We’ve been working on a lot of things in 5-minute sessions with little Alice! We’ve been working more on steps, the name game, sit, wearing clothing, and surfaces. This blog entry is about training Alice to help me when I’m feeling bad and about a trip to Walmart.
Last night I was feeling badly, and Hestia came running over to help me. I figured this would be a good time to start training Alice that when I am doing badly, it is a good thing for her. So I broke out the treats!
Hestia lay on my chest like she was supposed to (though she ended up sliding down to my stomach), and Alice got excited and wanted to perch on my shoulder! I fed them treats in between cuddling them, and they really both helped me out a lot.
This type of early training to get Alice used to getting treats when I’m feeling poorly is laying the foundation for later work where hopefully she will alert me to my rising anxiety levels before I notice them rising. But for now, it’s all about fun times for Alice when I’m feeling bad!
Brad got some pictures with my iPhone of me giving the dogs treats while I was doing poorly.
Then this morning, I had to go to Walmart to pick up my order of groceries. I parked in the regular side of the parking lot and took Alice to hang out just outside the door. She was very curious today, and started approaching people on her own. So when they asked if they could pet, I told them they could see how Alice liked it. And well, she liked it! She approached on her own and got pet by four people! I got pictures of two of them petting her.
We hung out there for about 10 minutes, and had a few nice conversations with people going into Walmart and with Walmart employees. Everyone was very happy to see little Alice out there!
But it started to get hot, and the only shade was right next to a door. I let Alice lie there for about 45 seconds until I realized that people going in and out of the door might not see her, so it wasn’t a safe spot. At that point, we decided to go pick up our groceries.
We drove over to the grocery pick up area, but they were re-paving the lot! So we had to pull up in the fire lane to get our groceries. While we were waiting for the person to come out and put them in our car, I took Alice out so she could experience being around a construction zone. She didn’t care about the big machinery, noises, or smells of asphalt at all! I was so proud! I tried to snap a few photos, but unfortunately the light was at an angle where I couldn’t see my screen so the pictures aren’t very good and I got my thumb in one of them LOL!
It was a really great outing, and now we are at home and relaxing.
In the pictures, I am a large woman with a pink and green dress. Alice is a tiny sable and white Chin puppy, and Hestia is a black and white Japanese Chin.
