Walking at the psych office


Today Alice walked on the floor for the first time in a medical office!

We went to see my psych nurse, and everyone there is super supportive of my service dogs. Unfortunately Brad was too ill to come with me, so it was just Alice and me.

Alice did a great job walking through the door on the way into the building! But when she got inside, she just wanted to stop and observe. I had to toss two treats on the ground to encourage her to move over to the seating area. She did a good job ignoring the little girl screaming about a dog being in the building while walking over to the seating area.

Alice was perfect in the waiting room and in my psych nurse’s office (I took a selfie in the waiting room)! I had a good appointment, and asked my psych nurse to take a video of us leaving so I’d have something to show y’all. Luckily she said yes!

Alice did a pretty good job leaving. There were two doorways we had to go through. One solid one that leads out to the waiting room, and one with glass that leads outside. She hesitated to approach the solid door—probably because she thought it was just a wall and didn’t understand why I wanted to walk up to the wall. But once I opened the door, she went right through it. She did better walking through the outside door.

Then I picked her up, came back inside and made my follow up appointment. I couldn’t train her while trying to enter the follow up appointment into my calendar, so I just carried her for that.

I am pretty happy with how she did. Obviously I’d like it if she walked a little faster and would approach what she thinks are walls if I want to approach them. But for a first time walking in a medical office, I think it was fine.

In the video and picture below the video, I am wearing a mint green dress with a purple butterfly in my hair and a purple mask. Alice is a tiny sable and white Japanese Chin wearing a purple service dog harness.

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