to asleep. He complained at a noise level 1 in the carrier, starting about a minute in. He stayed at a level 1 though and there were brief pauses. He was tired … until he saw Game head outside for her evening pee. At that point, he escalated to a level 3, and then back to 1 when she came inside again. Don Oso will do another 10-minute round next time!
Changes!
Purple used to be a very even-keeled and slightly lazy puppy until about Sunday. Now, he’s becoming more and more active and intense! They change SO much, all the time!
6 weeks, 5 days (May 10, 2024)
Adventures, field trips and socializing!
We went to our usual morning walk spot, but I drove the part that has cars and dogs barking behind fences so the puppies could come! I parked at the cactus wasteland and let everyone out right away. It is wild how much of a difference it makes in the puppies’ confidence when Game and Chai are around – especially Game! Since the big girls couldn’t wait to get out of the car and get to their running spot, the puppies followed suit. Chispa needed a bit of convincing – she was the only one who observed from under the car for half a minute before taking off into the open field. (Once again: notice how much they change: last week, the hesitant puppy would have been Rebelde while Chispa would have been one of the first ones to explore. Today, the tables are turned!)
What I was most fascinated by was that the puppies weren’t big on exploring this new environment. Instead, they did what they usually do in the morning: latch on to my pants and sandals to tug ferociously! Chispa, once she had decided she wanted to come, was all wiggly and happy when she finally got to me and then, of course, cashed in on her price of tugging away. Not a second look at the environment even though the big dogs were ahead and exploring! (Chispa is my current favorite because out of all the puppies, she seems the happiest to see me, and she has a facial expression that goes with an open mouth, ears back and fast wagging. She turns into the personification (canification?) of joy. None of the others can do that kind of expression. The random details we love about them are fascinating in and of themselves!)
My left leg and my right leg as I’m trying to walk further into the field!
I’ve only consciously reinforced tugging on my pants (it is something that typically only happens in the morning, when everyone is extra excited to see me and it’s still coolish) a few times – maybe between 3 and 5, for no more than 30 seconds each, and not with every puppy each time. And WOW, what a result! Going forwards, I’ll carry toys for them to latch on to instead. Unfortunately, I have no closed shoes, and my feet are pretty scratched up by now. It IS fun, but it’s also a lot to put on the puppies’ new homes! It would be nice to get them to target toys instead over the next few days, before they move out. Without having done any conscious drive building except for letting them tug on me a few times and slipping socks/shoes, I have unleashed the monsters! It is WILD to me how easy a genetic disposition to be mouthy can be turned up! (I continue being delighted, of course, but since they won’t stay with me, it’s time to tune things down in the eating-humans department.)
There is a very easy trick to get a puppy to let go, by the way: pick them up. The puppy, that is, not the thing you don’t want them to tug on.
After doing so a few times on our wasteland adventure, they shifted their focus to the environment (phew!) Here’s our first encounter with a cactus:
After meeting Mr. Cactus, we saw (well, at least Game did) cattle in the distance and I used the opportunity to whistle-recall the adults, knowing that the puppies would come running after them. Not only was there a scatter – the puppies also got reinforced with social attention (praise and pets) as well as an opportunity to reach Game’s teats for a drink (it is warm already and milk is liquid – the perfect reinforcer.) The scatter is mostly for the big dogs, but some of the little ones snatched up kibble as well. I believe social reinforcement is still pretty strong for them, but food is starting to increase in value.
In the video above, you may have seen that the person with the cattle has a dog as well. In the clip below, that dog has come closer and after eating a scatter (everyone except for Chispa, who observes the dog), we get to say hi. I call Game back twice to make sure she doesn’t get too intense with them. I haven’t let her meet dogs together with the puppies before. On the second up-close meet, before I have a chance to call them back, the dog feels outnumbered and heads off. This was a great opportunity for the puppies to meet a new dog, and see peaceful meetings modeled by their two big household dogs!
I’m only putting down one new dog for Bravo since he was the one who directly approached and sniffed the dog up close. I’m excited it was Bravo, since his dog count is currently the lowest (he had the least dogs “roll over” from last week.)
… and for the final adventure puzzle piece of this morning, we all climbed a wall (i.e. a wall that’s part of a ruin, making it climbable even for puppies:
This entire outing was around 10-15 minutes – there was just a lot that fit into a short time. If I walked at my normal speed, it would have been 3 minutes to do this small loop from the car and back to the car. The reason it was 10-15 is that we first spent a bit of time with me standing still and puppies hanging on to my pants, I stopped a few time to take pictures, I recalled them, we waited when they checked out the cactus …
Rebel & Bravo’s 2-dog adventure
Around lunch time, I craved quesadillas, so I walked to the quesadilla plaza with Rebel and Bravo. I first had them both in the carrier, then let both out and they followed me, then carried them both, let both of them walk a little again and, on the way back, took turns having one in my arms and one in the carrier.
We made it to the quesadilla plaza, and I let the puppies have a drink and run around. Rebel was out first. She had also been the first one out on our first stop in the street, and the first one to say hi to a person we met. Not a shy puppy this week at all!
Apart from seeing passers-by, we interacted with 3 people: two who pet them for a little bit (without lifting them up) and a 3-year-old (whose pink tulle dress looked like a great toy to rip up; I’m glad it was hot enough for the puppies to not sink their teeth into it!) who didn’t dare touch them, but danced and ran around them, came close and retreated again while we waited for my quesadillas. The puppies were, at this point, tired and watched with interest, but not in a hurry to get up or appraoch: they had just interacted with two of the four dogs on this plaza as well, staying on the ground, approaching voluntarily. Both dogs were friendly to them; it was great! By the time we met the kid, everyone was ready to pass out.
I’m counting two dogs and one human for both puppies. I’ve decided my human count will be 1 for every person who holds the puppies and, now that they are at an interactive age, 1 for every 3 people who interact with the puppies without picking them up.
When walking a bit along the sidewalk on the way to the plaza, I called the puppies successfully with Pup-pup-pup a few times, reinforced with pets and kibble and the opportunity to go into the carrier if they wanted, and occasionally a drink of water. They both took food (even though they had just had lunch before we left!) and were doing great. Bravo found his first scavenge-able little pieces of meat under the quesadilla stove. I had forgotten my phone, so no pictures or videos of this outing – but it was a most successful one! I just wish it wasn’t quite as warm. By the time I got home, I was ready to take a nap too!
Crate training
I usually crate train when everyone gets tired at night … but this morning, they were all wiped out from our field trip, so I used the opportunity to get some sleepy training in before it got too, too hot!
Oso
started talking to himself half-way into his repeat-9 minutes. He talked to himself on and off (lower than a level 1) until almost the end; I took him out when he happened to be quiet after 9 minutes. Since I’m aiming for total calmness, he’ll repeat the 9-minute stage again.
Fierro
took his first stab at 15 crate minutes. He started complaining softly 11 minutes in, talking to himself, escalated to noise level 1 around the 12 minute mark and to levels 2 and 3 another minute later. 15 again it is for Fierro! He started out really well though!
Oso – again
I gave Oso another go at 9 minutes after Fierro’s turn because everyone was still wiped out from this morning and it wasn’t yet UNBEARABLY hot. He aced it this time! On to 10 minutes for his next round!
Fierro – again
After Oso, Fierro took another stab at his 15 minutes – and he DID it! What a superstar! He woke up twice during his turn. Once because of a firecracker – he fell back asleep a few seconds later. And once at about minute 15, when the neighbors’ dog started barking. He was awake, head up, listening and looking for his last minute, but no complaints! Go Fierro! His next turn will be 20 minutes!
Oso aces his 10 minutes!
Tonight, Oso had another go at sleeping in the carrier for 10 minutes – and he DID it even though he woke up in the very end when the dog next door started barking! Go puppy! On to 15 minutes tomorrow!
Resource guarding prevention
Apart from Oso’s crate training win, we only did two things tonight: I used the mop as a “don’t eat my feet” toy (it works great for most puppies except Fierro!) and then added little pieces of raw to the puppies’ dinner kibble. I’ve been doing this for 1-3 of their 4 daily meals over the last couple days and am now starting to see cheerful anticipation when I approach!
6 weeks, 5 days (May 10)
Caden’s don’t-eat-me protocol
Below, day 1.5 of The Mop Mission for unteaching your litter of Malinois puppies to eat you. To successfully apply:
Have a baby gate between you and the puppies. Entice them with the mop before stepping over the baby gate for a better chance that they will target the mop (rather than you.) See 02:26 in the video below. The camera angle isn’t great, but at this point in the clip, I’m behind the baby gate in the front door to the house – and the puppies are outside. I’ve already moved the mop back and forth in circles and ∞ movements for about 20 seconds when the clip starts.
Move your mop AWAY from the puppies rather than towards them. Just like you would when teaching them to tug: toys try to escape like prey animals; they don’t try to jump into the preditor’s mouth.
Only if absolutely necessary use the mop as a barrier between you and a puppy. Note that this puppy, if there’s a reinforcement history for eating you, is learning to fight past the mop to get to you rather than to target the mop! My puppies have this reinforcement history.
If a puppy latches on to you, don’t pick up your leg or foot or shoe – this tends to cause Malinois puppies to latch on even more strongly! Instead, pick up the puppie. They are likely to let go (at this age anyways.) Place them behind the mop so they get another chance of chasing something they will be allowed to keep biting.
After daily practice, I’ll show you what this looks like next week!
Tugging with three puppies (the two sports prospects and my favorite)
Why? Because I have TIME for it. If I had gone to the city and done what I originally planned – socialize, socialize, socialize – I wouldn’t have. I’m using this time wisely to have a little fun!
Play with one puppy out at a time – but if you have several puppies, let the others watch from behind a barrier! They’ll want to go next!
Tug for 1-2 minutes (stop before the puppy gets tired!)
After some 50/50 strength struggle (thank you for that percentage suggestion, Shade Whitesel!), let the puppy win the toy when they give a good tugging effort: let go of it and let them have it.
Let the puppy keep the toy and do what they like with it for at least 20 seconds.
Announce a trade: show them something edible and delicious, take away the toy, give them the food, give back the toy.
Let them have the toy for about 20 seconds more and then distract them away from it if they are still interested. In Oso’s video, I start tossing figs since we happen to be under a fig tree. Pick up the toy when the puppy doesn’t notice.
Session over! Transition gently from interaction to puppy-amusing-themselves time, for example with snuggles or personal play.
Oso
Fierro
Fierro impressed me: he didn’t let go of the toy throughout his session! This is one tenacious puppy (today he is anyways – remember that at this age, you’ve got a different puppy every day!)
Chispa
When it was Chispa’s turn, she was too tired to play – or in any case, she didn’t feel like it. It was HOT! I first played in the usual spot by myself, but quickly gave up. These are Malinois puppies. If anyone is going to beg to play, it’s going to be them begging me!
I then briefly tried engaging her up closer – and she started chasing the toy! However, she soon stopped again and I ended the session. Take home message: don’t beg your dog to play. If it’s not the right moment for them, just try again later.
At night, after the rain, Chispa was big time into tugging with Chai on that same toy!
2-dog adventure
Chispa and Fierro went on their 2-dog adventure this morning. I hoped to find a person for Fierro and a dog for Chispa to meet. We found someone for Fierro: the tamales salesperson I bought my breakfast from was happy to hold him. No dogs for Chispa though. We saw one, but he was mistrustful so we left him alone.
The most interesting part was when we walked past a rubbish fence (made out of car parts, steel mats and corrugated metal) that had three (?) dogs behind it who started barking suddenly and all at once. Both puppies got scared (very clearly a fear response, not a startle response) but responded differently: Chispa booked it towards home and stopped maybe 15 meters from me on the sidewalk. The barky dog yard was between us. Fierro ran my direction and gladly jumped in the get-away carrier the door of which I held open. I tried pup-pup-pup calling Chispa, but she couldn’t come. Only once I had walked back towards her side of the barky dogs did she come (which didn’t require her to run past the barking, but still towards it rather than away from it – brave girl!)
Both puppies recovered within no more than 20 seconds. They voluntarily left the carrier again – Fierro before Chispa – and walked with me for the last part of the way home. Fierro even latched on to the belt of the carrier and tugged. And yes, that last bit was on the car street sidewalk, but the puppies were tired enough I trusted they’d stay with me.
The fascination of opposite responses and the onset of fear
I found two things fascinating today: one is that the two puppies showed opposite responses to the barky dogs: away from me and towards home (Chispa) and towards me (even though that was the opposite direction from home): Fierro.
It also was a clear sign that by now, at 6 weeks and 5 days, every single puppy (maybe except for Bravo? I’ll have to go back over my notes to see if I’ve seen a fear response in him yet) is physiologically capable of experiencing fear. The earliest I’ve gotten a puppy was at 7 weeks. That puppy was also a Mal. So really, there is very little chance that when you get a (Malinois) puppy, that puppy isn’t already past the sensitive socialization window (if we define that window as the time the puppy is socially receptive, yet entirely unable to feel fear.) The 7-or-8-week-old puppy’s fear response will still be smaller than the fear response of an older puppy – but like it or not, it’s going to be possible to show up while being entirely impossible at an earlier age.
The puppy you invite into your life
This is why I give young puppies ALL the opportunities to socialize that I can. As much as possible, even if it’s hard on them and they are very busy as a result of my socialization efforts.
I also advise new owners to do a lot in the very beginning (the no-fear opportunity is gone, but the fear response is still smaller than it will be in a week or two.) Once the fear response is noticeable when confronted with new experiences (depending on the breed and the individual, this may be at 7 weeks, at 12 weeks or anywhere in between), we slow way down and I suggest one or two calm days a week where the puppy learns that sometimes, nothing much happens and we still don’t tear the house to shreds.
Once the opportunity to reap the unique benefits of the time when curiosity is greater than fear has passed, we’re not in a hurry anymore and can focus on other important, but less time-sensitive things such as learning to be calm and not not always “be on,” crate training, marker cues, play and other life skills we may practice at home.
Up until then, we very much are in a hurry and quite busy socializing, going all the places and having all the visitors! But starting when the fear response is more than just a moment’s hesitation, I want the puppy to have the greatest possible agency over approaching or not, being touched or not, and the distance from whatever stimulus that feels right to them. This is when we may introduce CU games, desensitization and other more systematic (and hence less “organic”) protocols: while we didn’t need them for very young puppies, we do now!
Solo adventures without a carrier
Oso
came on an errand to buy milk. I had hoped to hand him to the convenience store person to hold while I scrambled through my wallet, but unfortunately, the store of our choice was closed and the person in the one we went to instead wasn’t quiete as dog-enthusiastic. Oso is still missing one human to complete this week’s count. This is the first time all puppies needed their rollover extra humans from last week because I didn’t go to the city today, where socializing puppies is easier!
We’ll go dog hunting tonight and tomorrow and find Oso a human to complete this week’s quests for everyone!
Rebelde
came on an ice cream mission in my arms a little later today. Almost everyone is out of ice cream! But we hunted some down!
Resource guarding prevention: toys
Everyone got a round of toy-guarding prevention: my hand approaching a toy means I’ll take it away, feed something delicious and give it right back. I worked with all of them, but didn’t take video of them all. It was fun to observe how some went right back to the toy while others were looking for more food!
While only 3 puppies got to play with me this morning, everyone got a round of playing by themselves with the resource guarding protocol!
Rebelde
Bravo
Fierro
Going forwards, I’ll only do toy play and trade after. Toy play is way too much fun to swap it for boring toy – food – toy exchanges!
The adventure that didn’t happen
When it cooled down a little, I put all the puppies in the big dog crate and drove them to the town center in the hope of human and dog socialization. However, just as we got there, it started pouring. I waited about 10 minutes, but the rain didn’t let out, so we drove back home – not having left the car. Silver lining: the puppies got another car ride in the big dog crate, and they heard rain on the roof of a car.
A note on play
It is fascinating to me that the puppies seem much more interested in playing with each other and with me than in playing with the adult dogs. Never before has it been THIS clear to me how important puppy/puppy play must be! Sadly, no news on my search for a litter of a similar age, even though I’ve now posted in two more local and semi-local dog Facebook groups.
Thought of the day
Grief comes in waves.
7 weeks (May 11)
Socialization adventure
Since we – that is I – had been too tired to go to the city this weekend, I took another stab at the town center this morning. No more rain and today, we were much luckier! Not a lot was going on yet on a Sunday at 7AM, but this made the stimuli there were the more salient. We met 5 dogs at varying levels of closeness. I’m counting 2 per puppy. This gets almost everyone to their weekly dog-interaction count (taking the rollover from last week!) There were also several people who touched some of them. I want one more round of this, and I’ll count one person for everyone too, which would also get everyone the required people count.
Everyone came and ate when I called, ran away and sprinkled breakfast kibble. Eating out, getting pets, practicing puppy recalls – check.
Curiosity, approach behavior … and scaring off two big dogs once they noticed HOW MANY little raptors were coming to say hi to them. Thank you for being kind to the first ones, you two!
Fierro also barked at another non-threatening free-roamer. This is the first time one of them has barked at a stimulus! Plus: we’re climbing stairs as if it was the most natural thing in the world! See for yourself:
We then met a fourth free-roamer and almost got run over by a trash cart. Almost! What’s most interesting in this clip to me is how Chispa approaches the dog with her tail tucked. She is clearly feeling tense. There is no reason for her to approach. I am at a distance from this dog, taking video – she could come to me or go any other way. And yet, she chooses to approach despite her tail saying that she isn’t entirely at ease! Curiosity wins – and nothing bad happens! Go Chispa!
Thank you for the person with the trash cart for stopping when I asked you to! We were getting in your way, after all!
After meeting the trash cart, the puppies found bread crumbs to enjoy and reconnected with the black free-roamer. They also ran after a bike for a few metters and after a pedestrian (I had to call them away from the pedestrian; they themselves stopped with the bike.) Bravo tried eating the pedal of a different bike. That’s not on video – but here’s Bravo and Rebelde learning to scavenge and our free-roaming friend! I usually don’t feed free-roamers, but I do these days because I want them to stick around me and the puppies. You’ll also see me having to call Rebelde away from a stranger in this clip. I lowered the camera when calling because the person looked like they’d like to be left alone, so you can’t see Rebelde’s nice response.
Folks were just starting to set up for the Sunday market when we got ready to leave (to avoid going home in the heat!) Everyone walked through the market corridor together – including our new found friend, of course! In the video below, you see me calling the puppies after the corridor. They are slower to respond – Rebelde seems to not be sure which direction my call is coming from, and everyone else is just tired by this point! Our new friend, funnily, is fast to respond to the recall she doesn’t know!
At this age, social reinforcement tends to be most valuable. I feed now and then anyways because I want the puppies to learn how to eat, and that food can be a consequence of behaviors. But not always: I want social reinforcement to stay strong and not turn every interaction into a transaction.
I would love to go to the city at least once this week before returning there on Thursday … but due to the heat, I think I’ll leave it at working here in town. I’ll just have to head out every morning and every evening (as long as we don’t get rained out, like yesterday.) Hopefully that way, we’ll come close to meeting our dog and people goals. We’ve still got tonight to break even for this week, and I hope to make it count!
