Category: Puppies

Chaiary – week 12 digest (June 19-25, 2023)

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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.

  1. Yes, I know. Would I have thought of rainbowy dog outfits if I didn’t consider Chai to be my dog already? Probably not. ↩︎
  2. See this post for a brief explanation about my leash walking contexts (harness and collar). ↩︎
  3. 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! ↩︎
  4. 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. ↩︎

Chai’s distraction recall training – round #1.1 (of many!) Today: level 1 in an easy environment!

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Since the person writing this post is future C, I can tell you: this is the start of a very long strategy game between puppy Chai and me!

In this first round of distraction recalls, I planned on using my distraction protocol (the way I teach it in Calling All Dogs1 at FDSA). We’d work our way through it – should be a breeze! – and move on to more interesting training projects! (Future C laughs out loud. Oh, past C! You are too cute when you underestimate The Border Collie!)

3 distractions:

  1. Empty plate (easy)
  2. Crumpled-up bag that used to have food in it (intermediate)
  3. Kibble (difficult)

3 locations:

  1. Living room (easy)
  2. Roof (intermediate)
  3. Park (difficult)

3 levels of distraction protection:

  1. Long line
  2. Off leash, distraction behind barrier (helpers and fences)
  3. Off leash, no distraction

I have a distraction training tracker I ask my students to fill in because I know how easy it is to accidentally skip steps. I filled it in for Chai as well. This is what it looked like. The mistake I made was that I didn’t print it … so I soon stopped looking at it and eventually went rogue. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves! Like the good protocol-following dog trainer I am, I started with my empty plate in my living room and with my puppy on her long line:

June 22, 2023

After successful completion of the easy distraction, we moved on to intermediate:

Seeing how well this had gone, we took a break and then upped the ante: our most difficult distraction in location #1 on a long line!

What a superstar! We got to check off the first three boxes on the distraction tracker! (Or we would get to check them off, physically, if we had printed the tracker. Since I don’t own a printer, printing stuff involves exporting my Google doc to a PDF, transferring the PDF to a USB stick, walking to a print shop that may or may not be open … You get the picture. It’s easy to start out with good intentions and not follow through when printing is more than just clicking a button!) But hey – I shouldn’t be making excuses for myself. Truth be told, I thought I had taught and used this protocol SO many times that I knew it by heart anyways. Who needs a print-out! Not past C! (Future C cracks up. Oh, dear past C! You’re in for a surprise!)

  1. Which happens to be running this term in case you want to hop in! I’m giving away a free Bronze spot on Facebook – go grab it! ↩︎

Day 66 & 67 – June 11-12, 2023: calm days, dog friends, leash walking, toy play, trick training, marker cues …

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June 11, 2023: introducing the concept of weekly calm days

Activity level: low

Calm days

We had a physically calm day today. I have decided to keep Chai – and that means I’ll want a bit more structure in our weeks. Once a week, I’ll go for a below-average calm day. This is important because I live by myself and sometimes I get sick or busy and can’t provide the usual amount of entertainment or enrichment. My puppies learn from the very beginning that some days are calmer than others.

I haven’t always done that, so I’ve learned the hard way that we create expectations in our dogs’ first year of life or so. If every single day is filled with action, this is what your future athlete is going to expect as an adult as well. If you normalize downtime from the beginning, they will have a much easier time just chilling on the couch every now and then.

I’ll track calm, active and average days under “activity level” right under the respective date.

Morning walk and a tiny little bit of off-leash time!

Chai went on a morning walk with Game – and I briefly let her off leash in a very quiet area!

Toy play

We worked on tug on the roof, but Chai’ wasn’t as good at returning the toy as she has been in the last few days’s toy return behavior seemed to backslide. It may already have been too warm when we played this morning (it’s only shady up there in the late afternoon and very early in the morning).

The Game of Chai

Chai and Game spent a lot of time wrestling and playing on the bed. It is hot out – perfect for an indoors day! – but if you’re not an only dog, all that need to move has to go somewhere! That’s what big sisters are for!

