Day 21 -- 1st Agility Trial (Camp Bandy)

Today Jedi got to attend his first agility trial! I'm not going to attempt any hotel stays until he is good and solid in his house training, so we'll be limited to locations that we can drive to and from the same day. Camp Bandy, at two hours away, is one such location, so that's where we were off to today!

We got to bed last night a little after 9:00, and thankfully Jedi was tired enough from our park excursion that he was ready to crash by then. The alarm went off this morning at 4:30, which is something I will ONLY do for agility trials. My goal was to be on the road by 5:30 and I wanted to be sure to give Jedi time to empty himself. I also have to take into consideration that I still don't feed him any meals out of the bowl, so if I intended to keep up the streak I was going to have to give myself additional time to give him a training session. At 4:30 in the morning. And yes, we did it!

For the trip over to the trial I had Jedi in one of the big crates by himself and opted to put the Klee Kai together (I only have 3 large crates in the back of the van, so with 4 dogs someone has to share). Jedi pretty much went back to sleep when we left, but woke up after about an hour. This is when I realized that I had failed to throw any sort of "puppy enrichment" into the crate for him. I realized this because he was finding his own, by chewing on the plastic water dish attached to the crate. Thankfully this didn't last terribly wrong and he didn't do any damage before he went back to sleep for the rest of the ride.

We arrived at the trial site right at 7:30, so I had what I consider plenty of time (yes, the trial started at 8:00, and yes, I absolutely am one of those people who rolls in at the last possible minute). I got Jedi out right away to let him go potty, then he came inside with me to grab stickers and course maps. He wasn't afraid of a darn thing except for the big glass entry door -- I think it's because it squeaked and made a noise like my teeter. My teeter is the only thing I've seen him be afraid of so far. When one of my other dogs goes over it Jedi runs for the hills. Not sure what that's all about, but that's what I figured was going on with the door. I ended up just picking him up and carrying him through it the rest of the day and he didn't have any problems with that.

I had plenty of down time between running Kizzy and Secret today, so that's when Jedi got to come inside for his socializing. He got to meet lots of new people today (because everyone pretty much goes nuts when you bring a fuzzy puppy to an agility trial) and a few dogs as well. Someone at the trial had a 17 week old female border collie puppy, so we let the two puppies play for a bit while Standard was running. We were inside and they were both on leash so it was nothing nuts, but they were very cute and appropriate with each other. Jedi wasn't sure of her at first, but warmed up quickly. I can't wait for next weekend when he gets to see his brother, Pyro!

We sat and watched some agility together for a bit. At first Jedi was completely oblivious to anything in the ring, but then a barky dog ran and he snapped to attention. He started to bark at the dog in the ring, but his attention was easily diverted with his toy. This happened a few more times, but each time I was able to redirect him to the toy. This will definitely be something that we continue to work on -- it's okay to get excited, you just need to learn to express it appropriately.

We spent a bit of time exploring the grounds outside as well. There are all sorts of animals on this property, including sheep, horses, chickens, and a couple of peacocks that scream bloody murder every 5 seconds. I'm really surprised that none of my dogs react to that noise. Jedi wasn't too sure of what was going on in the critter pen and didn't really feel the need to get too close to investigate. Later in the day one of the chickens was out of the pen, though, and he did find that a bit more interesting.

Our runs were done right around noon. I had planned ahead and figured on doing Jedi's lunch training session at the trial. I brought our touch target (small lid), a bowl for pivoting, and the FitPaws bone. I took Jedi and Secret to a grassy spot at the back of the parking lot. There were a couple of RVs parked back there, but not much else going on. Most of our training sessions have been in the basement with a few done outside when the weather cooperates, so it was nice to have the chance to work in this entirely new location. Jedi did really well and was able to do frog, pretty, back up, and bottom. This was also his first session having Secret around as a distraction but she pretty much stayed out of the way (except for helping when Jedi staged a protest about doing bottom, so she did it instead).

