Tag: puppy socialization

Week 5 (April 22-28, 2024)

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4 weeks, 1 day (April 22)

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.

We heard a dog howling and the “Se compra …” siren song in our street.

Crate training: 5 minutes (again)

Purple

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.

Rebelde litter: week 2 (April 1-7, 2024)

1 week, 1 day (April 1)

Today was the first day of classes at FDSA, so I didn’t schedule anything out of the ordinary. Tomorrow, my day off, is when our weekly socialization spree begins: I just made a meet-a-new-dog date with Daniel and Dina for tomorrow morning, and a (dogless) friend will be coming over for lunch and puppy handling!

Today, we’ll keep it simple: at-home handling, holding and being snuffled by Chai is all that’s on our to-do list. I filmed today’s Chai snuffle session. She thinks the puppies are curious! Anytime she comes back home from outside, she needs to go check on them by looking over the barrier – but better not get too, too close. She got closer yesterday, but held back a little today. Chai shows you what our dog socialization looks like at this point: it’s really brief and sweet and whether the other dog touches the puppies depends on the other dog. Chai will do a sniff session like this every day from now on; I won’t count her as a new dog anymore.

Unmarked boy did really well during handling and resting in my arms today. Yesterday, he complained during handling, my attempt at letting him rest in my arms as well as when I clipped his nails … today, he peacefully chilled. Good boy!

I’ve got pillows for myself in the blanket fort, and Game lay down in such a way that she unintentionally created a barrier challenge! Rockstar puppies remain unfazed (background sound: The Blacklist on Netflix. 8/10 would recommend):

1 week, 2 days (April 2)

New dogs and humans

We met Daniel and Dina at the park for a sniff-and-go: I drove the puppies there and we presented everyone to Dina. Dina showed interest in the first one, but then retreated and wanted to keep her distance (more so than Chai in yesterday’s video.) I held each puppy at her comfort distance, but since there were at least 6 inches between them, I’m not sure how aware of Dina’s presence the puppies were. In any case, we’ll count it and try again with Dina next week. It’ll be really interesting to see how her response changes as they get older!

This is how we travel to nearby socialization locations in the car.

The senses

Today’s new sensual experience was being next to the vibrating washing machine. While the puppies can’t hear it, I’m sure they were able to feel the vibrations! They smelled detergent, my friend – a new person – who visited, morning park smells and Dina and Daniel from Dina’s preferred distance.

Handling and touch

Everyone got the claws on their left front paw filed with a Dremel and handled and held by Rachel and me.

Game

Game got diarrhea last night. I’m using my usual “no food” protocol to help her get everything out of her system and let her stomach recover. I hope she’ll be able to produce milk even though she’ll skip a meal or two. If not, I’ll have to re-visit bottle feeding. I gave up on it after the second failed attempt, but if I had to try again, it would probably be easier with hungry puppies than with well-fed ones. Anyways, I expect Game to be back to her normal iron stomach self by tomorrow morning.

Today is the first day Game has been spending part of the day out on the couch with Chai and me rather than being with the puppies every second! She’s slowly getting her independence back and teaching the puppies that it’s okay to be separated from her for little bits of time between eating.

Social life

Today, all the puppies got held and handled (paws, tail, lips, ears) by Rachel and me. They did very well and relaxed into the arms of the new person!

1 week, 3 days (April 3)

New dogs and humans

We started the day getting sniffed and sniffing one new dog each for a few seconds: mix Gala sniffed 3 puppies and Chow-Chow Boston two.

Since holding both a puppy AND a phone is hard, I only took a single picture and missed the moments of actual sniffing.

In the afternoon, we went to BLOM. Ulises helped us today, holding all the puppies and even moving them towards different objects so they could smell them. Everyone except for green boy was moving their heads around and sniffing what was going on today! Green boy seemed, in Ulises’ words, the most timid.

What stood out to me was that, except for green boy (who seemed half-asleep), the puppies who had turned away from Diego the other day where now not turning away from a new person, but investigating Ulises and the environment by turning their heads in all directions and sniffing: they seemed curious to me! Exploratory behavior has also started at home, where they’ll now “go” (gatear; rob) further from Game and investigate the blanket fort.

Handling/husbandry

At home, I handled everyone through my protocol (paws, ears, tail, lips) and held them for five minutes each. I also got ahead of schedule myself and clipped everyone’s right front paw claws with human nailclippers today rather than tomorrow: they are spikey now and I don’t want them to scratch Game!

I also repainted everyone’s nails. This time, unmarked boy, who was next to blue girl when I painted hers, had a sneezing fit. Nail polish stinks! Time to grow into your collars, puppies!

Changes to the schedule

I took the bike ride off of this week’s schedule. Who knows if any of these puppies will ever ride in a bike basket or trailer – better spend my limited time (first week of FDSA classes!) on what I’m sure all of them will need: husbandry and socialization!

Today, I also realized that I like schedules like the one I came up with for Game’s post-ultrasound weeks significantly better than using this storebought weekly planner. I just drafted a planner for next week and will be coloring in boxes again in week 3.