Home alone

I took Game to the Paseo Dominical Muévete en Bici for the first time. That’s Mexico City’s Sunday street closure where a number of large streets are closed to motorized vehicles and taken over by cyclists, inline skaters, skateboarders, runners … It’s fun because you don’t need to worry about cars, and you can go quite far:

Random Mexico City fact

In addition to the Paseo Dominical, Mexico City happens to be a very bikeable city in general. In 2022, there were over 200 km of bike lanes (a lot of which are protected bike lanes wide enough for a human and a dog).

Green: bike lanes in Mexico City in 2022.

The goal is to have 400 km by 2024 (source). (I did not google extensively so I don’t know how likely it seems that Mexico City will be meeting this goal. But it’s a great one!)

Anyways, so while Game and I went on a bike ride, Chai stayed home by herself.

Later on, she stayed home with Zane while Game and I went on an evening walk – another important skill: I don’t want her to only be able to stay home alone-alone, but also with friends in my house!

Leash walking – manners mode (collar)

Afterwards, we practiced count-to-15 LLW1 in our street and Chai waited in front of a corner convenience store by herself. Staying next to me behind the invisible line was hard for Chai today – so we went back to feeding after 1 and then after 5 steps before building back up to 15. This is a good reminder to always train the dog in front of you today (who may not be the same dog you had in front of you yesterday or are going to have in front of you tomorrow!)

Husbandry

+ “Claws!” (clip back dew claws).
+ “Brush!”

Positions

We rounded out the day with a brief round of positions (sit/down/stand) practice with Chai’s remaining dinner!

Calm day of the week – check!

June 12, 2023: fun with toys, friends and training

Activity level: average

Toy play

Today, we went to tug on the roof first thing in the morning, right after getting up: no running, playing with Game or walking and no hot and sunny roof (yet)! From there, we went right back to the apartment and tried some more tugging on the bed. Video evidence here!

Morning walk with Game

Both dogs went on a morning walk – nothing exciting; just two good girls and their human vagando through the neighborhood(s).

Home alone – free in the apartment for the first time!

Chai got another chance to stay home alone by herself while Game and I went to pick up laundry. A little later, I left her home and free in the apartment (rather than in her indestructable luxury kennel, the bathroom) when Game and I went to the bakery, and then again at night – totally free in the apartment – during Game’s solo evening walk.

Today was the first time I gave Chai unsupervised apartment freedom. For now, she is doing well and not getting into stuff. I’ll keep an eye on her of course – she’s still a young dog, and if/when she starts getting up to mischief in my absence, she’ll go back into her luxury kennel when home alone.

Dog friends

We spent 45 minutes with Alan and Kiba at the park. Chai practiced a recall away from Kiba and then our pups got to play and socialize.

Friends.

We also practiced “Paws up!” on a bench. Chai showed me that she wasn’t ready to start right with the cue and you see me chute back down and build up again. You may have to watch this video more than once to catch all the marker cues – I’m too far from the camera for decent audio – but it’s an excellent example of how different marker cues can be used to build duration and setting the dog up for the next rep.

“All done” is my “end of session” announcement.

Leash walking

We practiced going from 5 to 10 to 15 steps of LLW on Chai’s collar out in the street.(1)

(1) Once again, the usual spiel in a footnote: for more leash walking context, 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.

Chaiary: the Kiba recall challenge!

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Chai has a good recall away from dogs, even out of full-on play. Only Kiba is different: Kiba is Chai’s best friend. She is only a month older and they have the same play style.

Chai is able to recall … But only once they have played and Chai has satiated on Kiba. When she first sees her and hasn’t yet had an opportunity to play, she cannot currently respond when I call.

I love a good challenge, so I’m going to work up to recalls away from Kiba before Chai has had a chance to say hi!

June 12, 2023

Here, I’m trying an informal recall on leash: I will use the leash to stop Chai if she doesn’t respond. I will wait her out if she doesn’t respond and then “okay” release and drop the leash. Only once I get her to recall on “Pup-pup-pup” alone do I want to try and use her formal recall cue. That’s the plan for now anyways!

There were a two or three more recalls between June 12 and July 22 that I didn’t record and didn’t take notes on … And sadly, all I remember is that I did not get Chai to respond on Pup-pup-pup on the pink long line. Picking back up with a video on July 22:

July 22, 2023

Today, I decided to try a shaping approach: I would simply wait Chai out, release with “Okay!” and drop the leash as soon as she reoriented, weight-shifted or moved an ear back towards me. Well – I did, and Chai said, “Now what?”