This evening’s social trip
I looked for other plazas in and around town, but the only other one there is (as far as I can tell) – the quesadilla plaza – was pretty dead. So we headed back to the center again. And wow, was it fun! Much more alive than at 7AM! There were not as many dogs as there usually are at city parks, but plenty of people who wanted to interact with the puppies, including kids. Older kids running, couples lying on the low walls of the grassy parts, a balloon salesperson, a few arts stands (probably the same we saw setting up in the morning), people with strollers and lights in the trees. It wasn’t crazy crowded, but just right. Everyone met a tiny 8-months old Chihuahua who wanted to play (until my guys became too much when they found all their confidence) and another friendly free-roamer who was approached by Bravo (he’s the most confident, ventures the furthest and is the first to approach people and dogs these days), Rebelde, Fierro (who first barked and then had a good time) and Chispa (who I held up to both this dog and the Chi to sniff because she was being sleepy or tentative.) Oso got held by a new person, so he officially mets his people count for the day as well. Since everyone else got touched by all kinds of people, but not picked up, I’m giving them all an additional people mark too. Plus one Chihuahua for everyone and one free-roamer who wanted my pets, but not my food for 4 of the puppies. It’s going well! We’ll make this park a staple, twice a day for as long as the puppies are here and it doesn’t rain!
Crate training
Oso
Shortly after we got home from our evening adventure, there was a power outage. Nothing much we could do – but Oso got 15 minutes of crate time and rocked it! Both he and Fierro are looking at 20 minutes next.
While Oso slept in the carrier in the kitchen, everyone else was asleep outside the baby gate, outside the house … except for Rebelde. She vocally complained about wanting to be let in. I did something I haven’t done before. Since everyone was out there with her and peaceful, it was a familiar place and she wasn’t confined, I knew she wasn’t scared – she just wasn’t content and wanted inside, and she is someone who says what she wants. I waited her out, puttering around nearby but not letting her in. She calmed down after 20 minutes. About a minute later, I let everyone in for the night.
Did we meeet the new dogs and new humans goal (at least 7 a week for everyone?)
YES! I tallied up this week’s dogs and people, and thanks to today’s two outings and Carla, Emmerson and Axel’s visit this week, we made or overshot our dog and human goals this week as well! (Granted this is the first time we counted rollover dogs and humans from last week.) I have a good feeling that we’ll get things done in week 8 as well, now that we have a plan for mornings and nights!
We had a lazy day today. I made sure not to take too many pictures or videos so I wouldn’t have too much to write or edit either!
A sleepy Game sandwich.
Purple’s Solo Adventure
Purple went on a solo adventure to the lunch place next door. He did great in the carrier, and then I opened it to let him out – if he so chose – while waiting for my food. He came out onto the sidewalk, explored around the carrier and then whined, which was immediately remedied by picking him up. After watching the world go by from my arms – there wasn’t a lot going on, but we saw a cyclist, two small kids running and an adult walking by, a few cars and a motorcycle – he struggled, I put him back down and he explored some more before falling asleep on the cool tiles of the restaurant entry. No complaints on the walk back home either (it’s only a 2-minute walk.)
Purple watching the street on his solo adventure.
Green’s Solo Adventure
Green was the next puppy to go on a solo adventure when I walked to the copy shop to print out this week’s puppy trackers. He did great on the 5-minute walk there, and after getting my prints, I opened his carrier in a quiet side street to give him a chance to explore as well. He came out slowly – this is the first time he has this opportunity on his own, and he wasn’t as quick to explore as he’s been with his siblings around. I wonder if caution is a natural response when by oneself as a young puppy OR if this indicates his fear response has set on.
In any case, he did come out and explored around the carrier. There wasn’t much going on, but on the walk home, we walked parallel to someone with a wheelbarrow and also saw a few cars and a bike.
Crate training
Purple
did great and slept through his 6 minutes.
Red
complained and wanted out. Blue and Black were concerned and tried to get into the closed crate where their brother was screaming at volume level 4. I let him out after his 7 minutes, but not without wondering if I should let him cry it out. I know he’s frustrated because he wants out. I don’t believe he feels abandoned because everyone else is right next to him. I’ve never let a new puppy I crate trained cry it out, but these puppies were older – I built duration and alone time very slowly. With a puppy who’s been separated from everyone they know, it seems cruel to me to let them complain until they give up. On the other hand, imagining to let Red complain until he stops now feels different because I’m convinced he doesn’t feel abandoned. Hrm. We’ll see tomorrow.
In any case, the success of the puppies (for example the fact that Purple slept through his turn and Red didn’t) is, so far, based on the timing of when I started their turns. It’s not that Purple is more comfortable in the carrier than Red; it’s simply that when I put Purple in, everyone was still sound asleep, but soon after I put Red in, everyone started waking up and becoming active – including Red, who at that point didn’t want to stay in the carrier.
Deworming …
Every puppy got another spoon full of strawberry yoghurt laced with dewormer. Sadly, no strawberry yogurt for me today. I need to safe some for their third dose tomorrow!
Mobility, becoming social beings and the senses
The rebeldes are getting FAST when they run and, as of today, have REALLY turned into sharks. Their teeth have been around for a few days, but as of today, their jaws are strong enough to make teeth on skin hurt.
We’ve officially turned into little biting machines!
They’ve also started carrying tennis balls around and playing together with a tennis ball! Social and object play rolled into one!
AND we’ve heard the closest firecrackers we’ve heard so far. Game, Green and Red lifted their heads; everyone else didn’t even wake up. I don’t know what’s going on with Game – she hasn’t been THIS chill around firecrackers in a long time! I wonder what hormonal or other changes are causing this.
Also, here’s a lunch recall to a scatter in the grass! Sometimes, I recall to scatters, sometimes to different plates or containers – I want them to learn to eat out of any container and from any surface. This is a simple stimulus/stimulus pairing – classically conditioning my voice/pup-pup-pup-pup, followed by food. Easy, fast and effective.
5 weeks, 2 days (April 30, 2024)
Social life
This morning’s social play
Solo adventures
Both Blue and Black went on solo adventures today!
Black
joined me on my quest to figure out where to pay a parking fine (I outdid myself and got two in the course of 3 days, thank you very much.)
A note on urban planning (or the lack thereof) in Coyoacán
This town reminds me of the outskirts of Xela. It is urban-sprawly in a way that feels completely arbitrary. There are several streets that have this freeway-town atmosphere where there are businesses to their left and right – reststop-esque eateries and places to fix your flat tires, fruit and juice stands and a lot of surprisingly fast traffic.
Then there are little plazas in places you wouldn’t expect them, and NO plazas in places you would. There is an official center of town, but there are other places that could just as well be it. Government officies are randomly strewn across the city as if someone sprinkled them over the town for decoration.
There is paid parking where you think there wouldn’t be, and free parking where you’d expect it to be paid. The person I paid my fine to liked me and simply cut it in half because … why not.
People don’t seem particularly communicative – the goings on feel rushed. This is not a sleepy town. While in smaller towns, people may stop to let a dog cross the street, here, they will bump into them (at least one person I observed last week did. They saw the dog, slowed down and – gently – bumped into them with their car. The dog was fine.)
There is a lot of food everywhere, and places open and close at random hours. It is A LOT cheaper than Mexico City; I forgot how cheap good streetfood can be!
It’s a good place for puppy raising, especially because of the yard – but it’s too far from what I love about Mexico City, yet too loud, busy and urban for what I love about the middle of nowhere to be a place I’d want to stay more permanently. Most of all though, it’s a place with a very strange (lack of) layout.
Back to Black!
Black screamed at a new noise level – 5 – in the car for about 10 minutes and then calmed down for the rest of our adventure. I carried her around the main plaza with all its goings on and opened the carrier in the gazebo. Black came out after observing for a bit, made her way around the carrier and then got back in. I presented her (held her in my hands) to a helpful freeroamer who wagged and came over to sniff and be sniffed. New dog count for Black – one up!
The lovely fella on the left came over to be Black’s socialization helper.
Right: an unsuccessful attempt at adequatly capturing the center craze and all it’s goings on.
Blue
joined me on my hunt for food. The places I already knew weren’t there or closed, but we found another arbitrary plaza with random food stands and a bunch of children running around. I carried Blue around this plaza so she could see the world while waiting for my quesadillas. On the walk back, we met a friendly freeroamer who, like Black’s helper, kindly assisted in sniffing and being sniffed. Blue came out of her carrier right away when I put it down on the sidewalk and was curious to meet the new dog (who was hoping for a quesadilla.)
Top: Blue and I are waiting for my quesadillas. Bottom: Blue’s socialization helper.
Husbandry and handling
Everyone got the nails on their left back paws done and a round of my handling protocol. They were all completely relaxed – very nice! Their teeth are looking great! Being poked by my pretend needle (a pencil) doesn’t faze them. I wonder if the real needle of the vaccine is going to be very different.
More laced strawberry yoghurt
Everyone enjoyed their third and for now last spoon of yoghurt with dewormer. Only Black didn’t want to eat hers; I smeared it directly into her mouth. This was VERY easy; I assume because I’ve practiced looking at the puppies’ teeth a lot.
Sharky escape artists
This morning, Red and Blue were out in the living room. They had managed to escape the x-pen I set up because this very much doesn’t feel like “my” house. I suspect they managed to climb on Game’s chair and jump down from there – which is quite the jump. I changed the set-up for tonight to make it – hopefully – impossible to escape or break a bone for a few more days.
They all are ankle biters now and their needle sharp teeth are quite painful! I am delighted! The Mals are Malinoising!
Because the cuteness
5 weeks, 3 days (May 1, 2023)
In the middle of the night, the puppies woke me and complained – they usually wake me when they want their late-night/early-morning snack from Game. This time, I opened the door for them along with Game, who wanted to go outside. Every single puppy ran out to the grass and immediately peed out there! Go puppies!!!
The uncreepy duck
Yesterday, I set Creepy Duck into the doorway. Green was the only one who showed curiosity, but I wasn’t sure if the other ones just missed it. So today, I took another stab at having Creepy Duck show up in an unexpected place it hadn’t previously been. Nobody cared … not even Chai! She was the only one who ever found it creepy on the first encounter in my apartment. As Creepy Duck has no more use for us, Game did the sensible thing briefly after this video ended: she shredded it to pieces.
I’ll have to step up my game when it comes to creating The Uncanny!
Solo adventures
Red
Today was Red’s turn again, after he was the first one to go on a solo adventure last week! We walked to El Chichimeca. It was quiet out, probably because it was hot. Nevertheless, Red saw a few bicycles, two cars, a motorcycle and two pedestrians, one of whom was Carla who stopped to talk to us. He also heard the sizzling of something being fried on a gas stove and came out onto the sidewalk to play-tug on my fingers and gnaw on the carrier before falling asleep by my feet after getting his belly scratched. He was comfortable and at ease out and about, all by himself. I’m proud of him!
Gnawing on the world’s tiniest water dish, on the carrier and about to fall asleep upside down under the bench … after gnawing on it too.
Purple
went on his second solo adventure of the week! We just took a short walk. We had two sidewalk stops to drink water and a third one to briefly sniff a small dog while I held Purple. On the two stops I gave him time to leave the carrier voluntarily, he did so immediately and started exploring, venturing futher than any other puppy has so far (far being about 2 meters.) He found a piece of tissue on his stop that he was intrigued by, saw people, a bike and a motorcycle and met a second dog on the sidewalk. Such a brave boy! Since he didn’t want to go back into the hot crate, I “suggested” he walk with me, and he did – I only walked for about 5 or 6 meters along the sidewalk, but he happily followed along, tail held high! Then I put him back into the carrier. I’m pretty sure his occasional soft carrier complaints were heat related. Which made me think that every puppy should also have a carrier-free outing this week, just being carried by me! Time for more adventures!
Purple and I also heard a loudspeaker announcing a very eclectic selection of products for sale, passing by the truck things were being sold out of: differently flavored homemade aguas (lemonades), clothes, dirt for planting plants and fragrance oils.
Green
I carried Green down the street for no more than 3 minutes, just to check when the vet Carla had told me about was open – I want to use them for their next happy vet visit this week. Green watched the world from my arms and had no complaints.
I’ll want to do this with everyone, but also keep up the carrier outings: when carrying a puppy in my arms, I can’t give them the same agency to either come out of or retreat into the safe space of the carrier, so I wouldn’t want to put them down. With the carrier, I set down the carrier and open it and it’s up to the puppy to decide if and how far they want to come out. I really like the agency and portable safe space this provides.
Puppy play and canine conflicts
I’ve got two play videos for you today! In the first one, we see that tails are a-ma-zing … and that it may not always be the best idea to get near Game’s tennis ball! She drops it just to my right (not visible in the video), and when Purple approaches it, she corrects him by being loud and moving her head fast into his face (without making contact.) You can’t see her, but you can hear her – and you can see Purple’s very appropriate response: this was clear communication; he understands and he backs up; he’s off to do other things.
A note on emotionally intelligent conflict behavior
As I watched this video just now before uploading it, it struck me how much we could (if we were so inclined) learn from canine conflicts. Game is not beating around the bush or hedging her feelings. She says it like it is: “you being near my ball is not okay with me.” I’m anthropomorphizing for the sake of the point I am making: this is the canine equivalent of stating something clearly. Game doesn’t harm or scare Purple. Even though Game is loud, this is NOT the equivalent of the primate behavior of yelling at someone or being physically or emotionally violent. It’s the equivalent of stating a fact: “This is my boundary. Back off.” Purple hears the statement: “Oh, that’s your boundary. Got it!” He respects it rather than pestering Game to change it or questioning her self-knowledge (“But really, I know you better than you know yourself and your boundary is or should actually be over there.”) He moves on with his day and continues having fun without bothering Game. He’ll respect her boundary (except for when he forgets about it and will be reminded of it, which is also totally okay.) No bad blood. No grudges. No endless back and forth that doesn’t lead anywhere. If we were half as decent at communicating (and listening to each other the first time around), our species would be in a lot less trouble. Collectively as well as interpersonally.
… and here’s some more puppy wrestling … and Purple coming for me!
Crate training
Both Red and Purple mastered their 7 minutes without problems today: I chose a sleepy time and they did great! Up next: 8 minutes!
5 weeks, 4 days (May 2)
I had let everyone outside and slept an hour more. When I got up and headed out, I was greeted by everyone hanging on to my socks and pants! EVERYONE! I tugged with them that way and lifted Blue off the ground once again. Loving my little sharks! They are so Mal now! It is beautiful!
Social life
Solo adventures
Green
went on an in-carrier solo adventure this morning. We left around 9, but it was already hot. We stayed out for about 35 minutes, finding an ATM and taking several breaks for Green to drink water and choose if he wanted to come out of the crate. He came out halfway and observed from there each time.
He got to sniff two free-roamers from my arms observe a third one from his half-out carrier position. I also carried him through a tiny street market and then let him observe the goings-on there from his carrier with the door open for a few minutes. We set up outside a school building, so he heard the voices of small kids in the background as well.
The first of Green’s two free-roaming helper dogs and the market we walked through and observed.
Green complained softly on and off in the carrier (likely due to the heat) and calmed down when he could come half-way out or be in my arms. Anytime I closed the carrier exit to walk a little more, he pushed against it with his paws: open doors please!
We also heard an extremely loud screeching sound right next to us – I don’t know what it was, but it certainly hurt my ears! Green in his carrier didn’t seem to mind the sound.
Blue
and I walked to El Chichimeca in the early afternoon. There was less pedestrian traffic than usual, but more traffic-traffic. Below is an excerpt of Blue exploring (she immediately left the carrier and checked out the environment, venturing quite far) and the vehicles passing by. When I take someone on a solo adventure to this place, it’ll usually look similar to this.
We also heard a blender and a kid’s voice from inside El Chichimeca.
Puppy play!
Just because:
The two puppies without collars in this video are Green (the darker one) and Purple (the lighter one.) I just washed their collars and they are drying in the sun.
Blue is the most feisty and playful of them all today (the puppy without a collar who’s being chewed on is Green):
Part 2 of Blue’s feistiness:
Pedicures
Everyone got the nails on their right back paws clipped. By now, they are SO relaxed about this. I’ll bring the big-dog clippers and use those instead of the little human clippers starting next week!
As of this week, I’ve combined handling/husbandry and nail trims. Everyone got brushed, had all paws handled, teeth checked, eyes cleaned and ears cleaned and collars taken off and on again, with everything I do being announced.
I’ve changed the eye- and ear-cleaning strategy and now use a moist paper towel: there’s actually something to clean now that the puppies are spending parts of their day sleeping in the dusty dry dirt under the car (it’s the coolest spot in the yard.) I also added a new element to my “needle” protocol: it’s not just two pencil stings a la IM injection, but also two a la SQ injection by now (it’s two each because I do it left and right.) Nobody is impressed by this procedure at all. We’re about to find out what they think of their first actual needle when I vaccinate them this weekend!
A new toy!
Today, with Game and Chai cooped up, I brought out toy #2 from our fancy toy collection!
This video is the very first time the puppies see this toy – they are engaging with it in this way with no time to explore or think about it first. Go little sharks!
In the end of the clip, I say that we’re into toy play and object play by now. I meant to say we’re into social play and toy/object play by now (toy play is object play.) Excuse the video angle … I needed to hold the camera because I ran over my tripod.
A happyish (less gentle) vet visit
In the late afternoon, I took every puppy on a solo adventure – sans carrier; I carried them in my arms – to the vet who is practically next door, one after the other.
It was interesting to compare this experience with the first happy vet visit we did in the city. This vet was different (of course they were; every person is different – but I digress.) Their exam: the puppies got weighed on the big-dog scale, their mouths got fully opened (rather than just pulling up the lips like the other vet and I have been doing), and the vet manipulated their legs (and not particularly gently at that.) The vet also pulled up their skin (the way you do to check for hydration status.) No stethoscope this time.
The cool thing: the surface of the table was no big deal for anyone except (maybe) Black. This table was metal too, but it had texture unlike typical vet tables – maybe it didn’t feel as weird, or maybe the first happy vet visit table time made a difference.
Purple went first and Black went second. With Black, the vet observed (it wasn’t visible but I’m sure if they said they felt it, they did) that she initially trembled on the table and then stopped and calmed down. None of the other puppies trembled. Given how warm it is, trembling is fear-related, I assume. (Technically, it could also be related to some other state of arousal.) Assuming it is fear, Black’s physiological fear response has set in now as well – at 5 weeks and 4 days old, I’m seeing the first sign of it. Isn’t it wild how long “we” typically wait to start introducing puppies to the world? The average pet or sports puppy sees very little before having fear in their experiential repertoire. (This is NOT true for the average free-roaming puppy, who is the average dog. Pets and sports dogs only make up a small fraction of the world’s dog population.)
I let the vet do their spiel. After all, nothing cruel was being done to the puppies and I don’t know who their vets will be later in life. Maybe they’ll resemble this one! In the end of the visit, every puppy was mostly relaxed, even Black who didn’t start out that way.
A note on human behavior and first impressions
What stood out to me was how differently the vet treated each puppy based on their first impression of them. They immediately pidgeonholed Black as the most timid. However, rather than being extra gentle, they seemed more foreceful to me when handling her than they had been when handling the first puppy, Purple. This was confirmed with the puppies following Black: every one of them got less prodding and leg-pulling and joint-moving than her. I’d be surprised if the vet was conscious of treating them differently. They handled the most playful puppy (Red) the least and the most gently, and the second most playful one, Green, almost as little as Red. They very clearly “liked” Red best and Green second best because they were mouthy and exploratory and the vet commented on it, sounding amused. Blue resisted a little when she didn’t like something, but didn’t try to play or explore, and Purple was simply calm and relaxed, letting things happen. The vet told me that Red had “the most character,” which (the vet told me) was “a good thing in this breed.” Being a language person, I can’t help but notice that character (not a scientific term as far as I know) was seen as something dogs have a certain amount of. The vet didn’t use the term to describe a trait every dog has and that looks different depending on the individual, but as a trait some individuals have, to pick a unit at random, 5 ounces of and other individuals have 10 or 15 ounces of. Apparently, in the Malinois breed, the more ounces of character you have, the better. I wonder: if I asked the vet (which I didn’t do because I would probably have confused the poor person with my semantic eccentricities), would they tell me that there was a maximum amount of character an indivudal dog could have (say 15 ounces) or whether it was always relative to the litter in question (one would rank the puppies within the litter from most to least amount of character and consider the one with the most character the best if the dogs in front of one were Malinois. It might be the other way around if they were Cavalier King Charles Spaniels or Golden Retrievers.) In the latter case, if Red was part of a different litter where the other puppies had MORE rather than LESS ounces of character, Red wouldn’t be the best. This discussion isn’t meant to go anywhere; it’s just … semantics. But interesting ones that point to human biases! We all have biases, of course – it’s just a lot easier to see them in others (such as our vets) than in ourselves.