The ride home was a little more eventful. I brought the small crate and planned on having Kizzy ride up front on the way home (separating them with the pig ears), but as I was setting it up Jedi kept insisting on going in it. Okay, he still fits, why not. Oh my goodness, the complaining he did! He was over the bed, he was under the bed. Upside down, circling, and somersaulting. At one point I stopped the van and got him out thinking he surely had a bathroom emergency, but nope, just complaining. Truth be told, I think he was saying he was absolutely dying of thirst, because if one of the dogs in the back got a drink then he really screamed.

Really, though, the fits came in short bursts and then he'd go back to sleep. I think he was just REALLY tired from all of the activity today and expressed it like an overtired toddler. When we got home there was quite a bit of crazy running around (and oh, pretty sure he drank half a gallon of water). Secret really had a hair up her butt and wanted to play, so I finally locked the dog door so that Kizzy wouldn't butt in. Secret tried really, really hard to get Jedi to play her chase games, but she's still a bit much for him. He'd do a short dash into the yard or under the deck, but then go back under the agility table and bark at her. I imagine they'll have quite a lot of fun running around once he gets a bit bigger.

And while this is Jedi's blog, Secret gets a brag today! Congrats to Secret on finishing her second MACH! She needed 16 points going into the trial today, but with JWW running first I knew there was no way she'd get it on the first run. She ran clean and got 1st place this morning with 9 points, so we just had to run clean in Std to finish it up. It was nice of her to make it easier to do the math, as if she wouldn't have Q'd in JWW this morning I probably would have had to wait until the results were posted to make sure she had enough points. This way we could celebrate when we finished the run, much as Secret hates those victory laps. Good girl, Secret!

Day 20 - Bangor Park

I worked from home again today, so Jedi was a happy boy for that -- and while it was far from warm and sunny, at least the rain went away, so we were able to spend a little more time outside. The two meetings I had today got canceled, so it was a pretty easy day, puppy-schedule-wise. Additionally, this seemed to be the day where Jedi decided to catch up on his sleep, as he blessed me with a couple of exceptionally long naps.

He got to spend pretty much the entire day out of the puppy pen since he was being so good. I also propped the screen door open so that he'd have free access to go in and out as needed. I'm pretty certain he went out to do his business on his own at least twice, judging by the way he came galloping back in looking for a treat (which he got).

Secret continues to grow her affection towards the little guy. I caught this exchange between them this morning.

I got some really nice feedback from Silvia Trkman on the training video I submitted for class yesterday. She thinks Jedi is doing great and offered that I should start to fade my hands from the picture during pivoting. That's just one of the reasons I'm finding this class helpful, as that's the sort of thing I would totally continue to do and probably why my trick-training skills tend to fade out after a point. I need to build more independence in the behaviors. I started to put this into play during our dinner training session tonight and Jedi did well with it. I didn't do a full session at lunch today, instead opting to use his meal during nail trimming. Part of it he got while I trimmed his nails, part of it he got for sitting and watching nicely, and the rest he got for pivoting on the deck with all of the dogs around. This is the third time we've done nails since Jedi came home. We're mostly still working on coming to an agreement on his preferred position. Once we find that he's totally fine, but before that he's pretty squirmy and chews on the nail trimmer.

While heaven knows there are still hundreds of new places I can take Jedi, for some reason I'm hitting the point where I can't decide where to go, or what to do, or who to take! In the end I decided that Luke should go along today, because he will be left home by himself tomorrow when the rest of us go to the agility trial. Luke isn't up for something that requires a lot of walking (definitely not on pavement), so I decided that today we would go to the park in Bangor.

I hoped that maybe there would be a baseball game or something going on, but I guess it's probably too early in the year for such things. There were some kids playing on playground equipment, though, carrying on and making quite a bit of noise. Jedi noticed them as we were unloading from the van but his attention was easily brought back to me.

We wandered through the bleachers by the ball field, walked through the picnic tables in the shelter, and made our way back to the shooting range. I noticed a set of stairs under the bridge that led up to the bike trail, so I went up and down them with Jedi to get him some experience on new stairs. We were surprised by someone coming down the bike trail with their giant black lab, but Jedi didn't even seem to notice them as we went back down the stairs. Then, though, we ran into someone else out walking their dog and oops, I didn't have Jedi on leash at that point because we'd been the only people in that area of the park. This is when I learned that he will go say hello! Thankfully the people and the dog (female, apparently recently had puppies) were very nice and he had a nice happy greeting before we moved on (he did come away easily after saying hello).