Next time, I’ll either run up to Kiba together with Chai or call her when she checks in rather than releasing her right away: check in – recall – tongue click – chicken – “Okay!”

I don’t want to introduce that “Now what?” confusion into our recall!

Is one of the above options better or worse than the other one? No, they are simply different. Go with your gut if working on a similar challenge with your own dog!

July 24, 2023

I botched today’s training plan even though I went over it in my head before getting to the park: Alan and Kiba were late, so Chai and I worked on positions and personal play first. When our friends suddenly came around around the corner, I barely had time to hit record on my phone … And I ended up repeating yesterday’s session rather than doing what I actually wanted to do, which was call Chai when she reoriented. Anyways, here’s the video! Looking a bit better than yesterday, so we’ll take it as a win either way! And next time, I will call her!

My challenge: I only get a single recall to practice this because once the two Border Collies have had a chance to greet each other, I can call Chai without problems. The challenge is before they’ve said hi to each other! We’ll try again Wednesday.

July 26, 2023

I stuck to the training plan today, called “Schnee” as soon as Chai reoriented, got THE most enthusiastic response and ran back to Kiba together with her. I had planned on using my informal recall cue but the formal one came out of my mouth instead. It worked though – so all good!

Finally, things went (almost) according to plan … and I did not record it. Sad face. I’ll repeat the same step another time to get a video.

Today’s single salvageable picture of a great session isn’t very helpful!

August 3, 2023

Off leash Kiba and off leash Chai met at the park today. We hadn’t planned for it, but I felt optimistic, had chicken ready because we had just practice a food distraction recall, and just went with it! I used my formal recall cue (“Schnee!”) since it had worked so well the last time and Chai spun right around from running up to greet her friend, came back for her handful of chicken and then enjoyed a good play session. WE DID IT! I’ll repeat the exercise to get video proof. But oh-SO-proud of my girl!

Some pics from after the recall and after they played – by now, I had had time to get out my phone! Happy pups!

August 23, 2023 (the date in the video thumbnail is wrong)

FINALLY, I got my formal recall away from Kiba on video! Chai saw Kiba – checked in with me – looked at Kiba again – recalled on “Schnee” and got a piece of liver before being “okay”-released to play with her friend! SO proud of my puppy! (And SO grateful for these two friends – this human and his dog – and the fact that I can count on them unconditionally and for much more than just training dogs. Thank you, Alan.)

September 8, 2023: using the opportunity for another formal off-leash recall before saying hi to Kiba

I used today’s play-and-training-and-catching-up meet up for another recall away from Kiba before the dogs had a chance to say hi. I reinforced with liver and okay-released Chai to play.

You’ll see in this clip that recalling away from Kiba has become easy for Chai: as she’s growing up, she’s getting less playful which makes Kiba less of a difficult distraction than she used to be. Good girl, Chai. Sooner or later, I’ll have to stop calling you a puppy!

This video concludes the Kiba recall series! Recalling away from her bestie has turned into a walk in the – literal – park for Chai!

Days 63 & 64 – June 8 & 9, 2023

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June 8, 2023: toy play, dog/dog play, loose leash walking, home alone and night walks

+ We played tug on the roof for Shade’s class.

+ We worked up to 3 steps between treats behind the invisible line (loose leash walking, LLW)1 #in the corridor of our apartment building. Go Chai!

+ We met our new friends Alan and his Border Collie Kiba, who is just a month older than Chai, at the park and the dogs played beautifully.

+ After having played for a bit, Chai was ready for another round of invisible-line loose leash walking outside! (Because my inside space is limited, it is easier for Chai and me to work on loose leash walking right outside in calm parts of “the real world” – especially since I have chosen not to stop while feeding.) If I worked inside or on the roof, there would be a lot of turns in addition to an increasing number of steps – and for Chai, that’s harder than beginning with a straight line. The park allows for straight lines with a single turn. What’s more, Chai was able to “Ilo it”2 and go right from 5 steps inside to 6 steps between treats outside! If your own dog needs you to back up a little and, say, start over with 3 steps when you change locations, that is perfectly fine as well.

