Today I took Alice to Pet Supplies Plus to pick up an order of her dog food that was 30% off for black Friday.
She did a great job outside the store and walking inside! I was very proud of her, she didn’t hesitate one bit to walk through the doors. She also started off going around the store wonderfully! She was walking nicely next to me and looking up at me frequently!
We went up an aisle, down half an aisle, and then back up near the dog bathing area. Wouldn’t you know it but right when we were next to the dog bathing aisle, someone brought their very vocal dog for a bath and he started howling about the torture he was receiving. This wasn’t any old howl, though, but a VERY loud, long and drawn out repeated howl. I think he was trying to warn all the dogs in the vicinity about the horrors of having a bath.
This stopped Alice in her tracks for at least a solid minute. She would not move nor look at me, she just looked in the direction of the howling dog and stood like a statue. I think she was extremely confused and a little worried about the danger the dog was howling about.
Eventually I coaxed her to move on through the store. She was OK but not as good as earlier throughout the rest of the store. She stopped probably about every 30 seconds, but would only pause for about 5–8 seconds before restarting, which is pretty good for her.
We also got to work on narrow aisles. There was one aisle with displays set up in it, and while she wasn’t super comfortable, she did walk down that aisle. Then in another aisle there was a woman shopping with a cart taking up half the aisle. This is something Alice normally struggles with, but she breezed right past like it was nothing!
So overall, she had a pretty good outing. The poor dog getting bathed kept up his torturous calls the whole rest of the time we were in the store, though.
After 15 min in the store, I picked up my order (I had pre-paid—remember that it’s best not to shop while you’re training so you can focus on your dog!!) and we headed out to the car.
Normally I don’t have Alice walk in parking lots because of the dangers of stopping abruptly and maybe getting hit by a car. But she was doing so well that I let her walk to the car in the parking lot. She did have one time where she stopped, but I tossed a treat in front of her and that got her going again. She even hopped over a puddle with very little hesitation.
So overall it was a good outing. Now let’s just hope on Tuesday when I take her out to a regular (pet-friendly) store, she does this well! I’m not sure she was good enough to have passed a Manners Evaluation today, but she was much more on her way than our disastrous outing last week!
Pictures are of me with long brown wavy hair wearing a red sweater and black leggings with red roses. Alice is a tiny sable and white Japanese Chin wearing a purple vest. In the first picture we’re looking at each other, and in the second I’m looking at the camera while Alice is getting tired of standing still and tries to make her escape LOL!