At that point I put him on leash because we were going to be going next to the water and I figured I would need a way to fish him out if he decided to go for a swim. Then we hit up the playground equipment where he got to climb the steps onto the platform and pose for pictures.

After that we made our way into the next section of the park, where you cross a little bridge to get to a good-sized open field. Again, I was glad to have the leash on because Jedi had a puppy, "Oh, what is that?" moment as we crossed the bridge.

I took the opportunity to play some tug and chase games in the big open area with the toys I'd brought along. It was during this play time that the 6:00 whistle (siren) sounded in Bangor, so Jedi got to hear that obnoxious noise for the first time. He kept tugging right through it, so I guess it didn't bother him. Almost immediately after the whistle ended a freight train came through. The train whistle definitely startled him more than the siren had, but after a moment he was back to playing again.

Not long after, a couple walking a border collie came down the hill. The dog was being a bit nuts and this is the first time Jedi has expressed concern about another dog's presence (even though it was some distance away). He woofed at the dog and I was able to redirect him with the toy. Unfortunately I think the people were thinking "play date" as they started to come closer and were asking questions about Jedi. I answered them, but made it clear that I was focusing on my dog as I continued to redirect him further away from them and their dog. In the end, I was able to keep Jedi focused and playing with me, so that's a win.

They built a small skate park in that section of the park at some point (I don't recall seeing it before, so who knows how long it has been there). There was nobody there, so we went and walked around and played on some of the ramps a bit. There were only a couple that were puppy-friendly and I had Jedi cross over those a few times.

We ended with another walk next to the creek and around the perimeter of the field. All told, we spent about 45 minutes in the park, so it was a pretty good adventure. Luke enjoyed the time out as well. Poor old guy just doesn't get to do much anymore.

Day 19 - Downtown Sparta

Poor, poor Jedi. I have a couple of meetings on Thursdays that it's good to be present for, so I went back into the office today for a half day. Unlike my other forays into work, however, this time I elected not to ask my dad to stop by to let Jedi out. Because Jedi has been sleeping through the night for a bit, I thought I'd go ahead and see how he did if he was asked to go a bit longer during the day. So far he really hasn't had to go more than 2-3 hours. I ended up not getting home until 12:30, which meant that Jedi ended up going 5 hours (I left at 7:30). I felt bad that I pushed for such a jump in duration, but he was a champ and there were no accidents in the crate. Yay Jedi!

Unfortunately for both of us, we had another day of crappy rain. This made it a bit more difficult to come home to a puppy who had been in a crate for 5 hours and then expect to get any work done. I had a couple of meetings this afternoon to get through, so I gave Jedi a new "toy" to keep him occupied. It was a success, as this milk jug kept him occupied for well over a half hour!

I didn't want to go the pet store route two days in a row, and it was really only misting outside by 5:00, so I decided to do an outdoor outing tonight. I figured I'd put the new harness I picked up to the test -- while it fits, yes, it certainly does remind me why I hate "normal" harnesses so much. I can't wait until he gets big enough that I can order him a good one.

I decided to work on Jedi's leash-walking skills tonight and god help me, for some reason I decided to take both of the girls along. Considering we've never walked in town, you'd think maybe I would have started slowly. Alas, everyone in the house is going stir-crazy so I figured I'd get both of the girls out tonight. It didn't go too bad, really, it was just a lot of leashes to keep track of with a puppy who can't decide which side he wants to be on.

I drove downtown and parked by the courthouse (for those not familiar with Sparta, "downtown" is not big, we have a population around 9,500). Jedi unloaded himself right away, so we got that out of the way. After going a couple of blocks we swung up and hit the downtown strip. We walked the length of the shops, crossed the street and then walked back through downtown. There was quite a bit of vehicle traffic tonight, but not a lot of people out because of the rain. There were a few particularly loud trucks and Jedi never seemed to even notice any of the vehicle noises. Someone was nice enough to compliment the dogs' behavior, which is pretty impressive considering we had a 10-week old puppy in the bunch.