Sidenote for professional dog trainers: the training approach funnel

This brings me to an important point for anyone who works with dogs and their humans professionally. There really is no one-size-fits-all solution. Tailer your approach to the human and the dog in front of you: where and how do they live? What training spaces are available to them? Who is their dog, who is the person and what are their temporal and financial resources? What is their best hope (thank you for teaching me about this concept and phrase, Chris!) for loose leash walking? What kind of training approaches do they feel most comfortable with? It may be one you actively teach or one you may want to refer to a colleague for. Vary your approach depending on all these factors! Some LLW approaches require more time than others. Some require a highly food motivated dog. Some require a patient owner, others are faster and no less valid. Some humans want to work on LLW in a specific way because of their own ethics. Others want to learn about a new LLW method or in order to become better trainers. Others yet may need the behavior for safety reasons: a tiny person who doesn’t feel like they are stable on their feet (maybe they are elderly, maybe they use crutches …) with a large, strong dog with the propensity to lunge and pull into traffic may need a fast solution! All of the above are perfectly fine.

Factors that go into your decision funnel as you pick an approach for the human and dog in front of you and the order I personally consider them in:

(Funnel image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images on Pixabay – thank you!)

… but back to Chai’s park adventures!

+ After the second LLW session, I tethered Chai to a park bench to help her relax while park-officing some more.

Home alone

Both dogs stayed home alone for 3 hours while Zane and I unsuccessfully tried to get haircuts and successfully ate at one of my favorite little places in Narvarte and then walked all the way back home.

Off-leash night walk

Both Chai and Game went on a brief off-leash walk around 2 am. The streets are almost empty at this time, which makes it perfect for introducing off-leash street freedom to Chai. (Only once I have worked through my recall protocol will I also let her off during the day.) She did great at night, and it doesn’t feel unsafe because there is hardly any traffic during the week after midnight.

June 9, 2023:

3 Solo adventures

Running errands

In the morning, Chai and I walked errands and Chai waited all by herself out of sight outside 3 different places. Go puppy!

Waiting outside a store (and blocking half the entrance – oops!)

The mall

In the afternoon, we walked to the dog friendly mall. Chai was perfectly confident walking among a crowd of people and dogs:


My subtitles in the video above mention that I don’t reinforce auto check-ins because I want Chai to “take in the environment.” What I mean by this is that (1) I don’t want her to focus on me nonstop, and (2) I don’t want food to mask her true feelings about the mall. Here’s why:

1. Insecure dogs who trust their handler may focus on them in order to not have to deal with the environment. If your dog’s eyes are glued to you, they do not learn to feel comfortable in the environment you’re exposing them to because they may be tuning it out. An analogy: think of a toddler who turns their head away from a stranger. They may feel safer because it is as if the stranger – or the toddler themselves – were not there at all.

2. Food-driven dogs will eat and may even look happy (due to the food) in environments that, without the food overriding the fear, might feel overwhelming. Just like some dogs focus on you, others focus on their treats. You may be able to walk a dog like this through a big environment like the mall above and not notice that they are actually afraid: eating and thinking about how to earn the next treat can cause them not to sense the environment. (Imagine you are on your smart phone and walk right into a lamp post: the post was there all along, but you simply didn’t see it because you were distracted.)

The glass elevator

Chai was slightly insecure and very brave, riding the glass elevator a few times (it’s more difficult alone than with Game!)

At the mall, Chai also practiced her down and chill on my “foot on the leash” cue while I got money out of an ATM.

She also had another mall-based new experience: we passed a screaming baby up close! I don’t think Chai has heard a baby cry before. She looked slightly bewildered but did perfectly well passing the new stimulus! Go puppy!

Toy play

We tugged on the roof for Shade’s toys class in the morning and a second time in the afternoon (trying to get her to bring the toy back!) In the evening, we gave it yet another try. It’s been challenging to convince Chai to bring me the toy!

Husbandry

+ Announcing “Clippers”: I cut Chai’s back paw fur.
+ “Brush!”

Home alone

Chai stayed home alone by herself during Game’s noon and afternoon loops around the block.

Night walks

I went on another another 2am walk with both dogs off leash. Chai is doing great – we’ll stick to this new routine for a few weeks!

