Back to Chai’s diary!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In everybody pees news

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

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

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

+ We worked on hand touches and leash pressure.

+ We played informally with toys on the couch.

All the toys!

Chai’s first time at an indoors mall

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

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

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