We went by the museum and I stopped and made everyone pose for pictures. Surprisingly, this went way better than I expected with Jedi (he's gotten a bit sassy about posing recently -- that first picture was a total accident, lol). Too bad Kizzy didn't feel like cooperating, but look at those border collies!

When we got back to the area where I'd left the van I figured Jedi still had some gas left in the tank, so we kept going and went down the next block, up another two, back behind the hospital, and then cut through to make our way back. In all we were out for about 40 minutes (albeit slow walking and some posing time in there), so that's pretty good!

During our breakfast training session Jedi had a major breakthrough with pivoting and finally did his first full circle! This inspired me to take the camera with me for his lunch and dinner training sessions, and tonight I put together his video for lesson 2 of his puppy class with Silvia Trkman. So far he's only doing full circles to the left, but he's offering more to the right and I'm sure he'll get there (let's face it, I honestly was starting to feel like he'd NEVER get a full circle in any direction, so it will come). We're starting to make real progress on the paw crossing as well, although there's still more sideways/circling than I'd like (I think he's following the hand with the food more than the target). Backing up is great and he has no problems with his 2-on/2-off behavior. I've also started to ask him for behaviors to earn his toy -- boy was that one hard at first, but it's getting better. He's also doing better with taking food around the toy. I have to be careful, though, because he'll spit it out if I'm not careful. We're having so much fun!

 
Finally, I'm just going to leave this picture here because I think it's adorable. I cropped the photo by the statue to include just Secret and Jedi, then placed it next to the picture Jedi's breeder took of him next to his dad. For real, have you ever seen anything cuter?! I love to see how much he's grown since then -- he was probably about four weeks in the picture with his dad? We'll have to try for similar poses as he gets bigger! Maybe some day we can even get him back with dad.

Day 18 - PetSmart

It's been a pretty crummy day weather-wise, so we really haven't gotten to do much of anything outside. Thank goodness for the training room in the basement so we at least have a dry space to have our training sessions and get a good game of tug in a few times a day. I worked from home today, so Jedi got to hang out around the house today while I worked. He's getting to spend more and more time outside of the puppy pen lately (although that's where he is tonight while I have my school seminars).

We saw a bit of a breakthrough today with potty training. For the first time Jedi started going and standing by the door to indicate that he needed to go out. Additionally, when I opened the door for him he went out, down the deck, and went potty without me needing to accompany him (which is super nice when it's raining). Now all that's left is for him to figure out the dog door and he can let himself out. He watches the other dogs go through but so far I haven't seen him give any indication on his own that he's curious about it. I've lifted the flap and called him through it a few times so that he at least has an idea of the mechanics of it. The "step" in from outside is still a pretty big jump for him, though, so he might need to get a little bigger before he's comfortable coming in. I'll have to work with him on going out, too, as I imagine the step down will be easier.

It was still raining when I finished up with work today, so I decided to make our outing of the day a trip to PetSmart. I'd pretty much been saving this one for a day just like this one, so off we went. Today I opted to take Jedi by himself, as I feel it's important for him to get used to doing stuff alone, too (something I probably don't ever do enough for my other dogs).

He traveled well by himself on the trip to Onalaska. He's doing great in the 36" crate in the van (thankfully he's stopped chewing on the water dish). Jedi is turning into a good little rider, which is pretty important given how much we travel around for agility. He rides quietly and has figured out that it's pretty much just nap time.

When we got to PetSmart I gave him the chance to potty before going into the store -- he peed and pooped on a short leash in the rain, so that's a win. We spent a good amount of time traversing the aisles in the store. I pretty much just let him sniff whatever he wanted. If someone wanted to say hello, I encouraged it -- and also warned them that he has no manners yet and will climb all over them.

He played tug with his leash in the aisles, which was awesome. They had baby-sized Chuck-It bumpers there, so I picked up one of those for our next trip to water. I also got some of the obnoxious prickly squeaky balls, but I'll probably save those for another cruddy day with nothing to do. The clearance bin had a fairly cute harness for $5 that currently fits Jedi on all of the smallest settings (it's a medium), so I went ahead and bought him that so he wouldn't have to keep stealing Kizzy's (important since she's down to one harness after the plastic snap broke on her JK9 in Chicago). I hate step-in harnesses, but I figure it's short-term.