Being carried to the vet and back, everyone saw a person or two in the street. Purple also saw a dog in the waiting room. Black got pet in my arms by a stranger with two dogs when I carried her back home, and briefly got to sniff one of the dogs while I held her. I won’t count them as a new person – too little contact – but I’ll count their dog!
This vet liked hearing themselves talk, so I listened. They charged me quite a bit, so I made the most of our time there and stayed in the environment with every puppy until they had finished talking and sent me out.
A note on human behavior and actions considerd ethical/the subjective value placed on lives
I now know that they “rescued” a Belgian/GSD mix who was going to be put down because she killed farm animals. They kept the dog (even though they also have a farm.) Sadly, the dog has to always be chained up or they would keep killing. They have, in fact, been let loose a few times over the past few years, and several farm animals died in the wake of it.
It was interesting on several levels to hear this dog’s story. The previous human of this dog had either considered euthanasia kinder than a locked-up or chained-up life, or they were simply pragmatic and didn’t want their dog to kill their other animals. Maybe they considered all lives equally valid, and didn’t think it okay for this dog to kill others. Who knows.
The vet, on the other hand, considered living on a chain the better choice for the dog than death. At the same time, the fact that this dog stayed alive has apparently led to the death of several more farm animals over the years. I didn’t ask them to clarify their moral point of view and I don’t have arguments for or against their decision regarding that dog – but it sure is fascinating. Once more, I’m finding the dog world (our cross-species intersection with canines) to be like a mirror image of the world at large and its complexity of points of view and hard convictions.
Crate training
Purple
complained around level 2 on and off throughout his 8 minutes. I put him in the carrier when he was sleepy – but everyone started waking up right after and he clearly wanted to be part of the action. He’ll be doing 8 minutes again next time.
Red
slept through his 8 minutes and will be taking a stab at 9 next time!
Exploring the house
At night, it looked like it was about to start raining. So rather than hanging out outside like we usually would, I let everyone in and allowed them to explore all of the (studio) house. I’ve kept them outside during the day and in their puppy area at night because this is very much not my house and I don’t want them to pee everywhere and eat the furniture – but a puppy needs to entertain oneself when it’s raining! They had fun dragging everything they found (plastic bag, towel etc.) all over the place, tasting every object and exploring the nooks and crannies! There only was a single peeing accident inside. (And it didn’t rain more than a few drops after all.)
5 weeks, 5 days (May 3)
I let everyone outside when they first wake up in the morning and ask me to. Currently, that’s around 6AM. Then I sleep a little longer before joining them outside. This is what it looks like right now! (So far, Blue is the only one I can lift up – for the second day in a row!)
Here’s another delightful snippet of tugging with Blue. Yep, of course I’m teaching them to tug on clothes. As I said, these puppies will hopefully be socially and environmentally confident – gotta make sure their future homes have something to grapple with! Isn’t that why humans get puppies?
At 7:30, we got yet another new level of bomba (extremely loud firecrackers) loudness from the other side of the wall around the yard. Game asked to come in the house – this level was unfun to spend without me – but the puppies kept playing through it! I love that they are getting this experience. Except for the one puppy that is going to be very much a city puppy and the one who might go abroad, everyone is bound to hear these kinds of noises on a regular basis.
They have Game’s and Drago’s genes, but we believe (as far as I know) that almost everything behavioral is a gene/environment interaction. As a puppy, Game had no exposure to this noise level – she only encountered it as an adult, and at that point, she was ready to sensitize. All five of the puppies played through it today. Here’s to hoping this is going to immunize them from developing big feelings about explosions! (Just to give you an idea – gun shots are nothing compared to the loudness level of these bombas. Game wouldn’t flinch on what’s part of many bitey working dog apt-for-breeding tests, which is not responding to a gun shot. This kind of noise is nothing like a gun shot. It is only the second time I’ve heard bombas like these in Mexico, and I’ve been here for over two years. In Guatemala, we heard them or even louder ones almost daily.)
The second round of bombas next door happened around 10AM. This time, it went on for a while, and both Game and Chai (who I’ve never seen show concern about firecrackers) responded. Chai croached and tucked her tail and Game stress-panted. Red observed the adults, and since I don’t want social learning (puppies watching the reaction of an adult dog to determine whether a stimulus is something to be concerned with), I put Game and Chai in the house and played with the puppies. Red fell back asleep and Purple hadn’t woken up in the first place. Green, Blue and Black all played with me. Green and Blue got convinced right away; Black needed a bit longer to start playing despite the sounds, but then went on to play with her siblings rather than me.
The third round of firecrackers happened about half an hour later. These were a little more in the distance, but Black looked concerned (at a noise level she hadn’t previously been concerned.) I got her to socially play with me a bit and come close for snuggles that relaxed her. She also watched Green play wildly with my other hand. Green was being an excellent role model, and about half a minute after this round of firecrackers stopped, Black was ready to play with him. The other three puppies slept through the noise.
The rest of today’s firecrackers was the usual noise level and further away, so everyone stayed chill during those.
While I’ve mentioned in an earlier post that puppy temperament tests aren’t proven to be reliable to judge adult personality, I will take Black’s higher noise sensitivity into account. Maybe it will change – but maybe it won’t. Noise sensitivity is one of these things that (anecdotally) get worse rather than better the older a dog gets. I have nothing else to go on and it will be up to me to place the two girls myself, even though I’d rather have their future people pick: I’ll drive one to Miguel, who can’t pick up their puppy because they don’t have a car – and this will be before Irving is back from a work trip. Neither one has decided on a puppy and they both want one of Game’s – no matter who. If I keep seeing the difference in noise sensitivity, I’ll place my decision on this (we need to base our decisions on something and in this case, it is at least not entirely arbitrary): Black will go to the quieter home (in Mexico City) and Blue to the louder one (Miguel’s town is one of the loudest places I’ve been to in Mexico.)
Blue is currently my favorite because she’s SO feisty and fight-y. I love how I can lift her up, all 4 paws off the ground, attached to a sock! I can’t help it – I love the biteyness of Mals. It’s one of their most fun qualities. It’s fun and informative to stop and reflect on my favorites and how they change all the time.
Solo adventures
Black
and I walked to El Chichimeca. Black’s experience was pretty much the same as Blue’s video yesterday – except that it seemed even hotter. Black came out of the carrier right away, had a drink of water, explored around the carrier and in the entrance to El Chichimeca for a bit, had another drink and fell asleep in a shady spot under the bench. We also learned that there is a reason for today’s cohetes: it’s El Día de la Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is the saint in whose honor bricklayers put crosses on top of buildings they are working on.
Cohetes at night
It rained a little and the puppies got to turn the little house upside down again (after having fallen asleep under a bench outside and getting a little wet; smelling rain!)
When the rain stopped, the firecrackers next door started up again big time. This last round was the BEST. I left the big dogs inside and the puppies and I ran through the yard social-playing – I’d call pup-pup-pup, run away, they’d all chase me and get wiggly and excited when they caught up to me, and I’d play and pet them. (Human touch is currently highly reinforcing to them.) We played for a few minutes, until a little after the firecrackers stopped. Everyone was ALL IN the entire time, tails up and wagging, joyfully chasing me around the yard – including Black. I LOVE the change I’ve seen in her in this single day! It will be interesting to see what happens if/when there’s another saint being celebrated while we’re in town.
5 weeks, 6 days (April 4)
We drove to the city bright and early. Saturday morning traffic was light AND my new shade structure worked very well. No complaints from the gang in the trunk! We dropped Game and Chai off at the apartment and then the puppies and I met Alan and Kiba at Kiba’s Park. Apart from hanging out with them, the puppies met a few other dogs and people each and had a snack eating kibble from my hands at the park. Nobody hesitated to eat or drink out and about.
I saw Blue’s first big (comparatively) fear response: she yelled when she saw the first up-close dog today, before Alan and Kiba got there. She warmed up within about 20 seconds and proceeded to be confident around every other dog she met up close or saw from a distance.
Left: Alan’s arm, Kiba, Blue and Green! Right: we met Jambi and one of their people again – everyone got sniffed and held!
After a while, we switched spots and hung out outside the playground gate. Two kids, 8 and 9, came over and had lovely puppy interactions for about 15 minutes. They held and petted everyone and were very gentle with them.
We also met a Pug at Kiba’s park … and fell asleep in the bushes after having fun with the kids!
The puppies also saw to younger kids running. The first one caused them to watch with what looked like alert. The second one was taken in stride.
We got home and took a break, and then had the first of our two weekend visitors at the apartment. The puppies were still tired, so everyone slept in my friend’s arms. By the tame Rachel left and Pabla came by, the puppies were just waking up. Everyone played a little with Pabla, licked their beard and pulled on their shoe laces. It was delightful to see them interact so confidently!
I had asked Pabla to bring an umbrella because I can’t find mine. We startle-recovered two puppies. Everyone else had fallen asleep again and I didn’t want to wake them. Good thing I just remember where my umbrella is; I’ll give the others their turn tomorrow!
Unfortunately, Purple’s video is the only half-way decent one I took – in the others, you can pretty much only see the umbrella and not the puppy’s response. Here, you see the puppy’s response and can hear the umbrella opening … but you don’t see it. Oh well! In any case, Purple’s fast recovery is awesome!
I also fit in a solo trip for Purple. He went into an electronics store with me in his carrier, and then I carried him through a pet chain store without a carrier. The cashier briefly held him. Plus he got to experience the hustle and bustle of a busy parking lot.
Pet store adventure selfie with Purple … and Pabla is being eaten by Green!
What is becoming really clear to me is that temperature can be both reinforcing and punishing to puppies this age. Obviously, it can be both these things for any dog (and other animals, including us humans) at any age, but puppies are VERY responsive to it – definitely more so than adult dogs. Anytime the puppies are hot, they will immediately complain. I can observe this well when someone, like Purple today, is in the foot space of the car seat. He complained anytime it was hot and immediately stopped when I set the AC to the footspace. When I changed it to blow at my chest, he’d start complaining again almost immediately. It’s fascinating and I get the impression that at this age, temperature would be a stronger reinforcer (or punisher) than food or social interaction. From my subjective perspective based on my subjective observations, at this age temperature is the strongest reinforcer (or punisher) for the puppies, followed by social interactions, followed by food. I bet it would be possible to teach young puppies quite a bit with an experimental chamber containing floors of different temperatures!
After dinner, I took the puppies to Fresa Parque to check off our evening/night park time and people/dogs watching at weird light conditions. They looked alert at first, but again, were fully comfortable and started exploring after about 20 seconds. Everyone met dogs. Black got held by a stranger, and we were approached by a teen in inline skates wearing ALL the protective gear. Several people stopped to talk with me without interacting with the puppies; some with and some without dogs – another great experience for the puppies. The park was VERY busy tonight; it was perfect!
Night time puppies at the park! Much busier than last week! Black is panting because we just got out of the car, and it’s been HOT! (No worries; water was about to be served.) It was darker than my image makes it look.
We then switched spots and went into the very busy playground to hang out and observe kids running and playing, riding bikes, screaming and swinging in swing sets. The puppies are all able to visually track now and follow them by turning their heads! We observed and listened to yelling, screaming and laughing until everyone had fallen asleep. Purple stayed awake the longest and played with the tiny water dish (we’re outgrowing it) and then lay on top of a sibling and slowly dozed off as he was watching the world go by.
Tonight’s last station was an ice cream store they all joined me for in their carrier and backpack. Two kids came in right after us, and since I had opened the backpack (only 3 puppies fit in the carrier now, so 2 go in the backpack – and its ventilation isn’t great), the kids saw them and asked to pet them. Everyone got pet with the two backpack puppies – Green and Black – getting the most attention. They were awake while the others slept through the pets. I won’t count these two kids because they didn’t hold them, but it was a great experience, at the very least for the pups who were awake. They must have been a bit younger than the kids in the morning – maybe 6 or 7?
Now we’re back home and everyone is sleeping. It’s been a long day! I can’t believe how much I fit into it: seeing three friends, visiting two parks, running an errand and the drive back to the city! Today is my day off this week, which makes things feel lighter. We’ll see how long my energy and social batteries last. Raising these puppies isn’t only a great experience in terms of learning about very young canines – it also is a laboratory of getting to know myself.
6 weeks
As of this morning, we are chewing and pulling on and playing with everything we can find. My solution is to have out as many chewable objects as possible: half of the paper tubes, empty paper bags and cardboard boxes I collected over the last few months, our apartment toy … not worrying about anything that is indestructable or can’t be chewed up and putting electronics out of reach! They are SO fun to watch, and my favorite part was when Blue and Red climbed over the new and enhanced (in height) barrier and Blue was the first to be all over me, as excited as one puppy could possibly be to greet me in the morning!
For the first time this morning, Chai (poor rough-coated dog!) got the same greeting as me with puppies all over her, trying to hold on to her feathers. Being a pacifist, she had to flee to the couch for safety.
Becoming social animals
We started the day with a trip to Parque de las Arboledas. Everyone met LOTS of people and dogs! The puppies took turns sleeping and exploring/being held/meeting dogs/playing with each other and also ate kibble from my hands.
We met ALL the people and dogs in the morning! The puppy who fell asleep after opening this person’s shoelaces is Black.
A video – way too long! – of everything summarized by the pictures above, for myself as a memory, future rebelde homes and anyone else who’s got too much time on their hands and loves watching puppies:
BLOM
In the late afternoon, we went to hang out with our friends at BLOM1. I’m only counting one person per puppy and one dog for Black since Viri directly introduced her to their Yorkie Martina, but I didn’t keep track. We had Diego, Viri and Miguel – Diego is on the wait list for a puppy, but will probably miss out, but they sure aren’t missing out on the fun – as well as two random customers and Viri and Diego’s dogs, Yorkie Martina and Pit Maco to hang out with! I was only going to go for an hour, but it turned into two and a half. It was great! The puppies explored, we humans had fun with them and time flew by. Miguel broke out delicious pan de nata they had gotten at a feria and we all shared slices. The puppies ate kibble again and watched dogs and people walk past, some of whom stopped to talk to us. A little Chi barked angrily, and one of the puppies – I believe it was Red, but I’m not 100% sure anymore – went to go hide briefly, but was back out 20 seconds later, watching curiously as the still-barking Chihuahua was getting smaller in the distance.
Bottom left: venturing about 8 meters from where we were on the sidewalk! Bottom right: one of the two strangers who stopped to get to know the puppies!
Again, a video of what’s summarized in pictures above for those who (like me and everyone in this video!) can’t get enough of the little ones! This time, we’ve got Purple in a leading role. The thing inside the tote bag that he tries to get to is a wrapped stack of tortillas. Purple will currently eat everything he finds.
This afternoon, Purple was the most travieso of all and gnawed on everything in his way. Viri got him to play with them with a rug.
Of the two boys who haven’t been picked yet, I’d have sent Red to a sports home yesterday. Today, I’d send Purple. This just goes to show that REALLY, we don’t know who puppies will grow up to be. Unless they are outliers and very different from everyone else, we just don’t know. They change SO much.
There is only a single trait that has been somewhat consistent in a single puppy so far: Black has appeared more “think before you do” and “watch first” than the others, who are more likely to jump right into anything new. Black has “jump right in” days as well and the others have “think before you do days.” Black has just had more tentative days than the others.
“Breeders” (I don’t like this term, hence the quotes) who play matchmaker like to be in control (like most of us humans do), and they know that it is currently (in the US and probably Canada) considered best practice for breeders to match puppies with homes – and everyone wants to signal that they are “an ethical breeder.”
I’m European where you typically get to pick yourself (unless you signed up for a puppy later, in which case you take whoever is still available.) I prefer the European model that doesn’t attach ethics to puppy selection. I will pick the two girls because I’ll be the one driving one of them to Miguel (a different Miguel than the BLOM one) before either Irving or Miguel have a chance to pick – not because I want to.
Alan got to pick for his Dad. As for the two remaining boys, Eduardo (Drago’s human) is happy to go with the last one, whoever he turns out to be. I would let the second home for a boy – Joan; we can reveal a first name now! – pick, but I believe they do want my input. I will share it WITH THE DISCLAIMER IN CAPS that it means very little (because it CAN not be meaningful – I truly believe it cannot. Unlike some “breeders,” I have no God complex in this regard.) It will mostly depend on the day I’m being asked. We could, of course, Volhardt Red and Purple (or everyone) just for fun if Joan would like to. They’ll be a new dog person we could use as the evaluator before they meet them in a more casual way!
The senses
Vaccines – round one!
Red screamed. Everyone else barely woke up (I picked a sleepy time of day). Black looked at me briefly and then put her head back down. I suspect I didn’t sting Red in quite the right way, causing him pain. OR he’s more sensitive to it, or just got really startled. I may give things with an actual – empty or saline-solution filled – syringe (instead of a pencil) another try in a few days to find out which it is in his case.
In case the above is confusing: I typically vaccinate my own dogs in places where this is possible; i.e. where you can buy vaccines over the counter. That’s because I want vet experiences to be as relaxing as possible for the puppies and only emergency solutions for adult dogs. (This behavior on my part is caused by my own mistrust and anxiety around physicians and vets.) For these puppies, I hope to have created positive vet experiences and stung them with needles them in a less stressful context, at home. I know Miguel does the same thing with their dogs, so at least one puppy will get vaccinated by his human going forwards as well.
Exploring a bit of the corridor
Purple was the first one out the apartment door when we came back from Game’s afternoon outing, but everyone followed quickly. Purple and Green ran about 6 meters away along the corridor to explore, and Black, Blue and Red climbed 3 stairs each when I led Game up ahead of them. And then, they tumbled down the last one on their way back down! Brave puppies!
Green, Black and Purple were all fascinated by the mirror today (I had it show up in different places over the course of the day again.)
The Uncanny room, take 2
I transformed the former blanket fort into another uncanny room while the puppies were sleeping:
The order the puppies approached the uncanny room says something about the order they woke up in, not about who’s the most curious. After scaring himself, Purple was back to playing with the others 20 seconds later – outside The Uncanny Room though. I’ll set up Fred for him again when we get another chance so he can have a positive interaction.
I also found my umbrella and startled the remaining 3 puppies with it. They all had great startle-and-immediate-recovery responses!
Names
As I’m reading through this post and editing it before I hit publish – it’s Monday, May 6 – I’m thinking about names. I didn’t know if I would name the rebeldes before sending them off to their new homes. If I did, it was only going to be once their personalities – which may still change – started showing.
This weekend, Mexican friends suggested Principe for Purple. And somehow, I now feel like naming them all! That’s even if they’ll only have their names for 2 weeks before going to their new homes and probably getting new names along with it. For me, Purple will be Oso (bear). Green will be Bravo (corageous; aggressive in Spanish; great, super in German). Red will be Fierro (Mexican slang for alright; gun). Blue will be Chispa (spark) and as for Black … I don’t know yet!