… go, unmarked girl!

… WOW! Unmarked girl was just the very first one to walk right now! She walked several steps on all 4 feet rather than robbing/crawling – and then she rolled over. AWWW!

1 week, 4 days (April 4)

Social life

We started the day with a quick snuffle trip to the park where Dobi Samantha and the giant mix Diego were ready to assist us. They both got to snuffle at the same time – the puppies’ first two-dog-snuffle-sandwich day. (As of today, we’ve made up for Monday, when the puppies didn’t meet a dog!)

When we got to the last puppy today – unmarked boy – Sam and Diego didn’t want to do any more puppy sniffing, so unmarked boy only got snuffled from a little distance. Up until then, everyone got a nice snuffle from two dogs – especially puppy #1. They want to keep helping us, so we’ll seek them out again next week! No pictures today.

Scarlett hung out for four hours today, and we rotated through all the puppies, handling them and letting them sleep in our laps on the couch. Everybody got handled by both of us once. Blue girl and unmarked boy got two rounds of sleeping in Scarlett’s arms and one round of sleeping in my arms, and unmarked girl, green boy and pink boy got one round of sleeping in Scarlett’s arms and two rounds of sleeping in mine.

The senses

Vacuum air on cleaning day, morning park smells, Sam and Diego, Scarlett, coffee: lots of smells today!

Chai gave everyone a thorough snuffling today too – quite different than on the day I took the video!

More big walking news!

I saw both blue girl and green boy (uncoordinatedly) walk today! Wow! Walking, even in the current uncoordinated manner, is about twice as fast as robbing! As of today, at least three of them are already able to briefly sustain their heavy bodies and milk-filled bellies on their little legs!

1 week, 5 days (April 5)

The senses

We went to a different park this morning, entailing a slightly longer drive for the first time: 4-5 minutes there and back as opposed to 1-2 minutes. I kept the car window on the puppies’ side open to expose them to the draft of our (slow) drive and the smells we passed, among them a construction site. They also felt Dremel vibrations.

In the afternoon, they smelled Enrique’s beauty salon (next door), the three people in the salon including Enrique from a distance, and Enrique’s little dog Queso from a distance.

Queso (on a different day). He free-roams when Enrique takes him to the salon – here he is resting in the sun just outside.

Social life

At the park, everyone got snuffled by Schnauzer mix Heidi. I started out with unmarked boy, who got the least amount of snuffling yesterday because he was the last one. However, today’s helper dog was happy to snuffle them all, first until last! Green boy was the only one who seemed a bit tentative (turning away from Heidi), so he’ll be the one I take out first next time to make sure he gets extra dog exposure. He did well when Chai snuffled him though. She even licked his mouth and one of his front paws today, and he didn’t turn away.

I’m allowing myself a break from human socializing today. It’s getting a lot (for me), and we’ll probably make up for it with a two-friend visit on the weekend. That said, I’m managing to give the puppies the amount of exposure and handling I had planned for. So maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world that I’ve quite a bit of work-work (the capitalist kind) these days: it helps me not to overdo it!

Enrique, whose business is next door, brought his dog Queso into work in the afternoon. I used the opportunity for the puppies to meet yet another dog. However, Queso was the first dog who found the puppies a little creepy. We kept them about 2 meters apart so he could sniff and feel safe. I held everyone up for a few seconds. Even though there was no up close contact, I figure their noses will have been able to learn about this new little dog. Queso is the smallest dog they’ve “met” so far. I’ll count him even though there was no direct contact.

Human puppies and canine puppies …

The humans at Enrique’s didn’t seem interested in holding puppies, so I didn’t ask them to. It is always wild to me when humans – even humans who have dogs themselves and run a dog-friendly business (Game usually comes with me when I visit Enrique’s place) – aren’t really into puppies. And then – lightbulb moment! – I realized this is the same way I feel about human babies! I’ve always found it strange when people can’t get enough of holding a baby. Like – why? It’s a baby. It’s not interactive yet AND it has a destroy button on its head. I prefer keeping a safe distance!

Human parents, if they aren’t resource guarding their babies, will just hand their babies around. I’ve found myself in the position where I was suddenly and unexpectedly holding one. Long story short, I better not blame people for not feeling the need to interact with a puppy since I am someone who doesn’t even want to interact with puppies of their own species. Duh! (Dog puppies, yes please, anytime! Human ones – not so much.)

I only find kids interesting by the age they are talking and walking: by that time, they are fun to observe and you can do things with them! They are actual little people with personalities and minds of their own, and they are utterly fascinating, especially when they haven’t yet been socialized to not say “inappropriate” things and still have little impulse control. Maybe that’s the way non-puppy people feel about puppies. No more judging!

No dog-social pictures today – I’ll be sure to get one this weekend!

Getting more mobile!

Unmarked girl, unmarked boy and green boy all made it out of the little crate I’ve been using to transport or contain them when I need to move them or clean! They all have been looking out over the edge, but today was the first time they actually “escaped!” I’ll try and film this unintentional barrier challenge the next time it happens! Unmarked girl readily proceeded to walk towards Game after having gotten out. Training these walking muscles like a pro! The other two didn’t try to get out, but promptly fell asleep in the crate.