I thought about stopping and walking around a park on the way home because the rain had let up a bit, but I figure we'll save that for another day. It was already going to be almost 7:00 before I got home and everyone still needed dinner. Jedi's training session went well tonight, we're probably about ready for video. He's been really stuck on the pivot for a while now and I think we're starting to get there.

Day 17 - Veteran's Memorial Park

I went into work for a half day again today. I left home around 7:30 and this was Jedi's first time being left in the big (36") crate. I opted to once again take advantage of my dad's generosity and asked him to let Jedi out mid-morning. I believe he came around 10:15 or so, and then I got home from the office a little after noon. Everything is going well during these short days. Maybe one of these days I'll go ahead and see how he does with a half-day without being let out by my dad. Then we can save his trips for when I need to start doing full days again.

So far the only one of my dogs who hasn't gone on a one-on-one outing with Jedi is Kaiser, so today was a day for the little guys to get out together. Kaiser mostly ignores Jedi except for when he's being a posturing jerk, so I figured it would be good bonding time for them (though I doubt these two will ever be best buddies and Kaiser's behavior will improve once Jedi gets bigger than him).

Because Kizzy wasn't along, I decided to see if I'd be able to make her harness work for Jedi. I've got a cheap nylon harness around the house somewhere but was unable to find it, so Kizzy's harness was going to have to work for Jedi's introduction to this piece of equipment. There's definitely still room for him to grow into it a bit more, but it fit well enough to work for our walk.

Today the boys and I went to Veteran's Memorial Park in West Salem for a walk around the lake. I knew there was access to the walking path into the park near where I teach classes, but I had no idea where it was --- So I parked in the park and we walked up to the path so that I could figure out the access point. We might be able to use that for one of our outdoor walks in class some night.

This was also Jedi's introduction to a flexi leash. While I know this piece of equipment can be controversial in some circles, I find them to be incredibly useful tools when used correctly. Namely, I use them a lot when we travel. The Klee Kai live on them because they can never be off leash -- hopefully that's not an issue with Jedi, though.  :o)

I was glad to have the leash on him around the pond! There were several times when I had to give him a little "encouragement" with my recall cue to get him to leave the edge of the pond. This particular pond is pretty scummy (already!) and the one time Secret went swimming there I had to stop and give her a bath at the dog wash on the ride home because she smelled THAT BAD. I didn't want that to happen again!

The walk around the pond wasn't that long, but there was a big hill that we had to go up to find the trail entrance and that seemed to poop the little guy out a bit. Never fear, he always recovers quickly. I always find it comical to see the flair with which he flops himself onto the ground when he's tired.

We walked around the playground area a bit before heading home and I made the boys pose for pictures. Apparently Jedi wasn't tired enough, because he was a bit of a pistol for posing today. Kaiser, who is a pro at such things, was a bit disgusted with him.  lol  He'll learn eventually.

Susan Garrett had a post on Facebook today asking for some specific measurements of 10-week old male border collie puppies. Well, I have one of those! I didn't think I'd ever be able to manage it on my own, but I found out that peanut butter smeared on the fridge actually does a really good job at distracting a puppy into holding still for measurements. Thankfully he also fits on my bathroom scale, so I got that, too. I got the following measurements of Jedi at 10 weeks:

10.6 lbs
Floor to top of head - 13"
Floor to elbow - 7"
Length nose to tip of tail - 27"
Width - 7" (?)
Girth - 15.5"

Two of his brothers chimed in as being 12.4 lbs, so apparently Jedi is still a bit smaller than them. Only Hiro (formerly Zeus) gave all of the measurements -- he's 16" tall and 28" long. Always fun to compare! 

Day 16 - Rockland Park

After two weeks of working from home I know I need to start going into the office again soon, but Mondays are slow and boring, so I figured it could wait until tomorrow. Unfortunately it's been pretty cold outside again, so outdoor meetings have been less than pleasant and we've been stuck indoors quite a bit. In other news, the next lesson was just posted for our Silvia Trkman puppy class, so I have some homework to get to! I stopped videoing once we had covered all of the topics from lesson 1, but we've continued to work through our 3x/day training sessions. I'm looking forward to sharing our next video, whenever I get it done.