(1) For more leash walking context, 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.

(2) Ilo is an amazing student dog. Her and her human will occasionally be able to simply jump ahead a few steps in a training protocol without skipping a beat! That’s where the phrase “Iloing it” (which all of us should be using all the time) comes from. Shout out to Sylvia and Ilo if you’re reading along!

Days 56 & 57 – June 1-2, 2023: play, friends, foundation training and The Mall!

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Back to Chai’s diary!

Day 56 – June 1, 2023: toy play, social play and more time with our housemate-for-the-month

+ Marker cues for the win! I marker-cued (“Treats,” my scatter cue) Chai out of playing with a smaller puppy twice at the park today! I love how she is able to switch her attention between stimuli!

+ We took a tugging baseline video for Shade Whitesel‘s toy class that starts today. Check out Chai’s toy play diary for our baseline!

+ We worked on giving in to collar pressure for the first time (I haven’t put a collar on Chai at all so far, but will be working through the “invisible line” method for loose leash walking along with my Out and About students this term.) We had two sessions, and by the second one, she responded every time before I brought out a treat lure. That’s our cue to take things to a new environment! (Videos in the LLW leash pressure foundations post.)

Someone’s tired from all her leash pressure work! (Watch out, Chai! Is that a shark behind you?)

+ We social-played and practiced recalls at the park.

+ Chai spent some more time getting to know and snuggle-play with Zane.

+ Game realized she can stand on the window sill! I am going to have to tether her when I leave – I don’t want her to jump out one day. I trust her sense of balance but not her sense of self preservation. We’re on the 2nd floor and it’s JUST high enough that she might think she can make it and break a bunch of bones.

Nothing to see here! Just a Mal on a window sill!

+ Both dogs did a lovely job waiting for me outside the Santa Clara store while I got ice cream to go for dessert (or dinner. I can’t remember, but I think I shared with my friend rather than finishing it all myself! In any case, let’s pretend that’s what happened!)

Game is practicing her sit/stay; Chai is tethered.

In everybody pees news

When I was home and had the bathroom door open, Chai peed once in the shower and once in the living room. The bathroom-or-outdoors habit isn’t as strong as I’d like it to be yet … but we haven’t been here very long either.

Day 57, 2023 – June 2, 2023: Chai’s first mall adventure!

+ Chai went on a morning and evening walk together with Game and didn’t even need her big sister as a role-model to pee outside at night (all other pees happened in the shower today).

+ We worked on hand touches and leash pressure.

+ We played informally with toys on the couch.

All the toys!

Chai’s first time at an indoors mall

We went to a dog-friendly indoors mall where my adventure dogs walked among people and rode the glass elevator three times (Chai confidently rode the elevator with Game – her bad elevator feelings from the Coyoacán elevator have not generalized!) and joined me at the bank. Cha has not been to a mall before and was being a superstar! She is on the retractable leash (a long line would work just as well) to give her as much of a “freely exploring” experience as possible without getting kicked out by taking off the leash.

While leash walking is important, feeling confident and being able to show exploratory behavior in new kinds of spaces (large, busy, indoors) is even more important to me. It also gives me a better idea of who Chai is than a shorter leash would because it allows for more agency: does she need me as a crutch and can’t take her eyes off of me in order to not have to look at all the stimuli around us? Does she forget about my existance altogether and just try and go off on her own?

As you can see in this video, it’s neither one nor the other but the golden middle: Chai explored ahead of Game and me but checked in regularly before reaching the end of the line and waited for us to catch up in the end of this clip.

Left: beauty in strange places. Right: stopping for a snack on the way to the mall.

Chaiary: foundation behaviors for the invisible-line approach to loose leash walking – hand touch

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I need the hand touch as a foundation skill to later use to get Chai back into position (behind the invisible line)1 when she forges!

June 2, 2023 (day 57) – getting started on hand touches!

With a treat in the target hand …

… and then we fade the treat!

June 4, 2023 (day 59): no more luring and a cue!

Presenting an empty hand right away

Adding a verbal cue

Over the next few days, I’ll ask for the hand touch in low distraction outdoors environments … And if things look as good as they do indoors, we’re ready for the next step in our invisible line leash walking journey! (Aka explaining to Chai where the invisible line is located!)