Today, I saw unmarked boy and pink boy walk! By now, EVERYONE is able to sustain themselves briefly on their legs! Woohoo!

Little big dogs: los rebeldes y el reto de barrera II

After getting home from Enrique and Queso, I remembered the unintentional barrier challenge unmarked girl, unmarked boy and green boy showed me this morning. I set up a camera, asked Game to settle (a lay-down-and-make-yourself-comfortable cue, not a stay command), placed the crate next to her and hit record. Game looked like she wanted to get up, but didn’t release herself. Even though I encouraged her, she stayed in the down, so I just waited everyone out. I figured as long as she wasn’t concerned, neither did I need to be.

Eventually, all five of them made it out of the crate and all the way to the milk bar. There was some complaining, but they ALL did it. I’m majorely impressed! If you only watch one puppy, watch the last one (starting at 2:15) – it’s the cutest one!

Also, before you hit play, let me ensure you: they can’t get hurt. The floor is puzzle mats covered by a double layer of potty pads that contain soft absorbant something, making the landing even softer. Their tumbling out of the crate is similar to the tumbling they do when they try and crawl over Game’s back and end up rolling off.

Handling and husbandry

Everyone got the nails on their left back paw Dremeled. I managed to time it well in terms in counterconditioning again for green boy, unmarked boy and blue girl: the three of them got to nurse right after the nail procedure. Pink boy and unmarked girl were already at the milk bar. Unmarked girl struggled the most, but she was happy to have another go at the milk bar post mani-pedi – so that’s something. However, she also complained towards the end of her 5 minutes in my arms a little later. I’m making a mental note to bring unmarked girl out for some extra handling when my next visitor is around, and will be thinking if and how I’ll implement Julie Daniels’ protocol for relaxing to request being let down on the floor.

Game

As of today, Game started exercising again with some light 15-minute trotting. As of yesterday, she’s also back on more food, which is currently 3 kibble meals and 1 raw meal. For the raw, there is as much variation as I can come up with (I had put it on hold for a few days because her stool has been a little loose.) And of course, Game’s short outings include the occasional scavenged gem as well.

1 week, 6 days (April 6)

Social life

Westie Johnson

Today was the first time we had a socialization experience that wasn’t entirely positive. 8-year old Westie Johnson was our helper today. Of all the dogs we’ve met so far, he was the most excited about the puppies – pretty much the exact opposite of Queso! He did great wagging and sniffing the first three puppies with shiny eyes. By the time we got to pink boy, #4 today, his excitement toppled over and he (gently, softly) terrier play-nipped at him, leaving a bit of saliva on pink boy’s nose. Pink boy protested! That was not okay! I assume he felt the soft, but sudden touch of Johnson’s teeth and the sudden moisture of his saliva. He vocalized and turned away from Johnson. I’m making a mental note to letting him go first or second with the next dog who I know will be less excited. Puppy #5 got Johnson’s gentler interest again (and we also made sure he wouldn’t be able to reach if he wanted to).

Johnson’s sister hung back because she’s an old lady and generally likes her space – but she was actually tempted to come a little closer and get a whiff of puppy smell, too!

This is a good reminder that every dog is different! Johnson was very enthusiastic. Queso yesterday was almost fearful. Most dogs are somewhere in the middle: interested in the first puppy, but losing their interest as we go through all five.

Rough play happens; all dogs who get opportunities to socialize will experience it (and dole it out) sooner or later in life. I’ll be observing pink boy’s response to the next dog carefully, but I am not concerned: he is not yet physiologically able to experience fear. He can feel pain or startle, but it’s physiologically impossible for him to take this kind of experience and turn it into a fear response. Imagine a puppy who meets a rough player for the first time when they are fully able to experience fear. That puppy will be impressed by the experience and may be careful around new dogs in the future. Pink boy, on the other hand, has now (not counting Game) met 12 dogs – and dog #12 is the very first one who wasn’t an absolute gentledog. He’ll meet many more before he can experience fear. My theory is that this experience is no more likely to make a dent in his overall dog-sociability and confidence than I’m likely to make a dent in a puppy’s future husbandry tolerance if I startle them when touching an ear or Dremeling a nail, or Game is likely to cause a puppy to lose trust in her when she occasionally steps on one, eliciting a protest scream (which she will then respond to by taking off her paw!) My hope is that overall positive and neutral, but occasionally startling experiences will give the puppies a solid idea of the wide range of normal in the world at an age where they are physiologically hardwired for success.

Human friends

Rachel and Miriam came by and everyone got handled (the paws, ears, tail, lips protocol) and slept in the arms of all three of us. I saw Rachel on Tuesday, so technically, she’s not a new person (I’ve made up the arbitrary rule that there have to be 5 days between visitors for someone to count as new again), but I’ll count her twice this week anyways. Miriam cooked for Game and she got an extra yummy meal today! Thank you!

Sleepy cuteness!