This morning, ALL the puppies climbed the low barrier from the blanket fort and ended up in my bed. I was woken up by getting a most excellent head massage, aka a puppy pulling on my hair and scratching my scalp.
Hello there in my bed!
As of this morning, everyone got dog-tagged with my phone number to make sure we can’t get lost! The little tags on their collars really do make them look like toy dogs. I’ve also made their collars wider again … it happens almost daily now; they are growing SO fast!
Field trips
We started the day with an hour at Parque España. It rained last night and for the first time in a while, it was a little chilly this morning. Everyone met Gustavo and his Malinois Gala for the second time. Gustavo happens to be looking for a second Belgian and is sad that none of the puppies are available anymore – we’ve already talked last week. He’d make a good home! Gala is very fond of the puppies and, although generally social, ferociously barked at two other dogs when they were moving in our direction. Turns out she’s quite the protective friend of the family!
Gala would like to take them all home.
Every puppy also got held by a second stranger, bringing our new-human count up to 2 today!
The senses: uncanny rooms and the creepy duck
I finished taking down the blanket fort today. The room it used to be in looks completely different now – and I added the novel object I acquired today, the creepy-eyed duck, in the doorway. Chai beta-tested the set-up and barked at the duck once; then she proceeded to lie down at a safe distance and keep an eye on it. It better not dare move! Chai says I’ve successfully set up the first uncanny room.
First, creepy duck got investigated, and then it got dragged out of the uncanny room in a team effort.
“The Uncanny” (das Unheimliche) is a term Freud (I believe) used: it refers to something that is familiar, yet feels off in a way that puts you in an anxious state of alert. For example, imagine you came home and the furniture in your living room had been rearranged. The uncanny valley experience we sometimes have when faced with AI generated images is another example. Another one would be if the shadow cast by an object or person were “wrong”: you’d notice it was off even if you had never consciously thought about shadows, and it would feel creepy. I want the puppies to get used to the Uncanny and will give them uncanny experiences in familiar environments every now and then. Today is day one. The duck is extreme; other days, I may just rearrange furniture or place less suspicious objects in unexpected places.
As every day so far, the startle respons to my exploding balloon was minimal.
The puppies pulled on the couch cover, chewed on a paper bag and ate more food independently than ever before. Black moved towards me on Pup-pup-pup, before I put down the tray! They’ve also started chewing on me a little – as of last night, they are making HUGE developmental leaps! So exciting to observe!
I hammered another nail into the closet and the puppies looked up with interest. They also watched and listened with interest as I crinkled and popped bubble wrap.
slept through his five minutes and just started to wake up when I lifted him out of the carrier again.
Red
started whining at level 1 after 2 minutes, 20 seconds. Purple seemed concerned and went over to the carrier to keep him company. Red escalated to volume level 2 and then to 3 for the last 20 seconds. Purple’s presence outside the carrier wasn’t helpful. Level 3 complaints woke everyone up, so we took a break after Red. Red peed as soon as I let him out.
Green
started vocalizing after 2:30. He started out in a tone that didn’t sound like a complaint, but just talking to himself, but escalated to complaining at level 2 after 3 minutes. The fifth minute started out at volume level 3, then had a bit of silence followed by level 2 and then 1. For the last 20 seconds, Green started calming down again and sounded more like he was talking to himself, alternating with level 1 complaints. Red went over and checked on him in the end of his 5 minutes, like Purple had checked on Red. Green too peed when let out.
Blue
moved around the carrier and started complaining at noise level 1 after 2:20 and escalated to level 2 a little later. Around the 3 minute mark, she calmed down again for a few seconds and then started again at level 1, escalating to 2 and throwing in the occasional level 3 attempt at a bark.
Black
slept through her 5 minutes. Superstar!
I’ll keep working on Purple’s and Red’s carrier time, but will stop with the others once they each can do 5 minutes. It will give them a start in case their future homes want to continue crate training – which isn’t likely because dogs in Mexico aren’t usually crated. It’s taking time to give everyone their turn, and because capitalism and the need to work, I’d rather use these precious minutes to enjoy hanging out with them and snuggle going forwards! Black has already met her 5 minute threshold. Green and Blue will get there, too!
Husbandry and handling
Purple dozed through his handling turn. I did the left front paw nails I’d planned for tomorrow today as well. Everyone’s nails have slowed down their super speedy growth, so for the most part, I was gently pulling on them with the (human) nail clippers rather than actually clipping. The new element of our handling procedure – the “needle” (a pencil poke in the right thigh muscle – next time will be left) didn’t faze Purple either.
Black did well until in the middle of her brushing part of the handling procedure, at which point she insisted on being let down to eat. I did so, and once she was done, she stayed awake and relaxed while I finished brushing her with the soft brush, applied the “needle” for her fake vaccine and put her collar back on.
Red flinched a little at one of his nails; otherwise, he mostly dozed through his handling turn. They all have their little teeth by now, clearly visible when doing the lips part of the handling procedure! It’s wild how fast they came in!
Green dozed through his entire handling turn. Good boy!
Blue twitched at two nails and otherwise dozed through her handling turn. Nice job, Blue!
4 weeks, 2 days (April 23)
Field trips
Kiba’s park
We started the day with a trip to Kiba’s park. There were some folks doing sports to music, and I made sure every puppy got to watch from my arms. When their class finished, the group came over and everybody got to hold a puppy. Their dog Nina got to help as well. A little later, we met an acquaintance and their mix Jambi. Red was very curious about Jambi and followed her around! And we had found yet another willing helper.
Post-exercise puppy holding and meeting Nina.
I also made sure that every puppy got a little bit to eat while out and about at the park. We weren’t out long this time, but it matters to me that they get used to eating away from home. Why? I teach a class at FDSA that’s called May the Reinforce Be With You. Almost every time, there’s a dog or two who won’t take food outside their house and yard. With these puppies eating nothing more exciting than soaked kibble in different locations from a young age onwards, my hope is that their future homes won’t face this particular challenge.
In May the Reinforce, we treat eating as a learned behavior, just like a sit, that needs to systematically be generalized to the outside world. I hope these pups will have that behavior readily installed by the time they move out. (Their new homes will get to have fun with other issues, such as jumping up on the people they get excited about since sitting to say please isn’t something I’ll teach them: I want no social inhibition and all the social joy in the world. These are Malinois and their social inhibition towards strangers will come all by itself. They can always learn to not push grandma down a flight of stairs because they are happy to see them later.)
Well, yes, I’ll take your soaked kibble in this new place! I thought you’d never ask!
Red is fond of Jambi:
An hour later, before it got too hot, we were back home.
A road trip and the senses
We heard the trash truck bells and the “Gaaaaaaas” vendor in our street.
Today has been our most sensually and physiologically challenging day yet: we went on a puppy road trip to the place we’ll be spending the next 3.5 weeks, until they are ready to go to their new homes: a little house with a small yard outside of the city.
It was SO hot when we left in our fully packed car (anytime it is hard to stuff everything I “own” into my car all at once, I know that it’s time to get rid of things … but I digress.) So the puppies complained big time. It was TOO DAMN HOT. They wanted to drink, and we were on a highway. It was hugely frustrating and probably hard on their little organisms. I didn’t want to blow the AC directly at them (they were riding in the foot space on the passenger side), but when I finally decided to do just that, they all immediately relaxed and dozed off. We learn: these puppies are luxury puppies who insist on an AC. Now we know. They also got to crawl all over the inside of the car, which would be a fun exploratory experience had it not been that hot.
By the time we got to our destination an hour and a half later, they were tired, but happy to leave their carrier and find Game as soon as I placed them down. Everyone had dinner and then fell asleep in the grass. Not a lot of exploring, no more new people – just the sounds of barking dogs (this is a barky neighborhood; my girls were being good and didn’t chime in), bird songs and then it got dark.
Game can’t believe she’s finally got her own yard again. Chai and her chased each other around the car and zoomied all over the space. (Knocking over an unsuspecting puppy or two before calming down again.)
I set up a babygated place for them to sleep right next to me and Game, with an arm chair for Game to jump on if she needed space. They all moved away from their snuggle towel as far as they could to pee after eating – it is so fascinating for me to see how fast and how young puppies are when they start doing this! Then they went back to the snuggly place and fell asleep again while Game retreated to her chair.
4 weeks, 3 days (April 24)
Bright and early, I took everyone out into the yard for breakfast. They’ll be yard dogs during the day now, just like I’ll be a yard person and do everything – such as writing this post the next morning after and working – from the tree swing in the yard. At night or when it rains, we’ll move into the house, but apart from that, they’ll get to enjoy and explore all that space. Great traction on the grass, a bush to crawl into, a car to go underneath, two crazy big dogs to mimic and lots of new sounds, a big tree, concrete, dirt and grass surfaces … it doesn’t get much better than that!
Except from Game and Chai’s tennis balls, I won’t be adding any new items for the first two days. We also won’t be going on any adventures today (the day after) since yesterday truly was A LOT. They took things in stride though as soon as we had arrived and showed their usual curiosity. They haven’t explored the entire yard yet, but I’m sure they will over the course of the week! No puppy pens to contain them – all the freedom; all the fun!
Visitors
While we didn’t leave, we had our first two visitors today: Carla, who I’m renting from, and 3-year old Emmerson. Every puppy got held by Carla. Emmerson could be convinced to briefly touch the head of Blue and Black, but kept their distance otherwise. They didn’t quite trust the puppies, but eventually dropped tennis balls in front of them and took turns who the tennis ball was going to be given to. They also counted the puppies, the balls and determined the colors of the collars. Then Emmerson went to play, carrying different chairs around the yard, lounging in the tree swing and talking about his kitten. The rebeldes were lazy, but they just got their first up-close experience with a kid, which they weren’t impressed with at all. Good puppies!
Thank you for coming by, Carla and Emmerson!
We’ve also been hearing Emmerson shouting on the other side of the wall. We may not have listened to the school kids we had planned – but we get Emmerson up close instead!
I’ll count one new person today since only Carla held all the puppies. But Emmerson counts as a kid experience!
The onset of a fear response in the first puppy
I saw the first fear response in one of the puppies today: Red, who has been one of the bravest puppies, crouched and lowered his tail when the trash truck passed (very close to us, just separated by a metal gate) and rung its bells. He responded to the sound; the gate isn’t see-through and there’s a wall around the yard. Red then proceeded to come to me, low body language, to be picked up (which, of course, I did – he relaxed in my arms.) It wasn’t a startle – it was definitely the onset of the physiological fear response. At only 4 weeks and 3 days! Can you imagine how much harder it would be to socialize a puppy if you only started now?
I wonder what it’s like to experience fear for the first time. As a human I mean. Would you know what to make of the feeling? Would you experience it as something negative if you felt it for the first time as an adult? It would probably be uncomfortable because all emotions we experience for the first time as adults are somewhat uncomfortable. Love can be uncomfortable if you aren’t used to it. Anxiety definitely is. So is big joy if you’ve never met it before – it can feel like you’re going crazy. I know the above because I have either felt it myself or friends have felt it and told me about it. I wonder about fear though. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t experienced before they were adults.
The senses
Feeling yard grass under their bodies, all the smells of the dirt, the sounds of birds and seeing birds … it’s all new! And so much more space to look out into than they had at the apartment!
We also heard a low-flying helicopter today, and the whistling of a train! (I had no idea there was a train nearby, but it sure sounded like one! We’ll have to investigate.)
Becoming independent beings
As of today, the puppies are eating soaked kibble that isn’t squished! I’m proud of them! They’ll get another day of soaked food tomorrow, and the day after, I’ll see what they think of dry puppy kibble.
Game, of course, still provides their most favorite food: la leche de mamá.
Favorites
So far this week, Red or Black are the ones I’d take home. By the end of last week – I don’t think I shared this, so putting it here now – it was Green. They keep changing so much; I love it! (When I say take home, it’s always based on behavior, not looks – I still think Black is the most handsome though.)
The reason that especially today, I’d take Red or Black: Red looked to me for help when he got spooked for the first time. AND he showed the most interest in the tennis ball when I played fetch with Game and Chai. Black has been off doing her own thing: she’ll rest away from the others, not needing the safety of numbers. She’ll go explore by herself, even if no one follows. And she’s been climbing all over me today when I lay in the grass. If she continues this way tomorrow, we’ll get social play!
Yard cuteness
Right: black typed his first message (“,lrt”) and sent it to Joan.
I love this picture. (The puppy is Red.)
4 weeks, 4 days (April 25, 2024)
Home without Game or Chai
The puppies had the run of the yard while Game, Chai and I went for a morning walk exploring our new home range. The puppies had each other and didn’t mind being left behind.
Other people come to this town for the famous ruins. We come for abandoned buildings in cactus landscapes!Same concept – with the exception that we get to play in ours while the tourists cannot!
Graffiti around the world make me happy.
The senses
I let the puppies join Game’s dry-puppy kibble breakfast just to see … and they ate some! We’ll finish off the soaked kibble for the two remaining snacks today, but clearly, we are ready to eat like big dogs (in addition to enjoying Game’s milk!)
Being outside the city comes with lots of new auditory stimuli: chickens and roosters; the neighbors’ doorbell. Honking outside. More birds and more barking dogs in the yards to our left and right. I’m glad my adult dogs don’t care about barky dogs – hopefully, this will rub off on the puppies!
I’ve also finally gotten around to honking myself, next to the puppies, while parked in the yard – no competing stimuli. I added slamming car doors and the angry yelling the car does when I lock or unlock it. The puppies have heard yelling, but out and about with other things going on at the same time. Everyone did well. They also didn’t mind today’s balloon pop; just looked in its direction.
As of just now, Red has one upright ear and one floppy ear. He is so damn cute! He is also the darkest now – Black and Green are a tiny bit lighter. Purple is still without a doubt the lightest; he’s even lighter than Game at this point.
We heard the hooves of horses on the pavement in the street as horseback riders passed through.
… and how could I have forgotten that I won’t have to get cohetes (firecrackers) at all? Now that I’m outside of Mexico City and it is Thursday (the unofficial start of the weekend), people are setting them off left and right. The puppies have been totally chill about them so far. After the first two rounds, they didn’t even wake up anymore. Cohetes – check!
Game, who usually isn’t a fan of firecrackers, was indifferent too. It’ll be great if she stays that way; if not, I’ll separate her from the puppies when the noise starts so they don’t see her show a fear response.
Getting mobile
In the last few days, all puppies have learned to nurse even when Game is standing! Nice job, rebeldes!
Husbandry and handling
Everyone did wonderful during their nail clipping (right front paw; still using human clippers) and handling turns. As of today, I’m using the “adult Mal brush” instead of the soft brush for all of them: a Furminator. Game is a heavy seasonal shedder, and so was Grit. Twice a year, the Furminator comes out every second day or so – the rest of the year, I hardly brush at all. I don’t know if every puppy will be a Furminator puppy, but since that’s what I’d use, I’ve switched to it now (not putting pressure on it; just stroking all body parts that will be brushed with it.)
Today’s husbandry/handling session may have been the best one yet (even better than the last time I said this.) No one complained or struggled. Everyone was lazily awake – except for Red who kept dozing off in my arms throughout his turn.
I’ve decided to lower the “at least 5 times a week” husbandry rule to “at least 3 times.” Now that they’re older and I want to enjoy some other fun stuff with them, handling them through the protocol every time I do their nails will have to do. I wish I had taken time off; it would be easier to enjoy them to the fullest AND keep up with husbandry, handling and more to a bigger extent than I do. In any case, we’ve got a great foundation already and 3 times a week should be fine for maintaining the positive associations!
Next week, I’ll merge handling and husbandry into a single category on my tracker.
Becoming little land sharks
As of today, we’ve entered land shark mode! My socks have been very compelling to Blue and Red. By the time I set up the camera, Green was doing the most tugging – but just before, Blue had REALLY impressd me with her tenacity! I’m letting them play with my socks because why not. It’ll be up to their future homes to decide what they do or don’t want them to pull on. As for Blue, I was able to lift her front paws off the ground with my foot and she kept hanging on to the sock! I’m impressed, Blue! This was fun!
Social life
We went to the town square for socialization. I was hoping for people and dogs, but only the people part was easy. As for dogs, Black got to sniff a pug who was with a group of five folks who held a puppy each. Four of the humans were lovely; one of them handled Purple a bit more roughly than I like to see. They put him down right then; otherwise I’d have said something. Blue even got held twice – a school kid, maybe ten or so, couldn’t get enough of her!
What is also interesting is that before everyone got held, when we first got to the town square and I held one puppy after the other, giving them a good view over the plaza, Black and Blue started out slightly stiffer than they normally do. I suspect this, too, is related to the onset of the physiological ability to experience fear. None of the others – including Red who showed the fear response yesterday – showed any stiffness.
Once again, a random stranger asked me if I’d sell them one. Fascinating. I wonder if this kind of thing would happen equally often in any part of the world.
We had two stops in the square. The first one was people; in the second one, everyone ate soaked kibble. Puppies this age are apparently always hungry, which is great for building the skill of eating anywhere and everywhere. They all were able to eat right away in this second new location, in the presence of cars, a person with an amputated leg using crutches and other occasional passers-by of all ages, shoe shining posts and two free-roaming dogs (who kept their distance.)
Back to the dog part. This is more difficult here. I couldn’t convince one of the free roamers of the town square to come close, so I stopped in a different street Game, Chai and I had scouted out this morning on my way home. The same group of lovely free roamers hung out there, and one of them was kind enough to allow Blue and Purple to sniff them (from my arms.) After those two, however, they decided they had helped enough and were on their way.
I’m actively making friends with other free roamers by generously tossing kibble at them in the hope to be able to enlist their help in the future. For now, however, we’ll definitely have to go to the city this weekend for the pups to meet their goal of 7 weekly dogs. This is something I could probably meet on the weekends alone, but I’d like to have at least one during-the-week dog each as well to spread things out more evenly.
Crate training
For the first time, all five puppies rode in the big car crate together on the short drive to the town square and back (a Game-sized flight crate.) None of them complained!
Evening carrier training (still at 5 minutes)
This is the first time we’re working in our new temporary location.
Purple
complained softly, starting about a minute into his turn. After 3:30, he escalated his soft complaints (0.5) to volume level 2.
Red
slept through his turn. Nice! Both Red and Purple have now met their 5-minute goal, albeit on different days. Red will get 6 minutes next time and Purple another turn of 5.
Blue
slept through her 5-minute turn! She will, like Black, not be rotating through anymore for now since she will probably never see a crate in her life.
Green
started talking to himself and then complaining softly between 0.5 and 1 in the last minute of his turn and escalated to volume level 3 in the very end. He’ll get another round of 5 minutes next time.
4 weeks, 5 days (April 26, 2024)
Social life
Carla, 3-year old Emmerson and 15-year old Axel came over today. Red was really into playing with Axel (after they had all slept peacefully among us!) Everyone got held once by Axel or Carla.
Red went on a solo restaurant adventure in the carrier. He complained big time – not on the walk there, but once we were waiting for our delicious and huge 70-peso meal to go. I briefly took him out to sniff a free roaming dog who was hanging out in the restaurant entrance and then put him back into his carrier. Over the duration of our wait, he escalated to a new noise level: we now have lungs that go up to volume 4! On the walk home, he calmed down again with the carrier gently swinging by my side.
At night, we made use of the fact that it was cloudy and a little cooler a little earlier than usual and headed back to Mexico City: we’ll need the weekend for remedial socializing after a quiet week! For the first time, the five puppies rode in the trunk of my car, together with Game. They did very well; no one peed, pooped or complained on the drive at all.