I had a dinner meeting to attend tonight, so I needed to keep our outing fairly close to home. I decided to go to the other park in Rockland, the one with the old school house. It's a small park, but it has a nice big grassy area with a small ball field and some playground equipment. Today I took Jedi, Secret, and some tennis balls.

The last time we played with tennis balls at home Jedi was doing more chasing and chewing than chasing and bringing back, so I wanted to take advantage of the big open spaces to allow me to run away and get him to run back with the ball. From the get-go he did better with fetching today. He still stopped short a couple of times and when I ran away he followed, but without the ball. lol  We'll have to continue working on that. The good news is that he doesn't play keep-away or other silly games. He's all about getting the ball thrown again!

After everyone was properly hydrated I decided to take the dogs on a short walk around the block. Jedi hasn't really had the experience of a proper leash walk yet. Before his arrival I was pretty good about getting the dogs out for at least one walk a day, if not more. Because I feel bad about leaving him behind (because we always do 2+ miles) I have pretty much just abandoned our walks. It would be nice if we could start to work these back into our schedule -- Pretty sure all of my dogs would agree with that statement.

It was pretty much a non-event! Other than weaving back and forth like a drunken sailor and not knowing which side of me he wanted to be on everything went great. No pulling, straining, or any of the other bad behaviors we see in puppy class. The weaving is annoying, so we'll work on it, but right now I'm just letting him figure out this walking thing and that it's pretty cool.

All of their trips together must be helping Secret bond to Jedi. She continues to take more of a shine to him each day, although Kizzy still continues to butt in any time she senses they are doing something. I managed to take this video tonight (dark, so the lighting is cruddy) to show how well Secret is doing with Jedi. She's still a bit much for him on the ground, but at least he feels comfortable enough to interact with her from the couch now!

Day 15 - Exploring the bike trail (10 weeks old!)

Jedi is 10 weeks old today! It was raining this morning, but rain doesn't stop a puppy from needing to get out his energy, so I stood outside with an umbrella while Jedi chased frisbees. He didn't mind getting wet at all. Jedi looks so much different when he's wet -- the fluff goes away! Wonder what that coat will end up doing long-term? Mom and Dad don't have big coats, so it should be medium to light, I think.

Once I got caught up on the last season of Game of Thrones before the premier tonight it was time for our puppy outing of the day. Earlier in the day I was thinking maybe it would be a good day to make a trip to PetSmart or something because of the rain, but the weather had let up and it wasn't too bad outside. Because of that, I opted to throw the crew into the van and head out for an excursion on a section of the local bike trail.

All went well minus the mini heart attack I had when Jedi moved to look over the edge of the bridge (a good 30'-40' above water). I knew I should have put him on a leash for going over the bridge just in case he got curious like that, but thankfully he immediately came back when I called his name. Lesson learned, he was put on a leash for the trip back and of course then he didn't pay any attention to the bridge.

I picked off a couple of ticks and then we went to Theisen's to pick up more treats (they've had Instinct freeze-dried treats on clearance and I keep going back to get more because they work great in the treat pouch). When I got back out to the van I noticed a couple more ticks crawling on the dogs (ugh!!), so quickly got the dogs out to do another quick pick. A young couple saw Jedi and Kizzy and asked if they could pet them, so in the midst of me digging for ticks Jedi got to meet a couple of new people today.

In other news, I think Jedi is officially done with the puppy crate. In some ways this makes me sad. I liked having the puppy crate stacked on top of the 30" crate because this meant I could see him all night with no effort. He's been going into the bigger crate on his own when we go into the bedroom, though, so I think he's saying that's where he wants to be. Guess we'll give it a go, I'm sure he's ready for some extra room.

Day 14 - Here comes the lawn mower

We didn't go on any fun field trips today, but I figured that Jedi's first exposure to the lawn mower would count as his new experience of the day. I finally got the vacuum cleaner out for the first time just a couple of days ago and he wasn't a huge fan (just removed himself from the area, nothing big), so I didn't expect him to feel too fondly about the mower.