The senses

As of this afternoon, we’ve got eye slits!

Unmarked girl is on a roll now that she can walk! She’s fast and exploring the blanket fort!

Green boy has been trembling a little when being lifted out of the blanket fort and held. It comes and goes. I wonder whether it’s a thermoregulation thing (puppies only start to be able to regulate their body temperature at 3 weeks old – if the Internet1 is correct) or something else. (Physiologically speaking, it can’t be fear at this age.) I’ll keep an eye on him. Even though it is warm, it is definitely cooler when he is lifted up and away from the others/the warm blanket fort. I usually have the ceiling fan on, which is in my living room, but can’t be felt in the blanket fort. This, too, may contribute to a response to temperature change. If it is a response to that, it should be going away as soon as he’s able to keep his temperature stable!

In other green boy news, he stumble-walked over to me and snuggled into my hand when I sat down in the blanket fort tonight. Awww, puppies!

And more exciting news: as of Thursday, I’m sleeping in my own bed again rather than camping in the blanket fort. I still pull it up close so Game can either sleep in my bed and keep an eye on the puppies or sleep with the puppies and keep an eye on me. I’ve got to say it’s nice to sleep on a mattress rather than on the floor again!

As of today, I’ve used up all sticker dots on my weekly tracker, meaning that technically, not only do we get tomorrow “off,” but we also get 2 days sans handling protocol and 3 days sans sleeping in someone’s arms next week.

Julie Daniels’ “Get down!” game and my “Up!” announcement

Julie Daniels teaches a great class called Baby Genius at FDSA (it’s not currently on the schedule because it just ran, but when it is back, you’ll see it under this link to Julie’s classes.) One game the puppies learn in Julie’s class is that calm puppies get placed down on the ground when they want to while crazy puppies don’t: the way to ask to be put down is to relax.

I’ve been thinking about how to implement this game for Game’s litter now that they’re becoming more active and are starting to have opinions about being held. When a puppy asks to be put down (vocalizing or getting fidgety in my arms), I will hold them in ready-for-landing position (the back paws a few inches from the ground) and let them down, back paws first, as soon as they hold their little legs still. To help them understand this concept, I’ll always put them down this way, even when they aren’t struggling to do something else. We’ll see how this goes – it is possible the puppies ace this exercise, and it’s equally possible they are too young for this kind of impulse control (in which case we’ll abandon the mission.) I can’t wait to find out!

I usually announcing “up” before lifting up my dogs so they don’t get caught by surprise. So far, I haven’t done this with the puppies because they can’t hear yet – that only happens around 3 weeks; a week after their eyes open. But why not get into the habit and start saying it now! I’ll forget half the time, but by the time they start being able to hear in a week, I’ll have it down pat!

Specialty foods

Apart from the rice-carrot-potato meal Miriam cooked for Game (thank you!), Game got Heartgard-ed today. According to the manufactorer, it’s safe in lactating dogs and puppies 4 weeks and older. The puppies will get their first round when they turn 4 weeks old.

2 weeks (April 7)

We got collared this morning! At 2 weeks of age, the puppy collars fit at the smallest setting! Going forwards, I’ll refer to individual puppies by their collar color. Here’s the “translation” of nailpolish to collars:

  • Pink boy – Red
  • Green boy – Green
  • Unmarked boy – Purple
  • Blue girl – Blue
  • Unmarked girl – Black

I don’t yet know if I’ll name them. I’ve got a list of possible “Rebelde”-themed names … but I’ve yet to decide whether I’ll want to use them or wait for their new homes, which will probably come with new names anyways, to decide. I’ll know if I want to name them once their personalities start showing.

Social life

Today, we drove to yet another park the puppies haven’t been at before, and they met Lab mix Cometa from a distance. (Cometa found the puppies suspicious and vocally explained the distance she was comfortable with.)

This works for us – after all, Cometa makes an extra dog for the week already; she’s #8. I wanted to take advantage of it being Sunday and the fact that my work load, just like traffic, is a lighter today, and take the gang out in the morning.

This afternoon, Blue was the first one to come tumbling towards me when I went into the blanket fort! A little later, as I was sitting with my legs stretched out, Red and Green came over to explore me. Green then went on to check out my phone on the floor! Right now, as I’m reading through this post before publishing it, I’m sitting in the blanket fort with everyone and once again, Blue is near my outstretched legs, checking me out.

Two friends were going to come over today, but I ended up canceling. I needed a human-social break … probably more so than the puppies! I’m looking forward to visitors next week though!

The senses

If motion sickness can be prevented by exposure, these puppies are going to do very well! They’ve been riding in the car almost daily. They’ll feel the motion of the car, and today, one of the hottest mornings we’ve had this year, they also felt sun on their faces. Interestingly, no trembing from green boy, which would go with the possible explanation that it is temperature-change related.

Over the next few days, there will be a brief window where they’ll be old enough to be away from Game a little longer (when I say “a little longer,” I mean up to 20 minutes or so) as well as still light enough for me to carry them all. I’ll take advantage of this by walking rather than driving them to their oudoors social encounters – I just need to spring for a soft carrier first.