We got this week’s evening park adventure in at Kiba’s park. While we didn’t meet dogs up close, we saw kids playing in the dark on swingsets and dogs and people walking by now and then. Two stopped to talk to me about the puppies. I was also impressed how quickly all rebeldes came out of the carrier: NICE confidence! Chai was with us as well, which may have helped. And last but not least: for the first time, the puppies ate dry kibble at the park! This is the most adult food they have had out and about!
Night park time.
Becoming more mobile
Black was into running today! And she was determined to chase the broom!
Crate training
While I worked at night back at the apartment, everyone got a round of crate training. I had only been planning on Red and Purple, but since I had time while responding to FDSA forum posts, everyone got a turn. They all did stellarly and slept through their 5 minutes (Purple, Blue, Green, Black) and 6 minutes respectively (Red.) Next time, it’s up to 6 for Purple and 7 for Red!
4 weeks, 6 days (April 27, 2024)
Social life
We started the day with a field trip to Parque España where we spent about 3 hours at 4 different spots in the park. The puppies met LOTS of new people and dogs! Green was the bravest and ventured the furthest. It was fun to see one of the people the puppies had enticed to make friends with them keep catching him and bringing him back!
We also spent a while at the playground, watching kids cycle by, climb on play structures and hearing them scream. We met two kids up close. The first one and the adult they were out with and I had no common language, and yet – the language of puppies! The second ones were English speakers. (This is a fancy part of town where people from all over live, hence the lack of Spanish.) We also saw kids on bikes and strollers. The second kid – you can see them in the top right corner of the second picture – even held Green. The first kid was a bit rough with the puppies and I had to stop them from pinching them and pushing their toy truck into the crate.
All the puppies did really well and took turns playing, sleeping and exploring a little around the carrier, with Green being the most active and exploratory until he fell asleep. I imagine playing in this kind of new situation is great for forming positive associations and learning to not worry!
The puppies rode to the park in the big dog crate. They were all relaxed – except for Blue, who complained quite angrily the first half of the drive and then calmed down. We’ll see how things go on the way home. As is, I’m hanging out in the car with the puppies back in the big dog crate and the AC on, waiting for someone to unboot my car. I managed two parking infractions in the course of a week – I should get a medal or something!
Back home, I tallied up this week’s dog encounters. Everyone except for Blue and Green have met their goal – they were both still missing two dogs. I took the two of them in the carrier to Fresa Parque. I held Green as he sniffed three different dogs and Blue as she sniffed two. Three folks who were out with their dogs wanted to hold them, so both Blue and Green got held by two new people each as well, putting them ahead of the game for next week. The person holding Green held him up to a tiny Chihuahua who fiercly barked into his face. He took it pretty much in stride. Of all the puppies who could have someone bark into their face, Green is probably the best one: he is currently the most exploratory around new dogs and I haven’t seen his fear response kick in yet. In any case, the Chi brought Green’s afternoon dog count up to four, giving him a 3-dog head start for next week. I’m excited that the all puppies are ahead of the game in terms of humans and Green is ahead of the game in terms of dogs: it’ll be hard to set up encounters every day after leaving the city again tomorrow.
The senses
Apart from all the park, city, dog and playground noises, the puppies also got to explore new flooring under their feet on our second playground stop: gravel!
On another note, I have taken the balloon explosions off our agenda since we’ve been hearing so many firecrackers. They are way louder than balloons, so our loud-sound exposure is well taken care of.
On our late afternoon outing, Blue and Green also got to come on an errand to the ice cream store and – if they looked through the carrier mesh – saw a person using a rollator as well as someone with a cane. On the way home, we walked through a pizza place spilling out into the sidewalk in a cloud of tables, chairs and wood stove smells.
5 weeks (April 28)
Social life
We started out with a morning at Fresa Parque. I took two sets of puppies and walked there. Green didn’t get a turn because he went last night and is already ahead of the dog-meeting game for next week.
Black and Purple
First, I took Black and Purple in their carrier. We stopped at a store to grab coffee to go, and only while inside the store (where it was warmer than outside) did both of them complain. As soon as we were out and on the move again, they calmed down. I wonder if it’s the temperature they were upset about, the standing still (no movement/gentle carrier-swinging) or the lack of visual stimuli they could make out through the mesh of the carrier that caused them to raise their voices in the store. In any case, by now, it is pretty clear that outside of play-growling, they complain only when they are in discomfort or are being discontent. I use both these words since it feels like discomfort has more of a physical connotation while discontent has a mental one. For example, they will complain when it is hot and they are squeezed together like sardines in the carrier (physical – discomfort), and they will complain when they find themselves separated from me and my mattress by the see-through barrier I raised so they can’t climb it – comfy, close but not ON the mattress/on top of me (mental – discontent.)
Purple got to sniff 3 dogs while I held him and Black got to sniff 2. Both of them where held by one new human each. They are now 3 and 2 dogs ahead of the game for next week, respectively!
I then took them to a quieter part of the park to open the carrier and allow them to come out and explore. However, by then, they were passed out and sleepy – no exploration time for the two. I finished my coffee and we headed back home.
Blue and Red
Blue and Red got to come on my meeting with Alan and Kiba. Alan held both of them, and apart from Kiba, we also met a friendly, giant and very hairy dog. One of the puppies – I believe it was Blue, but I can’t remember, so I won’t count that dog for either of them – also got to sniff a third dog. Red put two paws outside the carrier, but then fell back asleep inside. We’re all having a lazy morning!
Sharing the morning with Alan and Kiba.
The road trip back
We hit the road around 9:30 AM. Unfortunately, it was already pretty hot – I had underestimated how quickly it would warm up, and to what extent. The puppies rode with Game in the trunk, and they complained! I had parked in the shade, had the AC on and had had it running before even getting the dogs in the car, but my car doesn’t have a fancy AC and I wasn’t sure how much of the cool air made it all the way back to the trunk, since airflow in my car is blocked both by the crate that takes up the entire back seat and the back rest of the back seat, and the cool air vetns are only in the front of the car. Even I, right in front of those vents, felt the heat beating my not-all-that-efficient AC as we drove down the shadowless highway. I had a good audiobook to distract me, but took turns feeling bad for complaining puppies, feeling relieved when they calmed down and worrying that they had calmed down because they were having a heat stroke. It’s less than an hour’s drive on the weekend, but I pulled over after half an hour, made sure everyone was alive and just sleeping, gave them water and rigged up a shade structure for the trunk. We made it; I’m sitting in the shade under the tree and everyone is sleeping around me. Not the funnest of journeys – but we did it. I’m sorry for the late start, rebeldes!
Deworming time
In the afternoon, every puppy got day 1 of 3 of their second round of deworming. They got to try a new food in addition to it: I mixed their Panacur into a spoon of strawberry yoghurt each. They are big fans (and I got a spoon of it as well.) Game and Chai got dewormed as well. Since they get an adult dose, it’s only a single day for them.
Becoming social beings
The first toy
Toys and future coffee addicts (still appreciating that mug, Chris.)
As promised, I pulled out the first toy of our fancy toy collection. I picked the biggest one, thinking it would be most obvious to the puppies when Game and Chai played with it. They were all over it, but most of the puppies seemed more into my coffee mug. It also only took Game 10 minutes to start defluffing the toy, and when I saw Blue try and eat a piece of fluff, I defluffed the biggest part of the giraffe to make it safe again. Blue and Green showed interest in interacting with it, but soon fell back asleep while the big dogs kept playing.
At 01:08 in the video below, when Purple frontally approaches Game and the toy, you’ll see her stiffen and wrinkle her nose when the stiffening alone doesn’t do the trick. This is the first serious boundary she has set with one of the puppies. I ask her to “Leave it” because the amount of her stiffening has me worried that she’ll dole out too harsh a correction. If the other dog was an adult and she stiffened up like this, that other dog would be in trouble. I don’t know if and how she would have escalated towards one of her own puppies if I hadn’t asked her to stop. In general, neither Game nor Drago, the sire, resource guard toys or food – but I’m sure the puppies have been wearing Game’s patience thin now that their sharp little teeth are going for her teats!
In the end of this video, enjoy a bonus clip of Chai’s tail getting chewed!
Later today – after I’d taken pics and videos – Black fervently shook a giraffe foot until Chai ripped the toy out of her mouth. Nice though – we are starting to get interested!
Even later, everyone was playing with the giraffe. I got the camera out again; it was too cute!
The crinkly noise in the second part of the video below is the giraffe feet – they have crinkly stuff in it!
Oh! I almost forgot! Before bringing out the giraffe toy, I was carrying a duvet through the yard. Green latched on to it and I lifted him up – all four paws in the air! Go mini Mal!
Social play
Social play, when available, is currently higher value than object play. This goes for social play among the puppies, with Game, Chai and with me. This is interesting since it changes in most adult dogs; at least in most adult Mals I know: object play (tugging) tends to be higher value than social play with humans or dogs.
Today, the puppies’ play behavior took another leap forwards: Red has started play-bowing, and Blue is really enjoying running with Game and trying to cut across in front of her.
What I also find fascinating is that apparently, leaving a dog alone when they roll on their back is a learned behavior – not an innate one. It is not yet present in these 5-week old puppies. I suppose it could still be innate, but only switch on at a later age. In any case, when one of them overpowers another one and that other puppy ends up on its back, the puppy on top won’t stop, but happily proceed to chew on the other one’s belly. I’d love to know whether this truly is a learned behavior, when and how it is learned. Is it like the songs of certain birds who learn by means of imitation and will, if not given the opportunity to learn from older birds, never develop as beautiful a song as them? (I wish I remembered what kinds of birds these are or had the time to look up the study. I only remember it was mentioned in Susan Schneider’s The Science of Consequences.)
Developing more opinions
The puppies, particularly Purple, Blue an Black, are also getting opinionated about the fact that they can’t currently go into and out of the house at liberty. Damn you, babygate!
Game’s boundaries
Game is starting to tell the puppies off when they want to drink and she isn’t in the mood. We’re clearly getting bigger! Perhaps related, they now all come running when I pup-pup-pup call them to their food!
Speaking of Game: as of today, she is back to running and wrestling with Chai. She took a break while nursing. The puppies watch in awe and try to get out of the way.
Color tracker!
This is the last week I’m using a single tracker. Starting next week, every puppy will get their own and I’ll design them differently again. (We’ve been doing different adventures than the one on my reminder below; that’s why they aren’t crossed off. As for the happy vet visit – I’m planning to do the next one in week 6.)
As of now, by the end of week 5, the puppies are 35 days old and have had contact with about as many different dogs and people each.
Acclimation (by my definition – different trainers have different definitions!) means allowing your dog to satiate on the environment you want to play, train, work or trial in. Students often say their dog never satiates on the world, and that is likely true. But the environment you’ll be working in is much smaller than the whole world – so it’s not really a problem. Let’s imagine you live near the beach (because that’s what I found a royalty-free image of):
Royalty free image by “Pexels” from Pixabay – thank you!
Let’s further imagine you want to practice recall games in the red oval that I put on the image. In the oval, there are 4 palm trees and a bunch of sand. This is not the whole world – it isn’t even the whole part of the beach that is in the image. It’s 10 to 20m2 (about 100 to 150ft2).
Acclimation phase
In our example, acclimation would mean:
Keep your dog on a leash.
Walk the perimeter of the area you want to work in (walk along the border of the red oval in the picture above), stopping to let your dog sniff however much they want.
Repeat if there’s a lot to sniff until they walk with you looking bored, not sniffing anymore.
Go into the red oval and let them sniff every spot they want to check out. Let them pee on the palm trees. Let them pick up a shell if they feel like it. Let them roll in the sand or dig a hole. Zig-zag and walk, following their lead, around the surface area of the red oval until they have had a chance to investigate every square foot of it.
If they want to leave the oval, gently stop them with the leash: no need to acclimate outside the oval because that’s not where you’ll be training.
Walk around the small area you have defined for training, play or work until your dog is bored of it.
Engagement phase
ENGAGEMENT is started by your dog – not by you. As the human part of the team, your job is to let the dog investigate for as long as they need to. Don’t try to distract them from smells or other interesting stimuli and activities. As long as they sniff, pee or dig, they are not done acclimating.
Being done looks different for individual dogs. It might look like offering to walk next to you rather than looking/sniffing around, and maintaining eye contact. In the case of my Mals, it could either be an offered sit with 5 seconds of duration eye contact, offered heeling or personal play initiated by the dog.
Go with whatever engagement behavior your dog naturally offers!
Let’s imagine the behavior your dog offers is walking next to you and not paying attention to the environment. Define a specific duration they need to keep up this behavior for it to count as letting you know they are done acclimating. For example, you could say: when my dog walks next to me on a loose leash, occasionally glancing up at me, for at least 10 seconds, I get to start playing, training or working.
Warm-up/are you ready? phase
Before you go into more difficult work, training or play, gauge how your dog is feeling. A good way to ask this question is to invite them to play a simple marker cue game, like tossing 4 treats back and forth for your dog to chase. Observe them: do they stay engaged throughout those 4 treats (not distracted by the environment), eat every treat at once and turn on a dime for the next one? Great! Your dog is ready to start working/training/play!
Do they hesitate, get distracted or not eat a treat? Go back to acclimation!
Note that some dogs don’t need the warm up/are you ready? phase – they can go right from engagement into work/training/play. It is still useful to practice because a dog who doesn’t need a warm up in familiar environments may still benefit from it at a new, difficult or trial environment. Having practiced it means you can just pull it out your pocket, ready to use.
Work/training/play
Use the surface area of your oval to train or play whatever you were planning to for however long you were planning to … but make sure YOU are the one who ends the fun. We want our dog to stay engaged from the first step (e.g. first treat/first marker cue) of the warm up phase until you finish your session with an “all done” cue and end-of-session ritual.
Try this the next time before you train, play or work out and about! Observe your dog’s distraction level! Do they have an easier time staying engaged throughout the session? Perfect! This strategy is a winner! Do they still struggle? We’ll dig deeper and try something else!1
All done announcement and end-of-session ritual
Don’t just stop out of nowhere and go from full-on engagement to ignoring your dog – that’s rude! It’s as if someone walked away in the middle of a conversation with you and just left you hanging, or got up in the middle of a two-person meal in a restaurant without an explanation and walked out the door.
Instead, you’ll verbally announce to your dog that the session is over (I use “All done!” for this), and then follow it up with a transition behavior that helps your dog move from a working state of mind back into a just-being-a-dog state of mind. An easy option is doing a treat scatter after your all done cue (scatters are calming). Another option is personal play or calm petting.
Trying something else would, at this point, usually mean one of two things: giving the acclimation ritual itself more structure (for example with CU games or start buttons), or adding a longer and more structured “ready to work” routine after acclimation. Shade Whitesel shares a great example of a ready to work routine in this blog post. ↩︎
We only spent 15 minutes at the almost empty Fresa Parque: Game crashed into a park table/chair, whined and stopped putting weight on her left front paw. So we headed right back home, she got a dose of Rimadyl and is now sleeping on the couch. Pobrecita!
Home alone
Chai stayed home alone for Game’s shortish noon loop (trying to let her paw recover – luckily no limping for now, but I can’t tell if that’s the Rimadyl or her body recovering).
Noon and PM: Chai’s solo adventure
Once I finished work, it was time to head out and meet a colleague and their dogs for some dog geekery. Chai got to hang and play at Dead Poultry Park for 4 hours. She is passed out on the floor now! I had hoped to do some morning shaping (but work got in the way) or afternoon shaping, but I suspect we’ll just let sleeping dogs lie today! This was a lot of exercise and fun! Lucky Chai found a stinky water hole to get muddy in, played with my colleague’s dogs Hilo and Nemo, earned lots of treats for staying within a mostly approved-by-me radius, found a tasty bone and did really well hanging out next to a park bench while the humans had tlacoyos. Good puppy!
Dirty dogs are happy dogs!
September 4, 2023: a formal recall success, 3 parks and a little shaping
Activity level: average
The AM
The three of us had 25 minutes of fun at Fresa Parque. Chai got to play with a young Mal and then found something to eat somewhere behind some bushes where I couldn’t see her. (Of course, my informal pup-pup-pup recall didn’t work because found food is EVERYTHING to Chai and I am not using my formal recall in real life yet.)
Game was running around cheerfully again even though I haven’t given her a painkiller yet – looks like she’s all good! YAY! So glad! That “I am in so much pain” face and whining as she came back to me after crashing into the park chair/table really had me worried for a moment. She usually dismisses pain entirely if it happens while she’s having fun, so that was a strong reaction for her!
Home alone
Chai stayed home alone briefly while Game and I walked errands.
Solo adventure and formal recall success!
Chai and I spent 20 minutes at Toy Play Plaza. We started out by repeating last time’s recall on a long line … and succeeded! Go Chai!
Then there was a taco de birria for the bestest girl and looping around the park, briefly greeting two dogs and playing in the fountain (our personal public baby pool) twice before heading back home.
Shaping
We worked on the sit up trick. Unfortunately, I believe I got what Silvia calls an “ugly sit” again but didn’t see it in real time: Chai’s back paws weren’t facing directly forwards but to the side. I’m going to have to experiment a bit more to learn how to see the perfect position in real time!
We also worked on one object in another on the roof. The smaller container I’m trying to use instead of the last one isn’t working either … I’ll have to find something else. It may be time to go shopping for more kitchenware and look for bolitos in all the sizes! (I’m very much not someone who gets excited about shopping … unless it’s for dog-related stuff! Or plants!)
I had planned on also working on 4 in as well, but work got in the way. Hopefully tomorrow!
Kiba’s park with Game
Game, Chai and I went to Kiba’s Park to run around dogs, screaming and running kids and large umbrellas for half an hour:
They also did a lovely job waiting for me outside a pharmacy.
September 5, 2023: park time, formal recall oops and a little training
Activity level: average
The AM
We started the morning with 40 minutes of park time for Game and Chai. Mornings tend to be enrichment-based (unless Chai is in a mood to play with other dogs): both dogs will scavenge all over the park, finding scraps of what folks left behind the previous night and pieces of bread and tortilla chips the bird-and-squirrel lovers sprinkle like perfect scatters in certain areas in the morning.
Scavengers in their element!Now that Chai’s stomach isn’t as sensitive anymore, she gets to have all the food-finding fun as well.
Home alone
Chai stayed home alone around noon when Game and I went out to get Chai’s recall taco.
Solo adventure
Today’s solo adventure was short – just long enough to get a formal recall oops in! But a solo outing is a solo outing, and we’ll take it!
Tricks and obediency stuff
We worked on 4 paws in, one object in another on the roof and down/good/get it in the afternoon at Fresa Parque (no video of the last one but Chai did very well!)
PM at the park
Before it started raining, both dogs got to go back to Fresa Parque for another 40 minutes. Together with Chai’s solo outing, we’re at our solid 1.5 hour outdoors average (not counting noon and evening pee loops).
Chai found a cup of consomé and opened it for Game and herself, and they shared it. It smelled delicious and from what I could see, it tasted just that way as well.
Chai then went on to do her afternoon job: steal the balls of all the dogs in the park she could steal from to bring to me and trade for treats. She’s a busy Border Collie with a lot of jobs!
September 6, 2023: a typical BC fun-and-training day
Activity level: average
The AM
We spent 40 minutes at Fresa Parque and Chai had a good time with her park friends. Game did great taking treats for just letting everyone be, and then both dogs wrapped up with a little sniff-and-scavage fun.