(1) As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, if you’ve taken the class Out and About I used to teach at FDSA, you’ll know what I’m talking about in terms of the “invisible line.” If you’ve taken Out and About but not worked on leash walking, you can look up the broader context of this approach in the leash walking lectures in your FDSA library!

If you have NOT taken Out and About and want to know what the heck an invisible line is, you can find a micro e-book about this and other LLW approaches as well as info about the future home of “Out and About 2.0” here.

Chaiary: foundation behaviors for the invisible-line approach to loose leash walking – giving in to leash pressure

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Giving in to leash pressure is a loose leash walking foundation skill that will cue Chai to reorient when reaching the end of her leash and keep her from pulling sideways once we are working on collar mode.1

June 1, 2023 (day 56) – Chai’s first two leash pressure sessions on a collar!

I haven’t put a collar on Chai before her first session today – she doesn’t even have a collar of her own yet, so the one you’ll see in this video is a bit big. It’s one of Game’s collars that I rarely use. I’ve only walked Chai on a harness so far. Note: it is MUCH easier to teach leash skills to a dog who doesn’t have a history of pulling yet. If your dog does, it is completely normal for them to take longer than Chai. It is easiest to teach leash walking to a puppy.

Collar leash pressure session 1:

Session 2:

In her second collar leash pressure session, Chai gives in every time before I bring out the treat – that’s our cue to take things into a new environment in the next session after!

June 2, 2023 (day 57) – leash pressure in a new environment

We repeated the leash pressure behavior up on our roof – a low-distraction outdoors environment (no video). Chai did just as well as she had done inside. Leash pressure on a collar: check! We’ll be moving on to the next foundation behavior for our invisible line LLW behavior: the hand touch!

(1) In this post, I am specifically referring to the invisible line approach to loose leash walking. If you’ve taken the class Out and About I used to teach at FDSA, you’ll know what I’m talking about in terms of the “invisible line.” If you’ve taken Out and About but not worked on leash walking, you can look up the broader context of this approach in the leash walking lectures in your FDSA library!

If you have NOT taken Out and About and want to know what the heck I am talking about, you can get a micro e-book on my loose leash walking approaches here. It comes with all the training steps, larger concepts that are not a part of this blog post (WHY do we need these baseline behaviors in the first place and WTF is an invisible line?), more unlisted example videos and other fun training materials.

Taking Shade’s Toy Class with Chai – part 1

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This is the first of several special-topics posts I am going to link to in future Chaiary posts rather than inserting all video links directly into Chai’s diary!

Shade Whitesel runs a fantastic toy play class over at Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. I’ve taken it twice at Gold now simply because it’s SO good and highly motivating for me, too.

If you need help with toy play or know how to teach toy play but are looking for fun, community and accountability, hop into that class! Here’s a link where you should be able to find whenever it runs next (as well as Shade’s other classes – 10/10 would recommend anything she teaches!)

So this post is about Chai’s tug toy journey with Shade. We took the class in June 2023 so I’d keep up my own motivation and have accountability.

Since Chai already knows fetch games, I decided to focus on tugging – something I haven’t done with her at all. I’ll share all of my class videos, but if you want to know more details about how they came to be, what lecture they are based on or why Shade recommended what, you’ll have to check out the class yourself!

How to make sense of this post:

When there is text to go with my videos, it’s part of my class posts from June and partly thoughts I’m adding now. I sometimes copy/pasted my class posts into my video description which I can now (now being September 11, several months after the class) go back to and copy/paste into this blog post! When I ask questions or use the word “you”1 in the text that goes with a particular video, I’m addressing Shade. When I use the name “Shade,” I either added this thought today or changed the “you” from the original post to “Shade” because the name sounded better to me in a particular sentence or context.

June 1, 2023: tug baseline

Note: I have never played tug with Chai before (it didn’t seem a priority behavior for a foster dog who might go to a companion home). In this video, I’m just seeing what she thinks about various tug toy options, most of which are new to her.

I’ll have to bring down my own arousal for her next time! I can tell that Chai is not used to my Malinois toy play state of mind! It is fun how different she is from Phoebe, Grit and Game who all latched on to anything they were presented with and didn’t let go from the start!

