I will no longer be updating Iron Guide (see below). Instead, I am now writing at my new, personal blog. Though that will be about some of the newer things I'm doing in life, if you want to see updates about Louie, Lester, and now Dusky, add me on Facebook -- there's enough ridiculously cute pictures to go around.

I'm in Berkeley giving a talk for Amazon. We're here for recruiting and it's just a total blast: talking to smart young engineers, meeting up with old friends, giving a fun little talk, etc.

Lester is of course far too young to come with me. Depending on their progress, they can fly after 5-6 months -- but Lester isn't even four months yet and still has a ways to go. Louie, for example, flew with me a couple times to Los Angeles when he was ~8 and ~10 months old and got rave reviews from everyone: stewardesses, fellow passengers, and even airport security.

Security, however, did require some fancy acrobatics: I'd have Louie walk through the metal detectors first, put him into a sit-stay -- pretty tough if you consider all the fuss in the security lines -- and then walk in after him. Because he'd inevitably set off the metal detector with his collar, the TSA folks would always have to pat him down. After awhile, they just started calling out for "puppy patdowns." =P

Past security and in the plane, Louie would just curl up under my seat and immediately fall asleep, even through take-off and landing. I joked that he was just like my carry-on, except much cuter. Only once, when I picked a seat too close to the engine, did we have a problem: Louie got scared by all the rumbling and vibrations, and was visibly trembling all through take-off. As soon as we were in the air and the seatbelt sign came off, we moved to the front of the plane and that took care of that.

As soon as the plane landed and passengers in front of me got out, we'd make a beeline for the exit. Being cooped up inside an airport and a plane for five hours without a potty break is just asking for trouble, so I'd head straight out of the airport, have him relieve, and then go back and get my bags and take care of anything else.

All this would obviously be far, far too much for Lester. He doesn't know stay, has only about ~2 hours of bladder control, hasn't even been in buses, and is very much still the wriggly little puppy. That's totally fine for his age and he'll be OK in a few months, but, at the end of the day, airports -- let alone airplanes -- would just have too much going on for him to handle.

So, instead, Lester is staying with puppy sitters, the Pringles, for the week. Especially with me, puppy sitting is actually a really important part of the training: because my dogs only really interact with me, it's important for them to get exposure to other people and their handling techniques; they really need to learn to listen to everyone, not just me. In either case, the Pringles watched Louie at nearly exactly the same age, so I'm actually really anxious to hear what they think of Lester.

Labels: Lester, Louie

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