Home alone
Chai stayed home alone while Game and I ran errands for 20 minutes. She hasn’t been home alone for longer periods of time lately, but we’ve been doing a good job keeping up with multiple weekly 5-30 minute home-alone sessions (without Game). Normalize, normalize and normalize again!
Chai, Game and I went to Fresa Parque, waited outside a store and practiced foot-on-leash downs at a papelería for 1.5 hrs. The walk there took us quite a bit because Chai was in the mood to pull on her back-clip harness, resulting in many, many circles! I’m really happy Game is an off leash dog, allowing me to focus on Chai when I circle!
On the walk back from the park, Chai walked partly in collar mode. I reinforced every 5 steps today – that way, I needed hardly any nose bumps even though Game was off leash ahead of us us!
At the park, Chai played a bit with two new dogs, both her and Game scavenged and both worked on the tunnel cue since we had the dog park to ourselves. No solo adventure today, but a good day for dogs! Especially for Chai who got an easy formal taco recall (when she was already looking at me!) to super-charge “Schnee!”
Good dogs waiting patiently at the papelería while someone is trying to figure out how to print a page without margins for me.
September 7, 2023
Activity level: going for low today to catch up with work and make sure every week has its low energy day! Let’s see if we’ll succeed …
Note from the future: I succeeded! Low it is!
The AM
Game and Chai spent 30 minutes at Fresa Parque, scavenging and, in Chai’s case, playing a bit with her friend Sam the Doberman. Game got brushed at the park: she is blowing her coat and there’s Malinois fur everywhere.
Chai got bullied a bit by another dog and came back to me to be protected. I love that she trusts I will look out for her, reinforced and did my best to keep the bully at arm’s length.
Happy morning play with Chai’s friend Sam!
Training – just a little bit!
We allowed ourselves a single sit-up session. I forgot to hit record, so no video. In any case: a single sit-up session is totally okay for a quiet day! We’re still within the boundaries of calm-day-ness!
The briefest of solo adventures
We went out briefly to practice a formal recall on a back tie at our usual spot and marvelled at a squirrel together. (Tip: show your dog that you share their interests!)
Home alone
Chai stayed home alone briefly while Game and I ran an errand, and both dogs stayed home alone when I went inline skating at night.
Watching Chai on a calm day
Chai has been really good! She played a little with what’s left of the dolphin toy tonight, tossing it up in the air and pouncing on it. She has been really good about relaxing and isn’t being a pushy, demanding pup at all, but totally able to entertain herself. I’m very happy with how she’s developing!
September 8, 2023: lots of training and fun with friends
Activity level: average
The AM
We spent 30 minutes at Fresa Parque. Chai played a little with now 5-months-old little Doodle Pipa and the dogs enjoyed their urban enrichment jungle (aka finding food and sniffing stuff) for the rest of the time. I ran an experiment with soaked tortilla-chip pieces someone had left for birds and squirrels by sprinkling kibble on top. These two food items seem to be the same value.
After I worked a bit, we did sit up on the floor and then I shaped a sit on a crate. I hope the crate is narrow enough to “force” Chai to keep her back legs facing forwards which, in turn, would allow me to work on the sit up trick ON that platform:
The video above ends right where I should have ended the session. Start to finish sit on a platform – perfect. Leave it at that; take the fact that a treat got stuck under my suitcase kitchen door as a good moment to end.
That’s not what happened in real life. See me continue for a few more minutes and Chai’s response below!
Solo adventure
Chai and I went to Kiba’s park to meet up with Alan. I got another successful recall away from Kiba before saying hi and we both worked our pups – Alan on leg weaves and downs and me on downs and stands, and both girls got to play single-toy fetch with Kiba’s ball.
We walked part of the way back in collar mode (5-20 steps between treats).
Chai also met Loki, a mix she enjoys playing with (see middle picture below), and found a dog food bag to climb into. Maybe she’s telling me to change our kibble brand!
September 9, 2023: out of the city with friends!
Activity level: high physical
Both dogs got their own morning loops today and then hung out at the house while I worked a little. Before it was time to leave on Chai’s solo adventure, Game got another brief pee loop by herself.
Solo adventure at Los Dinamos
Kristen, Kala, Luca, Chai and I went to Los Dinamos for the better part of the day. Chai and Kala played A LOT. Chai saw horses and mules – both grazing freely and with horseback riders – sheep, goats, got rushed by 4 of the shepherd’s dogs and recovered fast, saw various groups of suddenly appearing people and had no feelings about them, rolled in horse poop, played in the river and ate parts of an apparently delicious head- and partially legless rotten animal. It was mostly skeleton with little flakes of rotten meat stuck to it – probably either a small sheep or a mid-sized dog? I don’t know, but on the drive home, the entire car smelled deliciously corpse-like. Chai did not throw up on the drive there and back and did not get frustrated about Kala being squeezed in right next to her crate before getting to properly greet her. She was gentle with Luca and didn’t bother him at all, and interested in sticks and stones a kid tossed into the river for Kala and her. She also did an excellent C-runs-away easy taco recall – meaning the next one gets to be a distraction one again! The conversation with the shepherd was fascinating, and Kristen and I had a fun time. This may be the last time we’ll hang out because they’ll be moving abroad, but we sure made the most of it!
Left: Chai and Kala explore the river. Right: Luca is practicing being the cutest boy e-ver!
The last time Chai saw a horse, she got spooked. This time, she first contemplated this mule from a distance and then decided it was safe to go closer and sniff. (I didn’t worry here because Chai’s body language lets me know I’d be able to call her off and the mule doesn’t mind her presence.)
Chai and Kala came across a flock of sheep and goats!
The flock and two of the shepherd’s 10ish dogs. They are all related and puppies are raised with the flock, like lifestock guardian dogs traditionally are. Young dogs learn from older ones. They both guard and are able to keep the flock together. When nothing is going on, they doze in the shade. They are out with their human and the flock for ~6 hours a day. I learned so much from this shepherd, who was kind enough to hang out for a bit and answer all my questions about living with sheep and dogs as a small-scale subsistance farmer.
Left: right before Chai got rushed, she got just a little too close to the flock and the dogs made it clear to her. Right: watching the sheep from a distance after the shepherd has communicated to their dogs that we are friends. Chai’s herding instinct didn’t kick in – but it’s also possible she is still recovering from getting rushed and would have reacted differently to a flock without dogs. In any case, I’d venture it is safe to say that Chai is not magnetized to sheep. In the background story I have been told, her dad is a working sheepdog, but I am somewhat doutbful about the truth of this story.
I could have spent another hour talking to them, but didn’t want to keep them too long. While what I said above is what they told me, what follows are observations and parts I pieced together based on what I’ve read on this way of life in other parts of the world – it may or may not actually be the case for this particular shepherd and their flock.
The dogs and the life of subsistance farming (observations and thoughts):
The dogs are shepherdy-looking mixes about Game’s/Kala’s size; some with slightly more coat. From what this shepherd said, they are all related – so they have puppies and the puppies learn from their parents.
It is interesting to me that the dogs who are actually used for herding by people who do this for a living are not a particular breed of herding dog or even a landrace. I’d venture the most common breed in Mexico that is widely recognized as a herding breed is Australian Cattle Dogs (they are everywhere in the city, but usually not used to herd sheep), followed by Border Collies (used to herd sheep by people who do it for fun but not by people like this shepherd) and Old English Sheepdogs (who I don’t think are used for herding, but are a popular family dog breed around here). I’ve seen Australian Cattle Dogs throughout economic backgrounds while Border Collies and especiallyOld English Sheepdogs are fancier-neighborhood-dogs. I also have seen one ACD who was actually herding, but I was only passing by. I had the impression that this dog was an actual sheepdog, not a rich person’s hobby herding pal.
I found it extremely interesting that the dogs of the shepherd we met had a bubble around the sheep. There was clearly a boundary outside of which they allowed other dogs, but inside of which they would guard. Chai overstepped the boundary and their behavior changed immediately. Once they had chased Chai back of the bubble, they went back to chilling. I asked if the shepherd had taught the concept of the bubble to their dogs, and they said no – the dogs are doing this naturally.
It was also deeply fascinating to me that the dogs seemed to naturally surround the flock, protecting them from all sides. The flock did not seem bothered by the dogs at all and the dogs seemed very relaxed. The way they surrounded the flock kept the flock together and the invisible bubble kept intruders (like Chai) out.
I asked the shepherd if Chai and I might approach a little more so we could test how she’d react to the sheep when being closer (this is just something I’ve been meaning to test). The shepherd had control of their dogs – once they invited us into the bubble, the dogs stood back. (The shepherd had a stick and used body language to communicate with the dogs, but not in an aggressive way at all – they just communicated clearly that Chai was a friend to be welcomed into the bubble.)
I would love to spend a day with this shepherd, the flock and the dogs. I wonder what their everyday life looks like: how far from the green space do they live? How much do they walk? Are they always on the move or do they stick to one general area? How often is there a potential conflict? And is it always with visiting dogs or is there also wildlife or other pets to look out for? Maybe even humans? Is everyone on the same page about the shepherd using this (public) land for their sheep? What do the dogs eat (feeding 10 mid-sized to large dogs is a lot!) Do they have other sources of income or is it based on the sheep alone – on their meat? What does community or family structure look like? How much interaction is there with the wider capitalist society a subsistance farmer, whether they want to or not, is necessarily embedded in? If this shepherd had a kid, what opportunities will the kid have? Is it necessary for the kid to work as soon as they can walk in order to feed everyone or are they able to go to school, graduate, study; choose a totally different path in life?
I am curious about all of this, but it’s not my place to ask. I’ll probably never know. From the outside, to me, it’s easy to romantisize this life: it is calm. It has nature, animals, movement and little to no technology. It is physical and human-powered, not fossil-fuel-powered, and there is so much to observe about your animals, their interactions, the people you see, the changes of the plants, birds and insects around you through the seasons. I know there is a version of me who’d enjoy this life – its physicalness; the nailing of wooden planks to create a barn; the walking. Naming and observing your dogs. Keeping their puppies (the ones who survive); seeing them grow up. Observing local plants, birds, lizards; how their behavior changes with the times of day and year …
It is easy to romanticize because I wasn’t born into this life. If I were, I might feel completely different about it – after all, as it is, I did not keep the life I was actually born into and the same thing might have happened had I been born into a different life. And spinning that thought further: the life I was born into was a privileged one that allowed me to leave it behind. If I was born into the life of subsistance farming, leaving that life may not be an option. Or it may be just as much an option as it was for me and the live I actually got! I don’t know, but I can’t help but enjoy leisurly following these threads of thought as I’m clening up this pst at 2:30AM in the morning, a day before I’ll release kt.
Check the dog social post for today’s video of Kala, Chai and Luca!
Home alone
Chai stayed home alone for Game’s morning and pre and post solo-adventure walks.
I used to believe it was far more important for dogs to play with appropriate adult dogs than with dogs their own age (this is unsupported “common knowledge” floating around the R+ world). The just-so story is convincing enough: your dog is only going to be a puppy or juvenile animal for a fraction of their life; the conspecific interactions they will eventually have – if any – are mostly going to be with adult dogs. Plus what could a puppy possibly learn from other puppies? Adult dogs are the ones to look for in terms of socializing because adult dogs – other than puppies – actually have social skills.
Then I took Kristina Spaulding‘s excellent ethology class and learned that we do indeed know from actual studies (which I currently don’t have the bandwidth to dig out) that animals benefit from the opportunity to play with conspecifics of a similar age. This has changed my approach: I will now seek out more play opportunities for the puppies and juvenile dogs in my care – specifically with other young dogs.
Mexico and other places in Latin America I’ve been to have one big advantage when it comes to socialization: there’s ALWAYS dogs around. If you give your dog the chance to play every day, they’ll satiate (unless they are the rare dog who doesn’t satiate – these dogs do exist, just like there are dogs who never stop feeling hungry, but they are not the norm.) Given the opportunity to regularly satiate their social needs, they will be far easier to train, walk and work around other dogs. Win-win!
Below is a small selection of Chai’s play dates. These are just a few times I videoed over the course of the months and some I set to music (because it gives me joy) – but they are by far not the only ones. Chai has met other dogs of different ages every single day since she’s been with me. Some have become her friends; some stayed one-off play mates. You’ve seen some of these videos in Chai’s diaries already. In any case – here’s a chronological compilation with some context for each of them.
May 17, 2023 (day 41 with me): Chai plays with a new puppy
Chai played with (mejor dicho ignored in order to keep an eye on Game’s tennis ball) 5-months old puppy Archie at Chapultepec today!
May 28, 2023 (day 52): another new puppy playmate!
Chai made a new play-friend at Las Islas (UNAM), puppy Nenet! Enjoy the music and the play!
June 6, 2023 (day 61): playing with a new adult dog and practicing “pup-pup-pup” and whistle recalls … some of which are more successful than others!
Watch the video above to see my recalls – successful as well as unsuccessful! You won’t hear me use my formal recall cue in this video (“Schnee”). l’ll only use the formal cue in real life – outside of games and set-ups – when I am certain that Chai will respond. The informal recall and even my whistle recall? I don’t mind trying it sometimes and seeing it not work. These are data points that let me know where we are and what Chai’s ability to pay attention currently looks like.
After watching the video above with subtitles and voiceovers – think about the following questions and, if you’d like, leave your answers to any or all questions in the comments! I’ll be sure to read and respond to them!
Can you tell why I chose the first two recall moments (these recalls are not successful – but why did I try them at the points in time that I did?)
In one of the first two, can you spot an indication that Chai heard me even though she doesn’t come back?
Why do you believe I used pup-pup-pup rather than whistled in recalls #2 and #3?
Can you pinpoint (time-stamp) some of my favorite moments of the interaction between Chai and the other dog, Luna? What makes them stand out?
June 8, 2023: Chai (BC, 5.5 months) and Kiba (BC, 6.5 months)
We met our friends Alan and Kiba at the park and our girls had a blast playing together!
June 17, 2023 (day 72): adventures with Kiba at Chapultepec (and a sad, but beautiful song)
July 15, 2023 (day 100) – Chai and Kiba
Chai and I spent an hour with Alan and Kiba at the park today. As always, I started off with an informal recall away from Kiba (this is still HARD for Chai!) and then reinforced by releasing her to play. They also played with Kiba’s toy together!
Play-fighting and running together!
Good friends can share toys!
July 18, 2023: letting off steam after distraction recalls!
Today, we practiced really difficult distraction recalls! Chai needed to let off some steam after – and dog/dog play is perfect for this!
July 22, 2023 – all the Border Collies!
After shaping recalls away from Kiba, Chai got to hang out with her buddy and 4 other BC friends: Ivan’s dogs who were at the park with their dog sitters. Nicole, the child of the main dog sitter, tossed Kiba’s squeaky ball for Chai. I don’t mind informal toy play like this as long as it’s not with our formal training toys. It’s good for Chai to build a relationship with Nicole through playing! The last time, she got intimidated by Nicole who can be a little rough and wants to touch dogs from above or hug them (I suspect they’re between 8 and 12 years old, but I might be totally off – I’m bad at gauging the age of kids.)
August 8, 2023: new friends for Chai
My friend and colleague Kayla visited for a few days with her Border Collies Barley and Niffler and cat Norbert! This video is from the first evening Chai met all the new animals. (If you listened to our podcast chat, you may have already seen a shorter version of this video with a different song.) I like the fact that I’ve been able to introduce Chai to new dogs both in “her” apartment and in neutral spaces. She has also visited Nazli at Scarlett’s place and been to the apartment of friends who have cats.
August 20, 2023: fast friends!
Chai and Kala at Chapultepec! Kala is Zai and Kristen’s adult dog; this was the first time our dogs met!
September 10, 2023: Chai, Kala and Luca at Los Dinamos
We took a weekend trip to los Dinamos today! Time to not hear traffic noises and feel all naturey – even though this is still part of Mexico City! Luca, Zai and Kristen’s pug puppy, got to come as well!
October 15, 2023: Chai, Kiba and Elios
Today, Alan and Kiba introduced us to their friends Soto and Elios, Soto’s 11 months old Corgi!
October 22, 2023: Salazar with Daniel and Dina
Dina has become one of Chai’s best friends. Game and Dina are more acquaintances than friends, but they get along well enough. Today, Daniel (Dina’s human) and Dina showed us a hiking route outside Salazar. Game is wearing a muzzle because she’ll go into heat soon and tends to get easily over-aroused by other dogs running in the weeks before – it’s just a safety measure around Dina.
My bestest girl on the mountain. Mexico City in the distance to the left.
Snuggly girls on the car ride home. They were taking off each other’s burrs! (Poor Dina has a shaved paw because she needed to stay at the vet’s and get fluids for a nasty stomach infection the other week.)
At around 10 months – close to the time Chai went into heat the first time – she got significantly more socially selective. She still has her friends, but is less likely to initiate play with a new dog. She mostly just confidently ignores other dogs (or steals their balls). If given a choice, she’d rather work with me than play with other dogs.
This is a lovely development for a working breed. I see it in the other dogs her age as well: the young Dobi and a young Mal we used to run into at the park don’t play as much as they used to either, and Kiba and Chai, while still extremely close, treat each other more like family: “hey there, great to see you; I can basically read your mind just looking at you because we are the same; now let’s go do other stuff!” Their behavior is very similar; they grew up like siblings with Kiba being one month older. They even went into heat the same week. But there’s less playing from both of them: they seem to feel like grown up Border Collies around each other now. They will do stuff together, like sniff the same spots, greet the same dogs, lie down next to each other … But they rarely behave like puppies with each other (except for an exuberant greeting when they haven’t seen each other for longer than usual).
Dina, on the other hand, is still a favorite play mate of Chai’s. Dina’s play style is different – she’s a different type of dog. She’s built like a whippet and as fast as one, but wire-haired, incredibly gentle and giant-eared. I’m fond of her – and so is Chai. Dina is 3, but still loves to play chase games. If I were to anthropomorphize, I’d say that Chai looks up to Dina and thinks she’s “cool” – hence the continued playing! It’s unlikely that dogs find each other “cool,” but the thought makes me smile.
I suspect that over time, Chai will play a little less with Dina as well. They will stay close friends, but over the next few months, Chai’s behavior around Dina will probably start resembling her behavior around Kiba unless we are on a hike together (which doesn’t happen every day and tends to give the city dogs a boost of youth and bounciness!)
Chai and Kala would probably also keep playing a little longer into the future – or even on a permanent basis. They are extremely well-matched playmates. Kristen, Zai, Kala, Luca and their cats have moved abroad though. Chai says everyone, but especially Kala is always welcome on her couch if they ever miss Mexico City! (Chai is optimistic. I am realistic and would like to add: the cats would probably be safer staying elsewhere because of a certain Belgian Shepherd who lives on Chai’s couch as well and, while getting very good at not eating cats, can’t help the fact that they smell awfully tasty.)
Chai and Game, of course, will still play-wrestle as well. That’s typical for dogs sharing a house: anytime one of them needs to burn off energy, there’s a play partner right there! We just spent a few days at the beach and in this new environment, there was a lot of racing along the waves and chasing each other, too. I wish I had video!
Activity level: average (low physical, high cognitive)
The AM …
We started the morning with our usual walk. Today we took our time, looped the park twice and greeted and dismissed several dogs – good puppy!
2-toy tug reinforced by fetch at Fresa Parque
We dropped Game off at home and Chai and I walked to Fresa Parque in harness mode. There, we had a lovely session of 2-toy fetch and then enjoyed the park some more before heading back home in collar mode. Chai did really well!