The way I determine the length of time it is okay to separate them from Game is by observing how long Game will voluntarily leave them. She’s been doing this for up to an hour over the last day or two, just briefly checking on them in between feeding times, and a few hours at night. (Sleeping in my bed and only returning when they vocalize for food.)

As of today, the puppies are feeling collars on their bodies – another new sensation! I’ll take them on and off during every handling session going forwards.

As the puppies are getting more mobile, they are increasingly climbing on and over Game. She did NOT sign up for THIS!

The most exciting news: they are now ready to start exploring a new sense: taste!

Specialty foods

I exchanged Game’s regular kibble breakfast for puppy kibble breakfast – the same kibble I’ll introduce the puppies to. I’m thinking it might be more tempting for them when the time comes if they are already used to the taste via Game’s milk. Maybe that’s not how it works, but it can’t hurt.

The reason I’ll use puppy kibble rather than all-life stages kibble is that it is smaller and therefore easier to use in training puppies, too – and I hope to be doing some of that before they leave! They’re getting Royal Canin all life stages adult medium sized dog (the red bag) and Royal Canin medium sized puppy kibble (the blue bag).

The raw meals continue to be different, and the puppies will also get to know raw food in addition to their kibble. I’ll wean them on both forumula and goat milk, soaked puppy kibble and soaked ground meat/veggies. My hope is that, being exposed to different foods, they are going to do well, whatever they will eat in their future homes, less likely to be picky and less likely to develop food sensitivities. I don’t know if that’s actually going to be the case – but again, I figure it can’t hurt.

Today is the first day I fed Game formula in the blanket fort – Puppy Culture recommends letting the puppies see the adult dog lap up food from 2 weeks onwards. Sooner or later, their curiosity will lead them to try it themselves. At lunch time, most of them slept through Game licking formula off a cookie sheet – but it’s a good start! I’ll feed Game a licky snack like this two or three times a day going forwards.

The video below isn’t interesting – nothing happens; it’s just a testament to my need to document everything. The interesting stuff happened tonight! The video is part of Game’s lunch. The second time I offered the puppies formula was part of dinner – and Black and Green made it onto the cookie sheet and did some lapping and licking! Go puppies!! On their very first day!

I was planning on doing a round of Panacur today as well, but will wait until tomorrow. The puppies are old enough for their first deworming and I want to do Game and Chai the same day, but Chai isn’t feeling good today – so tomorrow it is.

Handling and husbandry

Everyone got the claws on their right back paws Dremeled. Purple complained big time! Overall, the clippers seem to be less annoying to the puppies than the Dremel. I might switch to clippers only once I’ve done one full Dremel-round of all four paws.

In any case, I timed things well and got to countercondition again: Dremel – milk bar for everyone!

Trackers

This is what my week 2 tracker looks like in the end of the week. The only thing still missing is the entry for Game’s raw dinner.

… and the week 3 tracker:

I went back to one I printed myself. Coloring is more fun than stickers! The post-it is for things I get to “not do” in week 3 because I did more than planned in week 2:

  • 3 times sleeping in my/someone’s arms (I don’t think I’ll not do that one; puppies are THE best therapy!)
  • 2 times handling protocol (which, going forwards, will include the collar coming on and off and, once I get a soft brush, being brushed.)
  • 1 new dog.
  1. I know for a fact that young puppies can’t regulate their body temperature, but I don’t know when exactly this changes – the 3 weeks answer is not from a reliable source. ↩︎

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

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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.

Chiary, day 65 – June 10, 2023: play time, LLW, Parque México and restaurant relaxation with friends

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Chai had a Big Day and so did I: we had a lot of adventures today!

We started out on a brief morning walk around the block together with Game. For the first time, I let Chai partially off leash on the sidewalk during the daytime!

Next, we got back home and had a brief tug session on the roof of our building.

Loose leash walking – manners mode

Having gotten our morning crazies out that way, we went to practice loose leash walking in the manners context: when the leash is attached to Chai’s collar, I want her to walk next to me, staying behind the imaginary line1 at the tip of my toes. We worked up to 9 steps between treats:

We are now walking in the “real world” – the space we have available to us – a comparatively quiet street with a nice, wide side walk. If I had an even quieter street, that’s where I’d go – but I don’t, so I use the environment I do have. To help set Chai up for success, I walk the street on a harness before switching to manners mode in the same street. This way, Chai gets to get most of her sniffing and pulling needs out of the way before we start working on the more difficult behavior (staying behind the invisible line). Walking on a harness is our way of acclimating.

