+ Chai and I started the day with a round of tugging on the bed and then had a tug-and-flirt-pole session on the roof. (See this post for a video.)
+ We had our first session explaining the imaginary line (LLW)1 to Chai!
+ I took Game and Chai to our favorite park and park-officed from there while the dogs enjoyed free time at the park. I love working outdoors and Mexico City’s free wifi is decent here!
Bougainvillea season. I love the color. Stop and take a moment to look up at a tree. Beauty lives in small moments like this.
For the first time e-ver, I used Chai’s informal pup-pup-pup recall cue to call her out of a social interaction with a new dog (at a moment she was about to take a break anyways), and sent her back to socialize some more as a reinforcer. She did GREAT! I’m so proud of her! I then tried her formal recall cue as well and she rocked that one too.
Husbandry
+ “Claws!” and + “Brush!”
Social time
Chai enjoyed Zane’s company in the evening. He is quickly turning into a human she is excited to see! I love seeing her circle of friends expand.
(1) If you’re not familiar with the invisible line concept – click here for info about my December class and a micro e-book on different LLW approaches.
Game, Chai and I spent a big chunk of the day with Zane (the friend who’s staying with us) at Chapultepec. First things first, of course: weekend madness at the swimming spot! I’ve not taken Chai here on the weekend before (only during the week). Today, she got to play with the big dogs! She fell into the water and swam twice (totally unfazed) and had fun playing with one of the other dogs. (The stuff you hear me say in this clip is directed at my friend or at Game.)
Once the dogs were tired, we hung out in the shade and recorded a semi-spontaneous podcast episode about being foreigners who used to live in Guatemala and then moved to Mexico, The Pandemic, Guanajuato, San Cristobal, social anxiety, the walk- and bikeability of Mexico City, worker co-ops and the search for community.
… and then we got food to recharge while lazing around in the shade some more!
In the late afternoon, both dogs stayed home alone while I went to a drag story hour with friends. They read My Shadow Is Pink by Scott Stewart. The book – at least in its Spanish translation – is lovely and so cute that I just ordered the German edition to an Austrian friend’s house so she can read it to her kids). It was great to see kids running around and having fun and their parents having a good time as well – especially thinking of the politization of drag story hours in the US (are you ever going to get your shit together, US?) What a contrast to see folks come together and have a good time!
We all went back to my place after – Chai got to see two of our human friends and got loved on quite a bit! – and then walked to my friends’ place with Game, leaving Chai to stay home alone. She was being a very good girl and had no complaints about sitting this one out. Game enjoyed her only-dog privilege for the duration of our meanderings.
A sign we passed on the walk to my friends’ place.
June 4, 2023: dog training and all the little things around the neighborhood
+ We worked on tug on the bed with the fleece tug and on the roof with the flirt pole.
+ I added a verbal cue to Chai’s hand touch (inside the house).
+ Game, Chai and I went to our favorite park in the next neighborhood over. Chai and I played recall games: obstacle recalls and flying cookie recalls! This park has a fun playground that is perfect for obstacle fun.
Obstacle recalls! Just the right level of challenge for a brave little Border Collie and her human:
+ Chai asked to go into the dog park again, so we did and after feeling overwhelmed for half a minute, she confidently played with a Whippet named Dalí.
+ I did some informal recalls in the fenced dog park and then we headed out again and Chai spent 10 minutes just hanging out around the kids at the open children’s playground, interspersed with more informal recalls and obstacle games.
Game is posing on a concrete hippo. In the right picture, you can see all the kids in the background!
+ We walked past a giant phallic yellow blow-up thing (some sort of ad) twice. By the second time, Chai thought it was probably alright rather than out to get her. Go puppy!
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 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 went to a dog-friendly indoors mall where my adventure dogs walked among people and rode the glass elevator three times (Chai confidently rode the elevator with Game – her bad elevator feelings from the Coyoacán elevator have not generalized!) and joined me at the bank. Cha has not been to a mall before and was being a superstar! She is on the retractable leash (a long line would work just as well) to give her as much of a “freely exploring” experience as possible without getting kicked out by taking off the leash.