Later, we started shaping two tricks from Silvia Trkman‘s first to-do list: “Earn it!” in the apartment and a 2-front-paw target on the roof. Chai is a dog who is happy to keep working and shaping for a long time. She reminds me of the first time I took Sue Ailsby‘s shaping class with Phoebe: we could work and work and work and she wouldn’t tire; I could have spent all day shaping. Chai, at her current age, is like that too – SO much fun!
Staying home alone
She then stayed home alone for Game’s early-afternoon walks and while Game accompanied me for a hair cut.
During Game’s evening walk, Chai got to practice staying home alone a second time.
More shaping!
After coming home, I continued Chai’s 2-paw target shaping. We ended with a relatively consistent 1-paw on the target and will progress to 2 paws tomorrow … I’ve already fed her almost twice her meal in today’s shaping sessions so it’s probably time to stop.
Prepositions for announcements
Today, I started adding prepositions to the announcements I’ve been using for Chai. Is she going to learn and understand them? I don’t know but I assume that with time and context, she will. And even if she doesn’t – striving for the greatest possible clarity when communicating with our dogs (or anyone else) is a worthwhile pursuit in any case.
House training adventures
I am proud to report that our streak continues! Week one of the game couldn’t be going any better! If I make it two more days, I’ll treat myself to a fancy browny – and then we start week 2! Sadly, Chai’s diarrhea is back as well. Here’s to making the shower her default pooping spot! She went there by herself, too.
July 4, 2023 (Day 89)
Activity level: low
The AM …
Chai greeted a few dogs on our 2-dog morning loop and then did well on the retractable leash while Game was off leash – hardly any circles or food reinforcers needed!
Almost home, we found a creepy bouquet of artificial flowers on the ground. Magic hands and Game walking right up to investigate it for the win! If I had already had coffee, I would have turned the bouquet into a toy – but sans caffeine, I really wanted to get home and fuel up.
2 trips and one toy play session at the plaza
After a bit of work, I took Chai to our neighborhood plaza for a quick 2-toy game according to Shade‘s instructions. I’m planning to make today our “calm” day – it’s a good one because I’m meeting a friend and can leave her home. Plus I want to resist the temptation to keep shaping until the diarrhea is gone: my home remedy for diarrhea is 12-24 hours of fasting.
Chai did great walking to the plaza and back with the leash attached to her harness. I replaced most food reinforcers with brief spouts of personal play or running together and needed hardly any circles. At the park, Chai saw someone move a giant water-spouting hose – a new and interesting experience, but not a scary one! Brave puppy!
Play went well even though Chai answered the question whether she could tug without misses first with a “not really – I like my misses.” It may also have been that she expected the first play move to be a chase and was taken aback when I cued a tug.
First time off leash on the sidewalk during the day
Chai will be an off-leash Mexico City dog. When I first got her, I worked on this by means of exclusively walking her on a long line to simulate an off-leash experience (while keeping her safely on the sidewalk next to a busy car street). We’ve also been working on being an off leash city dog for about a month by taking off-leash urban walks between 2AM and 4AM when there are almost no cars in the street. (Furture me chiming in here: the nightly walks are a tradition I stopped a few days after writing this Chiary entry. It led to very tired days for me and after a month, I needed a break!) Other off-leash city dog elements:
Working towards a solid formal recall.
Practicing “Leave it” (and its generalization to stepping off the sidewalk) and …
“Wait” at the curb.
Being off leash when there is a barrier of shrubbery or parked cars between a park and the street.
My plan is to have her drag a long line – no Game present, just Chai – during the day as soon as we make it all the way through our distraction tracker for the formal recall (formal recalls are emergency breaks).
Yesterday, I made an exception to the rule of not having Chai off leash in the street during the day just yet: a neighbor’s dog came bounding down the sidewalk as we were on our way back from the plaza. Since the playful dog was running directly towards us, I unhooked Chai’s leash so she could play. They did for about a minute on the sidewalk and then I walked the last 30 meters home off leash as well. Chai didn’t leave the sidewalk. Good girl! Back to the original plan though as long as there are no playful pups around!
Staying home alone
Game and I are about to head out and meet a friend – time for Chai to be a good stay-home-alone puppy and for Game to get a bike run in!
Game, being a hipster dog for a day. We are street food people, but sometimes – usually when friends want to go OR when I want to dog-train – we head to a place like this one. And yes, of course: “somos lo que somos.
Chai did great staying home alone for 3.5 hours, and Game enjoyed a 20 minute bike ride, 2.5 hours of hanging out at a café and chewing her rawhide bone and 30 minutes of biking home on a different route.
Chai got to stay home again a second time during Game’s evening walk. We’ll count today as the calm day of the week! Our second calm day (the one to make up for last Sunday’s high activity day) might be Friday.
Housetraining
The streak continues! Wheee, it is fun to see my arrows turn green! We’ve almost made it through a week!
July 5, 2023 (Day 90)
Activity level: average (low physical, high cognitive)
The AM …
We had an uneventful morning walk.
Home alone
After work, both dogs stayed home while I bought supplies for trick training, and then Chai stayed home alone again while Game and I headed out for a bit.
Shaping, shaping, shaping!
I shaped away one day’s worth of Chai’s kibble for paw target experiments (we both love this game).
2-toy tug and fetch and waiting at the ice cream store
… then we walked in harness mode to Fresa Parque and played a short 2-toy game before being rudly interrupted by a tall barky stranger Mal mix. As by Shade’s suggestion, I tried cueing “chase” while Chai was tugging rather then after she dropped and offered eye contact to reinforce the tugging rather than the drop.
Chai then waited patiently for me as I got ice cream:
Her right ear has been in a floppy mood!
… and more shaping!
Back home, I shaped a second day’s worth of kibble away in 6 short sessions and then took Game on her evening walk while Chai stayed home alone a third time.
(And yes, there was work too in between all of this, cooking and a post-icecream nap for me.)
House training: the streek continues!
As of today, we’ve made it through an entire week without peeing in the living room! I’ve earned myself a browny! The week 1 streak in all its glory:
July 6, 2023 (Day 91)
Activity level: high average
The AM …
Our morning walk was shorter than usual because I wanted to get home and finish work before meeting Alan and Kiba for our train-and-play date. Work went fast and I had time to clicker up Chai’s daily food ration again. Shaping this dog is FUN! My way of not going overboard is only having the daily food ratio available and stopping once I’m through it (if I can help it). It’s also not one continuous session, of course – one session is either what fits in my hand or what fits in my hand plus another handful of food from my pocket. Then there’s a short break; then we might do another session.
Knowing how much and how fast juvenile dogs change, it is difficult for me not to get carried away with shaping and tricks while I have such an avid learner: there is no way of knowing whether Chai’s stamina and enthusiasm for training will be the same a week from now or once she’s an adult. (My own training stamina and enthusiasm is off the charts these days but will probably wear off a bit in the future.)
Home alone
While Chai is on pee-standby in the bathroom, Game and I are about to head out. After practicing impulse control on her mat, it’s time to give her a little outdoors freedom before Chai gets all the action again!
I used the opportunity to get my week-long streak reinforcer:
Yumm! Game (nose at top left corner) thinks so too!
2-toy tug/fetch and dog/dog play time!
Alan had to cancel our training meeting because he got sick. Instead, I recorded Chai’s toys homework for Shade sans interruptions and then Chai got to play a little bit in the dog park. I decided to go in because there were only two dogs who looked calm. Chai got them to play, and we practiced two recalls out of play for chicken. I had planned on doing this with Kiba today, but since there was no Kiba, these two playmates would do! Chai was a star – however, I’m sure this was easier than Kiba would have been. Kiba is her best buddy and hard to disengage from while Chai has never met these two dogs before and generally recalls well from strange dogs. (Still: this is the very first time I recalled her in the middle of playing – and she came back right away! Go Chai! This may actually have been an excellent step before practicing with Kiba.)
The video below shows Chai’s dog park socializing and the two formal recalls we did – the second one out of full-on play.
More paw target shaping
Back home, we took a break and then shaped for (almost) an entire second day’s meal. We now have two mostly steady paws on 3 different targets: a plastic tupperware lid, a plant saucer and a porcellain plate!
Husbandry
+ “Brush” announcement and brushing!
Toy play Silvia Trkman style
It was thundering and rain-storming and Game was scared (of the thunder). I don’t want Chai to adopt Game’s fears, so we casually played with always-out toys on the couch. There’s also a TV show running in the background … distraction training AND play! I want her to chase and tug on any toy I offer and also learn more about her favorites and preferred play style in a casual context.
(The reason Chai and I can play in this video without Game joining in is that Game is too worried about the thunder to play.)
House training
… week 2 of 4! The streak continues! If Chai makes it another 7 days without accidents in the living room (only in the shower cabin or outdoors), I’ll get another browny. After a 4-week streak – which we may or may not get to on our first attempt – I’m going to treat myself to something bigger. In any case – if all I ever win in my streak game are brownies, that’ll work for me too!
July 7, 2023 (Day 92)
Activity level: low
The AM …
I let Game and Chai run around the park a little more than usual because I’m planning on a calm day today. Chai got to greet several dogs she knows and then we walked back home – Game off leash, Chai on the retractable leash.
Shaping!
After work, we started another project for Silvia’s class: 4 in a box!
A brief 2-short-leashes pee walk
later, I headed off to co-work with a friend at a favorite queer meet-up café while Game and Chai stayed home for about 4 hours.
More shaping!
We did one more 4-in session (Chai was a superstar!) and then called it a day.
I have succeeded in keeping today a light, calm day! AND I made up for all the kibble I fed over the last two days by feeding (i.e. training) less today! (Remember my rule: one day a week has to be calmer than average. If I do a high (rather than average) activity day, I will try to balance it out with a second calm day in that same week. Tomorrow will likely be high activity again – we’re planning on a trail hike. More keep-it-calm challenges for me to come! (Calm days are the hardest for me! Seeing friends helps because it takes up time I would otherwise spend training.)
Housetraining
Streak game week 2, day 2 – we earned another green check mark! Woohooo!
Empty puppies – and empty puppies only! – get to chill on the bed.
July 8, 2023 (Day 93)
Activity level:average
Los Dinamos – finalmente!
After the briefest of morning pee walks (the dogs) and coffee (me), we made our third attempt to head to Los Dinamos, a nature park in the south of Mexico City. And we did it! Finally, nothing got in the way of our plans.
This was Chai’s first “real” nature walk – not in a city park but jumping across fallen trees, scrambling up and down hills and rocks and exploring the slippery rocks and muddy ground of a shallow river. She had a blast – and so did Game. Game loves running in spaces like this and I can tell how much she’s missed it when we go again after a longer break.
I found out that Chai doesn’t yet know she has to keep an eye on me in this kind of environment in order not to accidentally lose me. So I played a lot of hide and seek (hiding behind a tree or rock when she wasn’t looking, letting her worry just a little bit and then waiting for her to find me and celebrating with social feedback:”Yay! Did you lose me? You found me! What a good puppy!”)
Here’s an excerpt of Game and Chai adventuring at Los Dinamos:
Chai also discovered she likes to eat horse poop and found several bone parts of deceased animals to nibble on. I could “Schnee” recall her away from horse poop and successfully traded all bones for chicken. Superpuppy!
In terms of structured sessions, after first getting there and peeing (Chai), I had a 2-toy session for Shade’s class. This space felt different to her than city parks – I could see it in her slightly lower-than-usual focus. Apart from that, she did really well!
We had fun in the shallow river and both dogs got to play with a (non-training) ball in the water.
Otherwise, I just let them be dogs and run around for an hour. We met a couple suddenly appearing people and dogs – very different from the constant buzz of the city! – but Chai, after looking at me questioningly the first time it happened, did well. Game knows the drill and just curves around strangers.
Before we left, we saw a horse – someone was cantering down the trail at full speed. Game barked and wanted to give chase (a “leave it” brought her right back to me – chicken for the big girl!) Chai, who has never met a horse, barked after Game did and scrambled back to me as if she had just seen the devil. I’m looking forward to an opportunity for her to meet more horses – quiet, steady ones who are not crashing down trails! – in the future to ensure she feels neutral about them.
We headed home after only about an hour. So there is still lots of kibble left for shaping in the afternoon, and since we weren’t out very long, I don’t have to worry about overdoing it!
Shaping 4 in!
I used up the remainder of Chai’s daily food ration in two medium-length shaping sessions in the afternoon. We ended with 4 in from all the angles! Good puppy!
Pee walk and bakery
In the late afternoon, Chai and Game got to join me on a mini pee walk to the bakery around the corner, wait outside and then help explain some dog training things to the good folks at the bakery who collected my phone number for a neighbor with two barky adolescent Xolos.
Game imitated Chai’s peeing, I got my “Potty” cue in and reinforced, and we went back upstairs: the empty puppy earned living room privileges again!
Thunder
It is thundering again tonight. Not only is Chai not concerned – Game is feeling way better than last time as well!
Housetraining
Happy to report that my second brownie is getting closer …!
July 9, 2023 (Day 94)
Activity level:low average
The AM …
Given that the AM starts at midnight, I am sad to report that our AM started in a less than relaxing way: someone right around the corner must have been celebrating something (it was Saturday night), and as we came back from our night walk at around 1:45 AM, there were LOUD cohetes.
Fireworks are new for Chai: she looks at me and Game to figure out the appropriate response. So I spent the next hour counterconditioning: big boom – scatter. Big boom – scatter. Chai was happy about her scatters, ate a lot of kibble and then, before I could assess whether she was already happy about hearing big booms, the booms stopped … and we could all go back to sleep. The only one who didn’t get a lot of sleep, I’m afraid, is Game. She looks very tired this morning.
Toy skills!
We did two sessions of tugging reinforced by chase today. Chai now needs less misses in order to enjoy her tug! Good girl!
In the first session, she needed the visual of my outstretched arm with the second toy after my “Chase” cue to let go in the first chase-past-tug rep. In the second rep, she let go of her toy on a verbal “Chase” alone.
In the second session, Chai responded differently to the verbal “Tug” than to the verbal “Chase,” and she let go on the verbal “Chase” alone both times and showed prediction behaviors for chasing, with the other ball still out of sight! Woohooo! Go puppy!!!
Dog socializing
Chai also got to run around a bit and play with a bunch of dogs before we went to a café to work (me) and practice chilling on her mat (Chai). I wanted to make sure she got her need to move and greet dogs out of the way first to set her up for success.
I made sure not to tire her out during our break – I don’t want a dog who lies calmly on her mat because she is exhausted, but a dog who lies calmly on her mat because her social needs and needs to move have been met and she’s ready to watch the world go by for a bit.
Café training
We stayed for about 40 minutes, and there was a lot going on! Chai did VERY well!
Left: waiting outside while I order at the coffee shop – next to another unfamiliar dog who is also waiting for their person!Right: chilling on her mat at the café.This is a fancier place than I like going, but it’s at an wonderfully busy corner – it’s great for training.
Then we left for another round of park play and socializing before Chai got too wound up. 40 minutes of sitting relatively still at a busy corner restaurant is a lot for a young dog! We then returned to the café and I finished up my workload for the morning with Chai being a superstar again.
Here’s a post about the art of doing nothing with a video of our practice session at the café.
Home alone
Chai stayed home alone during Game’s noon and afternoon (pre-rain) walks and during her evening walk.
Housetraining
Chai peed at the park without needing inspiration or a role model to follow! You go girl!
We’re past the halfway mark for the week! Yay! And no accidents of any kind in the living room!I can smell you already, yummy brownie!
Announcements is a term I use to distinguish certain verbal expressions directed at dogs from the term cue: a cue is the opportunity for the dog to do a certain behavior in order to earn a reinforcer (or, if you are of a different philosophy, you could say a cue is telling the dog what they “have to” do – that is, it’s a “command”). Whatever philosphy you subscribe to, a cue is all about the dog’s actions. Sit, for example, is a cue for the dog to move their butt floorwards. Come is a cue for the dog to run towards you.
An announcement is information about what is going to happen “to” the dog. It is not telling the dog what to do. For example in radius training, I use an opportunity cost announcement if the dog oversteps their radius. It means “We are going the other way now!”
When I brush Chai, I’ll announce that I’m going to do so by saying “Brush.” I’m not asking. This is not cooperative care. (She doesn’t need it to be.) When I dremel Game’s nails or clip Chai’s nails, I’ll announce “Claws.” Again, I am not asking the dog to do anything – I am letting them know what is about to happen before I do it. An announcement is me informing my dog about what I am going to do next. It is not a question but information. Anytime I announce something, it is going to happen right after independently of the dog’s thoughts or feelings about it – just like the sun will rise every day whether I want it to or not.
Today (that is on July 3, 2023, when I drafted this post), after having used “collar,” “harness” and “leash” every time before taking one of the three objects off or putting them on Chai, I’ve started adding prepositions. “Collar onnnn!” means I’m about to put a collar on Chai. “Collar offff!” means I’ll take it off. I stress the preposition in my announcement because it is the part that is new for her. “Leash onnnn!” means the leash will be clipped to the harness and is, like a click, always followed by a treat (to avoid creating aversion to being leashed). “Leash offff!” means I will unclip the leash. It will either be followed by off-leash freedom or by “With me!” (leash clipped to collar; informal heeling). No treats when equipment comes off.
The fourth object I’m using our new prepositions for is Chai’s sweater. Remember how I was planning on taking her to Pride but then didn’t? I got her a Pride sweater anyways (yes, it has happened and there’s no denying it: I’m one of these people who dress up dogs now). It was 50% off and cute, and I want her to get used to wearing things such as service dog vests or “clothing” she might need to wear after surgery one day. So we also work on normalizing “Sweater onnnn!” and “Sweater offff!” Chai is doing perfectly fine with wearing it for short periods of time – the startle of the store person trying to stuff her into a sweater without asking permission had no repercussions. (I did not buy the sweater there, by the way.)
Here’s a brief compilation of onnn-s and offff-s I (that is future me on October 30, 2023) just recorded to illustrate this concept before I release this post I drafted in July:
In the video above, note how certain announcements – in this example only “harness onnn” – have the potential to turn into a cue (Chai can learn to push her head through the harness loop voluntarily). Others, like leash onnn or offf, can always only be announcements since Chai can’t put her leash on or take it off herself.
Below is another brief clip from today, showing an example of something that (A) will always be an announcement (“Brush” in the example: Chai can’t brush herself) and (B) won’t ever have a preposition because it wouldn’t make sense:
What is the point of announcing things? Why don’t you just DO them?
I want to maximize agency (where it matters for the dog in front of me) and clarity (where there can’t be agency or where agency is less important for the dog in front of me). When it comes to training, I want the dog to opt in. When it comes to grooming, I want opting in (cooperative care) if the dog doesn’t like being groomed – otherwise, I’ll just do an announcement. Why? Because teaching cooperative care is time consuming and it not a personal passion of mine. Therefore, as long as the dog in front of me doesn’t mind, I’ll announce rather than ask.
While announcements aren’t questions, they still give me valuable information
While the announcement isn’t a question (I’m not asking, “Would you like me to brush you?” but telling Chai, “I am going to brush you now!” in the video above), it still comes with valuable information: I tell Chai that I will brush her before I sit down next to her on the couch. (I always and only brush her on the couch.) This gives her time to leave. If she left, I would gain important information about how she feels about being brushed. As I am brushing her, I am not cutting off her exit route/cornering her. Unlike with “leash on” and “harness on,” there is NO treat after grooming behaviors. So Chai gains nothing by allowing me to groom her. She could walk away – but she doesn’t.
