Arlo has made a ton of progress! He was very good for the dog sitter— she said she shed a tear when she said bye to him (she was not a professional, she is a friend who walks dogs for extra cash). He is learning a lot of tricks. Still crazy on walks, but improving.

The big news is we inadvertently let him meet a big group of dogs at the park (we let him greet one other dog and a play group from across the field walked over to us) and he was pretty well behaved. He got a little hyper but everyone was having a fun time. We led him away after just a few minutes… we figure a little at a time is best.

Very sorry to hear this miles.

Yikes. (Spoiler dog is fine). Today he was sniffing along a fence and discovered a half-full cup of mixed nuts and ate a big mouthful before I yanked him back (we have not gotten to “leave it.”) a little later he sat down in the shade and didn’t want to move, but then eventually got back into it. I didn’t think twice about it at the time.

A few hours later my GF took him on another walk and called me half an hour later saying “we’re stuck a few blocks away, he sat down and won’t move.” I ran towards there and happily he was excited to see me coming his way and jumped up and followed me home. When we got home he was REALLY hot and a few minutes later he was still panting really hard. I googled “dog panting fast” and of course immediately realized that OF COURSE, why would anyone leave snacks sitting out on the sidewalk unless they were full of rat poison (it’s a big weird semi-vacant lot that people park in).  Went into complete panic mode, burst into tears, that whole thing. I decided I would call the emergency vet if he hadn’t chilled out in 5 minutes and applied wet towels, an ice cube wrapped in a kitchen towel for him to lick, and pointed our big fan at him. 10 minutes later he was totally back to normal and begging for dinner.

We have adopted a very good dog with one enormous problem. At certain times he decides that he wants to play, and that the way to get us to play is to bite us over and over, grab our sleeves and #####, etc. He has drawn blood and given us bruises but seems totally unaware that we are in distress and is still panting happily and following us as we flee. We have tried more exercise, less exercise, distracting with chew toys, distracting with food, and separating him from us physically to show that when you play rough you don’t get to play. Everything works briefly but does not prevent future biting. Just now after an hour of chill chewing on his chew toy and getting petted he lunged straight for my crotch and grazed my cojones with his teeth. The gutteral scream I let out made him jump back, and then he was right back to lunging at my legs and arms.

The thing is, every other moment of the day he’s very good. Attentive (until he gets into frenzy mode), a pretty good leash walker, very food motivated and interested in learning what to do to get treats. He gets a little frantic and barky when he sees other dogs, but we have had success with getting him to focus on us and ignore the dogs in exchange for treats (we get him to sit or lie down repeatedly while praising him and petting him). The internet seems to say this is the first step— learning that when we see another dog it is good, and that we should be calm and pay attention to Dad.

We are working on learning what the clicker means and his name (Arlo). During the day when we are working he chews a toy or naps or lazes around the apartment. He’s very easygoing about being touched, letting us touch his paws and stomach and face and whatever else (I read we should do this to desensitize him for when we need to trim fur and nails). He has never snarled or growled or bitten in an aggressive way— only trying to play.

Working through a few dog training books. I read Other End of the Leash which I really liked, and we are starting the exercises from The Power of Positive Dog Training. Interestingly, we posted about this on the Facebook group for the rescue we got him from, and his foster mom says he only did biting/crazy zoomies ONCE in the 3 months he lived with her. What the heck?

He’s also incredibly handsome. I feel like a dumb millennial because I can’t remember how to post a picture on here, I guess I have to host it elsewhere?

It turns out maybe contact tracing during a pandemic is not a chill way to do your first techie job. Mostly 50-60 hour weeks and intermittent 70 hour ones in the past couple months. The good news is I get overtime so I’m getting biweekly paychecks that are more than what I used to make in a month.

Also we’re getting a dog. No leads yet but finally got written permission from the landlord. He’s a real piece of work but after some tense phone calls the leaks in our ceiling are fixed and the heat is on so I’m good. Maybe Suspiciously Large Apartment in Brooklyn is a hint that some struggles are coming. It’s cute but sometimes hard not to think about how in Philly or Chicago we could have a way nicer place for a lot less $$$.

Moved in with the GF and it's going very well. We got a huge-for-NYC place (I measured and had to laugh, it's 700 square feet) about half a mile east of my previous apartment. I have a little office in the front which feels like an insane luxury after a decade of 100 square foot bedrooms.

Also, just got offered a Real Tech Job as a data engineer for the city's public health efforts. With an almost 40% pay increase. It turns out having to do tons of stuff that isn't in your job description can really pay off if you pull it off. Now to see if I can actually pull THIS off or if I crash and burn.

I also see Bozack all the time. I introduced myself once when I recognized him but since then I have just glimpsed him around Brooklyn 2 or 3 times. Isn't this supposed to be a big city? One time I came around a corner and he was coming right at me with his full family like a damn Cute Kid Parade.

Wow!

Crazy thing today: someone from my programming program just posted that they're leaving their apartment and they wonder if any of us want to take over the lease. It's the same rent as my current place, in a way "nicer" (more central, better transit, near better grocery stores, etc) neighborhood in Brooklyn, with way bigger bedrooms.

The catches:
- moving sucks
- I'd have to find a roommate, although I'm sure someone I know will leap at the chance
- It's actually a 3 bedroom... the way they made the rent so cheap is that they subleased the third, small bedroom out three months at a time to people attending our program from out of state.
- my girlfriend lives 2 blocks from my current place...