June 3, 2023: a flirt pole and a fleece tug for Chai!

I am writing this post 3 months after the fact, so I hope to get things right – I believe this was my second class video. I made a flirt pole to engage Chai with a fleece tug. Unfortunately, Game’s mat was harmed in the making of this fleece tug: I braided two identical onces and cut up Game’s fleece mat for it.

In any case, we’re getting some lovely chasing and tentative tugging on this toy! It’s soft (perfect for teething puppies), it runs away, and the distance between me and the fleece tug that is created by the flirt pole (a broom stick and a strong – I usually make my own flirt poles) reduces pressure from my side. I’m happy with this first flirt pole session!

June 5, 2023: playing with the fleece tug on my bed and with the flirt pole on the roof

Clips from 2 short sessions. My Observations:

+ Chai will occasionally target my hands rather than the toy (that only happened when playing on the bed).
+ It is very easy to (accidentally) pull the toy out of her mouth. Is that okay because it will teach her to clamp down more should I be more careful so it doesn’t happen?

I have my own answers to questions like this last one, but enjoy very much following an experienced trainer’s advice. I do not remember Shade’s response but I’m pretty sure what I ended up doing is starting gently so Chai is unlikely to constantly loose the toy, but making it run away immediately and harder to catch anytime she did let go or I accidentally pulled it out of her mouth: critters don’t sit around waiting to be eaten by predators but will use any opportunity to escape!

June 6, 2023: Chai’s second time playing with the flirt pole and tugging on the roof!

I aimed for gentle, steady pulling (not jerky). What should I do when I have let her win and she’s shaking it dead, like at 00:12-00:18 in the video below? I kept the flirt pole string loose and just admired her strength this time.

At 00:20 she was holding it and lying down on it, so I got the second identical fleece tug out to get her off the one on the flirt pole without conflict. Then I reactivated the flirt pole.

At 00:34/35 I was about to let her win after steady pressure for 2 seconds, and right then I accidentally pulled it out of her mouth again. Ooops! Sorry, Chai!

01:28 in the very end: “Treats” is my scatter cue and how I end the session and get the toys back.

June 7, 2023: playing with the fleece tugs on the bed (my non-slip indoors surface) for the second time

A compilation of this morning’s best bed tug moments. It’s fun to work with someone so different from the Mals and GSDs I’ve mostly played with over the last few years! (I’ve also played with a ferociously tugging Border Collie, Mick, whose personality is quite different from Chai’s, and a ferociously tugging pug!) There must have been plenty of others, but these are the ones I actively and personally worked with a lot and had the most fun with!

Even in personal play, Chai is being really gentle. I’m used to blood, bruises, torn clothes, dog-head-hooks to the chin and battle scars from social play! (I love roughhousing – it’s only partly the dogs. And yes, I exaggerate!) It is only toys and humans Chai is gentle with though. When she plays with Game or crunches down on a plastic bottle, she crushes those sharky teeth right in!

June 8, 2023: playing with fleece tugs on the roof without a flirt pole!

Chai is pulling back VERY gently (I am saying that from a crazy Phoebe-Poodle/Mal baseline) – I just make it look as if she was pulling strongly. In the second rep, she caught the tug too fast for me to get a chance to present a good striking target. Otherwise, we’re having a great time!

June 11, 2023: tug attempts on the roof as well as on the bed – a comparison

Roof play:

Our tug attempt on the roof did not go as well this morning. Chai lay down and never brought the toy back, so I ended quickly. (It’s warmer than usual and she has had play time with Game before – tomorrow morning, I’ll try roof play before any of this and play earlier in the day.)

Or did I overdo it this time and tugged too long rather than making it too easy? (Shade has suggested I make things a little more difficult for Chai.)

Indoors play:

We took a second stab at tugging in the apartment. My floor is not an ideal tugging surface because it is slippery, but I know Chai gravitates to the bed – so I wanted to see what would happen if I tugged her off the bed and then ran away back TO the bed. She brought the toy back all the way every time. It’s about the bed I suspect, not me, because the bed is the best place to chew on something … Hrmmm …

June 12, 2023: another roof tug session

This session was right after getting up with a puppy full of energy and okay temperatures (it’s been really hot during the day but mornings are okay).