Here’s a COMPLETELY taken-out-of-context quote by M.E. O’Brien that, to my great amusement, fits very well: “If one cannot easily leave, one cannot choose to stay.” Dog training really is a metaphor for life. And that’s why I use announcements rather than “just do the thing.”
I’ll be doing weekly digests and specialty topics (toy play, recalls, tricks …) going forwards – this will give me a chance to catch up to the present day eventually! As you may have noticed, I video almost everything. I’m only putting an occasional video directly into the weekly digests. To see the others, click the links in my digest text and then scroll down to the respective day you’ve been reading about in the digest. (For example, when a digest post says we played with toys, there will be a link to my toy play post if there’s a video for the respective day.)
Monday, June 19, 2023 (day 74 with me)
Activity level: low (less than I do with a Border Collie on a typical day)
Today is Chai’s (fake) half-birthday! I added a date of birth to her carnet de vacunas which came without one. Based on what her previous human told me about her age, she must have been born around December 19, 2022.
What do puppies get when they are 6 months old? A rabies shot! Whee! After a brief walk at Fresa Parque, we went to a pet store/vet around the corner. Chai was mostly being very brave. Here she is waiting her turn in the pet supply part of the store and then after, waiting at the counter to pay:
Brave vet girl pre and post vaccine!
Chai was surprisingly wiped out after the vaccine, so we didn’t do a whole lot except for play a little for Shade’s class, hang out with our friend and take an evening walk with Game to Fresa Parque.
Hanging out with Zane.
Tuesday, June 20, 2023 (day 75): just a good old average day.
Activity level: average
Toy play
Today, Chai is back to normal! We started the day with a 2-ball game on the roof.
Adventuring and park-officing
Then I headed to my park office to work from there for two hours. Chai ran around, met a bunch of dogs and came back regularly to check in at my work station and collect a treat. Meanwhile, Game was dozing next to me at my feet. She really has grown up!
Right as I was done with work, Alan, who I’d been meaning to write, showed up with Kiba and our girls got to play for a while.
Staying home alone
We then headed back home – Chai stayed in the bathroom and Game in the sala while I went off for 6 hours of tatooing with Kuks. Chai has been really good about staying home alone – I’m proud of her!
Evening walk
As soon as I got back home, I took Game and Chai for a brief evening walk around the block.
Eye contact for food game
We rounded out the evening by practicing eye contact for food.
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
Activity level: low average
Morning walk
We kicked off the day with our usual short morning walk with Game.
Eye contact!
Next, Chai got to play with 2 balls on the roof and I added eye contact as a criterion for tossing the second ball. Chai said, no problem!
We then experimented with eye contact for food in my closed fist, which would open to present the treat to Chai after a click when she made eye contact. We haven’t played this game since April and needed to re-learn it! Some angles turned out to be more difficult than others.
Loose leash walking in Manners Context
We worked on our LLW skills on a collar in a new, relatively quiet street. After our acclimation walk on a harness, we walked the same 2 blocks up and down several times in 20-step treat mode. Go Chai! She was being a superstar!
A not-so-great experience
On the way back home, we passed a small grooming and pet supply shop I hadn’t noticed before. It had pride sweaters for dogs on display so I couldn’t help but go inside. I’ve been thinking about bringing Chai to Pride on Saturday, and if I do, a rainbowy outfit would be fun.1
Anyways, so I walked in, pointed at the largest one of the small sweaters and asked if it might fit Chai. The person working the store said, “Let’s measure,” I nodded (assuming they meant they were going to measure the sweater) – but before I knew it, they were stuffing the sweater over Chai’s head! The poor girl, of course, was not amused and tried backing away. I stopped the sweater-stuffer (which took a significant amount of verbal force!) as Chai bolted out the door, pulling into her leash, tail tucked under her belly. I fled together with her and walked down the road until she seemed relatively calm again.
Then I went back, stopped at the sidewalk in front of the store and asked the store person friendly-ly if they’d allow me to help Chai get over her fear. I explained that she was scared of people touching her and used to be scared of going indoors. Would they be so kind and allow me to walk into and out of the store a few times while just standing where they were? They said yes and from that moment on were a perfect helper. No more sweater-attacks on unsuspecting Border Collies!
I did what I also do in the magic hands context: I walked into the store one step, and Chai followed me up to the threshold and stopped. I cued “Get it,” tossed a treat away from the door out on the sidewalk and retreated together with Chai, who chased her treat.
After she had eaten, I approached the door a second time, again walking until Chai stopped. This time, she went just over the threshold and inside. I marked “Get it” when she stopped and tossed a treat outside. Little by little, we made our way into the small rectangular store and past our helper to the back wall (the store part that wasn’t grooming related was just about 3 by 6 meters). The further in we got, the more fun I made our exits and we ran together after each “Get it.” Once we had bravely made it all the way to the back wall, Chai could even do a hand touch. One last celebratory “Get it!”, thank you to our helper and we left – without a sweater and feeling much better.
Vet/pet store
Our next stop was the vet/pet store where Chai got her rabies vaccine the other day. I wanted to get a second black Kong ball. The store was crowded with dogs and customers and Chai did fantastic. And most importantly: we got our ball!
Chilling at the vet/pet supply store
Waiting outside a store
Chai then briefly waited outside a corner convenience store and then we headed home from our afternoon adventure.
More treats for eye contact!
We played another round of eye contact for treats in my fist: the mechanism to open my fist is to not touch it and make eye contact. Some angles, especially my left arm stretched to the side, were still harder than others.
Test-driving our new Kong ball
Once it had (finally!) cooled down a bit, we played with two Kong balls on the roof. I had used tennis balls and topmatic balls before, but they were too fun to chew on on the roof. At the park where I can throw further, bouncier and fun-er (without the danger of the balls bouncing off the roof), Chai doesn’t tend to lie down and chew … but there are a lot of dog distractions. Eye contact brought ball #2 to life on the roof.
Home alone
Chai stayed home alone during Game’s evening walk, and then …
Even more treats for eye contact
… we rounded off the day with two more rounds of eye contact for food:
Thursday, June 22, 2023 (day 77)
Morning walk
On today’s morning walk, we saw two Saint Bernards in a dog park. I couldn’t help but let Chai go in – I don’t think she has met dogs this big before!
Who is scared of big dogs? Not I, says Chai.
Home alone
Game and Chai stayed home alone, free in the apartment while I went to the bakery and again a little later when I ran another quick errand. I kept her in her luxury kennel (aka the bathroom) when Game and I ran a longer errand later.
Solo adventure at the park
Chai had a solo adventure (i.e. an adventure without Game): we went to one of the parks we like and worked on the 2-ball game with eye contact, obstacle recalls and positions (down and stand).
Below: an obstacle recall game!
Then we met up with Alan and Kiba and walked to the market and back together.
Beauty everywhere on a walk.
Kiba and Chai found a stick to share.
On our walk home, I switched Chai to manners context (leash on collar) and we toggled between 5 and 20 steps between treats. She was being a great leash walker!
More treats for eye contact
We repeated our eye-contact-for-treats game with what was left of Chai’s meal. Today, I asked for her to hold eye contact a little longer before the click.
Distraction recalls – round #1 (of many – foreshadowing by future C!)
After having played recall games for quite a bit (hide and seek recalls, ALL the obstacle recalls, running-away recalls, flying cookie recalls, ping-pong recalls, double-dog recalls, ditch-the-dog recalls …), we started our journey into distraction recall training today! Go Chai!
Friday, June 23, 2023 (day 78)
Activity level: high (I don’t have the time to do this much with my dogs every day)
Morning walk
We started the day out with our usual morning walk with Game. Chai practiced walking off-leash on a sidewalk without a barrier of shrubbery – just a barrier of parked cars in a quiet street along the park! Chai was a superstar and stayed on the sidewalk!
It’s a little like a CU set-up with ring gates: you start with covered (non-see through) ring gates. Our equivalent: shrubbery AND a row of parked cars along a park. Second, just a line of parked cars (see-through/uncovered ring gates). Third (and that’s what you see in the image below): empty spaces between the parked cars (openings in the ring gates)!
Chai and Game also got to run around the park for a few minutes and then we walked home where Zane was waiting for us with coffee!
The most exciting event of the morning: we waited to cross a street with 3 other dogs – a leashed Beagle and a small leashed dog with one person and an off-leash mix with another person. Just like Game, Chai did a fantastic job waiting at the curb, getting her occasional “good” room service treat and then crossing with all the other dogs when released. Only the Beagle got a brief greeting before the wait started. I’m not only proud of Chai’s ability to chill for brief times with other dogs around without engaging, but also with her increasing understanding of the “wait” cue I use at curbs. Just like with Game, I have not actively trained this behavior but simply named it by saying the cue and then stopping the dog with the leash. More and more often, Chai stops on the verbal alone! It’s not solid yet – but I can see her improving!
Toy play at Fresa Parque
After reading Shade’s response to our last toy class video, Chai and I headed out to Fresa Parque while it wasn’t unbearably hot yet. Shade encouraged us to play fetch in spaces other than the roof so I can make toys fly further and bounce without worrying about losing them (and potentially having my dog jump off a building). That’s a fair point, of course. The only disadvantage: the roof is the only low-distraction space available to me. At the park, there are always other off-leash dogs. But Chai did really well – until we got interrupted by one of them and I ended the game. I can’t yet expect a 6 months old puppy to keep playing with me when approached by a strange dog! I am, however, VERY happy with her ability to play in this environment!
Afghan Hounds and obstacles
We then went into the dog park since the only dog in there was a very fluffy and oldish looking Afghan Hound. They were calm, with a friendly wag, when Chai sniffed them through the fence, and I wanted to see if Chai had gotten over her Afghan Houndscares for good. And yes, she had! No sign of fear, just curiosity and confidence around the mellow fellow.
We then used the agility-ish obstacles in the dog park to work on two new ones: one a kind of staircase leading up to a metal platform and down the other side, and the very beginnings of the teeter. The teeter is made of metal and very slippery, but we had an excellent start with Chai getting 4 feet on the lowest part of the ramp. We’ve been here before and worked on two of the other obstacles: another longer, but less steep staircase with a longer platform in the middle and a short tunnel. We repeated the tunnel today and what had taken her a moment the last time (“Do I really want to go in there?”) was easy today!
Wait outside by herself
I picked up breakfast while Chai waited patiently leashed up outside on a busy street corner, and then again in front of a busy pet store where I got another leash and a bottle of Nature’s Miracle.
Left: fancy neighborhoods sell fancy chapulines (grasshoppers) for fancy prices! Right: Chai waiting outside the store.
Loose leash walking (manners context)
Now that Chai had gotten in her morning fun, I used the walk home for LLW practice. We were walking familiar streets, but without acclimating. Street 1 was easier than street 3 aka the third arrow from the top (street 3 has barky dogs Chai gets excited by). In the image below, you can see that Chai does really well when we first start the manners context (switch from harness aka sleddog context to collar; green arrow): several reps of 20 steps in a familar street without acclimation (we’ve never LLWed in this street before). The second green (collar) street is more difficult because Chai knows we are getting closer to the barking dogs she finds exciting! We then start the third green street with high-rate-of-reinforcement collar walking just to practice staying behind the invisible line while excited and, after about 30 meters, switch back to sleddog context for the most difficult stretch of the walk (harness; final blue arrow).
More fun at yet another park … including a dog park
We did 2-ball fetch reps and recall games at and played with a small dog and a Chai-sized dog in the dog park in the afternoon.
In the video below, you’ll see a few things:
+ Dog parks. Yes, professional dog trainers like to call them the source of all evils. Are they though? Not necessarily. It depends on your dog, your observation skills and the local dog culture. I only go into dog parks when they are eather empty or there is a small number of appropriate play partners for my dog inside. How can I tell? I observe from the outside. With Chai, I’ll mostly only go in if she asks to and the dogs inside seem appropriate.
+ I use the opportunity for a recall test: Chai is moving away from me and I call her. Will she come? She does! Yay! Treat and send off to play more! When you can – always send your dog back to the distraction you called them away from! I use my informal recall here because my formal one isn’t yet ready for use in the wild. With the informal one, I don’t mind if my success rate drops. This one is not the actual recall I will eventually use anyways.
+ I praise (the first one) and mark/treat all other voluntary check-ins in the clip below. While I do not want to call more than once in a single play session (I don’t want to nag my dog – recalls only get used when I need them), I make sure my dog knows I appreciate their decisions to check in with me! That’s how you shape a dog to keep an eye on you and not lose you.
More distraction recalls!
We took our level 1 (long line) distraction recalls to location #2!
Pizza!
Zane and I met for Pizza and apartmental strategizing at the corner of my favorite park in the next neighborhood over, and Chai stayed on her mat at my feet for about 20 minutes. Then she got to greet another dog who, unlike her, was off leash and went to sit down at their people’s table next to us. Chai gave a single frustration bark because she couldn’t go over and I aborted the session and put her in the car for the rest of dinner.
Being a good puppy under the pizza table … for 20 minutes anyways!
Further notes
In other good news: the looking out the window/thinking about barking behavior seems to have disappeared as fast as it appeared!
Saturday, June 24, 2023 (day 79)
Activity level: low (less than I do with a Border Collie on a typical day)
It would have been fun to take Chai to Pride … but I wouldn’t have been able to stay as long as I did, and in the end, a calm day will have served her better than the Pride experience would have. She can always dress up some other day!
All we did today, training and outing-wise, was take our level 1 distraction recall (Chai on a long line) to our third (most difficult) location: the park!
The rest of the day was a quiet one for the dogs while I met my friends. Here’s two of the many pride dogs I saw and our little crew taking a pizza break:
Sunday, June 25, 2023 (day 80)
Activity level: average
Chai started the day with our usual weekend morning walk around the block with Game.
Barrier recalls inside
Before I started work, Zane helped me with recall level 2 indoors: he was my human barrier (the helper who’d pick up the distraction if Chai did not respond). She nailed all 3 distractions on her first attempt!
Husbandry
Brushing
Stay home alone
… for about 45 minutes while Game and I went on a bike ride.
Busy-street walk, mercado and indoors mall
Once a week, I head to a pet friendly indoors mall to practice being in large, busy indoors spaces. On the way there, I used magic hands on a broken wild bird egg with a partially developed chick inside. When I picked up the egg and held it on my flat hand, Chai was ready to curiously sniff it. Magic hands for the win! The construction site we had encountered (and felt unsure about) last week was already gone. The bucket spilling over with poop bags still sat in its old spot. Chai sniffed it briefly while walking past unimpressed – a very different response from last week:
Overall, today I realized that the Week Of Insecurities seems to be over: no more window barking and less fear-inspiring objects for little Border Collies! Woohooo!
We haven’t walked to the mall on a Sunday before – so I hadn’t known that Sunday was also street market day in the area! Chai got to walk through a brief stretch of a new-to-both-of-us market. She did, of course, love the food section! On the way back from the mall, she experimented with lying down for treats while I waited for my pambazo (wheat bread sandwich fried in guajillo pepper sauce with a filling of your choice). When I wait for something or stand still somewhere for a while, I step on a relatively short leash. Dogs who stand, sit, pull or use their leash radius for walking are being ignored. Dogs who lie down receive a slow drip of low-value, low-rate of reinforcement. Chai is great at this at ATMs already. Surrounded by meat smells, it was more difficult – but she worked hard on figuring it out!
It was hard, but Chai managed to lie down while I waited for my pambazo!
For the first part of our walk towards the mall on Chai’s harness2, I reinforced check-ins in addition to circling when Chai pulled. It was the kind of day and environment where I reinforced every third check-in and reset (started counting check-ins with one) anytime I did a circle. Pretty good! The last stretch of the walk there, I only did the occasional (rare) circle. Inside the mall, we only circled 2 or 3 times!
Anytime we are at this mall, we ride the glass elevator up and down. Chai now confidently walks into the elevator as soon as it arrives and does not try and get out when the doors close. On the ride up, she even remained standing rather than lying down (ducking) like she has done in the past! On the ride down, she laid down but seemed otherwise confident.
Left: “Bring it on, elevator!” Right: being a good girl lying down at the ATM (cue: my foot on her leash).
Last week, this mall inspired me to carry Chai up and down an escalator – so I did it again this time, only that today, we went first down and then up again. This is subjective and may not be factual, but Chai felt more relaxed in my arms than last week (her first escalator ride).
Once outside, we walked parts of the busy street in manners context (green) and Chai took a break waiting outside a store (the X on the map):
Human-barrier recalls on the roof
After a nice sleepy break, we practiced our level-2 recalls with Zane’s help up on the roof. The two easier distractions were an immediate success. As for the third one … click the link above to find out!
Fresa Parque for 2-balls with eye contact and loose leash walking
After a lazy afternoon the dogs partially spent home alone, Chai and I went to Fresa Parque for our late-afternoon/evening outing to work on adding duration eye contact (for a count of 3) to our 2-ball game. I had Chai on her harness walking there. She was being a superstar; we only needed the occasional circle and no food reinforcers. She even stopped at a curb on my “wait” cue on a loose leash and then very clearly understood “okay” as my release to carry on! At the next curb, she offered stopping herself and looked back at me.
Once at the park, we saw that it was Canfest: lots of little booths with dog stuff for sale, a small adoption booth, music and a few random booths selling things unrelated to dogs. Chai did a great job walking through the corridor of dog-related booths off leash and playing a short round of 2-balls. I made sure to keep it to 5 or 6 throws in order for Chai to stay focused despite all the distractions. She then met Jakob, a Border Collie, and promptly stole his ball to proudly deliver to me and exchange for a scatter – twice. She has become a crafty ladrona!
We also ran into several little electrical cars kids can drive around Fresa Parque and Chai didn’t even give them a second look: “Whaaatever. Seen these, dismissed these, got the t-shirt collar!”
On the way back, I stopped at one booth to ask for a business card and take a picture of a skull bandana I was interested in getting for Chai3 – but I hadn’t brought money so wanted to know where they were located. As I was doing so, my crafty sidekick discovered a bowl full of kibble at the next stand over and managed to wolf down most of it before I realized what she was up to. Here’s to hoping it agrees with her stomach! She has been doing fine with my chicken reinforcers so far – but that bowl was a BIG dinner of unknown ingredients!
The skull bandana I was thinking of getting for Chai.
We manners-context walked back home from the park4, only needing to increase the rate of reinforcement when passing bread that had been put out for birds and two dogs. She was being a superstar! With a high rate of reinforcement (every 1 to 2 steps), she is already able to recognize, dismiss and casually pass strange dogs and tempting food on the ground!
Chai’s evening was spent taking turns sleeping on the bed, wrestling with Game and getting pets from Zane.
Yes, I know. Would I have thought of rainbowy dog outfits if I didn’t consider Chai to be my dog already? Probably not. ↩︎
See this post for a brief explanation about my leash walking contexts (harness and collar). ↩︎
Who am I kidding! Let’s make it official already. This is my dog! I wouldn’t have bought a new leash the other day, tried getting Chai a pride outfit and want to spend money on fancy bandanas if she wasn’t. She is mine alright (and I seem to have turned into someone who likes dressing up their Border Collie). I can tell Chai is a dog I’ll have an extraordinary relationship with because she feels like an extraordinarily good fit for the human I am. She’s quite different from the other two Border Collies, Hadley and Mick, I’ve had in my life. And while she is nothing like Grit, I suspect we may end up having a relationship of similar depth. How lucky am I to potentially get not one, but two “once in a lifetime” dogs! ↩︎
For more leash walking context and to teach your own dog, check out the leash walking lectures from Out and About in your FDSA library or look here for my December class and a micro e-book on LLW. The December class is probably going to entirely focus on loose leash walking and different R+ ways of getting there. ↩︎
