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

Too Much Barking

I just found out last weekend that Kai apparently has been barking his head off whenever he's left alone!  Chris and I had no idea.  Kai never has exhibited any signs of anxiety when we prepare to leave, he doesn't bark when we DO leave... he is always excited when we come back, but not overly so.  He has a doggie door, so he can go in and out as he pleases, and he has our cat Molly to keep him company.  I come home for lunch every day during the week, so he's never alone for more than about four hours.  But our neighbor said that Kai has been barking like that for about a month now.  The neighbors were super nice about it and I feel terrible on many levels.  Obviously, I don't want to piss off the neighbors, and I also don't want Kai to be experiencing anxiety on a daily basis.  This seems like a tough issue to address.  How are we supposed to know what's going on when we aren't there?  Kai is such a confident little guy.  I never thought he could develop separation anxiety.

We had already planned a trip to Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico for Sunday for a friend's belated birthday, so we had to quickly find a solution for Kai.  We didn't want to leave him stuck in the house alone all day, and we didn't have anyone who could watch him.  Obviously we couldn't leave him outside since the neighbors had just complained!  We called a local doggie daycare/boarding place called Wag Hotel.  This place was recommended by a friend of mine, and they got really good Yelp reviews.  Since Kai has had all his shots, they were able to take him for All Day Play on Sunday.  They have a doggie cam, so we could see how he was doing while we were in Chico.  Kai ended up having a blast!

Kai's report card and photos from his first All Day Play at Wag Hotel

We took a tour of the facilities at Wag Hotel and felt comfortable with it, so we are going to try boarding him there for future trips.  It's not cheap, but I guess part of owning a dog is accepting the extra cost of boarding if we want to do things out of town and can't take him.  And it's worth the extra cost if Kai can also enjoy his time, rather than just be sitting miserable in a small kennel somewhere.

For the work week, we are going to try some things to hopefully alleviate the barking:
1.  Kai will have to be kept in the house.  Doggy door will be locked.  That way, if he barks, it shouldn't be loud enough to annoy anyone
2.  Kai will get a peanut butter-filled Kong before the last person leaves the house.  The Kong will be a special treat that Kai only gets when he's going to be left alone.
3. (this one we've sort of been doing already, but we'll have to be more conscious of it) We won't make a big deal of leaving or returning home.  When we come home we'll ignore Kai for a few minutes, until he calms down.
4.  either the TV or classical music will be left on in the house when Kai's by himself
5.  We'll try to set up a doggie cam so that we can see how Kai does when he's alone
6.  We're going to have to start taking Kai to the gym with us, every time we go.  We probably won't be able to get as good of a workout in for a while, until Kai gets used to being there, but we can live with that.

I REALLY hope that this is just a phase that Kai's going through.  He really isn't an anxious or nervous dog at all, and he's not needy when we are at home.  The neighbor said it's been going on for about a month, and we've been leaving Kai out in the mornings longer than that... so I wonder if something happened about a month ago that scared him and triggered this behavior.  Maybe someone was getting their trees trimmed or something.  But anyway, I hope these steps will work out okay.  And if Kai seems to settle down, we can try leaving the dog door open for him again in a couple of months, and just ask our neighbor to let us know how he does.

The bad thing is that Molly is going to have to be locked OUT of the house in the mornings now.  I don't want her to feel trapped with Kai indoors.  In the afternoons, I've been crating Kai anyway, so that won't change, and then Molly can come in and out as she pleases.  I hope the week goes okay!

so sleepy and tired after All Day Play 

Dog Park

We took Kai to the dog park for the first time yesterday.  It was Kai's first July 4th, and we had a full day of stuff to do, so we wanted to get him nice and tired out so that he'd be ok hanging out at parties with us and not monstering everywhere.

Kai had lots of fun with these two dogs

Kai did great at the park.  He had so much fun playing with all the other dogs there.  He'd run around super fast, trying to get the dogs to chase him.  Sometimes he'd run so fast that his legs would get tangled up and he'd topple over, but he'd just get right back up and carry on.  Kai is so spunky and fearless.  He doesn't care how big the dog is.  He just wants to play with everyone.

Chase me!!

oooh look at how vicious I am.

Water break

tired happy Shiba