He was definitely a bit freaked out when it first fired up. He pretty much stuck to the front of the yard by the house and every time I came around he would dash into the corner of the fence. Each time I passed him I left the mower and gave him a treat -- which he took, so obviously things weren't too bad. Things continued to get better as I went around, perhaps because I stopped coming so close to him. The other dogs are also good role models, too, because they don't care at all about the mower. I'm sure in time Jedi will be the same. For now, though, I let him hang out in his safe place, which generally tends to be under the agility table. I wonder how much longer he'll fit under there? It's set at 12" and it's already getting to be a squeeze for him!

In other news, I decided to rearrange the puppy pen today. I've been hauling the puppy crate back and forth from the bedroom to put into the pen each day, but since he's quickly growing out of that crate I figured I would attach the pen to the big 36" crate that I have in the living room. My hope is that having the puppy pen attached to the crate will give him time to explore it before I actually have to leave him there for any amount of time. So far he is pretty much just hanging out in the tarped area outside of the crate, though.

Day 13 - Agility Run-Throughs (Canine Sports Zone)

Today Jedi went on his first road trip since the long drive home from Indianapolis. We are going to an agility trial next weekend, so I figured this would be good practice for that! Canine Sports Zone in Middleton was hosting run-throughs as a fundraiser for a person going to the European Open. They were also having a raffle and other fun stuff, so I figured it would be a great opportunity to get in some socialization for Jedi and train my own dogs in the process.

After some complaining at the start of the trip that he was bored (this doesn't typically include vocalizations, just a lot of moving around in the crate and assuming odd positions until he settles in), Jedi traveled very well for the two-hour drive. When we got there I let him out right away to potty and then took him in with me to drop off my training bag and check things out. It was plenty cool outside, so I just planned on working the dogs out of the van. Jedi took everything in and walked around the building like he owned it.

It was a super experience for Jedi! He got to meet lots of nice new people and interacted with a few friendly dogs, too. In between my turns with the other dogs I was able to bring him inside for some play time. Jedi got to play tug on the turf in the area where all of the dogs were waiting to run. There was a lot going on in that small area and he didn't notice any of it. Honestly, I think the world kind of shuts out for him when toys are concerned. On another trip inside we spent time chasing frisbees and doing recalls in the matted area, so that Jedi would get experience running on that surface as well.

Once the run-throughs were done everyone gathered in the raffle area. Jedi got to hang out with us where he got to say hi to more people and got some one-on-one playtime with a super nice dog named Finch. Before we knew it we were heading home. Then Jedi got to learn about pig ears -- these are something I typically reserve for trips home from events as a reward for a job well done. Jedi thought that was pretty cool. The rest of the trip home was pretty uneventful. We got home around 9:30 and then still had to feed everyone dinner, so our schedule was a bit thrown off. Thank goodness it's Friday and we have the weekend to recover.

Day 12 - Pool play and Experimental Forest

We'll start today off with this cute picture of Jedi spending time outside of the puppy pen while I worked this morning. He earned this time out of the pen because he has gone two whole days without peeing in the house! He's not giving any indication that he needs to go yet (at least not that I've figured out yet), we just go outside a lot. While Jedi has never pooped in the house, he seems to have definitely made the connection there because twice now I've called him to come inside and he's turned away and said, "Oh wait, I still need to go!" That's pretty awesome!

The other day on Facebook I mentioned that I would need to buy a kiddy pool for Jedi because he was spending all of his time playing in the 3-gallon water bucket outside. One of my friends said that she had one that she'd never used before and that I was welcome to have hers. I was able to pick it up on the way home from my doctor appointment the other day, but it's been a little chilly since then. Today still wasn't super warm, but when I noticed Jedi going back for the bucket again I decided to pull out the pool (actually, she gave me two!).

It took practically  no time at all for Jedi to start exploring the pool. I did try to throw some toys in there, but the dogs just kept pulling them out and taking them somewhere to chew. I ended up having better luck just leaving the pool empty (of toys) and then going back to my chair to work. Then this happened.

After work today I decided to take the dogs back up to the Experimental Forest outside of Bangor. Technically this is a "repeat experience" for Jedi because that's where we went on his first hike last week, but we went a different route this time so I still count it as new.