While leash walking is important, feeling confident and being able to show exploratory behavior in new kinds of spaces (large, busy, indoors) is even more important to me. It also gives me a better idea of who Chai is than a shorter leash would because it allows for more agency: does she need me as a crutch and can’t take her eyes off of me in order to not have to look at all the stimuli around us? Does she forget about my existance altogether and just try and go off on her own?
As you can see in this video, it’s neither one nor the other but the golden middle: Chai explored ahead of Game and me but checked in regularly before reaching the end of the line and waited for us to catch up in the end of this clip.
Left: beauty in strange places. Right: stopping for a snack on the way to the mall.
I need the hand touch as a foundation skill to later use to get Chai back into position (behind the invisible line)1 when she forges!
June 2, 2023 (day 57) – getting started on hand touches!
With a treat in the target hand …
… and then we fade the treat!
June 4, 2023 (day 59): no more luring and a cue!
Presenting an empty hand right away
Adding a verbal cue
Over the next few days, I’ll ask for the hand touch in low distraction outdoors environments … And if things look as good as they do indoors, we’re ready for the next step in our invisible line leash walking journey! (Aka explaining to Chai where the invisible line is located!)
(1) As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, if you’ve taken the class Out and About I used to teach at FDSA, you’ll know what I’m talking about in terms of the “invisible line.” If you’ve taken Out and About but not worked on leash walking, you can look up the broader context of this approach in the leash walking lectures in your FDSA library!
If you have NOT taken Out and About and want to know what the heck an invisible line is, you can find a micro e-book about this and other LLW approaches as well as info about the future home of “Out and About 2.0” here.
Giving in to leash pressure is a loose leash walking foundation skill that will cue Chai to reorient when reaching the end of her leash and keep her from pulling sideways once we are working on collar mode.1
June 1, 2023 (day 56) – Chai’s first two leash pressure sessions on a collar!
I haven’t put a collar on Chai before her first session today – she doesn’t even have a collar of her own yet, so the one you’ll see in this video is a bit big. It’s one of Game’s collars that I rarely use. I’ve only walked Chai on a harness so far. Note: it is MUCH easier to teach leash skills to a dog who doesn’t have a history of pulling yet. If your dog does, it is completely normal for them to take longer than Chai. It is easiest to teach leash walking to a puppy.
Collar leash pressure session 1:
Session 2:
In her second collar leash pressure session, Chai gives in every time before I bring out the treat – that’s our cue to take things into a new environment in the next session after!
June 2, 2023 (day 57) – leash pressure in a new environment
We repeated the leash pressure behavior up on our roof – a low-distraction outdoors environment (no video). Chai did just as well as she had done inside. Leash pressure on a collar: check! We’ll be moving on to the next foundation behavior for our invisible line LLW behavior: the hand touch!
(1) In this post, I am specifically referring to the invisible line approach to loose leash walking. If you’ve taken the class Out and About I used to teach at FDSA, you’ll know what I’m talking about in terms of the “invisible line.” If you’ve taken Out and About but not worked on leash walking, you can look up the broader context of this approach in the leash walking lectures in your FDSA library!
If you have NOT taken Out and About and want to know what the heck I am talking about, you can get a micro e-book on my loose leash walking approaches here. It comes with all the training steps, larger concepts that are not a part of this blog post (WHY do we need these baseline behaviors in the first place and WTF is an invisible line?), more unlisted example videos and other fun training materials.
To sort out some bureaucracy things at the old apartment, we went back to Plaza Copilco one more time.
I got there before the building administrator. Game stayed in the car crate and I practiced walking past the Pits and getting video of Chai doing so to kill the time. (The whining you can hear in the video below is the Pitbull, not Chai.)
Once the admin arrived, I tethered Chai to the car and she did a great job just hanging out and waiting (in a familiar, yet public) environment while I was in the office doing paperwork stuff for 15 minutes or so.