In this session, Chai brought the toy part of the way back once, about two thirds into the session.

What do you think about bringing out toy #2 when I can’t convince her to bring back toy #1 (like 00:20/21)? I can’t ask her, but I get the impression that she prefers tugging with me over chewing a toy on the floor – but she has not figured out that bringing back the tug is a part of that game …

What happens most of the time is that I try to encourage her after running away, and she then comes running but forgets the toy (see 00:41-00:43). I then ask her where her toy is, and she goes back to the toy and looks at me expectantly or lies down again to chew (00:47-00:49).

The last part of the clip (00:50-00:59) is the one time in this session she brought the toy partially with her when I encouraged her to come. I can’t tell if I did something differently in this rep than in the other ones or if it was a coincidence.

We’ve also had a session on the bed, and Chai continues predictably gravitating back to it when I’m on it. I’m flashing my hands in target-them-with-the-toy position. She does not target yet but runs towards me/my hands (because I’m on the bed).

Should I keep practicing in both locations or modify something?

June 13, 2023: a blanket target on the roof!

Shade had the great idea to use a blanket as a “target” to run towards on the roof – a stand-in for the bed. It worked like a charm every single time I ran to the blanket. (It’s clearly the blanket, not me. When I tried running somewhere else, she’d still go to the blanket.)

I have a second identical blanket – should I stick to one or try with two?

June 14, 2023: our second session with a blanket target on the roof.

Shade’s input:

“In order to transfer off the mat, we need to have physical signals (hands to target and frontal body position) that happen before she sees the mat.”

My response:

Good point, that makes a lot of sense! In today’s session, I only got the head thrashing movement once. In general, she is letting me lead her more with the toy now that I’m pulling more strongly – rather than pulling back, she’ll often walk with me with her mouth on the toy. I’ve been grabbing the toy to continue tugging as soon as she reaches the mat. I wonder if that’s not the best strategy. Should I only put my hands on the toy when she lets go of it – even if I’ve flashed my target hands at her before? The reason I wonder is that in the last rep of today’s session, she lay down off the mat (right next to it) with the toy rather than coming all the way back to me and the mat. I ended there with a scatter to get Shade’s opinion before I continue.

This was part 1 of our work in Shade’s class (our first 10 videos)! Here is part 2 and here’s part 3.

(1) In this particular post, “you” never refers to “you, the reader.”

Day 51 – May 27, 2023: braving the snake head AGAIN (and then some)!

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We went back to Parque Ecológico Huayamilpas because yesterday didn’t go quite as perfectly as I had hoped – the cohetes spoiled the fun. Since I’m about to move, I wanted to use the opportunity – one of the last days I would be nearby! – to return to the park for a positive experience at the snake head once again. I am stubborn that way; Chai will end up loving all snake head people dogdammit!

Today, I brought Game along as well. The three of us hung out at the snake head for quite a while … but no one showed up. Finally, two people walked past, but Chai didn’t even notice them. Apparently, Pentecost isn’t the kind of weekend people spend at giant snake statues. Learn something new every day!

Marching bands

I finally got bored of waiting and we headed back towards the parking lot … and ran right into a marching band practicing! The first time (the first clip in this video), Chai was a little weirded out so we walked back and forth past the band several times. By the fifth time, Chai didn’t care about them anymore at all and we moved on. Brave puppy!

I mentioned in my last post that going forwards, I’d mostly share general Chaiaries in my daily reports … but this one is just too good not to share here as well! Bravery for the win! Plus I haven’t published a bravery post yet that I could link to, so there is that!

Fire crackers

We also heard a single loud cohete (fire cracker). Chai looked slightly concerned. When she isn’t sure what to make of a situation, she looks at me as well as other dogs to learn what the appropriate reaction to a situation is. And that looks she gave me today? She already looked less concerned than yesterday! Of course it rained kibble right after the cohete which will hopefully make the next one an even smaller deal!

Husbandry

+ I announced and then cut some front and back paw fur.

Night walk

Since Chai seemed a little concerned last night, I took her on a brief night walk (and outdoors pee!) with Game. NOTHING weirded her out today! Go puppy go!