My goals in this session:

  • Cue “With me!” before clipping the leash from harness to collar. I want this to eventually become an informal heeling cue that also works off leash. I make sure Chai is already behind me when I use the cue.
  • Count up to 9 steps, then click with both hands on the leash (my defined home position), blink once with both hands on my leash (my transition behavior), then reach for the treat bag. It is behind my back to help Chai gravitate back rather than forwards.
  • If Chai oversteps the imaginary line running parallel to my toes, I cue “Touch!” – ideally (I don’t always succeed with this mechanics-wise) with both hands still on the leash, blink, and offer my hand. In this video, you’ll see that I’m sometimes too fast and take my right hand off the leash when saying the “touch” cue.
  • I turn sideways and lead Chai to my hand stretched back in the direction we just came from.
  • I feed slightly behind heel position with my hand targeting my side (again, something I manage to do MOST of the time, but sometimes … I get distracted and feed without my hand touching my side). My treat placement brings Chai back into the position I want her to be in for our informal heeling adventure.
  • End of video: when I want to go back to the harness, I cue “All done!” and clip the leash back to the harness. Where the leash is attached would in and of itself function as enough of a contextual cue for the two modes of leash walking to be distinguished by a dog. However, since I am planning on transferring the cue to off-leash informal heeling, I need that end cue just like the “With me!” cue in the beginning.

Stay-home-without-humans-and-relax practice while C goes off on a human solo adventure!

Chai then stayed home alone with Game while I went to climb The Wall – a 30 meters climbing wall on the outside of a building that’s just around the corner from my place. I had set myself the goal of climbing it at least once and enjoying the view from above. Today was the day! And I did it – I climbed all the way up to the top of the yellow wall in the left picture below. Unfortunately, cellphones are not allowed on the wall, so the only pictures are from below.

Chai then got to practice staying home by herself again during Game’s noon walk.

Parque México

Next, we drove to Parque México to get Chai a fancy adult dog collar, walk around a little and then headed to a meeting. Here’s Parque México – as busy as it gets on Saturdays – with recalls, check-ins and dog encounters off leash, followed by walking in a harness on the median of calle Ámsterdam.

This is Robert Sapolsky’s “dopamine jackpot” theory I reference in the video above:

Chilling with folks at a restaurant

At the table and under the table: the art of doing nothing.

We left when Chai became active and started throwing her rawhide bone all over the place – good conversations caused me to overstay her ability to settle until she let me know by throwing bones!

Heading back to the car, we practiced harness walking for a few blocks. When Chai is on a harness, I will …

  • Super easy environment: simply circle when Chai reaches the end of the leash. No food.
  • Slightly more difficult: in addition to circling when Chai pulls, click and treat every 4th check-in (offered eye contact). If she checks in twice and then pulls, I will circle and reset my count, starting to count eye contact over with 1 again.
  • If the environment is too hard for Chai to succeed on a predominantly loose leash with circle resets, I will keep the same rate of reinforcement but do won’t reset when she pulls: for example, she may check in twice on a loose leash and then pull (this triggers a circle), then check in again. In this case, the check in after pulling (and circling) would count as 3 rather than start over with 1.
  • If this is still too hard, I will up the rate of reinforcement to every 3rd, 2nd or even every single check-in.
  • If we need to pass something moderately difficult (think dogs barking somewhere up on a balcony on the other side of the street), we will pass and then scatter away from the difficult stimulus.
  • If we pass something very difficult (think dogs barking behind a fence right next to us), I will use my “floor” protocol and feed almost non-stop. I will explain that protocol in a different post.

In harness mode, I don’t mind if Chai is on my left or right side and I’ don’t care about a precise spot of food delivery’m less precise in my food delivery: harness mode is meant to be easy for me, the handler, just like it is meant to be easy for the dog.

Walking through Condesa and Roma, some food is required! I’m going with tier #2 described above: click and treat every 4th check-in and reset after circles.

The reason that my go-to is feeding every 4th time is that I want to hit the sweet spot of the dopamine jackpot: supposedly, intermittent reinforcement is most powerful if it happens either 25% or 75% of the time a behavior is being displayed (see video above).

Here’s a clip from walking either from Parque México to the restaurant where I met friends or back to the car after hanging out there for about 2 hours (I don’t remember which direction this was). Apart from our leash walking strategy (feeding every fourth check-in and resetting when Chai pulls), you will also see her disengage voluntarily from an unfamiliar dog, do a successful “leave it” for a tossed piece of kibble and work on her “warten” (wait) cue at a curb.

More leash walking (harness context)

It started getting dark by the time we made it back to the car, and we stopped for vanilla ice cream dinner before heading home!

Waiting at the rubber-duck themed ice cream store.

Chai and I are sure to sleep well tonight – hopefully, so will everyone else!

(1) Here comes my usual spiel: 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. If I don’t find a few more hours in my days soon, said December 2023 class may even focus entirely on LLW … stay tuned or send some extra time my way!

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!

May 18-20, 2023: puppy adventures in husbandry, UNAM, playgrounds and eating at restaurants!

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Day 42 – May 18, 2023

Not a lot happened today … BUT I got some husbandry done: clipping (“Claws!”) Chai’s nails on the right back paw. No problem for my superstar!

Day 42 – May 19, 2023

Husbandry

+ “Claws!” on the left back paw.
+ “Brush!” (with a break between the two husbandry procedures)

UNAM adventures

Game, Chai and I went to UNAM, saw and met strangers, practiced recalls, got paid for check-ins and hung out with fellow Border Collies!