Game, Chai and I then went to Las Islas. It was at least the third time we went there thinking it would be the last time in a while – but hey, here we are yet again!
The dogs got to check out a student market at a part of the UNAM campus we hadn’t previously been to!
At Las Islas, Chai had SO much fun in the mud today!
It’s becoming a theme for us that when Chai moves into a new place, one of the first things that need to happen are a shower for the Border Collie!
SO much fun in the mud!I’m the kind of person who’ll have a good laugh and cheer them on, or get out their camera and take pictures rather than spoiling the good time the dogs are having. What type of person are you?
Back home, Chai and I took a shower (sorry, Border Collie).
Then both dogs went to the supermarket with me and did a great job waiting outside. With this being more of a fresa (posh) neighborhood, Chai saw her first Afghan Hound (and was weirded out, but bravely walked past them twice!) and her first two Basset Hounds (again, they seemed weird to her but she quickly got to a point of greeting them on leash).
On the way back to the apartment, we passed through a park and met a tricolor BC puppy Chai’s age: Juana. Juana’s human agreed to let her off leash and the two played themselves tired chasing each other through the park. Chai was faster – I suspect that’s becaise Juana (don’t tell them I said that!) is a little overweight which likely slows her down.
So much going on today and even more adventures await! Tired dogs are good dogs.
I like how neatly the dogs put their sea creatures on the blueish (ocean) cover of my bed. It’s like they purposefully wanted them to swim together, the hammer shark a little ahead of the dolphin.
Chai went on an evening walk by herself and then stayed home alone for Game’s evening walk. She is being a home-alone rockstar. I am glad I started getting her used to this right away!
Her ability to stay home alone and relax is partly me because I have and continue to put a lot of thought and practice into this, but there also is a genetic part. Some dogs have a STRONG genetic disposition to develop separation anxiety. Part of the reason we know there are hereditary factors is that it is substantially more prevalent in certain breeds (for example Weimaraners) than others. We also know that parents (of any breed) with separation anxiety are more likely to produce offspring with separation anxiety than parents without separation anxiety. Unsolicited advice: add this to your list of things to ask your breeder (if you are getting a puppy from a breeder or any other puppy with known parents!)
A new human friend for little Chais
Tonight, my friend Zane who’ll stay with me for a month made it from the airport to the apartment. Game was VERY excited to see him again and Chai, following Game’s lead, immediately wanted to be his friend as well.
Today’s pee tally
+ Shower: 1 + All other pees happened outdoors because we were hardly home at all.
I also managed to get TWO poops outdoors – that’s new record! Both happened after I did the belly massage my Dad had recommended to stimulate the digestive system. I’ll have to repeat this a few more times to see if making an indoor/outdoor poop difference really is THAT simple, but for now: thank you so much, Papa!
Day 53 – May 29, 2023: moving day and settling in!
We started with a morning walk & pee with Game at Las Islas. I then took care of moving stuff while Game and Chai stayed home alone at our old place in Coyoacán for about 2 hours.
We then made our way to our new and more central stomping grounds together. Most of my friends now live within walking distance, which is AWESOME!
The three of us explored the new neighborhood together.
Settling in
Left:Game found the couch!Right: I love that I don’t own a lot of shit. Moving is easy when everything you own fits in a suitcase and a backpack!Well, I guess technically now I have a mattress and a couch as well. Sigh.I am NOT a fan of owning things that size.
All is well now that we’ve unpacked and made our new space comfy: Game has settled in on the bed and Chai on the couch!
A new environment; it’s dark outside … and Chai is unfazed by strangers climbing through the window!
The Internet-install-service people showed up at night – and wow, Chai was totally unfazed when they climbed in through the window! I love it!
Strangers climbing through windows? Shrug.
After there finally was Internet, I only had time to quickly grab some pastries from a fresa bakery nearby. Yummy but overpriced – that fact aside, they have a GREAT comic on their wall. Read it from right to left:
Read from right to left. This is the artist’s Instagram with more of their work!
