Kai winks at the camera

He looked so cute all snuggled up but then he happened to wink just as I snapped the pic. Ha.

Kai Loves to Destroy Stuffed Animals

We don't give Kai many stuffed animals to play with anymore because THIS happens!

Mendocino With Kai

special goodies just for Kai at the inn

We took Kai on a fairly nice vacation recently, to the Stanford Inn in Mendocino.  The Stanford Inn is a dog-friendly retreat with an excellent vegan restaurant.  You even can take your dog to the restaurant while you eat!  I think Kai had a great time.  He visited two different dog parks (in Mendocino and Fort Bragg, where he got super muddy!).  He spent lots of time digging holes and running around on the beach.  I bought him treats at the pet shop in Mendocino Village.  He walked around and got lots of attention from everyone, and even got to meet another Shiba (a black and tan... she didn't like Kai.  But her owners said she doesn't like most dogs).

 Kai did ok on the trip, for the most part.  He had his share of monstering, though.  Our room had a outdoor balcony, and he kept wanting to go out, but I didn't want him out there unsupervised because I was worried that he'd be able to squeeze through the fence slats and run out (we were on the ground level).  He would keep trying to scratch at the door to the balcony, and we had to block it at one point to get him to stop.  During our first breakfast, we had to take him back to the room, because he wanted to bark too much and we didn't want the other guests to be disturbed.  Kai also decided that firewood kindling was fun to chew, so I had to clean that up.  Overall, though, he was pretty good.  I'm glad we took him, even though he had his brat moments.  We are SO lucky in that he's always fine once in his crate.  We crated him a couple times so that we could enjoy the pool area and go out to our favorite pizza place.  He immediately relaxes and just chills out in there.  I always make sure he has a chew toy in there, but 99% of the time he just sleeps.

sweet potato treat!

Kai sees his first llama

Llamas are so interesting!

sleepy and tired after a long day of monstering

handsome boys

Sulking at the Gym

We've tried taking Kai to the gym a few more times, so that he doesn't have to be left alone at home when we go.  But he just doesn't seem to like going.  He gets all sulky.

Kai does his "Yoda ears" when he is grumpy

I don't know if he dislikes the large space with weird people climbing high up on walls, or if there are too many bros, or if he just gets grumpy about having to be stuck sitting somewhere while Chris and I do our gym things.  It's kind of a bummer, because we go to the gym a lot and we totally were planning on taking him all the time once he was old enough.  Hopefully he'll get more used to it, but for now, we are only taking him occasionally.  I don't want to force him to be there if he isn't enjoying himself!

Kai's kennel cough, fortunately, seems to be totally cleared up now.  Yay!  So he gets to go on walks again, and he can visit Cousin Vinny for playtime this weekend.  I can tell that Kai is getting a bit restless after having been cooped up in the house so much while he was sick.  He misses playing with other dogs :/

Getting Along

Kai is still not 100% over his kennel cough yet, but he's been coughing less and less.  Hopefully we'll be able to start taking him out soon!

I wish I could say that Kai and Molly are friends, but I think they mostly just tolerate each other.  Once in a while, though, they will actually hang out together, and that is always so cute!

Molly keeps Kai company

Kennel Cough :(

Poor Kai has kennel cough!  He most likely picked it up last weekend at Wag Hotel.  We boarded him there overnight last weekend while we were in Santa Cruz.  He was fine until Wednesday morning, when he woke us up at 6am making the most horrible gagging sounds.  I was so worried and we almost took him to the emergency vet.  Instead, we took him to our regular vet that morning.  The vet said that it's a bad time of year for kennel cough right now, and the bordatella vaccine really can't do much against it because of the vast variety of strains out there.  Infected dogs will go several days before showing symptoms, but they are still contagious during that time, so it's really impossible for places like Wag Hotel to totally keep it out, no matter how clean the place is.

The vet gave us a week's worth of antibiotics (to prevent a secondary infection) and cough suppressant.  Kai has to stay away from other dogs while he's contagious, which can be for up to a week after his symptoms go away.  We're not even supposed to take him on walks or do anything else that could excite him and trigger the coughing. 

We had planned on taking Kai back to Wag for All Day Play this weekend, and also he was supposed to get some play time with Cousin Vinny.  Now he's stuck at home.  We can't even take him to the dog park.  I feel so bad for poor little Kai.  I hope he gets better soon!

Mendocino With Kai

Kai went on his second camping trip with us, this time to MacKerricher Campground, near Fort Bragg.  He got to hang out with Dylan, visit the beach, stroll around Mendocino, and play at the Mendocino dog park.  He even went to some restaurants with us and was a relatively good boy.  Kai got pretty dirty at the dog park, but his magical Shiba coat somehow manages to repel the dirt away after a couple of hours!

Kai and Dylan enjoy the beach

hangin' out with the boys

Kai sits awkwardly in our tent

mid-day nap for tired doggies

lounging on the camp chair

Kai was a good boy at the fancy vegan restaurant

Dylan also enjoys lounging on camp chairs