Because it rained, the space around the big UNAM flag had turned into a pool and we played in the water and going up and down the stairs until a security person kicked us out.

Fun with fellow Border Collies at Las Islas!

Inside spaces

I took Chai by herself (solo adventures are SO important in my book!) up and down the scary elevator (still carrying her in and out). Then I put her into the puppy and we walked through the Walmart corridor and to the bank.

Day 43 – May 20, 2023

Parque Hundido

Chai and I went to Parque Hundido – which was quite busy since it was Saturday! She played with a Chihuahua (making me very happy; I want her to interact with dogs of all sizes!) and we hung out at the playground so she could observe kids running, playing and climbing.

Parque Hundido, located in Colonia Extremadura Insurgentes.

The bestest girl waiting for my order of pambazos at a Parque Hundido food stand.

Playing briefly with a Chihuahua, a whistle recall at the right moment and a sweeping view of the playground:

More playground time: watch and learn! (I had her on a leash and walked her around the playground and then we just watched from a distance. I only unleashed her to play with the Chi.)

Playground time! Getting used to kids running, screaming, laughing, playing, riding bikes …

Pizza outing

Chai and I then went to have pizza for lunch with a group of people I know. She did great inside the pizza place, mostly resting near my chair and chewing on a rawhide! I’m not much of a restaurant person – but if it involves socializing my puppy, count me in!

Pizza, rawhide and the art of doing nothing.

Further errands

I also took her to a bakery and a pharmacy and then had her wait in the car crate while I looked at an apartment. (And important exercise: I don’t want her to ONLY be in the car crate when I’m in the car myself!)

She did great on all her adventures today! Go Chai!

Back in CDMX: day 35 – May 11, 2023

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+ Today, I upped the difficulty level of Chai’s formal recall (“Schnee”) in real life situations at UNAM – so I upped the reinforcer accordingly: hotdogs for the win! Chai loved them and had A LOT. (Up until now, she’s only worked for kibble.)

A check in and a relatively easy whistle recall – kibble for check-ins, hot dogs for our 2-dog whistle recall:

+ An UNAM student offered the back of their hand for Chai to sniff and then touched the back of her head – and she didn’t mind! Wow, puppy! You are being so brave with random strangers!

Below, Chrissi being overconfident in one of their recalls, the stranger reaching for Chai, meeting a dog and lots of exploring! Come join aus at Las Islas:

… after seeing me use “Schnee” in a situation that was clearly too hard (The Popcorn Incident), below is an appropriate recall level for formal recalls rewarded with hotdogs: Chai is running the other way when I call. Not suuuper easy and not too hard either.

Game comes back too because she loves hotdogs – but every dog only gets them on their own recall cue or the multi-dog cue (whistle). Sorry, Game!

+ Chai mastered going up and down the see-through stairs at UNAM!

UNAM fun with Game. I love the color of bougainvilleas!

+ Chai saw lots of umbrellas and rain gear because it started raining as we were there!

+ The wind picked up too, and Chai startled seeing the big flag blow in the wind, and then had a similar reaction to a poster being moved by the wind. She quickly got over the poster, and we walked up to the UNAM flag to see it wasn’t a monster. Chai was able to quickly shake off both startles! I love a puppy with a good bounce-back!

I happened to take a picture right at Chai’s poster startle moment. You can’t see the poster – it’s up and to the right. Imagine a straight line going up from Game’s butt to the edge of the wall. That’s where the poster is.

Going right up to the previously scary flag blowing in the wind! (Actually, the wind must have picked up before the rain started: I can see in the pictures that the ground is still dry.)

+ Game peed outside twice after Game pooped and once completely independently! Go puppy! Spending lots of time outside and in one area (that becomes boring/familiar over time) certainly helps remind Chai that maybe she’d like to pee! So does Game who is still the best role model for outside toiletry.

+ I picked Chai up and rode the scary elevator with her in my arms twice.

+ Husbandry: “Brush!”, and “Claws!” on the right back paw. (I thought I’d spread out her paw husbandry over the week now that we’re settling back into some sort of everyday life.)

Chaiary – day 18 (April 24, 2023): Ciudad Universitaria and moving to Coyoacán

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Home alone

I used the morning to head to my hair dresser in Narvarte with Game. Chai got to stay home alone in the patio of our AirBnB one last time. This has been the last AirBnB I stayed in before I thought I was leaving Mexico for good and the second one I came back to … it felt a little bit like coming home. Today would be the day we’d move out. Dana, the owner whose place I’ve now stayed with 4 (?) times, told me to let her know if I ever needed anything – including a friend. I’m going to miss Narvarte.

Me and my always-by-my-side dog Game at the hair salon.

An afternoon at Ciudad Universitaria

Then it was time to move to what feels like the other side of the city: Coyoacán (but not the center – a place within walking distance from Las Islas at Ciudad Universitaria. It’s a large green space filled with students, picknickers, street food and off-leash dogs.

We met what I was told was a Miniature Doberman (size between a fully grown Doberman and a Miniature Pinscher).