Game, Chai and I went on a night walk together to wrap up the day and do some more neighborhood exploring. First impression: very walkable! I like!
In everybody pees news
I want to teach Chai (who is not housetrained yet) to only go in the shower in the new place as well. So far, we had one pee in the living room which I interrupted by picking her up and putting her down in the shower. She finished there. Which brings us to our first shower training tally:
Living room: 0.5 Shower: 0.5
All other pees happened outside, prompted by Game. For now, Chai will sleep in the bathroom AKA her luxury kennel and I won’t be counting her overnight pees in my tally.
Day 54 – May 30, 2023: our first full day at the new place!
Chai went on a morning walk with Game and then on an adventure to one of the parks in the next neighborhood over (less fresa aka posh; more our vibe). Chai wanted to go into the dog park, so we did – but we left quickly because it was a bit overwhelming for little Border Collies. However, we had two excellent encounters with off leash dogs and Chai on a retractable leash1 right after!
Doing well meeting nice off-leash dogs in the street!
We also went to two corner stores to pick up the basics (such as toilet paper). Chai and Game waited outside both of them without complaining!
Good dogs waiting for me out of sight outside a convenience store!
Chai and Game stayed home alone in the afternoon, and later got to play with a visiting dog friend. Chai also did great staying in the bathroom while I had visitors: countering FOMO since 2023! I’m proud of her for not always needing to be part of the action.
In everybody pees news
Today’s everybody-pees tally for when I was home with the bathroom door open:
+ Shower pees: 2 + Living room: 0
(Is it possible that she is learning THIS fast?!)
(1) Why is Chai wearing a retractable leash? Because I’m experimenting with it (it’s been a while since I last used one) and Chris gave me his to play around with – thank you! So far, I’d say it works quite well and I like it a lot better than the old Flexi leashes that had a string that could cut you rather than a leash-leash like this one.
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!
We didn’t go on any adventures or exciting outings today – except for pee breaks, we all stayed in, and it was …
Positions
… time for obediency stuff! We worked on positions in two sessions: one for Chai’s breakfast and the other one for her lunch.
Breakfast session
You’re about to see a 10 minute long uninterrupted positions training session with a 5 months old puppy. Is this what I, C, Professional Dog Trainer, would recommend anyone do with their 5 months old puppy? No. I’d say keep sessions to 2 minutes or, if you have a really avid worker, 3 minutes max at this age to ensure your puppy learns that training is a privilege rather than a chore. So why am I not heeding my own advice? Because I’m me and some days I can’t help it. I am grateful for having dogs who just roll with it! Also note that this is a day where training is pretty much all Chai got to do (except for pee outings which at this point mostly only involve Game peeing).
Session profile:
Cues: sit (sitz), stand (steh) and down (platz) Announcements: All done (I will not work or play with you anymore even if you pester me) Marker cues: tongue click (treat from hand), Good (room service), treats (scatter cue; in the very end of this video) Home position: hands behind my back Transition behavior (what I do between (marker) cues and (treat or lure) hand movement: blink once
Lunch session
Session profile:
Same as above.
Look how far her understanding has come between the two sessions! Go Chai! This is looking fantastic!
In some of the reps, it looks as if Chai was guessing positions. That is entirely possible … and it doesn’t bother me. She can play a guessing game and get reinforced anytime she gets it right. Over time, this leads to learning. Notice that Chai is learning several new things at the same time in this session: the marker cue “Good” (room service) and all three positions. She does not need to understand every single word I say in order for us to have an enriching training conversation. It’s like learning a new language or reading in a foreign language: you don’t need to know every single word or grammar rule in order to follow the plot.
PS: when I say “Yes,” it’s just a commentary on Chai having done well. It is not a marker cue.
PPS: the reason Game is chilling on her mat behind us is that she has excellent mat skills. If there was no mat, she would very much be participating!
Husbandry
+ Chai got the claws on her left and right back paws clipped and did great.
