Getting out of the city

We’re getting into the new habit of leaving the city every week! Below: Game and Grit at a nature park with one of my current favorite songs. The trash truck crew was blasting it full volume in the morning and it made me smile. I asked them what it was called … and I’ve been listening to it on repeat ever since!

… and below is a video I took on December 31st, 2023, for my free-roaming dogs Youtube channel:

Like Game, Chai has turned into a dog who LOVES to swim:

New skill: running on a treadmill!

She hasn’t found her gate yet (she is pacing here and ideally, she’d be trotting), but once I let her go a little longer and fade the distracting treats, she’ll naturally fall into a trot at this speed. 

My hand stays in the same place to teach her where she needs to be if she doesn’t want to fall off behind or jump off in front. The cardboard on the side helps her stay straight. She can both “fall off” in the back (she lets herself drift there when I say “All done”) and jump out in front without issues. She could also just push the cardboard on the side over. No trapping Chais on treadmills – it’s a game for her, a confidence-building skill and a good exercise for dogs who may navigate airports (moving walkways, escalators) in their future.

Back to positions …

Chai used to be quite good at this as a puppy, but juvenile brain (and lack of working on it) caused her to backslide. So we’re building back up!

… and toy play!

Chai has turned into a great tugger! The video below is not a “perfect” session – but it shows really well how much fun and how fast Chai is! Also, isn’t she beautiful in her shiny coat? Not the fluffy kind of teddy bear show coat Border Collie but lean, slim, slick and shiny! She’s perfect for me in every way.

Dog Friends

After they were both in heat, Chai and Kiba let us know: no more puppy-like play for them! They were two señoras now and ready to do Adult Border Collie Things together.

It’s both sad and nice: I personally really like worky dogs who’ll choose to work with me over dog play and have an easy time ignoring others. On the other hand, it’s been a lot of fun to meet up at parks and watch our dogs play like there was no tomorrow.

Of all the dogs I’ve raised, Phoebe was the only one who stayed playful well into her adult age. Every other one got dog neutral once they “felt” grown up and dog-selective about their friends.

This is perfect for training and competition (no competition goals for Chai at this point, but you never know), but when living in Mexico City, it also takes away one of the biggest morning motivations of getting to the parks early in the morning: the joy of watching your dog play with every dog who’ll have them before their humans head into work!

Keeping up home-alone time

I’ve been following my own recommendations in terms of Chai’s home-alone time: she has stayed home alone without Game for 5-15 minutes almost every day, and home alone mostly with, but sometimes without Game for 1-5 hours about once a week.

It’s not the 1-year mark, but the fact that she is behaving like an adult dog that lets me know that going forwards, it’s okay to just let the home-alone times fluctuate naturally rather than ensuring she practices them almost daily.

I recommend that an adult dog stay home alone for 1-5 hours at least once every month indefinitely. This is easy for me to do because I live alone, but I recommend this for every dog, even if there are multiple household dogs and multiple human family members. Some dogs unlearn staying home alone in adulthood because they never have to. And there will be a day when you have to leave them home alone – there always is. Practice regularly and you’ll be prepared.

Chai completely outgrew her sensitive stomach!

I’m so happy that Chai, by now, can eat big quantities of almost anything and won’t get sick. Whatever caused her stomach to be sensitive as a puppy is gone. Yay for all the scavenging and creative reinforcing that lies ahead! We don’t even have to confine ourselves to tiny amounts anymore!

---

I did it: a year of Chaiaries!

I posted myself through a year of Chaiaries! The birthday I invented for Chai is December 19, 2022. So with this post, I’ll allow myself to stop posting as much as I used to. I’ve got some serious editing fatigue by now.

Now that Chai is a year old, I’ll probably only post and comment every now and then in bouts, like I do with Game, when I want to share how we progress through a particular skill. I still want to turn my “year of Chai” into a puppy raising video – documenting as much as I did was part of my motivation system to help me generate the video material I’d need. That said, who knows when I’ll get around to that. No rush!

Also, no worries – your regular dose of Chai isn’t going anywhere quite yet: there’s still some tricks posts to come!