Tino spent the day with me, going to parks and doing errands.  His mom had her spay surgery today, so he couldn't be with her.  After we dropped her off, we went to get lunch, and Tino had the chicken from my chicken salad.  Then we went to a park.  I was setting him up on a stump to take his picture, and I noticed yellowjackets flying in and out of a crack in the stump, about six inches from Tino's head.  Fortunately, they did not sting him, and we got away from there quickly.  When one yellowjacket stings you, he releases a pheromone that calls all the others to sting you, and they cling to a dog's fur, biting repeatedly.  I am very glad I noticed the bees when I did, before disaster.  After that park, we went to the beach, and I took pictures of Tino as he explored.  He stood in the creek, with the water flowing over his feet.  I got a few very good pictures, although T's face was slightly out of focus in a few shots that I really wish had turned out.  He watched the crows, chewed on sticks, and trotted down the beach.  I let his leash drop, and he followed along behind me. 

We stopped at the post office on the way home.  I took him in with me to get the mail, so he wouldn't chew on anything unsafe in the car.  As I was getting a package from the counter, Tino pooped right in the center of the post office lobby.  He didn't go the whole time we were walking through parks for hours, but he just had to go in the middle of the post office.  Fortunately, I had bags in my pocket and cleaned up quickly.  Fortunately, too, Tino is irresistibly cute, and he can get away with pooping in the post office. 

When we got home, Tino played with all the dogs, a little.  Mu still plays too rough, so T sat up on the couch with me and watched Sky and Mu put on their World Wrestling Federation show.  Fozzie sat beside Tino, and the three of us watched the show.  Then Tino helped me take Viktor for a walk.  Vik scolded Tino many times, but Tino showed submission and kept coming back to try to play with Vik.  The grumpy old man pretends he doesn't like the little punk, but I think secretly Vik enjoys the puppy. 

During Salma's spay surgery, the doctor learned that Salma only has one kidney, and half a uterus.  Maybe the reason Tino was the only puppy is because Salma only had half a uterus.  These defects must have occurred in Salma long before she was born, probably when she was still a zygote or something.   Salma also has loose hip sockets, which may lead to arthritis or other problems when she is older.  I am noting these peculiarities about Salma in Tino's blog because we may want to watch out for problems in him later.  Salma should be able to live a full life with just one kidney, and she no longer needs a uterus.  Salma had enlarged lymph nodes, and biopsies have been sent off for testing.  Hopefully nothing more serious is wrong with her.  Salma looks absolutely perfect on the outside.  She seemed very healthy, and I never would have suspected she was missing a kidney. 

Once we were home, Salma was unusually calm, and this made Tino much calmer. 

Sunday, 10/23
 
Tino is ten weeks old today, and he went to search dog training for the second time. For the rest of his life, I hope he thinks of Sunday as the best day of the week. Tino didn't train for search work on this day, but he was a target dog. Parker, Kaiser, and Fozzie followed his scent trail. 

We started the day wrong. I put Fozzie and Mu in the car first. Then I brought Tino in on my lap. Mu can be intimidating, and Tino did a little submissive urination, right on my pants. Although, by the end of the day, it hardly mattered that my pants had been peed on. You couldn't tell, under all the mud. On the ride to training, Fozzie and Mu stayed in the front seats, avoiding the puppy in the back. Tino was very calm for the car ride. 

At training, I walked Tino in a loop, about one mile, and he was found by Parker, then Kaiser, then Fozzie.  Parker is about the same size as Tino, but very intense. Parker often barks at dogs, but he was gentle with Tino. As we walked along the road by the park, Tino just followed behind me, the perfect walking partner. I wanted everyone to look over and see my good puppy, walking perfectly at heel, but no one noticed. Tino walked down a trail through the woods, across a boardwalk, and past a stream. He was very brave until we reached some stairs. Then he had to be carried. Tino waited with Dina and Jason while I worked Fozzie. Tino got plenty of treats, just for meeting people and dogs. 

Because he's such a cute puppy, everyone took pictures of him. He's very good at getting his picture taken because I've taken his picture every day of his life. We put him on the turntable with Fozzie and Kaiser, and shot a video of them slowly turning. Then we put Tino in the toddler swing and took his picture. He was very patient. 

He played with Fozzie a little. Later, while Fozzie and I were stuck in a blackberry thicket on a search, Dina watched Mu and Tino. Mu tried to play with Tino, but he was a little too big and rough. He bopped Tino on the head with his big paw, and Tino cried and moved away. He wasn't at all frightened of Mu after that. Tino slept hard on the ride home. 

Tino went on a longer walk today, around the entire loop of the neighborhood, almost a mile.  I put together a little video of his morning.  In this first post of Tino's blog, I wanted to explain why an ordinary little puppy should have his own blog.  First, every ordinary puppy should have his own blog, even if that blog only has one reader.  Also, Tino is coming along after the loss of the best dog in the world, Kelsy.  Tino's whole life, fairly or not, will be lived with the memory of Kelsy touching everything I do with him.  Even though Kelsy is gone, I feel, in a way I can't fully explain, that I can still tell Kelsy how much I love her by giving Tino the best life possible.  One thing I always wanted to do with Kelsy was to document everything about her life.  Although I have thousands of pictures and videos of Kelsy, and I've written books about her, I still did not fulfill my goal of fully documenting her life.  With Tino, I have a new chance to get it right. 

Besides documenting Tino's life for my own pleasure, and so I can always remember things about him, I also want to document everything with respect to his career as a search dog.  I want Tino to be a working dog, and specifically to follow the scent trails of lost dogs, like Kelsy did.  It is possible he won't be suitable for this work for some reason, but I will give him the best chance possible to be the best search dog possible.  With any search dog, I recommend keeping detailed records of training sessions and actual searches as well.  The value of a search dog comes from reliably being able to say what a dog is thinking at a particular moment in the search.  Close observation and detailed records can help that. 

Tino's life will be chronicled in photos, videos, spreadsheets, and written records.  Not all of it will be of interest to all people, but I hope a few people will want to follow Tino throughout his career, and possibly learn from his experience so that future search dogs can be trained better.  I'm sure there will be plenty of cute and funny episodes, and people can skip over the boring details if they choose. 

Tino is ten weeks old tomorrow.  He weighs about 22 pounds, I think.  Here is the video of this morning's walk.  https://youtu.be/W4WmE7iZhlk