The art of doing nothing
She was able to hang out in her luxury kennel – the bathrooom – with visitors and Game in the main room. Good puppy keeping the FOMO from raising its head! It is just as important to include your puppy in your general activities as it is to occasionally have them NOT participate. Both are important skills for your future life together!
It’s Sunday, and it’s the day of the monthly Sungay Brunch (a traveling queer and somewhat fresa daytime brunch party thing I occasionally go). It’s always at a dog friendly location which makes it perfect to socialize your puppy!
Today was Chai’s first time. We went to Parque España first to get some of our need to move out!
Parque España and fresa Zuzu’s.
There’s lots to see at Parque España!
We also watched kids at the playground (normalizing kids running and screaming is a big deal for herding dogs!)
Playground puppy! “Kids are normal and boring and there’s no need to develop herdy feelings towards them.”
Dog park puppy!
I then spontaneously let Chai into a dog park for the first time in her life. It wasn’t too busy and she wanted to greet one of the dogs inside – so why not. She’s not a baby puppy anymore (I wouldn’t take a dog under 5 months to the dog park because they can’t get away or defend themselves at all.) A slightly older, bolder puppy? If she wants to go into the dog park – into the dog park we go!
In the video below, you’ll see how Chai’s tail position changes after the first 2ish minutes in the park: it starts out low but then goes up. A working Border Collie’s natural tail position is low when relaxed. However, when confident and exploring new territories – and overall when confident and being a puppy! – the tail tends to go down and up with the puppy’s confidence level.
I use the opportunity to charge Chai’s formal recall cue – “Schnee!” – in a distracting environment and protect her from the Great-Dane-mix-looking dog when he comes too close for her to be comfortable. My overall advice for a fairly confident puppy: allow them to explore freely. If they stick to you or hide behind you, they are asking for help – give them what they are asking for in order to turn yourself into a traveling safe haven for your dog. This is HUGE and will help you as they get older (and faster and more independent): you are building the tendency to run TOWARDS rather away from you in the face of perceived danger.
Sidenote: if your puppy is a bully, don’t take them to the dog park. It’s not fair to everyone else there. Instead, find opportunities for your puppy to socialize with adult dogs who can set appropriate boundaries.
The art of doing nothing
After our stint at the park, we made our way to Zuzu’s Rooftop – the location of today’s Sungay Brunch. Chai did an amazing job mastering the initially scary stairs! And then just hanging out … my little superstar! Practicing the art of doing nothing since 2023!
One of THE most important skills for a busy dog like many Border Collies and other workaholics is the art of doing nothing. There are several ways of getting there and you can mix and match. One example is what I showed here and also here with Puzzle: mat work CU style. Another one is what I show in my older mat and crate protocol: part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4. And yet another one is just taking your puppy places when they still need a relatively large amount of sleep and setting them up for success by letting them play or run around a little before providing a mat and a chew in a stimulating environment – this is what I’m doing in the video above, in this post. You can stick to one of the above approaches or use all of them in different situations – whatever works for you and your dog! There are also other protocols out there such as Karen Overall’s Protocol for Relaxation. None of these are “right” or “wrong,” “better” or “worse” – it’s all about finding what works best for you and the dog in front if you!
3 caveats
+ First, don’t only crate your dog in a car and expect them to be able to relax in a crate elsewhere. Cars are VERY specific contexts and in my experience, dogs don’t generalize well from them.
+ Second, don’t exhaust your dog completely before taking them to a stimulating place to relax (like in the video with Chai above). She still has fuel to keep going – our stint at Parque España was not much longer than it took me to film the video and take the pictures! If your puppy falls asleep due to exhaustion, this does not tend to carry over into real relaxation once they are a little older (and don’t get exhausted easily). Trust me – I’ve made that mistake with Phoebe!
+ Third, if your dog is fearful, don’t start with crazy environments like the one in my video above. Pick a quiet corner of an indoors space or a quiet park – whatever your dog is more comfortable with – and slowly increase criteria from there once your dog is able to relax!