I'm impressed at how quickly Jedi's stamina is growing. We were out for a bit over a half hour and he ran the whole way this time. I did pick him up once when he laid down, thinking he was tired -- but he immediately kicked and squirmed so I let him back down to run. I pretty much held him just long enough to transfer a tick onto myself. Hooray. I love hiking, I hate ticks. I pick off whatever I can find before the dogs get back into the van and then do a quick check again once we get home. So far it hasn't been too bad. I haven't found anything attached to anyone yet, so that's a win for the products they are each using, I guess. I'm surprised that I'm having that much success with Jedi's Frontline application.

Day 11 - Oil Change and home alone

Today I had to officially cut the cord and leave Jedi to go back into the office for a bit. I had a meeting I needed to attend in person and was also supposed to move my desk -- but that didn't happen because nobody else had moved their stuff yet. I guess that can wait until next week, but it was good to have face time with my boss and remind people that I still work there.

I strongly debated taking Jedi along and leaving him in the van like I did yesterday for my doctor appointment. I didn't know what the parking situation would be, though. Ideally I would have been able to park next to Riverside Park so that we'd have easy access to a potty spot, but I really worry about all of the vigilantes who call in any dog in a car they see these days (despite the fact that the temperatures were in the 50s). Since Jedi would have been in the puppy crate in the front seat he would have been pretty easy to spot -- and who knows if he would have cried. So, in the end, I decided it would be best to leave him home for the first time. Thankfully it wasn't going to be long, and I was able to ask my dad to come let him out -- so he really didn't go longer than 2 hours in the crate without being let out.

I was home in time to do our lunch training session and then I mostly worked outside until it was time to leave to go get the oil changed in my van. I think I've had the oil changed three times in three months thanks to all of the traveling I've been doing since February (post-injury trial cram before Nationals, AKC Nationals, trip to pick up Jedi...). Jedi got to come along to the dealership and experience a bunch of new sights and sounds.

I carried him into the reception area because, well, nobody needs a puppy peeing in the welcome area and you just never know. Because it was a nice day, I decided we'd just spend the next half hour or so outside playing. We wandered through the cars on our way to find a grassy area, and Jedi tugged on his leash pretty much the whole way (yeah, that's pretty much what we do when we wear a leash right now).

The only grassy area we could find was probably less than 500' from the highway, so Jedi got to experience quite a bit of traffic noise (I don't think he could see too much of it, though). He wasn't bothered by this at all and happily tugged on whatever toy I offered him out of the bag. We practiced just chilling for a bit and before I knew it the 30 minutes had passed and the van was done.

I took this video tonight while Jedi and Kizzy played on the couch (no, Jedi can't get up by himself yet, he needs help). Kizzy is just in love with "her" puppy.

Day 10 - Gaylord Park (Rockland)

Today was our first rainy day since Jedi came home. It quickly became obvious that raising a puppy is much easier with nice weather! Thankfully the rain was very light and spotty, so we still had plenty of opportunities to get outside throughout the day -- Jedi just ended up a little muddy from the wet grass and his new love of playing in the dirt under the deck.

I had a doctor appointment this morning and I opted to take Jedi along with me and let him sit in the van (in the smaller puppy crate). It worked out really well -- my lab work went super fast, so I had time to run back out to the van to let Jedi out to play before going in for my appointment. My main appointment only took a half hour, so then it was back out to play with the puppy before going home to work the rest of the day.

It was still raining lightly when work was done for the day, but puppies need to be puppies so today I packed up Jedi and Secret and took them to Gaylord Park in Rockland. This is a smaller park, but offers a good space to play in a new environment.

Secret has always struggled with playing away from home, which is a big reason why I'm spending so much time on this with Jedi from day one. I want him to know that toys are for everywhere, not just our backyard. That said, Secret was a super role model today! I took the dogs and frisbees out onto the empty baseball field and we had fun catching discs and chasing rollers. Secret seemed to enjoy getting to open up and go for the long tosses. At the end I had two border collies with their tongues hanging out, so I call that a success.

I put the frisbees back in the car and we spent some time wandering the perimeter of the park for a bit. There were a group of kids having soccer practice in the big open field, so we stuck to the edges. Jedi didn't seem to notice the kids at all. On the way back to the van we went through the gravel parking lot and climbed over a pile of rocks. Another good day!