Sadly, poor Chai threw up in her car crate again. The hot drive to Ciudad Universitaria was a bit much for the poor girl. However, all was forgotten once we got out and had fun!

Socialization continued

Chai voluntarily approached and got fed by two people and made friends with two more – no food required!

Our new stomping grounds!

Walking, playing and 2-dog recalls

Since the new place was going to be very small and I was going to feel wiped out from moving, I wanted Chai to be tired for her first night there. The dogs and I spent a LONG time walking and just hanging out at Las Islas before heading to our new home! This video is towards the end of the walk, as both dogs were already hot and tired. A lovely whistle recall with Game pulling Chai back to me, just like yesterday, only in a new environment. The time having been outside and the heat cause both of them to trot rather than run.

I took the thumbnail picture of the video above at Las Islas as well. In the thumbnail, Chai is a few weeks older than in this video.

Tired dogs are good dogs!

The long hot outing did its job: Chai and Game were perfect studio apartment dogs for the rest of the afternoon and evening. And I was a perfect studio apartment tenant: all I wanted was a shower and fall asleep!

Chaiary, day 17: lots of dog traffic at our “home park” and multi-dog whistle recalls with Game

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We worked on multi-dog recalls today! I love being able to do this anytime I have a puppy joining an adult-dog household. I’ve had multi-dog householeds for a long time – just having Game for a while was an exception rather than the rule. And as a rule, I always have both a multi-dog recall that means, “Everyone come!” (in my case, the cue is whistling) as well a “formal” recall cue for each individual dog that refers to just them.

Formal, multi-dog and informal recalls

I teach the formal recall cue that will be just for the new puppy in set-ups, following my 6-week protocol. The multi-dog recall is different: here, I jump right in as soon as the puppy is attached to my adult dog and will follow them around. Now I can start using the multi-dog recall my adult dog is reliable and familiar with: I whistle – the adult dog comes – the puppy chases them – I mark and reinforce both dogs. Especially if your puppy is still pretty young, you can use this recall even in difficult and highly distractiong situations from the get go: puppies aren’t independent enough to want to be left behind – so when your adult dog comes running, so will day, no matter what!

Initially, the cue for your puppy is your adult dog running. After a few repetitions (how many it takes varies widely and depends on your individual puppy), a cue transfer occurs: the puppy figures out that your multi-dog recall cue always precedes the other dog running towards you, which reliably predicts treats materializing near you. Once this happens, they will start coming back on the verbal cue alone and don’t even need the adult dog’s help anymore! Voilá – you’ve got a multi-dog recall on a verbal (or whistle) cue!

There’s a third kind of recall I use until the formal recall is well established: my informal pup-pup-pup-pup recall. I use this anytime I am not 99% sure my dog is going to come and if it doesn’t work, I don’t sweat it. I still reinforce anytime it does work, of course – and most of the time, it will. However, having this additional informal recall cue helps protect the formal cue I’m building and will ensure that the success rate of the formal cue stays as close to 100% as possible. Once the formal cue is strong, I tend to ditch the informal one.

Video diary time!

In the video below, you’ll see two of Chai’s first sessions of this exercise. At this point, she is just chasing Game. A few days down the line, she’ll figure out that my whistling, not Game, is the most salient predictor of a treat being available near me.

The video below shows the rest of today’s park adventure: lots of people and dog traffic! AND in the end of the clip, you’ll see another whistle recall. This time, Chai shows up first. There’s a tiny bit of latency and she’s trotting, not running – but we’re getting there! The cue is already picking up meaning!

Chai’s strangers-are-okay protocol

Chai also voluntarily approached and then got fed by 4 strangers during today’s adventure, 3 of whom were kids. The confidence-around-people building continues – despite moments like the ones in the video above, where people just reach for her because she is cute. Go puppy!

In case you are confused: these videos are not from the day I’m publishing them (July 3, 2023) but from Chai’s 17th day with me (April 23, 2023). It just takes time to edit videos and transfer my hand-written notes to my blog, and I haven’t kept up. I want to keep Chai’s diary chronological, so bit by bit, I’m catching up! While Chai is 6.5 months old today, the day I publish this post, she was only 4 months old when these videos were taken and I started writing this post. Time is a strange animal!

Chaiary, day 16: kids, a new park for Chai and positions!

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To continue in the spirit of yesterday’s kid encounter, I decided to go hang out at a playground with Chai today: maybe we’d find a few more kids to watch yell, run and play, and one or two to have positive interactions with!

We walked to the playground at Jardín Santiago Xicoténcatl in Álamos for this: a change of scenery from Parque Las Américas.

Mexico City has LOTS of great parks.
The dogs and I have yet to find one we don’t like!

We hung out at the quietish playground for a bit and mastered a scary playground staircase. Chai voluntarily approached and got fed by two kids at the playground, and by 6 adults around the park. We then also watched people playing soccer and field hockey, dribbling basketballs and working out (boxing; outdoors gym). So much to see! I’m really happy with how well Chai did today.

We ended the day with luring positions (sit, down, stand) with Chai’s dinner and a round of brushing. More power to the puppy!